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There’s no one standalone reason why I think macOS is better than Windows for productivity. Instead of a single killer blow, it’s death by a series of smaller wounds.
The only real way of describing it. So many little niceties from decades of attentiveness, even if things have been backsliding in recent years.
Fantastic description! This is an issue that made it difficult to justify to my management to allow them to allow Macs, but thankfully Apple Silicon was big enough of a game changer to sway the decision
Exactly my case. Apple Silicon was a game changer in relation to performance against cost. Was able to replace my old top PC with a mac mini and improve my work on Adobe suite. Impressive. The ecosystem with my iPhone was also an amazing improvement. Airdrop is fantastic.
This was the reason I switched to Mac for work related stuff, the performance is insane for most of the stuff I need it to do.
It just works. Something that can’t be said of how windows feels
this is one of those subjective things that highly depend on what your job actually entails
This article is ridiculous.
I moved from a desktop PC to a 2015 MBP and I've been extremely satisfied with it. It's nothing short of a miracle how little issues I've had with it. It's fast and everything just work. Was expensive as hell but worth every penny.
That being said my next laptop is probably not going to me a MacBook but the Framework laptop. Not only do I not like Apple as a company but I also want to support what Framework is doing and the only way to do that is by putting money where my mouth is.
Anyone trying to batch rename files on Windows should check out PowerToys. It's a first-party app that adds a lot of useful utilities. One of them is PowerRename, which lets you batch rename files using regex for precise search and replace. It also has the option to preview changes before applying them.
PowerToys is crucial for making Windows feel productive. Definitely get that installed.
macOS is a great OS, and I've used it pretty extensively now. Every time I try to make it my primary OS I end up wanting to go back to Windows soon after. And this is from a die hard Linux advocate. Part of the issue is the cost and lack of easy upgrades for the hardware, the other is I just find macOS to be frustrating for anything but normal "user" stuff. So for me: Linux for servers and hobbyist stuff, macOS if no other option, Windows for just about everything else.
It's basically good there's choice. I run Linux exclusively on my gaming laptop, with the improvements in Proton I can now game on it as well as everything else such as desktop productivity/photo editing/Rust programming. I also enjoy MacOS (and love what they have done with the Mx series) but can't afford a Mac and well, I game a lot.
I can use Windows (My career started with TWM, so I can use anything) but it annoys me so I tend to avoid it.
This article is ridiculous because it doesn't mention why these differences exist at all. Like for example Macs don't have window snapping because Microsoft patented that feature back in the Windows Vista days. & Batch file renaming is a Unix thing. I have always liked Exposé and hot corners and also mission control, but many windows users hate it. It's entirely subjective and not at all rational. I guess that's the point of an opinion piece but it really lacks the context that would have made this article informative, just a little research would have been cool.
It seems wild that something like dragging a window to the corner to snap it into place is patented. The one feature I long for on Mac.
I use both MacOS and Windows.
I think both have their uses and strengths. I don't really like putting one down over the other.
Same. I usually say “they both suck.” Neither one really meets my expectations for what a desktop operating system should be able to do these days. Every now and then I find myself wishing for some little feature enhancement in Finder and shucks… that’s just never going to happen, is it?
I love building PCs, I like windows for gaming. Mac is pretty much useless there and the PS5 doesn't have a keyboard or mouse which makes it a different experience. . A pc can be anything.
But I'd never use windows for work over MacOS. The seamless integration with an iPad for sketching and overall experience is amazing.
One of the things I still love about my 11" MacBook Air is the ease of using multiple desktops (spaces). Even with the tiny screen, I can quickly switch between apps and keep things organised with the trackpad gestures. Drag and drop is also more seamless in macOS compared to Windows.
Windows also has multiple desktop “spaces”, but the touch side is way smoother on the mac.
I really want a modern 11" (small bezel) MacBook.
Of course I also want the 15" air so maybe I just like cool stuff. But I think there's a place for a real ultraportable that's not trying to kludge any of the awful keyboard cases on an iPad.
The last version of Windows I used on a computer I owned is 3.1
Every time I need to use Windows I’m so insanely lost and have next to no idea what I’m doing, like it’s seriously like I’m 80 yrs old and using a computer for the first time lol.
It doesn’t help that it feels like it’s vastly different in how the start menu works depending on which version I’m using.
I much prefer MacOS over windows due to the spotlight search. The only thing I wish was added is a detailed audio interface. It’s frustrating having to go to a app to turn it up or down.
Yeah a volume mixer that isn’t natively built in is a very missed opportunity. I don’t want to have to pay extra money for software that most other OSes ship with lol
I use Mac for productivity but windows for gaming. I love spotlight on macOS. I recently discovered PowerToys for Windows (made by Microsoft), which includes a little add on that provides spotlight-like function on windows. You can even assign your own keyboard command to it, so I have main assigned to WIN+Space, just like Mac.
There are power toys for windows which add the spotlight search functionality as well as ear trumpet which is amazing for turning specific apps up and down by themselves just from a single menu
This could be a game changer, as i didn’t know these existed. Thank you!
