Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues

2026-02-1223:52876522noheger.at

In the release notes for macOS 26.3 RC, Apple stated that the window-resizing issue I demonstrated in my recent blog post had been resolved. I was happy to read that, but also curious about what had…

In the release notes for macOS 26.3 RC, Apple stated that the window-resizing issue I demonstrated in my recent blog post had been resolved.

I was happy to read that, but also curious about what had actually changed.

So I wrote a little test app.

It performs a pixel-by-pixel scan in the area around the bottom-right corner of the window, hammering it with simulated mouse clicks to detect exactly where it responds to those clicks (red), where it’s about to resize (green), where it’s about to resize vertically or horizontally only (yellow), and where it doesn’t receive any mouse events at all (blue).

And indeed, the window resize areas now follow the corner radius instead of using square regions:

So that’s definitely better!

But unfortunately, as you can see, the thickness of the yellow area – used for resizing the window only vertically or horizontally – also became thinner. The portion that lies inside the window frame is now only 2 pixels instead of 3.

In total the thickness went down from 7 to 6 pixels, which is a 14% decrease, making it 14% more likely to miss it.

macOS 26.3, Final Release

When the final version of macOS 26 was released I was curious if Apple might have further refined the implementation. So I performed the scan once again. But to my big surprise, the fix was not only unrefined – it was completely removed! So we are now back to the previous square regions:

And in fact, the release notes have also been updated: the problem went from a “Resolved Issue” to a “Known Issue”.


Read the original article

Comments

  • By ivanjermakov 2026-02-131:0910 reply

    Since the first taste of Linux WMs, I believe the best and only good way of handling window move and resize is super+lmb/rmb respectively. No more pixel-perfect header/corner sniping!

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/qv0vmz/missing_supe...

    • By Nition 2026-02-138:165 reply

      On Linux if you learn shortcuts for close/minimise/maximise as well, you can even remove window borders and title bars entirely. It's free screen real estate.

      • By sigmoid10 2026-02-138:594 reply

        The gnome window title bars are obnoxiously thick and useless by default tho. I've found that Unity or even just Windows like styling in Gnome is a lot more respectful to your screen real estate.

        • By 1718627440 2026-02-1311:49

          I like the Gnome 2 title bars (Mate). Gnome wasn't always that bad.

        • By prmoustache 2026-02-139:391 reply

          That is a tradeoff that makes it nice when you have a convertible laptop.

          I wish it was simply configurable from the settings dialogs.

          • By vladvasiliu 2026-02-1411:461 reply

            Could it switch? I think windows has a “tablet mode” which activates when you “convert” your laptop. Not sure how well it works in practice, though.

            • By prmoustache 2026-02-1416:591 reply

              I honestly don't know if there is a standardized way to pass the information or if it depends on the brand. I remember in the earlier version of gnome I had on my lenovo yoga the visual keyboard would popup on most text box but not on firefox which obliged me tolo use Gnome Web / epiphany when in tablet mode but they sorted it out later. I think there wasn't a tablet mode per se but I had used gnome tweak or an extension to have the accesibility options easy to access and enable the visual keyboard but it may have been mpre automatic later. I am saying all this out of memory because that computer died 2 years ago and I didn't use the tablet mode enough to replace it with similar one.

              • By vladvasiliu 2026-02-1420:041 reply

                Is firefox actually fully integrated with gnome/gtk, or does it rely on some form of adaptor?

                I've recently installed kde on one of my laptops (I usually use i3) and firefox is pretty wonky there. For example, with the OOB configuration, if I double click the top border of a window, it will maximize vertically. Firefox seems to ignore that. It does fully maximize if I double click the title bar, though.

                • By ahartmetz 2026-02-1610:17

                  Right and middle clicking the maximize button maximize horizontally and vertically with KWin and that does work with Firefox. Hard to say which part is to blame with i3 + Firefox. But it's not that Firefix needs Gnome.

        • By philipallstar 2026-02-1313:44

          Yes, Gnome looks very odd because of that.

        • By user2722 2026-02-139:211 reply

          It definitely needs improvement but for touchscreens it is good.

          • By tremon 2026-02-1321:211 reply

            Luckily, 95% of Linux devices actually have touchscreens.

            The sad bit is where you realize that GNOME is typically only found on the other 5%.

            • By user2722 2026-02-2413:44

              I always buy 2-in-1. I run both Gnome and Android [Waydroid] when in tablet mode.

      • By Fluorescence 2026-02-1311:571 reply

        It's my preference too. What do you use?

