Comment by abrookewood | Hacker News Reader

Comment by abrookewood | Hacker News Reader

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I've just moved to a Mac for the first time, after using Windows for work for decades and Linux as my primary desktop for about 3 or 4 years. It certainly takes some getting use to: - Keyboard shortcuts are all different - Doesn't seem to like my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard (lots of keys do nothing) - I really hate the dock - Limited customisation on the menu bar - I also hate the universal menu thing / menu bar in general ... I run a really wide monitor and having to go all the way to the left hand side to access the menu when working on an app that is on the far right is crazy - Fonts look fat or washed out

I am sure a lot of this is fixable and will jsut take time to get used to, but honestly, at this point, I think I prefer ubuntu/linux to both Mac & Windows at this point.

I do love the hardware on the Mac and would probably try Asahi out if it wasn't a work machine.

Also worth pointing out that macOS is still better than Windows 11 at this point - MS should be ashamed at what they did to that OS.

As a both old Linux and now decade user of MacOS, after I got used to no middle-click paste and no focus-follows-mouse:

1. Keyboard shortcuts are Emacs, Ctrl-A: start of line, E: end of line, K: kill selected or to end of line, Y to paste, etc. https://support.apple.com/en-au/102650#text

2. Karabiner elements (FOSS) fixes keyboard mappings outside of the Settings: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

3. I have the dock on the left hand side, not bottom and I have a 2 monitor (iMac 5K 27"+ Dell 4K 27") setup with the iMac flat in front of me and the curve/2nd to the right. Menu bar is then close to the main windows.

4. Menu bar widgets etc are fixable with thaw https://github.com/stonerl/Thaw

5. Window management via keyboard is fixable with rectangle https://rectangleapp.com/

6. Use Macports to add all the Linux/Unix utilities, works with MacOS properly (eg Python/Java frameworks). Ports can have variants, plus you can have multiple versions installed side-by-side with `port select`. https://www.macports.org/

Not sure about fonts, on a 5K iMac they're fine and the 4K Dell works too. You need to use a resolution that fits with Mac's ideas of resolution, so I've got the 5K and 4K both at 2560x1440, which is Mac's idea of 2x resolution.

Another point, if you enable Settings > Desktop & Dock > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces, then you get a menu bar for each display, which helps with the menubar / window being far apart.

That doesn't work with a single monitor though.

Good list.

One option for the menus maybe is keyboard searching. Command-shift-/ aka Command-?then type the name and arrow navigate. (Key sequence might be wrong, it’s muscle memory at this point)

I wonder if Thaw could be modded to repeat the menu bar?

Dock can be hidden/revealed with a key sequence but I like the auto-hide with long delay to pop up idea, suggested elsewhere.

Hey thanks for those tips. I just installed Ice and Thaw is a fork that is maintained, so I'll try that out. I have my dock on the left already, and have heard about Rectangle, but haven't tried it yet.

Ah I can resonate with your feelings! I've been using a MacBook Pro as my daily driver since 2013 and I initially liked it a lot, but things have not improved over time. MacOS got more buggy, bloated and less and less customisable. I never fully got used to the way window switching works, and to the fact that I always see all the apps from all work spaces. I still regularly switch to the wrong work space when I switch apps. So confusing. So now I'm in a process of switching back to Linux - it's just so much more fun! I have an M1 MacBook Pro now and Asahi linux is really nice on this one.

I do like the energy consumption of MacOS and that sleep just works so well. Also the laptops feel really nice. I got a few things to make life easier (sketchybar, rectangle.app, see other posts here) but overall these days Linux is just a more polished experience. Never thought I'd say that. At least it's the least glitchy experience nowadays.

I have the dock on auto-hide with a fairly slow timer for it to pop up, as I never actually use it. May be useful to you as well

> Fonts look fat or washed out

Disable font smoothing and restart/relogin.

  defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

> I am sure a lot of this is fixable

It is - sucks that you have to though. For keyboard shortcuts use Karabiner Elements.

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