Mac Users Deserve Better – 7 Unacceptable Problems with MacOS

Apple has a bigger presence at Linus Media Group than ever before: an increasing number of our staff are choosing their excellent M1 and M2 powered laptops as their work machine or use Macintosh systems at home. But this increased usage has led to more annoyances being discussed around the office… so we put together this list of some of the more noticeable omissions!

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:18 Corner Snapping
3:08 Full Screen is Weird
4:03 Traffic Light Inconsistencies
4:48 Scroll Direction Decoupling
5:22 Multi Monitor UI Issues
6:12 Multiple External Monitors
7:21 Volume Mixer MIA
8:05 Rapid Fire Points
8:33 A Difference in Philosophy
9:33 We DO Like macOS!
10:24 Conclusion

[tipoomaster]

One of the craziest choices about macOS is if you select say 20 folders and get info, expecting to get a combined estimate of their storage...Instead it just bursts 20 separate get info windows at you. Yes I know the key combo now, but it's a semi common new user thing to hit.

[Fishvap]

The issue with multi-monitors is such a big issue with MacOS. I can't believe how poor the support is for such a vital feature that a lot of users have to rely on, on a daily basis.

[codecthelios]

I switched over to m2 macbook pro from windows for my laptop (graphic design). It is nice to have a computer that can be trusted to just sleep. Its great to show up to a meeting with everything already running. Open the lid and everything is ready to show off and work on. However I do miss gaming, raytracing in blender and Autodesk Inventor. I add 3rd party software to get the functionality that I am missing.

[natbarmore]

5:10 right there with you! “Natural” scrolling is fine—even better—on a touchpad. But it’s completely bass ackward with a scrollwheel. To the point that since I’ve had to choose between awkward scrolling with my touchpad and awkward scrolling with mouse wheel, the #1 thing I do when setting up macOS is turn off “natural” scrolling.

This kind of coupling of things that are “obviously” [to me] likely to have disparate preferences within a single user is one of the things about recent macOS that is a constant annoyance. So a tool that lets me set touchpad scrolling to a “natural” direction while _also_ have scrollwheel scrolling set to the “natural” direction (which is the opposite of what feels natural on a touchpad) is absolutely worth the money.

Another example: “smart quotes” and “smart dashes” used to be 2 separate settings in macOS. Which was great. Typing typographers quotes is a pain, and the only couple places I might want to avoid them—Terminal and BBEdit—don’t use [that part of] the macOS text engine. But typing proper dashes (– or —) has been stupid-easy on macOS since…System 6(? Maybe earlier?), so there’s no need to have the OS automagically type them for you. It’s arguably even easier to type – or — on iOS. Moreover, there are not-uncommon reasons to type -- and actually mean --, not —, so turning on smart dashes isn’t just unnecessary, it actually gets in my way. So I have to choose whether to have proper quotation marks and also have to jump through hoops any time I want to type multiple hyphens, or have easy access to hyphens and dashes but then have to remember to manually type proper quotation marks (fairly easy on iOS; kinda annoying on macOS). Depending on OS version, you might or might not be able to turn on smart punctuation and then use a text substitution to override turning two hyphens into an em-dash. It has gone back and forth since they consolidated smart dashes and smart quotes. Currently, I’m stuck with em-dashes on iOS (without some serious hoop-jumping), and macOS overrides my text substitution but if I’m paying attention I can ⌘-Z it.

And none of this is because either option is inherently “good” or “bad”—it’s entirely because the options for two different settings are linked, and I argue that since it’s easy to type proper dashes and kinda tricky to type proper quotation marks, one should _expect_ there to be a group of people who want automated help with the latter but not the former.

[BrainfooTV]

I can't believe you didn't start with no indication of transfer speed of external storage.

[TheZoenGaming]

I'm 41, and I actually remember the first few Mac generations having a lot of games when I entered Jr. High School. I was so jealous of my buddy who's father had one. It's strange to think that it shifted completely by the time I graduated Jr. High 3 years later.

[johnsmith-gl]

What I hate is having to resize the Finder columns EVERY time I open a window. Also, no matter what I try, I just can’t get change the default Finder window size, the official instructions just don’t work for me. Maddening.

