3 people from my team recently switched to macOS and they never owned a mac before and they are all complaining about window management.
Do you know how dumb it makes me feel to have to tell them they need to install third party apps just to make their system somewhat usable? it's insane.
Complaining about the distinction between apps and windows isn't a "stupid reason" to complain though.
Say I use Slack, Teams and Outlook. If I use their Electron versions, I switch between them with cmd+tab. If I use them in separate browser windows, I switch between them by using cmd+tab to switch to Firefox, then cmd+` to cycle through windows until I find the one I want. That's weird; how you switch between these three apps depend on the technical details on how you opened them? Why?
Say I have neovim, the mutt email client, and a shell open. These are three separate apps, but because they happen to run in a terminal emulator, I still have to cmd+tab to the terminal emulator, then cmd+` to cycle between them. They're semantically different applications in dedicated windows, but technical implementation details mean they belong to what macOS considers "the same app", just like the "apps in Firefox windows" example above.
It wouldn't be so bad if the cmd+` "cycle between windows in the app" feature worked well. But it doesn't. Unlike cmd+tab, it doesn't show a bar which you get to select from, it just instantly re-orders your windows; and it's impossible to select a window in another workspace. That means, if I have Slack open in Firefox in workspace 1 and Outlook open in Chrome in workspace 2, I can switch between Slack and Outlook with cmd+tab, but if I Slack open in Firefox in workspace 1 and Outlook open in Firefox in workspace 2, there is no way to switch between Slack and Outlook. That's pretty bad.
The (shift+)cmd+` order also resets to match the window z-order whenever you switch apps. So if the order is windows A, B, C, then you select window B, cmd+tab away, then cmd+tab back, the order will now be B, A, C.
I've developed an intuitive understanding of this, but I had to experiment just now to describe the behavior precisely. And my intuition is still wrong sometimes (like if the app has windows on multiple monitors, it's hard to predict the z-order).
> if I Slack open in Firefox in workspace 1 and Outlook open in Firefox in workspace 2, there is no way to switch between Slack and Outlook
My local maximum is to never use workspaces – just cmd+tab, cmd+`, and sometimes cmd+h to reduce screen clutter.
I would also add to this that in order to open two instances of an app the app explicitly needs to support this. For example, you can't open 2 instances of Calculator.app side by side.
Have your teammates also discovered how macOS handles copy/pasting a folder when the destination folder already exists? How macOS just deletes the entire contents of the destination folder, instead of merging? I remember discovering that for the first time :(
Window management on macOS is just trash.
3 people from my team recently switched to macOS and they never owned a mac before and they are all complaining about window management.
Do you know how dumb it makes me feel to have to tell them they need to install third party apps just to make their system somewhat usable? it's insane.
>3 people from my team recently switched to macOS and they never owned a mac before and they are all complaining about window management.
For legit reasons? Because many switchers complain for stupid reasons, like the macOS distinction between apps and windows.
Complaining about the distinction between apps and windows isn't a "stupid reason" to complain though.
Say I use Slack, Teams and Outlook. If I use their Electron versions, I switch between them with cmd+tab. If I use them in separate browser windows, I switch between them by using cmd+tab to switch to Firefox, then cmd+` to cycle through windows until I find the one I want. That's weird; how you switch between these three apps depend on the technical details on how you opened them? Why?
Say I have neovim, the mutt email client, and a shell open. These are three separate apps, but because they happen to run in a terminal emulator, I still have to cmd+tab to the terminal emulator, then cmd+` to cycle between them. They're semantically different applications in dedicated windows, but technical implementation details mean they belong to what macOS considers "the same app", just like the "apps in Firefox windows" example above.
It wouldn't be so bad if the cmd+` "cycle between windows in the app" feature worked well. But it doesn't. Unlike cmd+tab, it doesn't show a bar which you get to select from, it just instantly re-orders your windows; and it's impossible to select a window in another workspace. That means, if I have Slack open in Firefox in workspace 1 and Outlook open in Chrome in workspace 2, I can switch between Slack and Outlook with cmd+tab, but if I Slack open in Firefox in workspace 1 and Outlook open in Firefox in workspace 2, there is no way to switch between Slack and Outlook. That's pretty bad.
The (shift+)cmd+` order also resets to match the window z-order whenever you switch apps. So if the order is windows A, B, C, then you select window B, cmd+tab away, then cmd+tab back, the order will now be B, A, C.
I've developed an intuitive understanding of this, but I had to experiment just now to describe the behavior precisely. And my intuition is still wrong sometimes (like if the app has windows on multiple monitors, it's hard to predict the z-order).
> if I Slack open in Firefox in workspace 1 and Outlook open in Firefox in workspace 2, there is no way to switch between Slack and Outlook
My local maximum is to never use workspaces – just cmd+tab, cmd+`, and sometimes cmd+h to reduce screen clutter.
I would also add to this that in order to open two instances of an app the app explicitly needs to support this. For example, you can't open 2 instances of Calculator.app side by side.
This is really annoying.
Yeah, I always want 2 calculator apps when I'm speed calculating... what?
You may want to see the result of one calculation while doing another calculation?
Mac power user 25+ years.
Yes, it’s complete shit
Have your teammates also discovered how macOS handles copy/pasting a folder when the destination folder already exists? How macOS just deletes the entire contents of the destination folder, instead of merging? I remember discovering that for the first time :(
My favorite MacOS update was when the removed the need for Rectangle, Mos, and Unnatural ScrollWheels.
/s