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Comment by talldayo | Hacker News Reader

> I am a frog who’s been out of the pot; I just jumped back in and got scalded

This is how I feel with everything these days. Default computer operating systems are the pits. A lot of it was paved with good intentions; enable better user workflows, increase visibility, provide better default apps, that sorta thing. But now everything is a service, on every platform you use!

Spending time on Linux, I get exposed to nothing. No live-tiles, no news notifications, nobody asking me to Try the New Safari. It's just... a computer. I feel the author's culture-shock every time I hear a Mac or Windows user try and rationalize their $99/year to-do list app to me. Is this really where computers are headed for us, and humanity at large?

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I wouldn’t lump macOS and Windows together for that, as someone who uses Linux and macOS regularly.

macOS has defaults that can be for power users, but you can find them and change them. Windows is actively trying to subvert your will at every turn. Ads in the start menu/explorer, forced updates, forced logins in the OOBE… It’s abhorrent! And so many workarounds you find online are dead, because they’re actively subverting your will.

If I didn't need to open the terminal to disable basic nags on MacOS, I would be more inclined to agree. Modern MacOS post-Yosemite approaches Windows 8 levels of pointless service-oriented integrations.

On Windows and MacOS, you are the frog no matter what you do. The water is at different temperatures, but they are both heating up pretty fast.

Testament to this is the annoyance of missing or delayed update notifications for the OS and App Store apps when using macOS without an iCloud account.

Still, at the current temperature, macbooks make for good workstations IMO. I sometimes miss Linux but just haven't found comparable hardware, efficiency and utility.

Also a relief to have USB-C displays and other hardware just work, no battery drain when idle, etc.

I'm sure it's a close call though compared to a good x64 laptop with Linux though, especially with x64 slowly approaching ARM in terms of power efficiency.

The latest debacle around macOS and JVM was not a good look though.

I feel their moat is shrinking.

The JVM problem was fixed in what, 11 days? That's pretty damn good.

This is true! So maybe I was wrong about it being a bad look.

What nags are you talking about? I’ve never had to open a terminal to deal with things like that on macOS.

You have to run some terminal command, to make a system setting visible, just to be able to install non-app store apps.

> sudo spctl --master-disable

This is not true. You do not have to do this to install non-app store apps. Right click and open, if you don't get an option to open the first time, right click and open the second time and the option shows up.

Please do not disable Gatekeeper because you want to open apps from a keyboard shortcut instead of right click and open.

If something is standing in the way of my OS being usable and using it as intended, then I will disable it, simple as that.

I dont need any hand holding or babysitting thank you very much.

Same with the useless UAC warning dialogs on Windows.

This is like complaining about having to type `sudo`.

How so? I dont need to use sudo everytime im using some normal harmless userland program like git for example.

Gatekeeper was only implemented to scare mainstream Apple users into using their pile of shit App Store. And developers needing to spend cash and “notarize” their apps.

You can see the same discussion happening now with the iOS 3rd party stores. As if every 3rd party app was a potentially filled tonthe brim with “viruses”

I don't see a Gatekeeper prompt every time I open an unsigned app, either.

Having to right click the app (only the first time btw) to open it if it’s unsigned seems right to me even as a power user. If the app is “Mozilla Firefox” and it’s suddenly unsigned I’m going to want to figure out why.

Same with UAC, I used to foolishly disable it completely but one day I opened a sketchy app in a moment of stupidity and it escalated to install a bunch of malware. I never would’ve given it admin, since it didn’t need it, but I’d turned off the dialog. The dialog definitely would’ve been a wake up call.

It’s not always babysitting to have your computer go “hey does this seem right?” Especially when it’s designed like gatekeeper to get out of your way the second time.

This is true for a lot of the new protections. SIP is a really good thing. I can modify the system if I really need to, but I want to know for sure when that’s happening.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. You can download .dmg files and install. You can also get a fair bit of software through Homebrew.

    brew install git
    brew install emacs --cask

Unless you have something else you're talking about. You'll get the "...are you sure?" prompt, but that doesn't prevent installation.

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