New Mac OS user - Complaints?

[xzebra]

Just bought my first iMac and am super excited to use it, however looking throughout the threads I see a lot of complaints.

Coming from Windows, I had my own complaints, so I am asking those around, or might have been around the iMac for awhile, how do you really feel? How do those that switched from PC to Mac feel and did I make the correct move? Reason I am asking is because I know (1) negative takes away (5-10) positive comments.
My new gig will be mostly used for Lightroom work, with a little PS. The rest is just basic.

Processor
3.7GHz 6‑core 9th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz

Memory
8GB (two 4GB) of 2666MHz DDR4 memory; four SO-DIMM slots, user accessible

Storage
512GB SSD storage1

Graphics
Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory

 

[SecuritySteve]

Overall, as macOS veteran, here are my favorite parts of the OS and Macs in general, and least favorite parts.

Favorites:

The UI is much more seamless than Windows and less clunky than those used in Linux.

The development tools are amazing, and while less diverse than Visual Studio on Windows, they offer a great environment to do development with Xcode.

The system is far more stable than Windows. Even Windows 10 machines have so many configurations that after you adhere to your company policy by installing product X, that product ends up making your system unstable and hardly usable. macOS is already locked down enough that you don't need third party products to manage your systems, but they are there if you do still need them.

Seamless integration with iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The ecosystem is really nice to be in. Unlike Android / Windows, these components are made to go together, and enhance the experience of each other. You can shop around for the best product in every category, but if you piecemeal anything your overall experience isn't as good as if you were in this ecosystem.

Competitive pricing with other OEMs. Yes, you can build the same components in a Mac into a DIY PC tower for cheaper, but that's discounting the cost of labor to build that system. If you compare the prices of Macs to other OEMs such as DELL, the prices are actually really competitive.

Anything UNIX based is a plus to me.

Least Favorites:

Gaming experiences are less than optimal. This as much the fault of Apple as it is the fault of developers not optimizing their games for Metal. Apple was late to the game, when they were courted to be the premier gaming system by Bungie and Id. Only Steve Jobs can be faulted for not working with Carmack and ensuring Bungie wasn't bought by Microsoft.

Generally speaking, you can't get a tower unless you need server grade components, or don't need a GPU. Luckily my needs are falling into that category now, but for a while I only wanted an iMac grade processor but a Mac Pro grade GPU. Being stuck in that awkward zone sucks, and makes Macs less accessible price wise.

There is a lack of support for enterprise software integration on macOS. When you do find it, it usually is a suboptimal experience unless it happens to be software for the Linux world that was ported to macOS, which tends to be great.

 

[xzebra]

Overall, as macOS veteran, here are my favorite parts of the OS and Macs in general, and least favorite parts.

Favorites:

The UI is much more seamless than Windows and less clunky than those used in Linux.

The development tools are amazing, and while less diverse than Visual Studio on Windows, they offer a great environment to do development with Xcode.

The system is far more stable than Windows. Even Windows 10 machines have so many configurations that after you adhere to your company policy by installing product X, that product ends up making your system unstable and hardly usable. macOS is already locked down enough that you don't need third party products to manage your systems, but they are there if you do still need them.

Seamless integration with iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The ecosystem is really nice to be in. Unlike Android / Windows, these components are made to go together, and enhance the experience of each other. You can shop around for the best product in every category, but if you piecemeal anything your overall experience isn't as good as if you were in this ecosystem.

Competitive pricing with other OEMs. Yes, you can build the same components in a Mac into a DIY PC tower for cheaper, but that's discounting the cost of labor to build that system. If you compare the prices of Macs to other OEMs such as DELL, the prices are actually really competitive.

Anything UNIX based is a plus to me.

Least Favorites:

Gaming experiences are less than optimal. This as much the fault of Apple as it is the fault of developers not optimizing their games for Metal. Apple was late to the game, when they were courted to be the premier gaming system by Bungie and Id. Only Steve Jobs can be faulted for not working with Carmack and ensuring Bungie wasn't bought by Microsoft.

Generally speaking, you can't get a tower unless you need server grade components, or don't need a GPU. Luckily my needs are falling into that category now, but for a while I only wanted an iMac grade processor but a Mac Pro grade GPU. Being stuck in that awkward zone sucks, and makes Macs less accessible price wise.

There is a lack of support for enterprise software integration on macOS. When you do find it, it usually is a suboptimal experience unless it happens to be software for the Linux world that was ported to macOS, which tends to be great.

SecuritySteve - Thank you for your response. This is a good amount of detail, which helps confirm my decision. I certainly hope the rest of the Mac group is as supportive and helpful as you have been.

No gaming needs here so I am perfectly ok.