        I used to use "GTK Title Bar" gnome extension which was abandoned a few versions ago so had to write my own and it's X11 specific. The one drawback is that when windows are reopened, they are offset by the title bar height i.e. it messes up whatever is tracking the size/offset/location.

        Anyone have other ways to do this in gnome and do they work on wayland too?

        • By Nition 2026-02-1322:36

          I'm on Fedora KDE so won't be much help to you, but there is a "Windows Rules" section in the system settings where I've added a rule that applies to all windows with the property "No titlebar and frame". Actually I'd quite like frame just with no titlebar, but that's not an option.

      • By Rygian 2026-02-1310:582 reply

        The AltDrag tool on Windows includes Super+double click to maximize/restore. I find it surprising that this does not come by default on KDE.

        • By noughtnaut 2026-02-1311:28

          "AltSnap" is a continuation of AltDrag that's better on Windows 11. It is instrumental in making me loathe Windows 11 _ever so slightly_ less.

          https://github.com/RamonUnch/AltSnap

        • By jraph 2026-02-1314:30

          I drag the window to the top for this. On KDE there's also a (configurable) keyboard shortcut (Meta + prev page, TIL, might start doing this now).

      • By GuinansEyebrows 2026-02-1316:23

        > It's free screen real estate.

        jim, does it get any better than this?

      • By pjmlp 2026-02-1313:24

        Depends on the window manager.

    • By anschwa 2026-02-133:317 reply

      On macOS, you can enable window dragging by holding down the Control+Command keys with this command:

          defaults write -g NSWindowShouldDragOnGesture -bool true
      
      I use this with "three finger drag", and resizing at the window border hasn't been much of an issue for me.

      • By loeber 2026-02-134:5910 reply

        MacOS is the "it just works" operating system. As such, I think the moment that you need to declare custom workarounds like this, it kind of loses its legitimacy, and you should already be in Linux land.

        • By latexr 2026-02-138:251 reply

          I abhor the current state of macOS and Tim Cook’s leadership, but your take is nonsensical.

          For one, “it just works” hasn’t been used in over a decade, same as Google’s “don’t be evil”, which does tell you something about their current philosophies.

          But more importantly, “it just works” was obviously never about it “it reads your mind and does every software feature however you personally like”, it was about the integration of hardware and software and not having to fiddle with drivers and settings to get hardware basics working.

          https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/7hd450/it_just_works/

          • By Forgeties79 2026-02-1313:391 reply

            I miss 2016 apple

            • By dsego 2026-02-1320:351 reply

              When they ditched all the ports and added the butterfly keyboard?

              • By Forgeties79 2026-02-1321:161 reply

                While I get the butterfly keyboard hate (though mine is so far still perfectly fine) the USB-C ports were amazing. I have a 2016 MBpro and that thing still cooks really well. As somebody who worked in video production those ports were a godsend. No more waiting around for footage to transfer all the damn time. Complete game changer. Plus with one or two quality docks I could plug-in literally anything I ever needed. With the AMD GPU i could also edit pretty beefy 4K with no proxies most of the time. In 2016/2017 that was pretty awesome. Plus last good intel machine they made IMO, so good compatibility with lots of software, target display mode for old iMacs, windows if I wanted it, etc.

                Probably my favorite laptop I’ve ever owned. Powerful machine, still sees work, runs great.

                • By dsego 2026-02-1321:451 reply

                  It introduced USB-C before it was ubiquitous even on smartphones, at least in my area. All the peripherals still needed a dongle, it was the dongle era. The keyboard was okay to type on once I got used to the short travel, but the keycaps easily broke off, and dust would get in and the keys wouldn't register. Also, the whole laptop would get very hot, at least the 13" pro without the touchbar. I prefer the older 2015 model, before the butterfly, that's the one I had at work but had to give it up, and I regret waiting for the new models instead of purchasing the same one.

                  • By Forgeties79 2026-02-142:44

                    Like I said, totally get the keyboard hate. Mine just turned out perfectly fine.

                    People hated the dongles but again I could hook up everything. Dozens of connections with throughput I could never get before. It was fantastic for my needs and still is!

        • By huijzer 2026-02-138:084 reply

          Compared to my old NixOS with tiling window manager, I’d say MacOS panes just doesn’t work. I have Rectangle, but it’s no comparison to the full tiling experience. I switched for Apple Silicon nothing more

          • By bartvk 2026-02-1313:06

            I use Aerospace and it's an okay but not great tiling window manager. Note that AeroSpace really is among the best on macOS, but I'm guessing the OS APIs simply don't expose enough hooks.

            https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace

          • By coldtea 2026-02-1314:31

            Most people wouldn't touch "NixOS" or a Linux-style "tiling window manager" with a 10-ft pole, though. For them, the tiling window manager is a good in-between.