2009, 2015, M1 MacBook Pros. All solid laptops that gave me years of productivity. Touchpad, screen, and form factor are all extremely important for me; I work 75% of the time on the couch with the laptop on my lap (on a laptop pillow of sorts), and having a quiet and cool M1 has been great.
I don't need my esoteric linux setup on my laptop. I've had to use a Windows laptop for work for two years, and I did not enjoy the random lockups, file explorer crashing, driver notifications and malfunctions, windows filesystem, managed spyware by both microsoft and my company slowing things down considerably... and this was a more expensive engineering grade workstation laptop. If I could trim the fat and make it as stable and bloatfree as my gaming PC, it probably would have been a better experience.
Kde plasma is working great for me! Just upgraded to bookworm. I'm definitely not going back to a proprietary system.
I'm glad they mentioned rectangle, I found that app amazing. I have however upgraded to Amethyst for my app tiling though.
I'm a dev, so if I'm not doing .NET development. I found windows quite limiting. The new terminal stuff is nice but it's native on a mac. I'm not sure about Docker because that really spins the fans on my 16 Intel Pro.
Also, things like Spaces and virtual desktops have been pretty sweet for a long time now. Windows, I can't recall but it's been a horribly broken PowerToy for so long. I can't believe people were to recommending it. I think some people were telling me it's native now, but like, it's crazy how it wasn't done properly years ago.
Docker uses a feature of the Linux kernel called kernel namespacing, so on macOS (and windows too iirc) it spins up a Linux VM which runs your Docker containers.
Even before reading the article, I can already guessed that the author uses only the laptop's screen for work. I tried MacOS for 6 months, really liked that I can ultilize many of Linux commands that I only used to manage servers. But using multiple monitors is such a pain with MacOS that I can never understand how people put up with it. I then slowly understand why people keep saying "I can't see you or if you raised your hand" during meetings, it's because they use only one single screen.
I do think MacOS will have a huge advantage over Windows and Linux if they overhaul the window system. However, seeing how "holding it wrong" consistently coming up in discussion, I don't see any chance soon, if ever.
What's wrong with multiple monitors with macOS?
There are maybe many more (maybe no window snapping like windows if you count that), but those are the issues that I noticed.
I am a diehard Apple fanboy and don’t see any viable alternative for any of their main product lines. But their multi monitor performance is comically bad: I have Thunderbolt docks and two monitors work fine through that from a technical perspective. Though dragging windows between monitors is not seamless and macOS even rubs it in your face with some quirky UI hints when you are “leaving” one monitor and enter another like it’s the 90s. Icons and real life data in the menu bar have had scaling issues for a decade now on the screen you are not currently active on with a window (but can still see in real life, because eyes). There is an old desktop wallpaper saved somewhere from when I first connected the monitors that stays on the second one (the first monitor has my normal wallpaper). I know I can change this independently, but why?! When opening monitor settings you can adjust things like refresh rate or color profile independently, which is nice, but each window for adjustments opens on the screen it is adjusting. Apple’s whole multi monitor experience feels clunky and dated and hasn’t been getting any improvements for years, which tells me, nobody at Apple uses multiple screens.
Lol, is that a joke ???
I use Linux and MacOS. The scaling tools on Linux are the absolute worst. I have a 15 inch 1080p laptop plugged to a 24 inch display and this is a fucking nightmare to make the two working correctly. Whatever the distribution or the GNU, being Gnome, XFCE, Wayland, Sway. Arch or Debian based…
On the other hand I got a 14 inch MBP connected to 2 UltraFine 24 and an 2560x1080 monitor with absolutely zero issue.
I can adapt every single definition on every single screen, and the system remembers the def I set when plugging/unplugging.
MacOS external screen management tools is the best I’ve ever seen.
Your comment shows that you know absolutely nothing about macOS
My main PC is a 4k and 1080p monitor, running Plasma Wayland. Using 150% scaling and 100% on the other so pretty much the worst combination you can have in terms of monitor jank (mixed scaling together with fractional scaling). Functionality wise it's completely fine, there are some graphical bugs though. Mixed-DPI scaling used to be impossible on X11 but that's because it's old and not designed with that in mind at all. IIRC sway also worked well for me with that setup. What problems did you have?
Multi-monitor on macOS is fine for my purposes too though. I was actually blown away by how well Continuity display works with my iPad.
And not to forget the little Finder function that allows you to create a new folder with all of the items you've selected, which are automatically moved into it.
Oh how I wish windows could or would add this. And hitting the space bar in the Finder to look at a file without opening the requisite app. And just Preview. He’s right, there are tons of little QoL improvements that make macOS feel so superior.
Spacebar to preview, command-spacebar to launch apps. I'd die without those two things.
MacOS window management is unfortunately a total mess. To the point that I still feel more productive on a dirt-cheap linux laptop, vs. my expensive work-isssued M1 machine with great hardware
Rectangle is the only way I find MacOS to be useful when it comes to window management.