I'm not a fan

I've been a Windows user for 30+ years of my life. Apple has never appealed to me. I have always staunchly opposed them. They are and have always aimed for "end to end control". I find it quite shocking that consumers allow such a thing, but I digress.

So how did I end up using MacOS?

Maybe 4 years ago I reached a breaking point with Windows. I won't go into that, this is about MacOS, but it's for all the reasons you might expect. I took up Linux. I like Linux. Linux has a lot of benefits, but let's be honest, it is made by and for developers and they seem to turn a blind eye to it's shortcomings in usability. I won't go into that either. You might be thinking at this point that I got fed up with Linux as well, but that's not really the way it went down.

My actual laptop hardware began failing. It started with the battery not charging. At the time it was still under Costco warranty and I even contacted them and they sent me a box to ship it to them and everything but then the next day the laptop began charging as normal. Some time after that the top row of keys would intermittently stop working and some time after that the machine would fail to boot entirely. So I started looking for a replacement.

I was scrolling Facebook (yes, I know) and came across in my local "Buy Nothing" group someone giving away an iMac. Yes, giving it away. I would almost never recommend buying a Mac but if someone offers you one for free, I guess take it. They upgraded to a newer model and were trying to erase it for resale but failed and was left with a device that would not boot. I figured at the very least I could try and fix it. I had replaced a family member's MacBook SSD very recently so I was sure I could, and I did. I didn't realize it when I picked it up but I realize now that it probably actually was worthless. It was a 27" 2013 model running such an old OS that many apps couldn't even be installed.

After a little digging I discovered OCLP which is, to put it very briefly, a way to install the latest OS on this and many other Macs. I was shocked at how well it worked. Then I used it for a while and was completely blown away by the display. Then I went down a bit of a rabbit hole and learned more about the display and how good it was, but that it was nearly worthless because it's attached to all this other hardware and you can't plug anything else into it (without a lot of work and more money). Then I learned there was a newer model with an even better display (5k). Apple even sells the same 5k display to this day for $1600 in their "Studio Display". I managed to scoop one of those up for $150 on Facebook marketplace.

I also realized that iMacs are almost the anti-Apple device. A relic of a bygone era of repairability and upgradability that Apple, for whatever reason, just didn't kill for years and years. Not entirely, the display is glued on and the GPU is soldered to the mainboard, but you can open it. And you can very easily upgrade the RAM (they even included a handy hatch on the back of the device and levers to eject the RAM sticks). And you can somewhat easily even upgrade the CPU or repair any other component (again, other than the GPU).

Anyway, after acquiring the 2017 5k model I went to sell the 2013 model. I took it all apart, cleaned out a mountain of dust, repasted the CPU and GPU, and upgraded the SSD to 1TB, and reinstalled everything with OCLP. After all of that it took several months to sell, but I eventually did sell it, for only $100, which barely covered the cost of the SSD I installed. I was kinda blown away that these things are still so capable and sleek and stylish, even 10 years after the design initially debuted, and yet almost completely worthless. I assume mostly because Apple stopped supporting them with OS updates.

I later acquired yet another iMac (the one I'm writing this on) that had an i7 vs. i5 and 64GB RAM vs. 16GB for $100 on Craigslist. Absolutely insane.

MacOS

On to the actual OS itself.

General review

MacOS is okay. Among the 3 desktop OS choices, it is my top choice, with Linux a close second, and Windows a distant 3rd. It is very nice to look at, which I do appreciate. The UX is...pretty bad. They could learn a lot from Windows and Linux insofar as how the user interacts with the OS. Pretty much any general use software is available for it (which you can't say for Linux). It gets some points for GTFO of my way, which can't be said for Windows, but the integration of their first party apps into the OS is sometimes obnoxious.

I don't think I can talk about MacOS without mentioning that the fact that it's mandatory use on Apple hardware is it's biggest downside.