          • By alimbada 2026-02-1311:45

            I've been using Amethyst for a couple of years now and it's been working quite well for me.

          • By asimovDev 2026-02-1312:371 reply

            what is the full tiling experience like? I was never a tiling WM guy, on Linux I'd just set some KDE shortcuts for moving and resizing windows. On macOS I used Spectacle and then Rectangle but not sure what I am missing out on, I was always content with Spectacle

            • By eru 2026-02-1313:25

              I've used XMonad for a while now. Almost no fiddling with windows at all.

        • By coldtea 2026-02-1314:30

          Even if this was a "custom workaround" this argument would be extreme "all or nothing" binary thinking.

          An OS can "just work" for of the stuff a user does, and just need some tweaking here or there. Doesn't mean if the "just works" stuff is not 100% you're just as good going to Linux.

          Anyway, this is not some "custom workaround", it's a regular Apple-provided macOS toggle. It's just not exposed in the UI, because for most users, the regular way "just works". I know all kinds of "defaults" toggles, and barely use 1/100 of them, because the actual defaults are fine.

        • By jonhohle 2026-02-136:032 reply

          But, believe it or not, is very customizable (and previously very scriptable). I have Shift+Command+M (maximize) bound to resize to fit the content (different from full screen in macOS). Anything that’s in a menu can be bound to a keyboard shortcut without any additional utilities.

          • By happymellon 2026-02-138:36

            I have multiple virtual desktops. Can I move a window to the next desktop from the keyboard without 3rd party software yet?

        • By create-username 2026-02-136:591 reply

          I found myself closing Linux windows sometimes only with alt+F4; sometimes only with ctrl+Q; sometimes with both; sometimes with none

          • By eru 2026-02-1313:261 reply

            You can close them with xkill and a single click.

            • By anthk 2026-02-148:491 reply

              Killing is not closing, different signals.

              • By eru 2026-02-1410:10

                There's probably some option to send a different signal.

        • By avidphantasm 2026-02-1314:29

          I kind of agree with you, but on macOS I still don’t have to ever think about drivers. The hardware just works. Linux isn’t quite there yet. My work XPS laptop running Ubuntu is close, but not quite the same.

        • By monegator 2026-02-138:062 reply

          Yes, the mac user faces incredible disillusion when he discovers that "just works" was just another marketing gimmick (to the likes of it doesn't get viruses!)

          • By rahoulb 2026-02-1311:54

            As a long-time Mac user, "it just works" actually meant "it either works or it doesn't" - a *binary*. Whereas other OSes were shades of grey - it _might_ work if you spend time searching and trying random combinations in settings.

            And it was good because it saved time.

            (Same used to apply to iOS too)

          • By coldtea 2026-02-1314:371 reply

            As a 20+ year heavy mac AND linux user, both are true.

            It doesn't get viruses, especially if you don't install random junk from warez sites and stick to MAS, brew, and a few trusted vendors. Even if you do install crap, it's trojans not viruses, which are more like the Yeti (something like that might exist, but few have seen it) than a problem mac users have.

            And things "just work" way way way way more than they do in Linux (and I've started using it professional as desktop and for dev work in late 1990s, I'm not weekend tourist to it), which is exactly what I expected as a pragmatist. Only some non-existing carricature user that exists in strawman arguments expected everything to be perfect.

            • By monegator 2026-02-1315:431 reply

              The "they don't catch viruses" is a bold lie, but back then when i worked in tech sales the apple promoter wanted us to repeat the lie ad nasueam. They definetly catch malware and it's as easy as in any other platform (also because today the malware will likely be running in a headless chromium instance)

              I've had a macbook since 2010, and to me its software quality has been going downhill since snow leopard, today it's completely unrecognizable.

              I think apple jumped the shark more or less in 2012 with the flay layouts, when they also started changing ages old defaults, hiding and then removing features for power users, too much handholding and telling you what's best for you, things like that.

              My macbook from that era is still with me, but it runs debian now, same as any other PC i use for work or leisure, and it's really so much better for me as a programmer and as a user. Freedom. It's really freedom (and KDE's ergonomics really clicks with me). I recently had to install unsigned software on one of our worplace's mac minis (which i'm glad i don't have to use anymore) and it was so incredibly frustrating i wanted to smash that thing.

