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Comment by __MatrixMan__ | Hacker News Reader

> it's MacOS interface for linux

Work bought me a MacBook, and after using it for a year I still can't get over how obnoxious the window manager is: No horizontal window splits, and vertical splits only supports two-per-monitor, window switcher hotkey has no positional awareness, there's like two kinds of maximized and some apps don't give you a way to get out of one of them, the list goes on.

I also dislike gnome, but I had never put them together before. I started today disliking two things, and now I realize that they're actually the same thing. Somehow that's better, thanks.

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For Mac OS users who care about it, we usually install one of the third-party window management tools: Moom, BetterSnapTool, and Magnet are popular options.

I usually forget that there are even rudimentary tools built in.

i've just started using amethyst; it's a tiling window manager. it's not as powerful as the alternative yabai, but amethyst doesn't require you to disable system integrity protection or modify system files. shockingly simple out-of-the-box experience, very gentle learning curve, trivial to enable or disable on-demand. highly recommend.

I was coming to say exactly this. This is just a criticism of someone not familiar with the Mac ecosystem. I use Moom myself and it's been perfectly adequate for my (Macbook) needs.

That's fair, I have been reluctant to dig into the ecosystem.

This isn't exactly rational, but something about having to install amphetamine to disable system sleep really set me on edge about the MacOS ecosystem. It just felt kind of aggressive: like Apple wanted to ensure that I had somebody other than them to blame for a dead battery, and they wanted this so badly that they removed functionality that is a system setting literally everywhere else.

It made me afraid to let this MacBook contribute to my "for problem W on platform X use config Y on app Z" problem any further. I can't put my finger on it precisely, but something about Apple's design decisions makes me uncomfortable.

My experience has been that tools like this built on top of the accessibility API are laggy and cause jerky window movement. Has that improved any recently?

I use Magnet and I've found it works well, maybe you are pickier than I am (but I'm pretty picky).

I've used Moom and BetterSnaptool and have not run into any jerky movement. neither one required any special security level to install, either.

For what it's worth, there are quite a few tools that can help make macos a usable experience. Magnet helps a ton for window management, for example. But stock macos is pretty booty.

https://rectangleapp.com/ might make your life easier on MacOS

I'm still on Spectacle. Will be until it stops working (still fine on M1).

Installing that and making CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl is pretty much the extent of customization I do on a new Mac. So little it's not worth scripting. Much simpler than wrangling Linux to work halfway OK (which I did for about a decade before finally joining the Mac world).

Also Middle, or Multitouch if you want the extras, from the same author if you're used to middle clicking links/tabs.

Along these lines if resolution and scaling in macOS make you think "I know what I want to do why can't I just do it"™ consider EasyRes (which is refreshingly not trialware).

If you use O365 for work try installing the PWA versions of Teams and Outlook instead of the native apps.

And of course Homebrew to update the ridiculously out of date CLI tooling (as well as pull in additional things you might be familiar with like htop)

Another thing that made it significantly easier to use was finding the secret incantation to make dock and menu auto-hide instant rather than a slow effect. I gave up on trying to find a way to get the fullscreen app views to snap into place quicker though.

i've been using amethyst (https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst) for the past few weeks and i absolutely love it.

The original poster made this comparison, but I don't at all think it's fair to Gnome. I have been using Gnome and or DWM whenever I'm able for at least 5 years now. (I switch between the two)

At work, I've had to switch to Mac.

Gnome is 100% better than Mac's UI. The snapping in Gnome is great, but generally it all just works.

Mac was a huge transition for me, and I'm still annoyed that the command button does so much and the window manager does so little.

Please disregard the Mac comparison. It's not really fair to Gnome.

We share the same opinions of MacOS but I've been using it for years with this setup and I'm very happy with it.

TotalSpaces (for a virtual desktop grid and hotkeys)

BetterTouchTool (glue for hotkeys and gestures to get things just how i want)

Yabai (really nice tiling window manager)

skhd (written by yabai author, lightweight global hotkeys, largely setup for yabai)

Hyperswitch (per window command tab, just like it should be)

> No horizontal window splits, and vertical splits only supports two-per-monitor

I use the `Spectacle` app (which has a newer alternative that I forget the name of) and it will do 1/2 and 1/3 window splits, in vertical or horizontal (though I only use vertical). I find it nearly-mandatory for using OSX, but now that I have it I love it.

it apparently didn't bother you enough, otherwise you would've just do one google search and get rid of the problem entirely

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