I have been PC person for years and bounced off the idea of building a new PC, but I also needed a new monitor. I agree I could build a better machine for the money, however - As I stated to my peers, the PC tries to handle all of joe-blow components, while mac has a tight grip on those few they use and tweak only for those items. I believe this gives a much higher stability and better user experience. I use Windows 10 at work and hate it compared to using the macOS. Hate it....Feels rather chunky.

Do you have any specific tips/suggestions?

 

[SecuritySteve]

SecuritySteve - Thank you for your response. This is a good amount of detail, which helps confirm my decision. I certainly hope the rest of the Mac group is as supportive and helpful as you have been.

No gaming needs here so I am perfectly ok.

I have been PC person for years and bounced off the idea of building a new PC, but I also needed a new monitor. I agree I could build a better machine for the money, however - As I stated to my peers, the PC tries to handle all of joe-blow components, while mac has a tight grip on those few they use and tweak only for those items. I believe this gives a much higher stability and better user experience. I use Windows 10 at work and hate it compared to using the macOS. Hate it....Feels rather chunky.

Do you have any specific tips/suggestions?

The biggest tip I can give you is with the keyboard. Due to the historical origin of the mac, they have a different keyboard layout than Windows / Linux. Stick with the keyboard that shipped with your mac, and get a different (hopefully more ergonomic) mouse. I would recommend Logitech mice as they tend to have many flavors that can suit your needs.

Apple's mice are the only product I think are horribly designed. The touch interface on the mouse is cool, but my hand cramps after a few hours of usage.

Other than those two peripheral suggestions, there are a few things I do on my macs that I think should be fairly standard. The first thing I do is make Macintosh HD (the standard disk of the system) a desktop icon, and make the Library folder visible in the home directory. Many applications store files in the Library folder that at some point or another, I end up wanting to look at for some reason.

To do this, go to your home directory (which looks like a little house in Finder) and right click on an open area in the file list. Click on Show View Options, and then make sure Show Library Folder is checked.

For example, if you were browsing my home directory, you would right click (option click) below the Xcode Projects folder here, and then the View Options should look like that.

You might also be benefitted by knowing a couple handy shortcuts. If you navigate your system as much as I do, clicking on your desktop or a finder window and then pressing Shift-Command-G allows you to navigate to any path. This is similar to Window's File Explorer top bar when you were typing specific paths into it.

Another handy shortcut is Command-K which connects to any network device. For example if you wanted to connect to a Windows file share over SMB, you would type smb://share/path/here

Screenshot shortcuts are also useful. Command-Shift-3 and Command-Shift-5 are the ones I used the most. 3 screenshots your whole screen, 5 screenshots an area you select.

Hope this helps your transition.

 

[xzebra]

The biggest tip I can give you is with the keyboard. Due to the historical origin of the mac, they have a different keyboard layout than Windows / Linux. Stick with the keyboard that shipped with your mac, and get a different (hopefully more ergonomic) mouse. I would recommend Logitech mice as they tend to have many flavors that can suit your needs.

Apple's mice are the only product I think are horribly designed. The touch interface on the mouse is cool, but my hand cramps after a few hours of usage.

Other than those two peripheral suggestions, there are a few things I do on my macs that I think should be fairly standard. The first thing I do is make Macintosh HD (the standard disk of the system) a desktop icon, and make the Library folder visible in the home directory. Many applications store files in the Library folder that at some point or another, I end up wanting to look at for some reason.

To do this, go to your home directory (which looks like a little house in Finder) and right click on an open area in the file list. Click on Show View Options, and then make sure Show Library Folder is checked.

For example, if you were browsing my home directory, you would right click (option click) below the Xcode Projects folder here, and then the View Options should look like that.
View attachment 849475

You might also be benefitted by knowing a couple handy shortcuts. If you navigate your system as much as I do, clicking on your desktop or a finder window and then pressing Shift-Command-G allows you to navigate to any path. This is similar to Window's File Explorer top bar when you were typing specific paths into it.

Another handy shortcut is Command-K which connects to any network device. For example if you wanted to connect to a Windows file share over SMB, you would type smb://share/path/here

Screenshot shortcuts are also useful. Command-Shift-3 and Command-Shift-5 are the ones I used the most. 3 screenshots your whole screen, 5 screenshots an area you select.

Hope this helps your transition.

Thanks again - Really appreciate all of your help.

 

[Ledgem]

I switched from Windows to Mac a little over ten years ago after a family member gave me their laptop. I admit that before then I was among the group sneering at Mac users, thinking that Macs were just overpriced junk purchased by brainwashed cultists or people trying to look fashionable. Shortly after getting the system I virtualized Windows heavily, probably spending 99% of my time on the Windows side during that first week, while I gradually got used to the Mac side and found programs to do what I needed. I'd say that the Mac side just felt quieter; I wasn't having things pop up every other moment (mostly attributable to my security software on the Windows side). I hid the Dock, and somehow the bar at the top for the Mac just felt less intrusive than the Start bar. It felt really nice. I've since gotten used to it and don't think much of it, but I'm still here on the Mac side, and I've since purchased four or five other Mac systems. I'm also all-in with the Apple ecosystem, owning a product from almost each product category that they make.