Window management and multi-monitor

This is the absolute worst thing about MacOS. It's also one of the most important. MacOS only recently got window tiling in Sequoia, which Linux and Windows have had for, and I kid you not, decades, and they still failed the assignment really. It seems to be quite happy having a dozen windows open in random sizes and locations. It does not remember where you last had an app open. Switching between monitors is absolutely infuriating. You have to click on the other monitor, wait, and then click again to access its' content. Double-click the content and this all goes out the window and it does a double-click, thereby erasing any sort of logical reason for necessitating 2 clicks in the first place. Windows can sometimes be dragged across from one monitor to the other. Other times, it just refuses and the window just...disappears as you drag it across. And still other times it just gets stuck and won't move across. Clicking the red x seems to do the same thing as the yellow -, except when it doesn't, and apps are just left running in the background. Maximizing the window hides the top toolbar. Why? Hitting F3 brings up a sort of window manager known as "Mission Control" where you can see them all open, except any full screen windows, for some reason those are in a completely invisible menu that appears when you mouse over the top of the screen. WHY!? GNOME (Linux) has a similar function ("Overview") but it actually shows all the open windows and also lets you click on an x to actually close them.

Windows also just...disappear from visibility. All the time. Sometimes when I open a new window, the current one gets minimized for...reasons.

Notifications disappear after 2 seconds. The only other option is to switch them to "alerts", in which case they just stay there indefinitely until you click them away. Something in between would be really nice. Also when I go to dismiss notifications, there is an X in the top left I can click. Only the instant I hover over it, it changes to "clear all" just before clicking it and 100% of your notifications are erased from existence. Except when it doesn't. Because, once again, this function some times happens and sometimes doesn't, with no apparent rhyme or reason. This is seriously some next-level asshole design.

The lack of consistent functionality across MacOS (and iOS) is so confusing, I just never know what is happening or why. I would include a video of this but it's just impossible to reliably reproduce because I don't even understand why it's happening.

The apps

MacOS comes with a pre-installed Mountain of Bloatware including:

• App Store
• Safari
• Contacts
• Calendar
• Reminders
• Notes
• FaceTime
• Maps
• Messages
• FindMy
• Photo Booth
• Photos
• Preview
• Music
• Podcasts
• Apple TV
• Voice Memos
• Weather
• News
• Stocks
• Books
• Dictionary
• Calculator
• Freeform
• Home
• Siri
• Shortcuts
• QuickTime
• Grapher
• Fontbook
• Stickies
• Automator
• Digital Color Meter

And more... I do not want and do not use any of these. Don't get me wrong, I don't actually have any problem with these apps being installed. Linux also typically comes with a myriad of apps I don't want, and Windows has hundreds of them, I just want to be able to uninstall them. But you can't. And they constantly get in the way. Their purpose of their existence seems to be primarily to push users into their first-party products and ecosystem.

Right clicking any text brings up a menu that says, always at the top "Look up [text]". Now I use this function all the time to search for things on Windows and Linux, but it doesn't do that here. Instead it looks it up in The MacOS Dictionary

Clicking "share" anywhere in MacOS brings up a menu where you can share over Messages, AirDrop, Mail, Notes, Photos, Freeform, Reminders, etc. The only thing missing from these menus is an option to add it to my fucking clipboard, which is the only option I ever want.

Opening any links from the Apple system will fire up Safari even though it knows it's not my default browser.

Video files always want to open in QuickTime, even after I explicitly direct it to open them in VLC.

Finder

First of all "Finder" is a terrible name and does not give any kind of indication as to what this "app" does. Every other OS calls the file explorer "files" or something similar. Very simple.

Secondly, when trying to preview/find images to browse/upload, the previews are absolutely miniscule to the point that they might as well not even be there.

Third, files and folders are often arranged seemingly randomly instead of snapping to a grid. This leads to illegible files and folders are are literally laid of top of each other like a pile of trash.

Fourth, file extensions (ie: .jpg, .png, .pdf) are sometimes hidden, sometimes not. Why?

