this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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If only it would run Linux, properly, like most x86 laptops do.
I’ve got two old Intel Macs running Linux no problem.
MacBook hardware and performance on Linux would be so good.
Not really any point. Mac OS takes all of the best parts of a Unix OS and wraps them in the only GUI interface that truly doesn’t suck.
MacOS is UNIX, but is not the best implementation of UNIX.
The UNIX tools it ships are extremely old. For example, it comes with GNU Screen, which I was using but was having same strange issues with. It turned out it uses a version from 2006... so I had to brew install a modern version.
And I'm personally not the biggest fan of MacOS. It's certainly better than Windows thanks to Apple mostly treating the user with basic respect (no ads), but the desktop/window manager is just super quirky. No other desktop, whether it be Windows or any desktop on Linux behaves quite like it. They tend to only adopt the nicer features while keeping a UX that feels closer to Windows. For example, MacOS quirky/unique in doing
I have lots of problems with the GUI from a productivity standpoint. Its situational for many people. The problem with MacOS is, like windows, you have very few options to change it.
I would like to see a dock that does not dynamically asjust the position of icons. Fix the positions for muscle memory.
The app switching logic should be switching between windows not apps.
It needs proper tiling and snapping support.
The common UI elements forced on apps take up too much screen space.
Its not that any other OS is inheritly better, its that MacOS is more locked down in terms of the ability to adjust or improve it.
Honestly compared to windows it’s a lot more customisable. There’s a vibrant community of developers that make really great apps for macOS, and nowadays a lot of it is foss too. I just recently installed DockDoor, which enables your desired windows not app switching and A LOT more. There’s another app that adds basically hyprland style window management, and there are other alternatives as well, like rectangle, or Loop, which add more normal window snapping.
Also I don’t know if it’s a setting I changed but I don’t have dynamically adjusting icon positions. It behaves the same way as windows.
Overall imo there’s a ton more easy customisation compared to windows, and a lot of it adds big new features in my experience. Of course it doesn’t compare to Linux, but it’s a lot better than windows.
Thanks for the tips. Will look into it.
Agree, many more options on Mac than on Windows. However, the Windows way of handling apps/windows is much better by default. Might be 30+ years of Windows use but most other DEs work the same way - just macOS and GNOME (of the majors) that works differently (of the ones I’ve used).
That's a big part of the problem though... it's Unix. The BSD-based underpinnings of Mac OS are just different enough to be a colossal pain in the arse for interoperability with GNU-based systems.
At a surface level things seem similar enough, but that people seem to think developing on Mac and deploying on Linux is this simple process really confuses me, because every time it's come up in my career nothing has ever worked properly. Every occasion a bunch of time wasted finding the one little difference that breaks on one platform (and I'm going to be blunt here; it was always on the Mac).
For my money too, the Mac UI features some of the most incomprehensible and borderline unpleasant design decisions. Window management is downright infuriating. File management feels barely functional. Apple's stubborn insistence in hiding the options they'd clearly prefer you didn't use (to make using it actually pleasant) in "accessibility" menus is baffling.
Some of this stuff harks back to last century. I hated the way things worked back then in Mac OS 6 on a Mac classic, and a lot of it they still haven't fixed.
what if i want to use all my screen for windowed app
Turn on Hide Dock in settings.