MacOS f*cking sucks.

Introduction

In this post, I will shortly present my journey with MacOS, how I got to it, and the many reasons I switched away from it.

Macs don’t suck, MacOS does.

The hardware that apple sells (though highly priced) is really good. Never have I had a Laptop that feels that sturdy and sleak in my hands. My pain points are all addressed to the Software part, which I do feel like is really bad, unfinished I would say.

The reason I switched to Macs in the first place (I had a Huawei Matebook X Pro before) is Windows. It pained me so much that I had to switch away from it. My options were Linux and Mac, the reason for Mac was that I use DJ Software (Rekordbox) for my side hustle. So a Macbook I bought. Specifically the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14 Inch. I still use that device almost every day and I like it compared to everything I had before. However now my tipping point of “gosh that is annoying” has been reached, so I compiled this short list of small painpoints.

My MacOS Painpoints

1. Linked Mouse and Trackpad scroll directions
2. BetterDisplay necessity for sharper rendering to get any display to work better (not properly still)
3. Menu Bar not being controlled in a good way, intended for notch, cant set it to “only on built in display” - needs “Displays have separate spaces” but that breaks fullscreen in basically anything.
4. When in this no separate spaces mode, some apps that go to fullscreen never come back because the menu bar (that now has switched screens) is over the exit fullscreen button
5. When in this no separate spaces mode, being on your separate display, you have no menu bar. good. you go to fullscreen to watch videos or whatever, menu bar moved to annoy you. Other screen is dead now.
6. Linear Mouse necessity
7. Settings are searchable but no setting can be found, for example max battery charge
8. settings app is convoluted as fuck, settings are hidden under small questionmarks
9. built in terminal does not support full color, despite saying so. iTerm2 best alternative, but slow….
10. Menu Bar customization is terrible, cant unview some items, needs other tools like Bartender or Vanilla
11. SO MANY PAID APPS TO FIX THOSE ISSUES (“There is an App for that”)
12. No CREATE FILE button
13. No simple way to create a simple text file, option shift space to change a new rtf text to a normal text
14. Apples Office app changed to version 15, trash AI, more ads for premium ai features
15. no support for iPhone Mirroring in Germany because fuck good laws
16. MacOS is based on Unix. Quiz: How many users are on my current MacOS System? My personal one, Admin, some random administrative users? Yeah its 132.
17. Design Flow not consistent, all apps traffic light stay up top, except firefox.. I even asked reddit.
18. Anki App, free everywhere, except iOS/iPadOS. Apple users have the money, right
19. Developing an apple app? need an apple device. Also a developer subscription. SUBSCRIPTION.
20. U are paying monthly to enjoy Apple TV + Content? Better watch on an apple device as the web version is locked to 720p.
21. Tiling Windows is a PAIN. You need highly specialized or even paid apps to fix that. Even Windows does that better and every mac user knows windows is utter garbage.
22. Want to switch keyboard layouts because you have a special keyboard to use with the mac? well, better be okay with a new icon on your menu bar that fills up space you kinda need.
23. Want to switch keyboard layouts because you want to disable dead keys? Straight up out of luck. Even windows does that better.
24. Want to customize what your keys do? well you can do that with some of them. Caps Lock for example. For more, WELL THERES AN APP FOR THAT. (Kanata)
25. .DS_Store. Do I need to say more? a hidden file in EVERY folder on macos that keeps track of deleted files? I do not want to count the unwanted transfers of .DS_Store Files to my server.
26. CMD-S on Apple Notes gives you an error sound. Because there is no saving. Apple Notes and many other MacOS Apps save automatically. Great right? Unless you lose data because the autosave did not kick in yet. I have lost data several times because of that. Try it yourself, open apple notes, type quickly and quit the app using CMD-Q. See how often you lose data.
27. CMD-Q. The ONLY way to actually quit your apps. Unless they are programmed differently, closing the app only closes the window to the app, not the app. would be okay if it was consistent, but its not. Apple office apps never quit that way, the settings app does. Very annoying when using apps like TextEdit or Preview, as they stay open on your taskbar despite nothing being opened with them.
28. Network Management. I have a device that connects via IP over Ethernet Cable. When Wifi is enabled and macos detects internet, that device is no longer found despite the network still being connected
29. Per default, your finder (explorer) does not show full path or even left space on disk. Sometimes you get the warning that disk space runs low, I had a situation where my mac just crashed with no warning due to low diskspace
30. Copy, Paste, Cut. Easy things, except for Cutting on MacOS. Its done when pasting, not when copying. Therefore you can never be sure that a file has ben succefully cut from the old location unless you open the old location again.
31. Taking Screenshots. Sometimes I want them in my clipboard, sometimes as a file. CMD+SHIFT+4 makes the screenshot, but to change the settings I have to do CMT+SHIFT+5, options, location, escape from that screenshot tool, CMD+SHIFT+4, take the screenshot, do my stuff with it, CMD+Shift+5 to change it back, move on. Terrible.
32. Copying and pasting text per default also copies its style. Font, Fontsize and stuff. Bad for emails or like ever. CMD+SHIFT+V to paste raw text. This is obviously not customizable as macs suck.
33. Adding a signature to a PDF using your iPhone or iPad is great. Only that it saves as an annotation not as a new pdf. If you use this to sign pdf’s, you’re doing it wrong. “easy” fix, export the pdf to a virtual printer, then save the pdf again. The new pdf is actually signed.
34. Siri sucks. No explanation needed.
35. Screenshot tool. Sometimes the image appears at the bottom right corner for further settings, sometimes not. The image is saved at least.
36. After 50 Days of not rebooting, your Mac WILL start acting weird. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9GAJ_ka4l4

And now?

My plan is to switch to Linux. Rekordbox has moved down in significance as my DJing has moved from Controllers to DJ-Systems that do not require a Laptop anymore. I will probably still keep this MacBook for Backup and demonstration purposes, but as my main driver, I will try Linux. That being said, this is still a future project as I know from using Linux on the serverside for years, its a good idea to bring some extra time with you for a Linux Switch. Currently my To-Do list is filled to the brim, my goal right now is to reduce that list before switching. Whenever I made the switch, I’ll be documenting the progress in another blogpost. See you there!