It can't do the literal entire thing an operating system is supposed to do: manage applications and their resulting windows, in a sensible way.
I want to know what application is running.
Sure it's in the dock!
I want to find a specific application window.
Go fuck yourself right to hell.
Wait, the taskbar doesn't show the running windows, like it does on every other OS? It's at least discrete right?
It discretely takes up 1.5cm of the bottom of the screen at all times. It's so discrete it doesn't even need to use the corners.
Uh, alright, well that's all the system space you need right?
Yeah of course just that bottom inch or so .... And a top of screen system level menu bar to display what windows does in the bottom corners.
/sigh/ ok, fine, I just want to be able to full screen a window and still see what else is open.
Burn in hell and die.
I want to be able to easily switch left and right between open windows.
Go full screen or I will shoot you.
I want to move an open window into the other monitor.
You can't because you're full screen dumbass.
I want to let a window present a popup like they normally do.
You can't because youre full screen dumbass. Why would you be full screen?
I want an application like Slack to be able to popup and remove notifications when is appropriate.
Choose to have every single notification persists on screen until you manually remove it, or miss all your notifications.
Can't we trouble you for something in between, where we trust an application and let it manage them in a way that makes sense based on their context?
You can trouble me for something in between these cheeks, shit stain.
Like honestly, I fucking hate what an advertising and AI filled mess Windows is, but it can actually manage your windows and virtual desktops in a way that makes a modicum of sense.
It feels like a single Apple product manager decided that the way that they use their computer (a single application at a time, no windows to manage) is the only way anyone does, so who cares if we implement a nonsensical full screen paradigm, it makes one tiny niche edge case slightly simpler.
Eh, I don’t know. Kinda feels like it’s more of a reflection on your ability to learn.
Does macOS need some windowing improvements? Undoubtedly. But my 12 year old kid and my senior citizen mom can use it just fine, I’m sure you can too.
macOS has the unique ability to be good for newbies and power users (thanks to its unix underpinnings,) but falls short for people who have just enough computer knowledge to be dangerous (such as yourself.)
Unix underpinnings make it comfortable for developer work, but that does not necessarily make it good for power users.
MacOs is pretty locked down and basic which makes it a reasonable choice for someone that just needs a computer, but if you're the kinda person who wants to tinker with and change a bunch of stuff to make your computer work for you (i.e. a power user) you're gonna meet resistance.
macOS has tons of power user features built in. Automator, Service Menu, Shortcuts, Folder Actions, intelligent folders, and much more! Adding commands to the contextmenu, that then work across apps is super cool and easy to do for example.
In any app, I can select text and then use the service menu or context menu to run my own text transformation scripts (title case, replace, etc.). Only using built-in tools!
Also you can add or change keyboard shortcuts for every app, even if it doesn’t have them for some menu items. Do you want to not accidentally quit Firefox with cmd + q ? Change it to cmd + alt + q in System Settings.