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0 pointsajford4y ago0 comments

Another take on it is that Mac decided to go a different path on a few different UI things in the past, and that has persisted to this day.

Look at how *nix, Windows, Sun, BSD, Chrome OS (which is basically a linux anyways) all use Ctrl, Meta (alt), and Shift for their hotkeys, compared to how Mac uses Hyper (cmd).

Also look at how Mac has one instance of an app's tool bar/menu that all windows share.

I'll agree that the consistent UI is a boon, but there's a large lack of discoverability imo, and some things that are just entirely lacking, like the ability to move windows around with hotkeys.

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npunt4y ago

You've got the order reversed. Mac pretty much defined the modern WIMP UI and was the only real game in town for consumers & professionals from 1984 - 1990 when Windows 3 was released, and during this time an entire industry (DTP) was built atop Mac's strong UI foundations.

It's more accurate to say that in modern UIs the others decided to each go their own different paths and replicate part of what made the MacOS experience special, but they also tended to forget to include a lot of the little details that made it great, and have never had the same dedication to consistency.

Re: discoverability, there's an order to discovering advanced options in MacOS - hold Option and click on menus. You'll be surprised how far that gets you. The whole idea of MacOS and native apps is you learn how to use the system once, and you're rewarded from thereon out. Not all things are discoverable without these keys because not all things are relevant for everyday uses and can add clutter - its a design choice to make simple things easy and hard things possible. They're not always perfect but they're still the best game in town.

RE: moving windows with hotkeys, just get an app like Magnet, problem solved.

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