              • By coldtea 2026-02-1317:08

                >The "they don't catch viruses" is a bold lie, but back then when i worked in tech sales the apple promoter wanted us to repeat the lie ad nasueam. They definetly catch malware and it's as easy as in any other platform (also because today the malware will likely be running in a headless chromium instance)

                Malware is not a virus. And it doesn't catch malware if you keep to trusted sources and keep on OS protective layers like SIP.

                Install junk from warez sites and the like, and YOU installed something (still not a virus: a trojan). If you couldn't install it at all (also totally possible) you'd be crying how macOS restricts you.

                In over 20 years of OS X use I've never had any virus, nor did anyone I know. Over 30 years of Windows I've had plenty.

                >They definetly catch malware and it's as easy as in any other platform

                If you install it, it's not a virus (and you can't avoid that in any OS, unless they lock you out of arbitrary program download and execution and only have you run in sandboxes).

                Even so, you can very well install and not give it privileges, and then it can't even touch important directories. If you install it && enter your admin credentials to let it do whatever, it's on you.

                >I've had a macbook since 2010, and to me its software quality has been going downhill since snow leopard, today it's completely unrecognizable.

                It has, but that has nothing to do with now allowing viruses or even malware (in fact, regarding the latter, is more secure than it was in 2010 via multiple measures).

        • By cpuguy83 2026-02-1320:38

          This used to be option exposed in settings.

        • By tclancy 2026-02-135:201 reply

          apt-get install logicalleap

          Sudo apt-get install logicalleapd

        • By hombre_fatal 2026-02-136:483 reply

          Windows is also the "it just works" operating system, and it has hundreds of useful things you can only do through registry hacks.

          It's not a very useful test.

          I look at the good things about macOS over desktop linux like how cmd-c/v works across all apps, and it would be amazing if it were just a cli command to bridge the gap.

          • By matharmin 2026-02-137:111 reply

            In my experience, Windows is very far from a "it just works" OS.

            • By jug 2026-02-139:051 reply

              It's the ambition as a home user OS though, like macOS. And in the discussion of "it just works" operating systems, who else are we to go by than the vendor ambitions? Personal opinions? In that case, neither is because both struggle to always work in all scenarios since their respective inceptions.

              • By StilesCrisis 2026-02-1312:20

                When the phrase originated, manually updating CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT were expected skills of a home PC owner. The idea of buying a device, plugging it in, and having it work without a complex setup was unheard of. "It just works" on the Mac meant the absence of a DOS layer, IRQs, command lines, etc.

          • By friendzis 2026-02-137:36

            AFAIK Windows has never been known or marketed as "it just works". It goes long way to maintain backwards compatibility, but lets not kid ourselves that it has any semblance to what Apple's "it just works" is supposed to mean.

          • By shiroiuma 2026-02-139:02

            In what universe has Windows ever been a "it just works" OS? Not this one.

      • By weikju 2026-02-133:382 reply

        Wish it worked on all windows. For some reason Settings is exempt from this, for example.

        • By Reason077 2026-02-139:52

          The macOS Settings app is broken in all kinds of ways, as far as UI/UX goes. It's been this way since they redesigned it a few years back. Not that it was great before, but the redesign just made it worse.

        • By jmarcher 2026-02-133:561 reply

          It (partially) works, but only if the cursor is NOT hovering over the right portion of the window. So only 30% works.

          • By weikju 2026-02-145:24

            Oh I guess I never tried while clicking on the Sidebar!

      • By jihadjihad 2026-02-1314:261 reply

        I think it was a mistake for Apple to put some of the best QOL, not just accessibility, enhancements behind the Accessibility section of the Settings, rather than on the Trackpad settings. Three finger drag is a game changer, and a lot of my colleagues had no idea it existed.

        • By heddhunter 2026-02-1316:262 reply

          The weird thing is that setting used to be in the trackpad settings! I have no idea why they moved it. It's one of the first things I enable on every device I use.

          • By jihadjihad 2026-02-1316:53

            Exactly, same, and same. I was in the company HQ a few weeks ago and one of my colleagues just got a new machine. I was watching them set it up and was like, "How do you live like that, clicking the top and holding to drag to move the window?" They had no idea three finger drag was a thing, life changed.

          • By c-hendricks 2026-02-1317:01

            Probably due to the longstanding bugs with it. I still use it on all my laptops, but Finder in particular gets tripped up with what the drag state is when using it.

