I don’t need polished and superior, I need to get work done. I want the OS to get out of the way, not slow me down with animations, stage managers and pretty docks. I don’t even need customization, I just need it to stop trying to outdo itself and fall over.

I’d run kde or even gnome on my work MacBook if it let me without a second thought.

PS just installed ios 26 and what is this? If this low contrast blobby window thing makes its way to the laptop I’ll be very, very not impressed.

I just got a work Mac and I have spent around 20 years now on linux before it. I was making a list compared to KDE (not pros/cons just differences) It is still a work in progress since its only a couple of days since im using it.

1. No delete button. I know you can do Fn delete but It is more problematic. And I do use delete often.

2. System keeps important system stuff in Library directory in home. Do not do remove any directories.

4. Os x doesnt quit apps and then expects me to go through all apps in windows switcher.

5. The spaces dont wrap around.

6. Finder is always in your alt +tab? Causes issues with switching.

7. Corners are round. How to Disable it control the roundedness

8. Alt +Tab doesnt automatically restore minimized windows.

9. App store is quite weak compared to archlinux

10. There is no spaces pager (a small bar at top where I can immediately see which desktop im in)

11. It seems that I cannot have windows of same app in multiple spaces.

12. Same app has only one window. Apple mail for example. Cannot copy text from email to settings.

13. How to Disable HTML display in apple mail.

14. Kmail has much better interface for signing

Both for viewing rhe signed emails and for deciding which key to use

15. Opening a new windows from spotlight is not possible

16. Download multiple wallpapers at same time is not possible

17. All operations related to an app should be inside an app. Alt+w for tab and ctrl+tab for switching makes me move two fingers instead of one.

18. Spectacle is so much better than screen shot on MAC os

19. Ramdisk on mac os x

21. Threads view in emails isnot possible in apple mail

22. Application specific power optimization (for good battery life) on OS X

23. Better security and access on OSX for apps.

23. Switching between apps of same windows on OSX does not bring up a visual aid..

24. Long press leads to accents which is very cool but also I didn't use it.

MacOS is just missing way to many core features. It feels more like a demo than actual software to be used day to day for a variety of computing work. I know the technical under the hood are all solid but the software the user interacts with is bad, all the default apps are barebones with bad defaults and no settings to fix it. My final point is: finder.

When I put non techy people on mac they end up having a good experience because they learn quickly there is no reason to touch anything except the web browser. I also want to highlight Macs are high end hardware in a premium package compared to Linux where people usually try it on a really old low/mid range device.

What are your relatives doing?

If they're like 95% of computer users, they use them to check their email, their FB/IG/etc and browse the web. A Chromebook would suit their needs, but in my experience, so would a modern Linux installation + a browser.

The biggest friction in my experience is UI differences, but that is solved by just mimicking Windows/macOS UI in KDE. Put buttons and components where they expect to find them and it seems to just work, in my experience.

Yeah, and my fisher price car is a lot easier for my 3 year old to drive than my car.

Sometimes powerful tools need sophisticated users that have time to invest in learning to use the tool. "Inferior" might depend on who is trying to accomplish what, but it's hard to argue that if you're trying to do or build the most sophisticated and cutting edge things that computers are capable of doing, you probably don't want to be using macOS or window.

That doesn't mean that it doesn't work marvelously when you have 0 time to invest in learning to use your computer, and all you want is to access web applications and manage a few files on a screen bigger than your smartphone and with a physical keyboard.

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I know that they have fans but I really can't hear them. Maaaybe when gaming but I would to have to really concentrate on that. And I am super sensitive to noise.

It is so sad that apparently no one else bothers to tune their fans properly. It is such a killer feature for me.

On a Mac, you can switch between apps with Command-Tab or windows of the same app with Command-` but there's no way to cycle between all windows or bounce between to two most recently used windows.

Maybe this used to make sense when apps were single purpose but I do basically everything in a web browser or a terminal so not being able to bounce between the previously selected window(of whatever kind), as I can with Alt-Tab on linux or windows, is frustrating.

Also Command-` switches to the next window, not the previous one like I would expect.

MacOS removed subpixel antialiasing, honestly for understandable reasons, making rendering on low-ppi displays blurry, but high-ppi displays are still super expensive. I got a 32" 4k monitor(~140ppi) at Costco for $250. A >200ppi display of the same size costs 20x that amount.

Man just give me a way to switch between only the two most recent windows using a keyboard shortcut (without requiring some janky 3rd party program). Windows-style alt-tab. It's not a big ask and would make the macOS experience go from "barely usable" to "perfectly fine."

Are you a gnome user?

Linux Mint with Cinnamon is bliss. Or well anything else, you are absolutely spoiled for choice with Desktop Environments in Linux. There is the perfect one for everyone. At least if you use X11, wayland is still a turd.

I found the Mac Desktop absolutely unusable for any development work as it comes out of the box. You need a metric ton of third-party extensions for simple stuff like proper alt-tab support or custom shortcuts. An configuration is supper limited.

And it will get so much worse with the whole glasses ui thing.

Depends how you configure it. If you like things like tiling window managers and keyboard driven computing, Linux is in a category of its own.

> I’m referring to apples to apples comparison where they’re either some standard out of the box version or when customized with available tools and mods. Comparing your highly customized Linux desktop to a completely uncustomized Mac setup with no attempt at other tools or utilities isn’t an interesting comparison because it’s not apples to apples, it’s just a statement about your current preference.

Perhaps you missed the parent's "(for power users)"?

So here's an apples-to-apples comparison: customizing Mac desktop for one's preferences compared to Linux.

I've been on Mac for 10 years because of Work. Before that I was on Linux, using the AwesomeWM tiling window manager.

I dearly miss AwesomeWM. I've tried most 3rd-party window managers for Mac, and nothing comes close to the snappiness and functionality of Linux's tiling managers like AwesomeWM. Nowadays I just use window-movers like Rectangle [1], and I feel handicapped.

The simple fact of the matter is that Mac does not allow the level of customization that Linux inherently does. MacOS' UI hooks are through the Accessibility framework, and in my user experience, it's just a slower, jankier emulation of what a more deeply integrated WM can do. As a specific example, the author of DisplayMaid [2] has complained elsewhere on HN that macOS does not provide reliable identifiers for the displays, so they had to implement their own heuristics. Side-note: for a system so inherently dockable as macbooks, it's a tragedy that I have to rely on a 3rd-party app to re-position my windows for one of my 2 regular work setups.

I'm sure Apple could implement the hooks for better WM customization, they've certainly done their few updates with Spaces and their own poor-man's tiling, but the years with no update to integration demonstrate that they consider the Accessibility hooks to be Good Enough.

[1] https://rectangleapp.com

[2] https://funk-isoft.com/display-maid.html

The point is that Linux allows you to customize it to your liking, almost infinitely. There is almost nothing you cannot do.

People are comparing them to vanilla Mac setups because Macs don't really let you have a non-vanilla experience.

Most of it is there but you need a crap-load of third party extension and some even cost money.

Like proper alt-tab, better keyboard configuration, Finder is the worst file manager I have ever used, a classical task bar and so on.

You can manage but the defaults are really bad for power users.

Honestly Apple just needs to let me install a proper Desktop Environment like KDE on it. The unix base is decent, just give me more freedom.

The one I have always missed is proper focus-follows-mouse support. The mac desktop always feels really clunky without that when working with multiple windows.

Personally, most of my problems with MacOS (and Apple's operating systems) would be fixed if it were faster. The OS is full of very lengthy animations that aren't necessary, such as when switching between desktops.