this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026

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Unpopular Opinion

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MacOS is the worst Operating System (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by masterspace@lemmy.ca to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 0 points 22 minutes ago (1 children)

Dude, everything in this you claim you can’t do on MacOS I already do on macOS just fine. You are saying it can’t be done because you don’t know how to do it.

Attack them for the enormous corner radius, Liquid Glass, spotlight changing the top result right before you click on it, etc. don’t bitch about problems that literally do not exist.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

How many windows do you have open during your typical work day? And how many of each application?

[–] spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

I fully agree. I feel like an old man yelling at clouds when I try to use an Apple anything. It might be a me problem, I'll admit, but I am so lost when trying to use someone else's iPhone. Not at all intuitive.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 3 points 3 hours ago

I have to use Mac for work and hate the window management. So much of it feels counterintuitive, especially anything with two instances running and switching.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 6 hours ago

macOS=bad
Mac OS X snow leopard= peak

[–] remon@ani.social 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Upvote for an unpolular opinion.

But it's pretty clear that most of your PEBCAK

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca -1 points 40 minutes ago (1 children)

Lmfao. I use all the dumbass window management features apple provides. Again, they're just objectively worse then the ones that windows provides.

Alt tabbing applications is nonsense when a single application like your browser will likely have multiple windows open, each of which is serving a completely different task.

Making the only way to quickly switch between windows, being switching between full screen windows is literal nonsense.

It fucking sucks at managing applications and their windows. It's designed for writing your novel in café where you have one Google doc open and that's it.

[–] remon@ani.social 2 points 37 minutes ago (1 children)

Alt tabbing applications is nonsense when a single application like your browser will likely have multiple windows open, each of which is serving a completely different task.

yeah, there is a different hotkey for switching between windows of the same application ...

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 0 points 31 minutes ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's not what I want because again, the application is not the context the user thinks about.

I want to switch between to the last used window, on that monitor, or pick between the different open windows, on that monitor.

On Windows, you literally just three finger swipe left and right. On MacOS you can use mission control to see impossible tiny thumbnails of full screen apps, and if you happen to be on a desktop you might be able to make out which open window is which, but if you're not or have too many open you just can't.

[–] remon@ani.social 0 points 26 minutes ago* (last edited 25 minutes ago) (1 children)

I want to switch between to the last used window, on that monitor, or pick between the different open windows, on that monitor.

And you can do just that. You just have to use a different hotkey depending on whether the last used windows are of the same application or not.

I guess having to use two different hotkeys can seem really overwhelming at first, but it actually makes it much faster to switch tab through many windows, because they are group by application instead of just being in one big flat list.

Again, you're just describing a skill issue.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 minutes ago* (last edited 7 minutes ago)

And you can do just that. You just have to use a different hotkey depending on whether the last used windows are of the same application or not.

Lmfao, "again, you can do that just as easily" followed by a series of keyboard shortcuts that do something else.

Again, this isn't complicated. I have:

Monitor 1:

Browser with Google meet
browser with ticket
Document editor
Spotify

Monitor 2:

Browser with output
Browser with output with admin user logged in
Email
Document for reference

I'm on monitor 1 and want to quickly switch to the other browser window, how do I do that?

One of your keyboard shortcuts will cycle between running applications, not useful if I'm on the same application already. The other will cycle through all browser windows across all monitors, cycling me through two other windows and changing stuff in every monitor just to get to the other browser window on the monitor I'm on.

The only way on MacOS to achieve the quick switching, per monitor, window behaviour, that Windows has, is to full screen them and use command + arrow left/right, and it's still worse then Windows' three finger swipe (/ windows key + arrow keys), since it's slower and gives you no preview of the windows unless you go to mission control.

[–] djmikeale@feddit.dk 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'd argue window management is a small part of the overall MacOS experience, and yes I agree that it sucks. However, with BetterTouchTool configured sensibly and raycast set up, I really like it.

