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> I have been besieged by dialogs, popups, and notifications asking me to give a program access to a file or removable disk or my downloads folder, or "informing" me that a setting has been changed, or that something will run on startup, or most intrusively, in half a dozen cases, preventing a program from working until I open the security preferences and find the "Allow" button.

I grant you, this experience sucks.

Was it better before, when everything had carte blanche to do what it liked without your knowledge/consent? (My intent isn't to lead the witness — I have my preference, but am curious what you think.)

Not OP but pretty much in the same boat.

> Was it better before, when everything had carte blanche to do what it liked without your knowledge/consent?

Yes.

The caveat is I'm using a very stable set of programs, that I spent a long time to decide if I was OK with giving access to a lot of my critical information. I'm using Karabiner since it exists, and it's a worse experience and performance as it is now than when it was running unprotected and full carte blanche. Same with Bitwarden, it already has all my life's passwords, giving it access to read my screen is just an additional annoyance.

At some point VSCode could also go rogue, but I'll be more worried with it leaking my SSH keys than recording my face when I'm coding.

The caveat is that you know what you're doing. Most people don't. Computers are made for most people. The era of computers being made for people like us, is long gone.

(We did this to ourselves, by constantly trying to make computers easier to use, and telling everyone else they should have one)

Yes, but … no.

> (We did this to ourselves, by constantly trying to make computers easier to use, and telling everyone else they should have one)

Agreed. However: most people never wanted a computer, they only wanted to do certain computer-y things.

And they don't have to anymore! We now have this new breed of wondrous, computer-y devices which are less capable, but in return are also a lot easier to use. It's here, it's absolutely ubiquitous and it is roughly good enough most of the time.

The worlds of "smart" devices and general computing machines could have, _should_ have coexisted perfectly next to each other. That Apple is slowly but surely merging the two is a massive, unnecessary, foolhardy mistake that is on them and them alone.

Thing is, these people already have better options.

Enterprise "businessy" people already have fully managed enterprise Windows, large education fleets and low computing needs organizations can be served by Chromebooks or iPads.

We're the ones stuck in a state where linux is still too compromised, Windows lacks polish, and now macos has iOS-ified to the point it becomes an hinderance but without getting the real advantages (touch support etc.).

I'm patientely waiting for a shift to happen, in the meantime jumping to Windows looks like the more pragmatic solution, how crazy it may sound.

I agree, in my eyes one of the major problem is that Apple does this at an insane markup. Sure the hardware is mostly nice but when you factor in the premium you pay for it there shouldn't be this kind of major hindrance to usage in the software. It's like if you were to buy a professional power tools but it would still have all the warnings message and "protections" found on consumer level tools with no real way to disable them without rendering the tool almost useless...

Sure you can disable many security stuff in macOS but then many of the apple stuff don't work, so you would need to leave on the table one major reason to buy Apple hardware.

In my opinion Apple painted itself in a corner with their strategy, they may have more money than ever and more customer than ever but they are making their offering so irrelevant to tech enthusiast people so quickly I'm not sure any of their tech will be relevant in ten years.

Of course Apple fanboys (omnipresent here) want to believe the contrary...

> The caveat is that you know what you're doing. Most people don't. Computers are made for most people.

While you're absolutely correct it's my impression that most people will grant any permission without reading just to make this popup interruption go away and move on with their task.

I think it's not bad for the average user, say my dad. Personally, I would like a 'developer' toggle to disable it all or have a different default.

Reboot into Recovery Mode, open the terminal, run:

  spctl --master-disable
  csrutil disable
  nvram boot-args="amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1"

and reboot into normal mode. Almost all of the "annoying" safety protections will be disabled.

> I have been besieged by dialogs, popups, and notifications asking me to give a program access to a file or removable disk or my downloads folder

This is not MacOS's problem. This is an industry-wide problem where users are besieged by rude software that treats the user like an idiot and decides to do as it pleases regarding system configuration. It is not an exaggeration that it is a security nightmare. With dark patterns becoming the norm, I am happy to have MacOS limit which programs can access which resource, even if it means setup takes longer.

The world you wistfully pine for, with well behaved software and operating systems that simply serve as a platform for programs, no longer exists.

Linux, BSDs, keep to software in the repos and you get that. Apple treats all software as hostile even the stuff it ships. Having to give the terminal access to see my Documents folder is nuts AND confusing.

Used to be something Vista was laughed at for. Oh, how the turn tables https://youtu.be/0eEG5LVXdKo?t=637

Things have improved a whole lot since then. Used to be that as soon as you opened any app, it just requested full admin access to everything. Now its that you try to share the screen and you get a popup asking if you want to allow sharing the screen.

It's actionable now. You can use an app without allowing the permission request, and the permission request is tied to when you try to use the function rather than at install time or app boot.

> or most intrusively, in half a dozen cases, preventing a program from working until I open the security preferences and find the "Allow" button.

You can ctrl+right click and then press Open to bypass this and just show a warning with an "Open" button on it, fyi. After you do it once, it won't bug you for the same application.

>The user-annoyance-factor difference between modern Windows and macOS is very slight.

You’re still wearing the rose-tinted glasses. MacOS is not able to (natively): 1. Allow the trackpad to scroll “natively” and a mouse to “normal” scroll. 2. Scale for an external display without a specific PPI. The PPI is so high there’s only a couple monitors that support it on the market. 3. Display crisp text on a non-high-PPI screen (as above). 4. Allow the user to edit or remove the horrendous mouse acceleration curve. 5. Allow users to select minimized windows with Alt+Tab. 6. Allow users to snap windows. 7. Etc etc.

I’m stunned I can’t scale stuff on my 4k monitor, adjust the mouse, or be productive with alt-tab.

Gorgeous hardware, but wow, I’m stunned you guys (and girls) can use this seriously.

On the other hand, I read that as a laundry list of “things to make it work exactly like Windows”. I’ve used a Mac for a lot of years now and none of those have ever bothered me.

I’m not saying you’re wrong for wanting them. I’m saying you’re wrong to assume that everyone else does, too.

ChromeOS, Android, Windows, and Linux have almost all features I mentioned. But, I understand some don’t care.

Having two separate scroll directions available for mouse and touchpad is just basic common sense, not "make it work exactly like Windows". Pretty sure every OS/DE out there allows for that, except for macOS which doesn't in a subpar manner too (there are two separate toggles in two menus, one for mouse, one for touchpad, and they toggle each other...).

>Scale for an external display without a specific PPI.

Be happy they still let you use non-Apple external monitors! :)

Ha! Hilarious you said that. I was planning on purchasing their display until I learned it’d take a decent effort to use it with my work laptop (windows). So, part way there?

Hell, you even need a custom third-party driver to use the multitouch trackpads on Windows. They are the best trackpads money can buy though, so I use one with my desktop.

cmd-tab is program, then cmd-` to cycle through the windows of that program.

4k monitors also scale fine?

I agree with most of your points, save for alt-tab. macOS app and window management is completely different from Windows, and trying to use it like Windows only ends up hurting.

Minimizing a window in macOS takes it out of the working set. You can't quick switch to a minimized window, and it doesn't even show on Mission Control. You have to click the minimized window in the dock to bring it back. In short, minimizing a window is not just a visibility setting, but a workflow choice.

[2008 me] fell in love with the "it just works" and "an actually usable GUI plus Unix under the hood" and "they actually sweat the small stuff" [...] [By 2018, say] The user-annoyance-factor difference between modern Windows and macOS is very slight.

Could not have said it better myself.

luckily the Windows experience is getting shittier too so we’re all stuck with macOS