Features you wish macOS had?

[Amethyst1]

So, in all the years I've been using Mac OS X/OS X/macOS, there are a couple of features I'd like to see (re-)added which, annoyingly, have not (yet) been implemented or have been removed but are available on other operating systems *cough, cough*. These are, in no particular order:

• Rename macOS back to Mac OS X. (OK, OK, this feature isn't available on other OSes but you get the point.)
• Make all "hard-coded" font types and sizes adjustable. Menu bar, I'm looking at you!
• Support themes to allow giving the UI a comprehensive new look.
• Combine several monitors into one big virtual monitor à la AMD Eyefinity for e.g. the IBM Bertha and other tiled displays.
• Add full support for MST so DisplayPort/USB-C monitors can be daisy-chained.
• Handle non-integer UI scaling in a more flexible way.
• Add UI scaling beyond 200% for >220ppi monitors.
• Provide a powerful package manager for handling (un-)installation of applications.
• Provide a straightforward way to create a bootable macOS USB installer without having to resort to createinstallmedia on another Mac.
• Allow writing to NTFS partitions.
• Return to the 1 "KB" == 1024 bytes etc. convention.
• Improve Disk Utility's UI.
• Readd support for 32-bit applications.
• Enable Rosetta 2 to run PowerPC applications on ARM Macs.

So, what are the features you would like to see (re-)added?

 

[eyoungren]

Popup windows and minimize in place. Both are OS9 features I've been waiting for Apple to bring back since 2002. We got spring-loaded folders back and labels back, but not those two features.

Two of the few things about OS9 I miss. Popup windows made it very easy to keep folders open without having them take up all your screen space while still being able to move files around. Minimize in place is only possible with third party apps such as Deskovery.

EDIT: Oh, and transparent windows with the ability to adjust the alpha level would be nice. The ability to see your desktop through your browser window or Finder windows. There's an old browser that does this but it's circa 2002-2003 tech.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Themes
Reliable networking
Proper scaling support for 100-200PPI displays
Not have opening applications override the current application, if you switched after launching the former.
More colors in Finder

 

[joevt]

I used minimize in place all the time in OS 9. It's better than hiding the window, since the windows keep their position to make them easier to find.

Is Popup windows where you can drag a window to the bottom of the screen and it appears as a tab? I put Recent Applications / Servers / Documents down there. I could also have a popup window of other aliases. Now you can put these in the dock or as aliases on the desktop.

For graphics:
- Add the ability to set: bpc (down to 6bpc), DSC target bpp (between 6bpp and 63bpp), encoding (YCbCr/RGB), chroma sub sampling to 4:4:4/4:2:2/4:2:0, colorimetry, and dynamicrange (HDR/SDR), scaled resolution base.
- Allow changing the destination rectangle for scaled modes to have non-square pixels and arbitrary borders. For example, if a GPU only supports outputting width 4096 but a 5K display is connected, then the best result would be a scaled 5120x2880 mode that outputs to 4096x2880 so that the display will scale that up to 5120x2880. That way, there is no loss in vertical resolution and you get the most info from the horizontal pixels. The usual result would scale 5K to 3840x2160 or 4096x2304 which the display would scale up to 5K so you loose info horizontally and vertically.
- Also, report those settings to the user (including output resolution) so that they don't think they're getting 5K when they're actually getting only 4K.
- Add custom timings for M1 Macs.
- Add support for arbitrarily tiled displays. Most displays have enough info in the EDIDs to make this work. Some displays don't, so a workaround needs to exist.
- Thunderbolt target display mode (like what iMacs had) for modern Macs - maybe this can work for displays that are connected via Thunderbolt. This would take the place of a Thunderbolt KVM, at least for the display part.

 

[eyoungren]

Themes

I'd prefer a darker system Dark theme. It's dark, but in the way that dark chocolate is dark. Not black - like I want it. I still have to use XtraFinder to get that.

 

[rampancy]

I would love for OS X to have a fully updated implementation of OpenGL, OpenAL and Vulkan. Oh, and updated drivers for the GMA 950 and the GMA X3100.

 

[eyoungren]

I used minimize in place all the time in OS 9. It's better than hiding the window, since the windows keep their position to make them easier to find.

Yeah, sometimes you just need to momentarily get to something underneath a Finder window. Minimize in place was perfect for that. Now, you have to minimize to the dock and then go find the window in the dock when you're done. I know there's a keyboard shortcut to return a minimized window but I haven't bothered to learn it because it's easier just to hide the app for a moment.

This is peak kludgy Apple and they still haven't fixed it.

Is Popup windows where you can drag a window to the bottom of the screen and it appears as a tab? I put Recent Applications / Servers / Documents down there. I could also have a popup window of other aliases. Now you can put these in the dock or as aliases on the desktop.

