Worse than what?
Windows, that is even in 2021 is still a clanky garbage.
Or Linux (any distro) that can't be installed on a newest hardware without any trouble at all (my relatively recent experience).
An even then you get an OS that you have to fix yourself for it to work and feel remotely nice. Yet without decent software in most cases outside of software development.
That's how I feel about macOS. It's for people who prioritize maximum animations over speed. For example, Finder is so slow compared to Windows Explorer. I love Windows. I love the customizability I love the speed, and even 15 years ago, there were 10X more software package for Windows than Mac.
I hear that macOS in recent years (after 2019?) even allows you to change the drab grey color of the menu bar? That's progress! Maybe by 2030, they will allow you to move the menu bar to a vertical orientation because that's how a lot of people prefer it; there's less vertical space than horizontal on most monitors. I honestly cannot understand how one can stand this stifling arrangement where you are told, "This is how it is, we know better".
The Dock has been configurable forEVER. I ran it on the side for many years before switching back to the bottom.
Now, on a completely different note : a little bit more about the Vertical layout. Here are two articles with screenshots. It's awesome and now I can't go back to Horizontal taskbar ever.
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/howto/vertical-vs-horizonta...
https://adamhollett.com/posts/2014/02/move-your-taskbar-to-t...
You insisted at the time that you meant the MENU bar, not the Dock, but now it appears that was incorrect.
This got a little long, but the tl;dr here is that you are confused on terms, and that the thing you say can't be moved on the Mac absolutely can be, and always could be.
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One of the ways in which Win and MacOS are different is that, in MacOS, the File/Edit/View menu is always across the top of the screen, not bound to a specific window. I'm typing this in Firefox. I have several Firefox windows open, but NONE of them have a File menu. The menus for Firefox are across the top of my monitor.
In Windows, by contast, this menu is part of each window spawned by a given application. Most modern Windows programs use the Ribbon style menu, but some older or less-updated tools (e.g., SQL Server Management Studio) use the old-style. If I were doing this post on Firefox on Windows, each of my Firefox windows would have its own File/Edit/View menu.
In both Mac and Windows, this menu is always in this known position -- ie, on a Mac, it's across the top of the screen; on Windows, it's part of the top of each app window. It cannot be moved (to the best of my knowledge).
What YOU are talking about (and what those articles are talking about) is called the Taskbar in Windows. The analogous item in MacOS is the Dock. In both systems, the default location is the bottom of the screen, and in both systems it is possible to change this.
-> In Windows, the Taskbar can be placed on the bottom (default), either side, or across the top of the screen.
-> In MacOS, the Dock can be placed on either side or the bottom; you can't put it on the top of the screen because it would interfere with the aforementioned File/Edit/View menu.
--> In NEITHER OS is it possible to reposition the File/Edit/View menu.
(Also, to the extreme left of this Menu bar is the Apple icon which can be used to access the "System Preferences". I guess this mixing of system-wide and program-specific menu options doesn't bother macOS folks.)
This is different from Windows. On a Mac, if you quit all your apps entirely, then the only remaining application is Finder, which has no real equivalent under Windows and cannot really be quit (you can restart it, tho, which is sometimes required).
Finder is how you navigate to files, but it's also the "shell" that controls how you interact with the computer -- it gives you the Dock, the menus, etc.
The area to the right, as you correctly surmise, is more analogous to the System Tray area on the right side of the Taskbar under Windows. That side doesn't change with app focus.
The Apple menu is always there, yes.
As for your final snide note, no, we're not bothered, because it's not something to be bothered by (besides, the same supposed "issue" exists in the System Tray on Windows, where background app and system level options often coexist).
Honestly, I think this thread probably MOSTLY shows that people who aren't terribly familiar with an OS should avoid making negative statements about it.
Well, I don't have windows at hand, but Finder on my 2019 MPBr opens in much less than a second. Maybe Explorer opens 3 time faster but what's the point? Yes, I do prioritise speed over animations (linux is clearly a winner when it comes to animations by the way, macOS has just a few by default) when it really matters.
>there were 10X more software package for Windows than Mac.
Quality over quantity. I do agree that macOS lacks in a few departments but most of the time this is due to the closed-garden-like nature. Windows has things like Rufus and other tools because it has to play jack of all trades role. macOS is free of this. Like it or not.
>I love the customizability
This is understandable. I love this on linux too. Now I just don't have the time nor do I care rally. I'd prefer an OS that gives me 80% of what I need\want for 10% of my time rather than an OS that requires me to spend 50% of my time for all those tweaks.
What do I do now?
Even the way you present yourself here proves my point. This is not an OS for a comfortable life, it's a system for "hacking" (including the system itself).
If you still have passion and time for this - cool, most people don't want to spend their days on this.
Just adding another counterpoint to "MacOs is awsome", anecdotal one, because we don't have any other.
My wife (she is not a hacker, just a computer science teacher) hates macos, she preferred Linux. She used the system I setup for her, and I left it alone. She loved it.
MacOS is created for average Joe that just browses web and has no clue about anything else (like filesystem, directories). Example: Finder, that thingy can't show you full paths. If you try to get to your home directory to get some files you have to jump hoops.
I'm astonished that it is pushed as a developer OS, "because you have 'Linux' there". Sorry, that poor choice of basic utilities (some time ago bash there was ages old), that everyone has to use brew to get anything useful there.
Hardware is nice, but OS, is something that you just overwrite while installing Linux.
It can
> If you try to get to your home directory to get some files you have to jump hoops.
You don't
> Sorry, that poor choice of basic utilities (some time ago bash there was ages old), that everyone has to use brew to get anything useful there.
Ah yes, unlike the great linux where everyone is using apt-get/yum to install anything useful
Disclaimer: have used Macs as my primary developer machine since 2008 across 4 industries as both frontend and backend developer in half a dozen different programming languages.
I wouldn't complain if macos had those utils built into os package manager/appstore, but it does not, one needs to install custom package manager.
It is like I would need to install yum on Debian to get apps.
I'm your average software developer when it comes to building software but I'm (and most people are) is your average Joe for the rest of the time.
I don't really care if some "outside of job" app is a bit outdated if it performs well.
At the same time I do care about my time and I do prefer applications that where carfted with user experience in mind which Linux lacks clearly.
>She used the system I setup for her, and I left it alone. She loved it.
So she doesn't really loves linux. You just build a kiosk for her. Nice and shiny. Good for her but this has nothing to do with the topic.
Now I want to setup a second machine for audio production (Pro Tools and Ableton). For that I have the choice between Windows and Linux. Easy choice for me: M1 and MacOS, I certainly won't dabble with Windows.
MacOS is useless on desktop, it can't scale DPI of UI, if that's not clanky garbage i don't know what is.
My large 4K screen either acts as an oversized 1080p display or turns into a blurry mess.
Android and Windows both can efficiencltly use display with any aspect ratio and any DPI.
When you use 'looks like 2560/qHD', then the OS renders to a virtual surface, pretending it has a 5K screen attached. Then it downscales that image, and outputs it. The result is janky straign lines, blurry'er text, etc.
Modern Windows and Android render their UI natively in any resolution, and so you don't get issues. The caviat is that windows has 3 UI frameworks, and the oldest one is still found is some places, that's the one that doesn't scale.