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One of the things I still love about my 11" MacBook Air is the ease of using multiple desktops (spaces). Even with the tiny screen, I can quickly switch between apps and keep things organised with the trackpad gestures. Drag and drop is also more seamless in macOS compared to Windows.
I really want a modern 11" (small bezel) MacBook.
Of course I also want the 15" air so maybe I just like cool stuff. But I think there’s a place for a real ultraportable that’s not trying to kludge any of the awful keyboard cases on an iPad.
Windows also has multiple desktop “spaces”, but the touch side is way smoother on the mac.
Windows also has multiple desktop “spaces”, but the touch side is way smoother on the mac.
Anyone trying to batch rename files on Windows should check out PowerToys. It’s a first-party app that adds a lot of useful utilities. One of them is PowerRename, which lets you batch rename files using regex for precise search and replace. It also has the option to preview changes before applying them.
PowerToys is crucial for making Windows feel productive. Definitely get that installed.
I’m glad they mentioned rectangle, I found that app amazing. I have however upgraded to Amethyst for my app tiling though.
I’m a dev, so if I’m not doing .NET development. I found windows quite limiting. The new terminal stuff is nice but it’s native on a mac. I’m not sure about Docker because that really spins the fans on my 16 Intel Pro.
Also, things like Spaces and virtual desktops have been pretty sweet for a long time now. Windows, I can’t recall but it’s been a horribly broken PowerToy for so long. I can’t believe people were to recommending it. I think some people were telling me it’s native now, but like, it’s crazy how it wasn’t done properly years ago.
Docker is not great on MacOS on Apple Silicon. Docker engine uses A TON of memory, around 8 gigs even with no containers running, and you can run into compatibility issues. My office, where we use Docker extensively, upgraded everyone’s workstations to Apple silicon Macbook pros recently. We’ve been less than thrilled so far because turns out one of the images that we use as the base for many of our projects has trouble running on ARM chips. We fixed the problem, but still it was a whole thing. And there’s no guarantee another similar problem won’t pop up in the future either, unfortunately.
While it undeniably is a fantastic machine otherwise, I honestly think a higher end Dell or whatever that runs Linux would have been a better choice for the job. At least for the developer staff.
So your problem has nothing to do with ARM architecture or macOS itself, but on a lack of RAM.
Docker uses a lot of RAM on every platform, not only on macOS.
Looks like your company made a bad decision when choosing its hardware.
We use 16Gb M2 Pro to run docker instances running a copy of our infrastructure (ELK, CH, MariaDB, some maintenance batches, video encoding etc) with zero issue.
I want to go to Mac, but the cost of additional ram is horrendous, and it’s directly baked in to the soc. Through work I have a few very high end machines, and even the high end ECC ram I’ve put in those costs significantly less on a per mb basis than what’s going into the macs and cannot be upgraded if required.
The value proposition just isn’t there at the scale I’m hoping to play with. 64gb ram would be wonderful for a machine, but that’s pushing into high end mac territory which adds a couple of extra grand in local currency to the price tag vs an x86 build.
Docker most certainly does not use as much memory on Linux. Maybe on Windows, but not on Linux. It’s not an issue with the amount of RAM. I had the same amount of memory on my previous Linux machine and it never even started swapping, whereas the new Macs start swapping soon as my usual dev environment with all the containers and the software and whathaveyous is up. Fortunately the system handles it pretty well, so it’s not very noticeable.
I mean one of the main selling points of Docker is that it’s not supposed to use a lot of memory to begin with because it’s not a full-on VM. Otherwise I’d never been able to run it on all my puny first gen Raspberry Pis and tiny LXCs. But of course this applies to Linux mostly, because it’s designed to share the Linux kernel. Hence the need to expend extra memory and CPU for compatibility on Windows and Macos.
Do agree on the bad hardware decision bit though. Ours are 16GB M2 Pros too. The boss, who’s not the most tech-savvy person on the planet, chose those because that’s what he uses. One day we found out that we were getting new laptops and that they would be M2 Pros, and that was it. If I was in charge of the purchase, I would deck everyone out with high-end x64 laptops that have a usable number of IO ports. Would have been significantly cheaper too. Everyone is just alt-tabbing between their IDEs and terminals anyway, so they’d hardly miss the “macos experience”.