I still use Windows on occasion. Enough things have moved around that I no longer know Windows like the back of my hand, and sometimes need to hunt to find things (usually control panel settings). I've forgotten many of the keyboard and navigation shortcuts that I used to know, and don't know of any equivalents methods of navigation on the Mac... but that's fine. While I could probably go back to Windows full-time if I had to, losing the ecosystem support would hurt. Being able to respond to text messages from my computer, seamlessly send things between my computer and other devices with Airdrop, and even have things like copying and pasting synchronized across my devices, are really nice features. They don't make headlines, but they all add up to make life feel a lot simpler.

The only complaint I really have is that Apple doesn't make a 100% perfect system that fits my desires. I bought an iMac some years ago because a laptop that remained on my desk 99% of the time was a waste, yet the Mac mini was underpowered for what I wanted to do. The new Mac mini fits my needs better, but all of the expansions need to be done through Thunderbolt 3 peripherals. That's more expensive (and still more limiting) compared with if Apple would just give us that mini-tower design and let us open the case. I can certainly appreciate that a lot of the simplicity that we have on the Mac side comes from keeping users out - I still haven't forgotten how I'd spend a full weekend fixing something that I broke with my computer on the Windows side, and definitely appreciate not having to spend time like that on maintenance - but being able to upgrade things piecemeal and tinker here and there is something that I do miss from the Windows days. Not enough to go back, of course, and I'd imagine I'm in the minority of users who would do something like that, but there's my little bit of discontent.

 

[mikehalloran]

Apple's mice are the only product I think are horribly designed

I can’t stand them.

The Magic Trackpad 2, on the other hand... I can’t say enough and don’t know how I lived without it. If you shop around, you can get it for less than Apple’s $149 list price.


My wife is a big fan of the Logitech Mouse. I’d rather use that than the Apple.

 

[kohlson]

Many of the keyboard shortcuts that work on Win work on MacOS:
- Cmd+Tab shifts between open apps
- Cmd+Tilde shifts between open windows in an app
- The usual cut/copy/paste: cmd-X-C-V
- There is a persistent belief that Macs are not equipped with "right click." In default config - true. I think this is a way to get people to understand System Preferences. Set right-click in Mouse. The larger issue here is that Preferences = Control Panels. There are System Preferences, and every app has Preferences, too. Finder is an app, so there are Finder Preferences.
- Virtually any mouse or keyboard works. For years I used a Mac keyboard with a Windows PC (work). And I've used perhaps a dozen different mice with Macs. I am a huge fan of Magic Mice, but to each his own.
- MacRumors is a great resource. You may get the occasional push back from someone on searching before asking - but that's about the worst of it.

 

[tyc0746]

Another thing I find useful on the Mac over Windows (I use both professionally) is that diacritics are easy to access through the Mac keyboard than a standard Windows one.

So to get the umlaut/diaeresis over letters (e.g. the diaeresis/umlaut over äëïöü) then you just press [opt-u] and then the letter you want to add it to, so [opt-u u] would get ü, [opt-u a] would get ä; similarly to add a grave [opt-‘ u] would give you ù, to add an acute [alt-a u] would give you ú, to add a circumflex [alt-i u] would give you û, to add a tilde [opt-n a] would give you ã, etc.

On Windows you’d have to remember a different ascii/Unicode number for each of them.

 

[ginhb]

I'm another user who really likes the Magic Trackpad II. But I use it with a mouse also, one on each side of the keyboard. That works perfectly for me.

The thing that bugged me the most about MacOS was the lack of access at the file level when connecting my iPhone. And by that I mean simply dragging videos, photos and MP3 files from my iPhone onto the computer's hard drive. Once you realize it's just a quick import and then export, it's not that bad. But it bugged me at first. I don't like to keep photos & videos in the Mac Photos app, I prefer to just set up some folders and keep them in there. And back them up with a quick drag & drop to the external SSD.

I use a card reader with my cameras and drone so that does allow me to just drag & drop the files. I was so used to that in Windows over the years. But beyond those things I really enjoy using my 27" iMac. And that's after being a Windows user at work and home for the past 25 years or so.

 

[kohlson]

just drag & drop the files.

Image Capture seems to be some sort of orphan app from Apple that does exactly this. And of course, AirDrop is pretty easy, though it drops everything in Downloads so you'd have to move it again if you wanted.