If macOS is so easy to use, why do I hate using it so much?

I am a developer who writes software for three major platforms: Linux, macOS, and Windows. I am a firm believer that it is the developer/designer's responsibility to cater to the end user. In this case, that's me! So, why am I having so much trouble using a Mac?

My biggest beef is with the keyboard. Windows and Linux have embraced usability and made the key mappings pretty much identical. Or, maybe Windows is the 800-lb gorilla, and Linux just followed its lead. Either way, I can go back and forth between the two platforms without upsetting my muscle memory. Then there is the Mac... "being different." Being different is a great plan for trying to entrap your users in your walled garden, but it's terrible for universal UX. How many IT people need to deal with different OSs? Pretty much all of them? Why must we be forced to change our mental programming whenever we need to touch a Mac?

Why must it have Cmd/Opt instead of the ubiquitous Ctrl/Alt? I don't actually care that you call them. But when I do ctrl-C, ctrl-V for copy and paste, those keys need to be in the same place. And Home/End? They are there, but do completely different things? Why do I need to do a 3-finger pretzel move for something I need to do all the time? I know you can remap opt-C to ctrl-C. But then, what if I am in the terminal and need ^C? It's messy. Where is the UX??? I have been fighting with Karabiner and VScode keymappings for years trying to come up with a universal recipe. But just end up hurting myself more. Why can't the macOS keyboard (and applications) respond to a universal keyboard mapping? You know, for us humans?

If Apple wants to increase its market share in the PC space, how about embracing usability? Please give us an option to put the keyboard into compatible or universal mode and make the device interoperable with the rest of the world.

If anyone has a universal recipe for addressing this problem, please let me know...

I could really love this thing if I didn't hate using it so much... Thanks for listening...

13 points

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pcarroll

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12 days ago

15 comments

taylodl ・ 12 days ago

MacOS has retained its core key bindings since its launch in 1984, i.e. 41 years ago. Microsoft didn't settle on their core set of key bindings until Windows 3.0, which was released in 1990. Not having Apple's 'command' key Microsoft substituted the 'control' key to enable cut/copy/paste. Linux followed suit.

What I miss while using Windows:

- Command+N: New Window. This is up to the application to implement this functionality in Windows. Some do, many don't.

- Command+W: Close Window. Ditto for New Window.

- Command+Q: Quit application. Windows doesn't really have a notion of quitting an application. If you close all the application's windows, then the application is quit. Sometimes I want to keep an application open even though it currently has no open windows, and other times I want to close an application with one command and not cycle through and close every window.

- Command+backtick: Cycle through Windows of application.

- Spotlight: Would be really nice to have in Windows. There's a PowerToy providing similar functionality, but my employer doesn't allow for the installation of PowerToys.

- Gestures: PC trackpads just don't work as well as Macs (subjective). In my Windows setup I use a mouse and disable the trackpad because of so many ghost inputs while typing. I would never use a mouse with my MacBook, the trackpad and gestures are simply too good.

Overall, I much prefer using MacOS over Windows. Whether it's easier to use is subjective, but I find it to be much more productive.

  • paulmooreparks ・ 12 days ago

    Just curious, since I'm not a Mac user: Does Command+Q differ from Alt-F4, which is the standard way of exiting an application on Windows? Back when Windows was new, most applications did actually go away pressing Alt-F4 on their main window, but in these days of notifications and constant connectivity, it seems little more than a glorified "minimize" command.

    • ankurdhama ・ 11 days ago

      Cmd+Q quits the running application i.e it will close all the open windows of the app and quit the app. On Windows Alt+F4 is for "close the window" (macOS equivalent of Cmd+W) or to be more precise it sends the "WM_CLOSE" message to the window and the program can do whatever it want to do with that message, the default behaviour of that message handling is to close the window. Closing a Windows doesn't necessarily means quitting the app. If you have multiple Notepad windows you will have to do Alt+f4 on each one of them to actually "quit" notepad. Some Windows app have a quit shortcut like "Ctrl+q", if you press that on Notepad, it will behave like macOS Cmd+q.