[vadimmartynyuk]

Recently switched from windows 10 pc to M1 Max MacBook and I’m surprised how many crucial features macOS is missing

[KeppyKep]

I love that Harrison trolled Horst by having him do the bit that he disagreed with!
Also, Alex taking any and every opportunity to rant about modern standby will never stop being funny.

[EvanBoldt]

The issue with per-application audio becomes an issue during FaceTime calls, where it turns out they could do it the whole time they just don't let you change it. Calls automatically turn down the volume of everything else and too much.

[yaroslav]

As a both Linux and Windows user and from time to time MacOS user I can say that Ubuntu's Gnome implementation had combined all the best GUI features from Windows and MacOS. I am a big fan of Ubuntu. Kudos to them.

[Liggliluff]

(5:15) As a Windows user, the worst about this scrolling thing is when software reverses it. "It's the Mac way", yes but I'm on Windows.
Adobe actually has this issue with horizontal scrolling. The vertical scrolling is correct, but if you have a mouse you can push to the right to scroll right, Adobe scrolls left. Very annoying.

[_renssies]

To add to the multiple display issues, Apple's hardware could support DisplayPort MST, but they don't do it in software. If you put Windows on an Intel MacBook it works, macOS, nope. DisplayPort MST is the tech used by most docks to support multiple displays over 1 USB-C or thunderbolt connection.

[AnxiousSylvie]

Don’t forget mouse acceleration that can’t be disabled without terminal commands / third party apps! (Linear mouse is the perfect third party solution IMO if you’re interested, it also allows disabling of natural scrolling for mice, while maintaining it for trackpads)

[mina_en_suiza]

That's what I love about the KDE desktop: Although you might feel occasionally overwhelmed by the options, I can make it look and behave like I want it to. Not to mention that even a 12-15 years old computer can still have a nice looking and snappily behaving desktop. If you value sustainability in technology, that's a great feature.

[mr.panjandrum]

It would be great for you do to a followup that examines MacOS changes since the Snow Leopard era in particular. Not just the fundamental functionality, but the UI/UX degradation, the increased difficulty of performing basic tasks, the tremendous backslides in enterprise/edu sectors with the end of Server and support for that feature set. I work in the EDU IT sector, largely with Apple products, and I can't point to much since Snow Leopard that's been a benefit to us, while being able to point to hundreds of things that have made the Apple experience worse or more difficult. Key among these are the complete borking of the once almost unassailable user interfaces on both Macs and iThings. They were clear, concise, easily visible, consistent. Now they are flat, low-contrast, grey, inconsistent and even directly detrimental to usability and productivity. We used to plop down first graders and they would just figure it out. Now we have to have specific special training sessions to teach the kids how the use the computers (even the older kids if they are new to the district.) If we were not so deeply intrenched in the Apple we would have bailed years ago. Only upside is that we get about ten years of service out of the Macs. That's, obviously, a huge positive.

[Machtyn]

When asked on Twitter, my biggest UI gripe is that when Alt-Tabbing between apps, if one app has two or more windows open, you can't choose which of those windows to bring to the front. This is especially annoying if that particular desired window has a frame blocking it (such as a save & close dialog).

[MarioMastr]

This is probably my favourite apple video in a long time. Giving each gripe their due time, listening to the community on a wider scale, and mentioning some good points too. Just how it should be

[pauljmorton]

My gripes are the window snapping that the video started with, and one that this video doesn't contain: multi-window programs (such as multiple chrome windows) are a single item in the Mac version of the alt+tab box. So, alt+tabbing to that browser opens up every window of the browser at once, even when I actually want to open a specific one of them and keep the previously focused window still in view.

[zefalify]

I use both and it's nice to see these issues being mentioned. You can't mention flaws with Macs in other spaces as people always defend them blindly. Macs have so many issues and "don't just work"

Worst issue for me is no confirmation on changing display settings!

I changed my MBP to 100Hz on my external monitor which the MBP couldn't handle - no output (monitor, cable and dock can do this as another laptop handles it fine)...

Anyway, you can't change it back to settings that work as changing display setting in MacOS is final... and the display settings for given monitor ONLY appear on given monitor. The ONLY way to fix was to VNC (screen share) to change the settings back. Too way too long to t-shoot that one! Even apple support failed to fix it and only offered OS wipe as solution.

Another crappy issue is not being able disable sound devices AT ALL.

Also you can't output audio to multiple Bluetooth devices.

Apple have so many issues to fix.