Yes, that's popup windows. Easier to have what you suggest in a popup window than scattered across your desktop. And I'm lazy, I'm going to right click and 'Open With' a file, not drag it down to an alias in the dock. Or I'll use the App switcher to drag and drop a file on the open app icon I want to open the file in. Quicksilver gives you alternatives too.

 

[Project Alice]

So, in all the years I've been using Mac OS X/OS X/macOS, there are a couple of features I'd like to see (re-)added which, annoyingly, have not (yet) been implemented or have been removed but are available on other operating systems *cough, cough*. These are, in no particular order:

• Rename macOS back to Mac OS X. (OK, OK, this feature isn't available on other OSes but you get the point.)
• Make all "hard-coded" font types and sizes adjustable. Menu bar, I'm looking at you!
• Support themes to allow giving the UI a comprehensive new look.
• Combine several monitors into one big virtual monitor à la AMD Eyefinity for e.g. the IBM Bertha and other tiled displays.
• Add full support for MST so DisplayPort/USB-C monitors can be daisy-chained.
• Handle non-integer UI scaling in a more flexible way.
• Add UI scaling beyond 200% for >220ppi monitors.
• Provide a powerful package manager for handling (un-)installation of applications.
• Provide a straightforward way to create a bootable macOS USB installer without having to resort to createinstallmedia on another Mac.
• Allow writing to NTFS partitions.
• Return to the 1 "KB" == 1024 bytes etc. convention.
• Improve Disk Utility's UI.
• Readd support for 32-bit applications.
• Enable Rosetta 2 to run PowerPC applications on ARM Macs.

As much as I like most of these I don’t foresee anything happening.

At least there are work arounds for a few.
Macports and homebrew.
3rd party NTFS drivers
Theming has always been one of my favorite things to do, especially coming from Windows. I was pleasently surpised when I figured out OS 9 supported it. It never bothered me much is Mac OS X though because I loved Aqua so much (especially Tiger’s). It wasn’t until 10.10 I started not liking it, and I didn’t have an Intel Mac back then so I didn’t care.
I definitely feel like dark mode helps, and being able to change menu colors in Mojave and up (another OS 9 feature). This Makes ”macOS” look better than Windows 10+. But Vista/7 and pre flat OS X was definitely their peak design IMO.

 

[AlumaMac]

The ability for the Finder to retain window focus. Right now, at least in Catalina, if I CMD+Tab out of the finder to another Space and then back the desktop is selected vs the previously selected window. Really annoying

 

[Project Alice]

Reliable networking

In what way is networking unreliable for you? Networking is pretty much flawless for me which is one of the main reasons I switched from Windows back when.

I‘m pretty sure Apple used FreeBSD’s networking stack which is known as probably the best ever.

 

[Amethyst1]

As much as I like most of these I don’t foresee anything happening. […]

Neither do I. I was just, like, brainstorming.

 

[Amethyst1]

Oh, and updated drivers for the GMA 950 and the GMA X3100.

The GMA 900 too. Let’s give the few (?) remaining DTKs some love

 

[eyoungren]

In what way is networking unreliable for you? Networking is pretty much flawless for me which is one of the main reasons I switched from Windows back when.

I‘m pretty sure Apple used FreeBSD’s networking stack which is known as probably the best ever.

I would argue that in later versions (post Mavericks) it became 'flawless'. But that's only because Apple finally switched to the industry standard SMB and not their own implementation of Samba.

Leopard was better than Tiger in networking and Snow Leopard is better than Leopard. That's all great if you're only dealing with Macs on your network and stick to the AFP protocol. But before El Cap if you got SMB involved things could get unreliable. That's why AdmitMac and DAVE were products that people bought and why Thursby software remained a viable business.

 

[orionquest]

Bring back labels!!!!

Tags I get is more universal and meta like, but not as visually noticeable as labels was.

Networking. It's always been good but also a little flaky. Especially with volumes, mount points, and disconnecting them.
This is one of those area's where Apple just has ignored the issues year after year.

 

[eyoungren]

Bring back labels!!!!

Tags I get is more universal and meta like, but not as visually noticeable as labels was.

Networking. It's always been good but also a little flaky. Especially with volumes, mount points, and disconnecting them.
This is one of those area's where Apple just has ignored the issues year after year.

This is one of the reasons I still use XtraFinder. It'll show you labels. You can use it with all the other features off except this one.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

MacOS can’t even get auto system theme changing (light/dark) correct or a Magic Trackpad that doesn’t have lag on a brand new machine.

There’s so much basic stuff to fix it’s unreal.

 

[salamanderjuice]

The ability to control the volume of my speakers over HDMI (everybody else let's me do this).
The ability to have a trackpad scroll naturally and a mouse scroll wheel "unnaturally".
A good built-in package manager.
A way to make Finder never be allowed to have an item in icon view be horizontally offscreen ever.
Better window snapping built in.
A menu bar item to enable viewing hidden files.
No more .DS_store litter.