      • By hosteur 2026-02-1313:432 reply

        I tried this on most recent MacOS 26 - it does not work here. Might it be because I have Rectangle installed?

        • By bathwaterpizza 2026-02-1314:09

          Works great for me. I enabled that functionality alongside resizing on RMB by using "Easy Move+Resize" from GH. I also use Raycast to bind most window management stuff, it's instant unlike the built-in alternatives on Tahoe.

        • By jihadjihad 2026-02-1314:17

          Same, tried with and without Rectangle running and haven't seen it work yet. Must be missing something obvious.

          edit: I ended up trying Easy Move+Resize which is mentioned in a sibling comment, can recommend, works as advertised.

      • By onion2k 2026-02-138:54

        I don't think I know how to confirm that command is correct, and I've been a Mac user for decades. If Apple's solution to problems is "trust the CLI command you found on a website" then I might need to sell some shares.

      • By buzzert 2026-02-141:38

        Is there a way to resize windows with this gesture as well?

      • By omnifischer 2026-02-137:57

        if you search

        NSWindowShouldDragOnGesture

        you see how often this feature gets broken and type some other flag or install 3rd party app.

    • By garciansmith 2026-02-131:192 reply

      Yeah, it was one of those things I noticed when I first started using Linux and wondered why every other OS didn't just copy it.

      • By cosmic_cheese 2026-02-131:363 reply

        Probably just simple resistance to use of modifier keys in non-technical users, at least on the Windows side. A lot of users never touch a modifier except for Ctrl for copy/paste and maybe Windows for start menu search.

        On the Mac side where key combos and modifier use is more widespread among users, it’s probably because there’s no intuitive visual that can be associated with the interaction.

        • By gf000 2026-02-136:481 reply

          It's not like Apple would frown about the idea of an action having "no intuitive visual associated with it". On iOS, you can scroll to the top by pressing on the status bar as one example.

          • By throwaway290 2026-02-137:251 reply

            Unless your status bar is on the bottom. Then scrolling up is really hit or miss

            • By isametry 2026-02-1312:181 reply

              The status bar – as in: the area where the clock, battery and signal strength are shown – is absolutely always at the top of the screen on iOS.

              • By throwaway290 2026-02-1411:04

                I mean browser status bar (address bar, load progress etc.) and also you're wrong at least on new phones.

                If you tap the island and if there's any activity there, it doesn't scroll up it switches to activity app. You need to hit the top edge of the screen not the island. And that is hit or miss, because 30% you hit the island and often there's activity there.

                It was better before when it was not an island and activity was rare, only when you're navigating or on a call. Now every app and it's dog has a live activity in island.

        • By garciansmith 2026-02-132:31

          Oh, I get having a visual way of doing it with just a mouse for sure. But for power users or even just-a-little-bit-of-knowledge users it's super quick and convenient. When I had to use Windows for work it drove me nuts that the option wasn't there (ended up finding AltDrag thankfully).

        • By hota_mazi 2026-02-132:041 reply

          On Windows, I use AltDrag.

          • By tricked 2026-02-138:25

            Altdrag doesn't work with scaling and is missing some other nice to haves, The Altsnap fork of it fixes this. Its one of the first things i install.

      • By mmis1000 2026-02-131:481 reply

        windows does support [win] + [arrow key] though

        • By nozzlegear 2026-02-132:51

          Mac supports the win (Cmd) + arrow key thing too; figured I'd mention since the story is about macOS window management.

    • By thanatos519 2026-02-138:281 reply

      I used to use the Sawfish window manager ... before it fell out of maintenance, oh and before I switched to DEs with the window manager bolted on.

      The thing I miss the most from Sawfish is that it let me resize any window. There are a lot of fixed-sized modal dialogs with scrollbars that wouldn't need them if they were taller, and there's a lot of room on my portrait monitor!

      • By cachius 2026-02-138:55

        What a nice feature! Really puts the user in control. Is there any maintained WM allowing this? How are modals treated on tiling WMs?

    • By Mackser 2026-02-1312:081 reply

      Easy Move+Resize is great for this on macOS: https://github.com/dmarcotte/easy-move-resize

      • By alejoar 2026-02-1312:13

        This is the way, game changer.

    • By ndiddy 2026-02-132:001 reply

      For window move I think it's a reaction to the popularization of putting UI in the window titlebar so there's nothing to grab onto. I don't mind it but I wish there was a dedicated "grab" button on the mouse because I find it clunky to have to use both hands to manage windows.