Docker for Mac has to run Linux in a virtual machine because macOS doesn’t natively support the containerisation APIs. That’s why it takes more memory and runs a bit slower than it does when running natively on a Linux machine.
I’ve found Magnet to be great for snapping windows about the screen.
Magnet is good but Rectangle is free
edit: oh rectangle was already mentioned, whoops
Docker uses a feature of the Linux kernel called kernel namespacing, so on macOS (and windows too iirc) it spins up a Linux VM which runs your Docker containers.
I moved from a desktop PC to a 2015 MBP and I’ve been extremely satisfied with it. It’s nothing short of a miracle how little issues I’ve had with it. It’s fast and everything just work. Was expensive as hell but worth every penny.
That being said my next laptop is probably not going to me a MacBook but the Framework laptop. Not only do I not like Apple as a company but I also want to support what Framework is doing and the only way to do that is by putting money where my mouth is.
I’m a pretty die-hard Mac guy but must admit I love what Framework is doing. That concept plus macOS and Apple Silicon would be the ultimate machine imo
Yes I’ll keep dreaming lol
I had to use mac for the last month because my Linux laptop broke… I want to die
I ran arch (btw) for years on my XPS. Just grabbed the new Air 15 and I don’t think I could go back. Considered trying Asahi, but I just don’t see a reason to.
I can do all of my Linux development on the M1 MBP using a Fedora VM through Lima. It works pretty darn well.
That’s how most users feel about Linux.
Except they never used it. I used mac for years…
I’m a SysAdmin for a large university and work with our loan services team quite often to get faculty and staff loaner machines for various reasons. They typically stock Win, Mac, and Linux laptops for users. The number of Windows and Mac users that complain about the Linux experience in our surveys is off the charts. The Macs get the highest praise, with Windows right behind it and Linux systems are typically trashed in the surveys. It’s reached a point that team plans to reimagine the Linux to systems Windows and investing in more Macs.
Linux is quite a spectrum, I wonder what Desktop Environments they use like KDE or Gnome.
They are mostly RHEL 8 and 9 builds and a few Ubuntu systems mixed in.
This article is ridiculous.
I much prefer MacOS over windows due to the spotlight search. The only thing I wish was added is a detailed audio interface. It’s frustrating having to go to a app to turn it up or down.
I use Mac for productivity but windows for gaming. I love spotlight on macOS. I recently discovered PowerToys for Windows (made by Microsoft), which includes a little add on that provides spotlight-like function on windows. You can even assign your own keyboard command to it, so I have main assigned to WIN+Space, just like Mac.
Yeah a volume mixer that isn’t natively built in is a very missed opportunity. I don’t want to have to pay extra money for software that most other OSes ship with lol
There are power toys for windows which add the spotlight search functionality as well as ear trumpet which is amazing for turning specific apps up and down by themselves just from a single menu
This could be a game changer, as i didn’t know these existed. Thank you!
Yeah ear trumpet I’ve been using for years but somehow never see anyone mention it. Maybe there’s a better tool that I don’t know about. But the spotlight function in power toys is amazing since when I switched to Windows from Mac I missed that a lot.
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this is one of those subjective things that highly depend on what your job actually entails
MacOS window management is unfortunately a total mess. To the point that I still feel more productive on a dirt-cheap linux laptop, vs. my expensive work-isssued M1 machine with great hardware
@gzrrt @tastypoobutt go for the iPad Air gen 5 with stage manager, works great!
Rectangle is the only way I find MacOS to be useful when it comes to window management.
It’s not better or worse, it’s just…different.
If you’ve been using Macs for years and you learn all of the Mac-specific shortcuts and window management tools, it’s fantastic.
If you’re trying to get it to act like Windows or your favorite Linux window manager, you’ll find it frustrating. However, if you absolutely insist then you should just install a third-party window snapping tool.
I feel the same about Windows not having virtual desktops for years. Windows users had other solutions, but coming from both macOS and Linux window managers, I thought it was ridiculous they had nothing built-in, so I always installed a third-party virtual desktop tool for Windows.