P.S Give me back my Fruit menu haxie.

 

[AlixSPQR]

I would like macOS to be non root with a shallow GUI, no Terminal obviously, and the Mac App Store the only way to install apps, just like iOS. Everybody loves iOS so this seems to be the way to go.

 

[Janichsan]

• Add UI scaling beyond 200% for >220ppi monitors.

Yes. Apple might have pioneered HiDPI technologies, but they have been left behind even by Windows by now.

• Provide a powerful package manager for handling (un-)installation of applications.

I might see some benefits for uninstallation, but why for installation? The vast majority of macOS applications are tightly packaged, self-contained, and can easily be installed by drag-and-drop and uninstalled by simply trashing them.

Some (optional) automatic clean-up of left-over preferences files and such would be nice, though.

• Allow writing to NTFS partitions.

Yes.

• Return to the 1 "KB" == 1024 bytes etc. convention.

What would be the benefit? The IEC industrial standard and recommendation is using the SI prefixes, i.e. 1 kB = 1000 byte. All sizes of mass storage are given in SI units and many other modern Linux distributions use this standard.

• Improve Disk Utility's UI.

I'd go further: trash the new Disk Utility, restore/modernise the old one.

• Readd support for 32-bit applications.

Won't happen.

• Enable Rosetta 2 to run PowerPC applications on ARM Macs.

Why?? Every PPC only application is massively outdated by now and many probably wouldn't even be compatible with recent API changes in macOS.

What I would like to see is Apple massively reworking the UI: the current one is a complete mess of bad visibilty and readability, visual imbalance, and design incongruencies.

 

[Doq]

I just want to be able to maximize the active window to the screen without holding a damn key down. No I don't want to full screen it to a new space. That's not what this button is meant for.

 

[Janichsan]

Why is this thread in the "PowerPC Macs" forums anyway? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense in "macOS"?

 

[TheShortTimer]

Here's mine:

• Full support for Blu-ray. Yes, it's not going to happen but I still wish that it was a full blown feature. The fact that Apple deliberately hobbled this because they wanted to push their customers into purchasing HD content from iTunes instead is disgraceful. There was room for both models.
• Better support for game controllers. Having to check whether these devices are macOS compatible before I buy them or needing to track down freeware drivers produced by volunteers is jarring. It's a head scratcher that Apple hasn't promoted the Mac as a viable gaming platform in many years and has shown no interest in undertaking the most simplest of actions to provide the functionality at a basic level for to this happen.
• VR headset compatibility. As above, Apple's failure in courting the industry to support macOS in this respect is disappointing. At present the HTC Vive is the only macOS compatible VR headset.
• Native support for Internet access via USB tethering on Android smartphones. Again, this is a functionality that volunteers have provided for macOS with freeware drivers. That Apple hasn't reached out to the Open Handset Alliance to include drivers as standard is dismaying. You can't even access files on your phone via USB without downloading a driver first - and Google's AFT software isn't particularly great. It almost makes me suspect that Apple doesn't want to make things easy for people who choose not to purchase an iPhone.
• Wider support in QuickTime for file formats. It can't play open, non-proprietary stuff like MKV's. Not without help from Perian anyway and that's been discontinued. I'm aware that VLC is available but there are situations where QT has advantages.

 

[eyoungren]

A menu bar item to enable viewing hidden files.

CMD+SHIFT+.

 

[Janichsan]

• Better support for game controllers. Having to check whether these devices are macOS compatible before I buy them or needing to track down freeware drivers produced by volunteers is jarring. It's a head scratcher that Apple hasn't promoted the Mac as a viable gaming platform in many years and has shown no interest in undertaking the most simplest of actions to provide the functionality at a basic level for to this happen.

Eh? MacOS has almost better controller support than Windows: every current controller of all major console manufacturers (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) is supported out of the box and wirelessly.

 

[Amethyst1]

What would be the benefit? The IEC industrial standard and recommendation is using the SI prefixes, i.e. 1 kB = 1000 byte. All sizes of mass storage are given in SI units and many other modern Linux distributions use this standard.

For me: consistency.

macOS used the 1 "kilo"byte == 1024 bytes way but Snow Leopard switched to the "correct" way. I often switch between older and newer versions of macOS and having Finder report the exact same file with two different sizes is annoying.

The actual problem is, of course, that the "incorrect" way was allowed to see widespread use in the first place, leading to some people being shocked that their spanking new one-terabyte drive showed up as being only 931 "giga"byte in the OS.

You can't even access files on your phone via USB without downloading a driver first

...which is why I keep the device I store my audiobooks on on Android 4.1.2: it exposes the microSD card as a standard mass storage device so I don't need any driver... with the sideeffect of anything running on the phone needing to deal with the card being yanked from its grasp while the USB connection is alive. You just can’t hsve everything I guess