The way macOS does window management is internally consistent, and for those of us who have used it for decades, it works perfectly well. Just because Windows chose to do it a different way, and Linux copied Windows because it had a monopoly on the desktop, doesn't mean what macOS is doing is bad.
If you don't like it, you don't have to use macOS. (Or, you can install the exact utilities various people are mentioning to force macOS to act like Windows.)
No, no, and no. The way macOS handles split screen is objectively bad, that's not an opinion. It's clunky, slow, not very discoverable, not intuitive, and is painful to use because it requires using the fullscreen mode. Windows does it a certain way and it's great and natural. Linux desktop environment copied it not because it's Windows, but because it's good. Why is there no desktop environment copying macOS window handling if it's just as good? Because it's not, it sucks.
Some things on macOS are just different, like having the red/green/yellow button on the left instead of on the right on Windows. Neither is objectively good or bad, just different.
But that I cannot take a window, drag and drop it to the side to make it take half the screen size is bad. It's an obvious feature nowadays and macOS should handle it natively. They don't even have to remove the way they do it currently, because it has its use (I have a permanently open full screen/split screen with my email client and Slack, it's great for that), just add a new mechanism that works better for quick split screen.
Same with command+tab, it sucks that it doesn't work with open windows (eg if I have 2 open Firefox windows, only 1 will be displayed). It used to work like that so I'm ok with macOS keeping it as a default, but WHY don't they add a setting to do what people expect? Or why don't they add option+tab as a shortcut with this behaviour?
I've used macOS, Windows, and various Linux DEs (KDE, XFCE, Gnome) extensively in my life and all of them have good and bad concepts. This is not a blind spot issue, just that some UI concepts work better than other, and the correct thing to do is to adapt.
FWIW, you can do a split-window layout without fullscreen by holding Option while hovering over the green traffic light.
Personally I use this (or even resize or rearrange windows) very rarely though. Most of the time if I need two documents side by side it’s in an IDE that supports panes.
As for command-tab, it’s deeper than just one command. The macOS windowing model is just fundamentally different with how windows are not equal to processes. A toggle would need to change the windowing model of the OS to work properly.
I put two windows next to each other all the time. It's perfectly discoverable. I just drag one window on the right....
...then I drag the other window on the left.
Boom. Done. No fancy features required.
See, you're coming from a basic assumption that you will do most of your work with windows full-screened. That's not how classic macOS worked, that's not how Mac OS X worked for many years, and that's not how many of us have our workflows. That's how Windows worked back in the '90s, and the paradigm remained even though screens have gotten much, much bigger since then.
What you're demanding is that all OSes "adapt" to become a UI monoculture. So that the only way any of us can do things is the way you think is "objectively better", even though the evidence you have for that is "well, Windows does it this way, and Linux copied them, and I'm so used to it I can't imagine doing things any other way, so it must be best!"
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This is your opinion.
The way macOS does window management is internally consistent, and for those of us who have used it for decades, it works perfectly well. Just because Windows chose to do it a different way, and Linux copied Windows because it had a monopoly on the desktop, doesn't mean what macOS is doing is bad.
If you don't like it, you don't have to use macOS. (Or, you can install the exact utilities various people are mentioning to force macOS to act like Windows.)
alt+tab on gnome use that same concept of osx!
but i actually use a tiling WM the way OSX intended the user to its own desktp, with a bunch of virtual desktop and full screen app
No, no, and no. The way macOS handles split screen is objectively bad, that's not an opinion. It's clunky, slow, not very discoverable, not intuitive, and is painful to use because it requires using the fullscreen mode. Windows does it a certain way and it's great and natural. Linux desktop environment copied it not because it's Windows, but because it's good. Why is there no desktop environment copying macOS window handling if it's just as good? Because it's not, it sucks.
Some things on macOS are just different, like having the red/green/yellow button on the left instead of on the right on Windows. Neither is objectively good or bad, just different.
But that I cannot take a window, drag and drop it to the side to make it take half the screen size is bad. It's an obvious feature nowadays and macOS should handle it natively. They don't even have to remove the way they do it currently, because it has its use (I have a permanently open full screen/split screen with my email client and Slack, it's great for that), just add a new mechanism that works better for quick split screen.
Same with command+tab, it sucks that it doesn't work with open windows (eg if I have 2 open Firefox windows, only 1 will be displayed). It used to work like that so I'm ok with macOS keeping it as a default, but WHY don't they add a setting to do what people expect? Or why don't they add option+tab as a shortcut with this behaviour?
I've used macOS, Windows, and various Linux DEs (KDE, XFCE, Gnome) extensively in my life and all of them have good and bad concepts. This is not a blind spot issue, just that some UI concepts work better than other, and the correct thing to do is to adapt.
FWIW, you can do a split-window layout without fullscreen by holding Option while hovering over the green traffic light.
Personally I use this (or even resize or rearrange windows) very rarely though. Most of the time if I need two documents side by side it’s in an IDE that supports panes.
As for command-tab, it’s deeper than just one command. The macOS windowing model is just fundamentally different with how windows are not equal to processes. A toggle would need to change the windowing model of the OS to work properly.
Why is this an "obvious feature"?
I put two windows next to each other all the time. It's perfectly discoverable. I just drag one window on the right....
...then I drag the other window on the left.
Boom. Done. No fancy features required.
See, you're coming from a basic assumption that you will do most of your work with windows full-screened. That's not how classic macOS worked, that's not how Mac OS X worked for many years, and that's not how many of us have our workflows. That's how Windows worked back in the '90s, and the paradigm remained even though screens have gotten much, much bigger since then.
What you're demanding is that all OSes "adapt" to become a UI monoculture. So that the only way any of us can do things is the way you think is "objectively better", even though the evidence you have for that is "well, Windows does it this way, and Linux copied them, and I'm so used to it I can't imagine doing things any other way, so it must be best!"
There is nothing objective about these opinions. MacOS with a trackpad works fine if youre willing to do things exactly as intended.