Yeah that’s a good way to put it, when I picked up my Air recently I was extremely frustrated by how it didn’t quite do things quite like Gnome 40x and how it missed some of the Windows things like Window Snapping but once you get used to the gestures it’s not so bad.
Also yeah virtual desktops are a god send on Gnome/MacOS it’s frustrating to not have them on Windows.
undefined> If you’re trying to get it to act like Windows or your favorite Linux window manager, you’ll find it frustrating. However, if you absolutely insist then you should just install a third-party window snapping tool.
I mean there are things in Gnome that I prefer but what I found useful was to start using the workspaces / virtual desktops more and using the three finger swipe up a lot on my Air. That helped when using multiple profiles on chrome a lot because using cmd + ` was just not it for me.
Auto snapping would be great but at least you can tile windows to left / right so that’s something and you can add keybinds for it
Virtual desktops (accessible with keyboard shortcuts) are a must IMO. I usually set up ten of them at a time- MacOS is actually mostly ok in that regard, expect for the fade animation you can never turn off, and the fact that as soon as you full-screen a window, the system insists on moving it to a totally new workspace (that can’t work with any your predefined shortcuts), instead of just full-screening it within the current desktop. What were they thinking?
Rectangle is the only way I find MacOS to be useful when it comes to window management.
This is how I first moved over as well. I got a job in a small office that used iMacs and over time I grew to love it. Windows 7 was my last edition of Windows.
There’s no one standalone reason why I think macOS is better than Windows for productivity. Instead of a single killer blow, it’s death by a series of smaller wounds.
The only real way of describing it. So many little niceties from decades of attentiveness, even if things have been backsliding in recent years.
Fantastic description! This is an issue that made it difficult to justify to my management to allow them to allow Macs, but thankfully Apple Silicon was big enough of a game changer to sway the decision
Exactly my case. Apple Silicon was a game changer in relation to performance against cost. Was able to replace my old top PC with a mac mini and improve my work on Adobe suite. Impressive. The ecosystem with my iPhone was also an amazing improvement. Airdrop is fantastic.
I haven’t used an apple silicon device yet but I understand they’re insane on battery and performance.
And airdrop is stupid useful in so many scenarios.
There’s a nice browser run and open source alternative to airdrop called Snapdrop. It uses web rtc to transmit data from device to device directly and can be self-hosted. I use it to transfer data between my Mac and my windows pc as well as my steam deck.
Thanks! I will check that out. Does it transfer from iPhone to a windows pc too?
Yes, every device I tested so far (apart from Netscape on windows 3.1)
That’s gonna be a no from me dawg, I fuck around exclusively in ‘scape. 🤣
Same here. I’m an Apple user since 2008 but had a bad period in my life where I needed to squeeze every € and couldn’t afford a new Mac so I had to build myself a Hackintosh, which was ok at the beginning but missing a lot of things (the special connectivity between devices like airdrop or continuity) but now I’m recovered and bought a Mac Mini M2 and it’s like coming fully home again. No more random panics or wasting time diagnosing errors, and it’s incredibly fast. The jump in performance jumping from a Haswell CPU to a M2 in mind blowing and a joy to appreciate every time I use it
This was the reason I switched to Mac for work related stuff, the performance is insane for most of the stuff I need it to do.
It just works. Something that can’t be said of how windows feels
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The last version of Windows I used on a computer I owned is 3.1
Every time I need to use Windows I’m so insanely lost and have next to no idea what I’m doing, like it’s seriously like I’m 80 yrs old and using a computer for the first time lol.
It doesn’t help that it feels like it’s vastly different in how the start menu works depending on which version I’m using.
I have a gaming PC aside from MacBook so keep my Windows muscle memory mostly up-to-date but what I find is I’m constantly in the back of my head going “Why it this like this? Why are you asking me this? Why do I have to do this?” while using it. It just throws up so many stupid barriers and forces you to do things you shouldn’t have to do.
That was what drew me to macOS around 15 years ago, that it got out of the way and just let me do whatever I sat down to do. It’s still true today.
Part of my lost feeling in windows is also definitely not knowing any keyboard short cuts ( if it even uses them ? ). I can use my Mac and barely touch the mouse.