A few things I really like about macos:

you can download an app and just drag it into your apps folder. No installation required. You can also just use something like brew with --cask Param then you don't need to even download the app first
You can modify most settings programmatically
CMD + , always opens settings in all apps
The os (or hardware??) Is very energy efficient, I don't have to worry about running out of battery
I like the menu bar is always at the top of the screen, and when using the Search function under "help", it shows me where to find the correct menu item so I don't have to search again next time I need to find it

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 36 minutes ago* (last edited 35 minutes ago) (1 children)

you can download an app and just drag it into your apps folder. No installation required. You can also just use something like brew with --cask Param then you don't need to even download the app first

Technically you can do that on Windows without even the application folder, if the app is written to be a portable app, then you can execute that file from anywhere. Admittedly not quite the same thing, but still possible.

You can modify most settings programmatically

I will say, it's easier to edit most setting programmatically on MacOS, if those settings exist in the first place. On Windows the programmatic way to edit some settings is truly ancient and arcane, but on the flip side, windows actually has settings for virtually everything. MacOS doesn't even have a way of letting you have your mouse and your trackpad scroll different directions.

[–] djmikeale@feddit.dk 1 points 17 minutes ago

That thing with reverse scrolling on mouse vs trackpad was bugging me so fucking much it's ridiculous. I had to download an app to handle this. So yes, completely agree on that point!

[–] oyo@lemmy.zip 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It was great up through MacOS 9.

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

peaked at 7.5 tho

[–] Limerance@piefed.social 3 points 10 hours ago

I‘m a long time Mac user and have hated the full screen function since they introduced it. The + button used to zoom/maximize the window according to the size of its content, and it still remained resizable. You can alt + click the + to get the old behavior. There’s also a setting, where you get the old behavior by double clicking the window title bar.

The whole window management has become messy. It was pretty simple and powerful, but then they added more and more features every year, making it harder to use and less useful.

The full screen mode is just bad.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (6 children)

I don’t even know how to limit my Mac to get most of those complaints. What did you do to it? In particular the only reason the taskbar doesn’t show all my running windows is because there are so many. There’s got to be the first 30 or so though.

Nor do I know how to avoid some of them on my Windows box.

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[–] ChetManly@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

I have to use one for work. I hate it and its been 3 years now. I'd rather use it than windows though.

[–] cuboc@lemmy.world 19 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Not only does it have terrible UX designed by the marketing department of Fischer Price, it treats you like a toddler as well.

[–] Matty_r@programming.dev 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

This is the thing that the Gnome devs are desperately trying to replicate.

[–] cuboc@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Agreed. I am not a big fan of Gnome either.

[–] LuigiMaoFrance@lemmy.ml 9 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

Concerning your window management troubles, have you tried Exposé/Mission Control at all? "Ctrl + Arrow Key Up/Down" will show all open windows, and all open windows from the currently used application respectively. On trackpads this is bound to a four finger swipe up/down.

To cycle between the active application's windows use "cmd + >" (add shift to cycle backwards), or alternatively you could right click an application's dock icon to view a list of all its open windows.

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[–] Engywuck@lemmy.zip 14 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It is. Period.

[–] IntrovertTurtle@lemmy.zip 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

For real. There's a huge fucking reason most computers in the world run windows and not macos (about 70% and 15% respectively). It's literally not an unpopular opinion, it's practically a hard fact.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 hours ago

There’s a huge fucking reason most computers in the world run windows and not macos

The fact that the cheapest Windows devices are like 100 euros and the cheapest MacOS devices like 1000 euros?

[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 14 points 23 hours ago (7 children)

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.)

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago

The UX is only serviceable to power users if you own the computer. If it's corporate you're stuck with the defaults, which are years behind Linux and windows.

Not to mention Cmd is in a terrible spot compared to Ctrl on windows. Needing to use your thumb for Cmd + C vs using you're pinky to do Ctrl + C is also terrible in my opinion.

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