      On another note, the first keyboard shortcut I change on any Linux installation is the "Alt+f4" one, it is such a painful key combination to press :)

bigyabai ・ 12 days ago

MacOS is not easy to use. I don't know why people keep echoing the sentiment, it's opinionated in ways that make little sense and refuses to copy Windows' few features that are actually good. And whenever I find a legitimate OS issue, people say I should either spend $15/year on an app that works around the issue or wait for a MacOS update to fix it. It's a user experience that looks like a parody compared to Windows or even Linux.

I have to assume Apple just doesn't care about the Mac anymore. New Macs run the iPhone chips with mobile-tier UI padding, smartphone-grade driver support and the iPhone's design language.

ankurdhama ・ 12 days ago

You are frustrated because you are used to the keyboard shortcuts that Windows uses and on macOS they are different. This would also have been the case if you were familiar with macOS shortcuts and moved to Windows.

robthebrew ・ 12 days ago

Bless your spring heart: you have found something that doesn't work like Windows. That has worked the same way since the UI was made available to the public.

throwaway843 ・ 12 days ago

MacOS hasn't evolved. It sticks with old paradigms because it's stuck in its ways.

With keyboards, that includes mappings that give RSI and finger strain for the sake of not adding a handful of keys.

For the window manager, that includes non-windowed applications, from a UI perspective never moving on from single application views - just giving an illusion of multiple apps.

Despite the strides NextSTEP brought Apple as an OS, some of which shows through at the command line, the UI and UX just hasn't moved on.

  • ankurdhama ・ 11 days ago

    > With keyboards, that includes mappings that give RSI and finger strain for the sake of not adding a handful of keys.

    Can you give a few examples of this. I feel Cmd+c is more ergonomic then Ctrl+c.

    • thimabi ・ 11 days ago

      How do you type Cmd+C versus Ctrl+C?

      I find the Windows version more ergonomic because the keys are farther apart, so I press Ctrl with my left hand and C with the right one. Meanwhile, on MacOS, Cmd and C are closer to one another, so I end up pressing them with the thumb and index finger of the left hand only. I believe that movement is not as ergonomic, although more intuitive.

sillywalk ・ 12 days ago

Change the modifier keys so alt/shift/control/caps/lock/cmd etc can all be changed:

Settings->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts (it's a button)->Modifier Keys (it's a list on the left)

The Settings app sucks.

JohnFen ・ 12 days ago

I've never found macOS easy to use, personally. I think that what's "easy to use" or not has as much to do with what UI paradigm you're used to as anything else.

_wire_ ・ 12 days ago

Fellow IT nerds!

Why is Mac so crazy and inconsistent?! Was it developed by morons, imbeciles or idiots?

Why can't it be clear and easy to use? Like Linux!

Take Ubuntu: It's always CTRL-C to copy to clipboard.

Except in Terminal, where it's CTRL-SHIFT-C.

But please don't misunderstand me, I'm not judging others' abilities to adapt to trivial differences. Many of us in tech struggle with severe cognitive deficits. Besides, we're pros!

So here's a couple of tips:

Tip 1 - Use a mnemonic. Imagine your memories as a large castle with many rooms. After coming through the Linux foyer and through the Ubuntu hall, when you get to the Terminal room, think "I've got to SHIFT my thinking to use copy".

If that doesn't help, try admonishing yourself in the third person: "Buddy, it's SHIFT-ctrl-c. Do you wanna copy or not?!"

Back to Mac and why it's so shitty being trapped in its maze-like garden of walls... who can live like this?

garbagecoder ・ 12 days ago

If you can't move one key over, you're a baby duck.

Also, fwiw, Mac had those keyboard shortcuts first and it was Windows who changed them.

Webstir ・ 12 days ago

Maybe because all you do is stare at a screen all day. I'm pretty sure I'd hate every OS if my life consisted of nothing but a screen and a keyboard.

Tune in. Turn on. Drop out. You'll soon realize your life to this point, has been a pointless waste.