      • By eqvinox 2026-02-132:031 reply

        I can tell you the feature of Meta/Super¹+L/R click to move/resize windows has existed on Linux long before UI in the window titlebar became a thing.

        ¹ aka Windows key

        • By ndiddy 2026-02-1314:36

          I know it's been around for a while, but I don't recall people talking about it like it's a killer feature of Linux window management until after the "UI in the window titlebar" trend started.

    • By delaminator 2026-02-139:581 reply

      I use i3-wm

      I never resize a window with its border.

      I never minimize a weindow.

      I sometimes move a window to a different panel but it snaps to the width / height of the column.

      Overlapping windows is perhaps the worst GUI paradigm - it's like the first thing someone thought of for 640 x 480 screens.

      Let it go.

      • By pjmlp 2026-02-1313:283 reply

        Tiling window managers used to be a thing in the old days, they predate the invention of overlapping windows, there is a reason it is only a minority that reaches out to them nowadays.

        • By zamalek 2026-02-1313:532 reply

          Tilings are no better or no worse than floating. There are many users who would benefit from them (people who typically keep all their windows maximized), but have had literally zero exposure two them due to MacOS and Windows.

          Complaints about lack of window snapping in MacOS vs Windows, a loose copy of tiling, are consistent across the internet. If MacOS and Windows had native tiling support, you'd see a fight fiercer than tabs vs. spaces.

          The reason floating windows are used is because "that's the way it is done." Windows 95 wowed the world and established the status quo.

          Not to mention the direction that the likes of Paper and Niri are going, these are things that very few users get to experience and therefore couldn't possibly have an informed decision on what they prefer.

          • By nickjj 2026-02-1316:00

            > Not to mention the direction that the likes of Paper and Niri are going, these are things that very few users get to experience and therefore couldn't possibly have an informed decision on what they prefer.

            niri is great because it gives you the best of all worlds.

            Scrolling by default but you can easily float and tile things as needed. It feels so intuitive for how I use computers.

            I've created a few posts and videos on using niri while going over my workflows in https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-is-niri-this-good-live-de... and https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/day-to-day-window-management-....

            Having used Windows for 25 years, there's no chance I'll ever go back. This environment is already substantially better. That's after tricking Windows out with virtual desktops, global hotkeys, window positioning tools, launchers, multiple clipboards, heavily WSL 2 driven, etc..

            I tried to switch a few times over the last decade but was always blocked by hardware issues on this machine, those blockers are gone now.

          • By pjmlp 2026-02-1314:321 reply

            Windows does tiling just fine, it even has layout suggestions.

            • By zamalek 2026-02-1316:49

              Yes, which is why people complain about MacOS vs Windows. People wouldn't complain about the lack of quasi-tiling in MacOS if they didn't care about it (which is the gist of your gp comment). The only reason they have experienced it is because Windows has quasi-tiling.

        • By BoingBoomTschak 2026-02-1314:04

          That reason being that there is a minority of people who reach out to anything instead of just using what they're given. Compounded by baby duck syndrome, of course.

        • By delaminator 2026-02-1314:191 reply

          Not in a GUI though. Sun Windows was overlapping, GEM was overlapping and almost everything else since then.

          I'm on a 5120x2160 monitor and tiling is super perfect.

          Can't recommend it enough.

          • By pjmlp 2026-02-1314:311 reply

            There were others out there, e.g. Oberon, Lilith,...

            • By delaminator 2026-02-1315:421 reply

              That's where I learned the power of tiling. Years of using the Acme text editor.

              When you also learn drop down menus are not needed either.

              • By zamalek 2026-02-1316:541 reply

                Yup, but "normies" do need menus or at least some way to do things that has some degree of visual affordance (e.g. a persistent cmd/ctrl+p, which I think Office has/had).

    • By paranoidxprod 2026-02-131:353 reply

      Recently getting a new Mac for work, coming from Hyprland has been tough, but I feel like I’m getting there. Aerospace and Karabiner-Elements have gotten me most of the way there. Have had to write a few scripts to get the workspaces working the way I’m used to, but overall I got a significant part of my workflow to mirror my Linux setup, but would still love to get the super+right click to resize working somehow (there is a native way to move windows with ctrl+cmd+left click which was nice).

      • By airstrike 2026-02-132:07

        Same here. I use both!

        > get the super+right click to resize working somehow (there is a native way to move windows with ctrl+cmd+left click which was nice).

        I've tried this with Hamerspoon to no avail and ultimately gave up... if you find a workaround, I'm all ears!

        I really miss AHK...