Fifth, when selecting videos, a play button appears on top of the icon. I can't tell you how many times I've been trying to select a file, I click this play button instead and it starts playing a positively microscopic version of the video. This is not helpful. Please get out of my way.

The app store

Fortunately, unlike iOS, MacOS does not require you to use the app store. However there is a large percentage of apps that are only distributed through the App Store, which is annoying. I have no interest in Apple's Walled Garden. Also the simple act of just logging into my Apple account is a nightmare, due to Apple's failure to support any sort of secure 2FA login.

Homebrew and Applite

Homebrew is essentially the good guy 3rd party app store (lower case) for MacOS (and also Linux, but has limited support there). However it is a terminal-only app store, which I absolutely loathe (that's why I'm not using Linux).

Applite is a GUI for Homebrew that makes it so much easier to browse, use and update apps.

3rd party app dependencies

Apple has a habit of being way behind the curve in many ways. 3rd party apps can drastically improve the MacOS experience but they really make a mockery of the base system. If some nerd in their Mom's basement can make these products that serve such a giant improvement in utility, often completely for free...why can't the 3 trillion dollar corporation do it!?

Spotlight

Raycast is decidedly a "must have" 3rd party app. Why? Well mostly because Spotlight is almost completely useless. Take a look at the beautiful way GNOME handles this. You can tap the super key or swipe 3 fingers up on the keyboard and you get into GNOME's version of "mission control". Except this is ALSO Spotlight. Start typing and a text box appears, at which point you can search for anything! You can search for programs, you can search for files, you can search for settings, and it all just happens so fast. Again, where is the multi-billion dollar corporation? Tahoe aims to fix this but as of writing I can't tell you if they have.

Parallels

Parallels is pretty widely regarded as the best VM manager on ANY platform. 3rd party. Mac just has "Virtualization Framework", a command line tool.

Rectangles

I mentioned earlier but MacOS has not had a proper tiling window manager for a long time. They managed to introduce one in Sequoia, but I think pretty much everyone agrees that is is inferior to the 3rd party option.

Shottr

Apple's screenshot tool is...rudimentary, at best. Shottr is amazing. I won't go into the details of why but it's just another example of an independent developer blowing the giant corporation out of the water. It's embarrassing.

Better Display Pro

Apple's display settings lack ALL SORTS of pro display settings around HDR, refresh rates, custom resolutions, upscaling, etc. that are pretty much standard on Windows and Linux. I get most people won't even know how to use them, but that's a usecase for "advanced settings" options. And selling products with "Pro" in the name without these settings is absurd. This third party tool adds them.

Consistency

There is a general sense of inconsistency throughout the OS. That is to say, you'll do something under some set of circumstances and then do the same thing later and something completely different (or nothing) happens. Like clicking the red x on a window. Or even right clicking and quitting on the app from the dock and just...nothing happens. Like it just ignores the command completely.

If you hide the dock at the bottom of the screen and then mouse over it, sometimes it appears, other times it just...doesn't.

Shortcuts

Gatekeeper

There is absolutely nothing that triggers me faster than my computer telling me "no, you can't do this", which is exactly what happened the first time I tried to install third-party software that Apple didn't have their rubber stamp on. Fortunately I'm fully-capable of disabling this with a simple command in the terminal, but it's a very Apple way of making sure you know this is their computer and not yours. It's extremely problematic for any Apple developer who wants to make software for Apple computers, because now it requires Apple's approval, which certainly can be a nightmare dealing with any large corporation. Not to mention the user who wants to use some software and their computer says "no" and they're just fucked.

Windows has something similar, except they bring up a dialog box that says "we can't guarantee this software, are you sure you want to install it?" but the user just clicks okay and moves on, which is very good and fair. Windows, for all of it's faults, will never tell you "no, you cannot install this".

I ran into something similar with Bluetooth. At one point I went to turn it off and it said "Sorry, you can't do that".

Linux support