      • By malnourish 2026-02-134:181 reply

        How are you liking Aerospace? I miss i3. I tried a few TWMs in Mac but they felt quite janky, but it's possible I just didn't give them time.

        • By crimist 2026-02-134:36

          Not OP but it's the best auto tiling WM I've found for MacOS so far. Yabai requires SIP disabled for what I would consider core features which is a no go on a work laptop. Aerospace sides steps this and MacOS's horrible window management by just not using the built in spaces. I've only had to restart it a couple times over the last 4 months due to bugs.

          I also use https://github.com/acsandmann/aerospace-swipe to add trackpad support.

      • By jitl 2026-02-133:24

    • By jitl 2026-02-133:19

      i use this. it’s not maintained so you need to manually enable its access to assistive control in Settings but besides that still works great:

      https://github.com/jmgao/metamove

      it does exactly what you want coming from Fluxbox-style window managers

      here’s how i configure it (it has a settings ui, this just automates setting it up) https://github.com/justjake/Dotfiles/blob/3d359f961b009478ef...

      i didn’t notice the hideous corner grab areas for a few weeks after updating to 26 because i never tried to use the corner

    • By stevage 2026-02-135:04

      Yeah I use a third-party add on for macOS that does something similar.

      The only annoyance is situations where you are moving the mouse while also starting to press a ctrl+ or cmd+ key combination and unexpectedly move or resize the window in the process.

  • By olivierestsage 2026-02-1313:2525 reply

    It really has gotten to the point where Linux offers the best option for a sane desktop experience. Watching Windows and macOS implode while KDE and Gnome slowly get better and better has really been something. Not quite at the point I'd recommend them for grandma and grandpa, but not that far off, either.

    • By staticassertion 2026-02-1319:006 reply

      I've been using a Mac basically full time for years now, due to work. It's easily the worst UX and it's sort of shocking, after decades of hearing "it just works" or whatever. Hidden windows, hidden desktops, obscure keyboard shortcuts, etc.

      I actually don't even know how to use the mac for the most part, I've learned to live in the terminal. I contrast this with Linux where I can just... idk, browse files? Where windows don't suddenly "escape" into some other, hidden environment, where I can just use a computer in a very sane way, and if I want keyboard shortcuts they largely align with expectations.

      I was extremely frustrated while on a call using a mac. I made the video call full screen, which then placed it onto essentially a "virtual monitor" (ie: completely hidden). I had no way to alt tab back to it, for whatever reason, and I had no way to actually recover the window in any of the usualy "window switching" means. I knew there was a totally undiscoverable gesture to see those things but I was docked so didn't have access to the trackpad.

      I figured out if you go to the hidden dock at the bottom and select Chrome, as I recall, you can then get swapped back over to that virtual desktop, "un full screen" the window, and it returns to sanity.

      Mac UX seems to go against literally every single guideline I can imagine. Invisible corners, heavily reliant on gestures, asymmetric user experiences (ie: I can press a button to trigger something, but there isn't a way to 'un trigger' it using the same sequence/ reverse sequence/ 'shift' sequence), ridiculous failure modes, etc.

      I can't believe that people live like this. I think they don't know how bad they've got it, I routinely see mac users avoiding the use of 'full screen', something that I myself have had to learn to avoid on a mac, despite decades of having never given it a second thought.

      • By bfbf 2026-02-1321:142 reply

        MacOS definitely has its issues but this just makes it sound like you have different expectations of how an OS should work. Different isn’t always bad. Hiding applications is a pretty key concept in MacOS. Shortcuts are pretty straightforward? Cmd+H to hide, Cmd+Q to quit. Spaces aren’t hidden- there’s lots of ways to access them, but it seems you haven’t bothered to learn them. In your example pressing ctrl+right would have switched the first full screen space. You could also have right clicked the Chrome icon in the dock for a list of windows.

        BTW the dock doesn’t have to be hidden, and idk if it was a typo but alt+tab isn’t a default shortcut. Command is the key used for system shortcuts, so maybe you should have tried that? Like yeah it’s different but that doesn’t make it bad. If you been using it for 10 years without figuring that out…

        —-

        I’m with you on the 1st party apps though, and the stupid corners on Tahoe.

        • By staticassertion 2026-02-1321:24

          I call it "alt tab" because that's how my brain maps the keyboard. The reality is simple - I struggled going from Windows to Ubuntu about 20 years ago but ultimately made it to the other side knowing how to use both well. With macs, I didn't. 10 years later and all of my adaptations are to avoid the operating system. In 10 years the main thing I've learned is how to get myself out of a jam and stick to the parts of the OS that don't feel like shit. I mean, it's not like I haven't learned these things, I know how to gesture, I know how to exit full screen, etc, it's not like I didn't ever learn, I'm explaining that the experience was dog shit.

          Anyone is free to claim that I just didn't try, or didn't give it a fair shake, or perhaps I'm just some idiot who doesn't know computers or whatever.

          Maybe I just think an OS should work differently, but okay? I've never said that I have some sort of access to a platonic ideal of objective operating systems and that macs don't meet it. I'm saying that I think it's bad and I gave examples of why. And I think I can easily appeal to my experiences seeing others use the OS - I don't think they find anything you're talking about appealing either.

        • By renmillar 2026-02-1514:20

          > Hiding applications is a pretty key concept in MacOS. Shortcuts are pretty straightforward? Cmd+H to hide, Cmd+Q to quit. Spaces aren’t hidden- there’s lots of ways to access them, but it seems you haven’t bothered to learn them.

          They're not talking about Cmd+H hiding or virtual desktops - those exist on Windows too. The issue is how macOS handles window placement with zero visual feedback.

          For example, when you open a new window from a fullscreen app, it just silently appears on another space. No indicator, no notification. You're left guessing whether it even opened and where it went. The placement depends on arcane rules about space layout, fullscreen ordering, and external displays - and it's basically random half the time. You either memorize the exact behavior or manually search through all your spaces.

      • By bsimpson 2026-02-1320:573 reply

        Years ago, they changed the behavior of the green button to be "fullscreen into a separate space." As someone who never uses spaces, this is never what I want.

        You can escape it by moving your cursor to the top edge of the screen and clicking the green button on the titlebar that appears to exit fullscreen.

        • By dwaite 2026-02-140:411 reply

          > Years ago, they changed the behavior of the green button to be "fullscreen into a separate space."

          Not quite. It has the old behavior (grow to as large a window as supported) if the app does not support full-screen. For instance, the Settings app cannot grow wider, so it grows to full screen height.

          The icon that appears when you hover over the green button reflects whether it is full screen or zoom behavior. If you hold option, you will always get zoom behavior IIRC. However, due to the green button being overridden to be a menu in Tahoe, the button icon may or may not reflect zoom/full screen behavior if you press/release option and may instead show the optional modifier on the options in the pop-up menu.

          I do not believe there is a way to disable full screen behavior completely, nor spaces. However, I don't think I'd be able to survive working on a Mac without both so I haven't done a lot of investigation there.

          • By newdee 2026-02-149:23

            If I recall, you just hold option whilst clicking the green button and you get the old behaviour

        • By staticassertion 2026-02-1321:111 reply

          In this case, because I had docked my laptop, the entire window moved to a virtual desktop that didn't actually map to a real desktop. Meaning that the video call continued in a virtual desktop that I literally could not see, that I could not mouse over. I don't know if that's just a multiple-monitor bug or whatever but the behavior is stupid even without that failure mode.

          • By bsimpson 2026-02-1321:242 reply

            Apple presumes you have a multitouch pointing device. You can three-finger-swipe between spaces. I know there's a keyboard equivalent, but you'd have to look it up.

            • By mrighele 2026-02-1322:34

              It used to be that Macs would use single button mouses because the user would otherwise need to know which one to click, but now we have to know how many fingers to use and in which direction to swipe, so much for discoverable

            • By staticassertion 2026-02-1321:293 reply

              > Apple presumes you have a multitouch pointing device.

              I think that's really bad design. Is that even controversial?

              • By moondance 2026-02-1322:262 reply

                It’s certainly “bad design” if we’re designing specifically with the OS convert who has a grudge against trackpads as the target user. But multitouch and its functionalities has been a fundamental part of macOS for nearly two decades now. For better or worse, a traditional mouse makes about as much sense for a macOS environment as it does for an iPad at this point. It’s workable, and it has certain advantages, but it’s really not recommended as your only pointer. At best, it’s used in tandem with a trackpad.

                • By tga_d 2026-02-140:12

                  Most of the input devices that Apple sells on their website don't have multitouch, including 0 keyboards and only one of the mice. Many of the photos on the site for each of their non-iMac desktops include full setups that don't have a magic mouse or separate touch pad. The Mac mini and Mac Studio don't come with any input devices, and don't say anywhere that multitouch is recommended (closest is some language clearly marketing it as an up-sell on the Studio, "Take your creativity to the next level [with extra purchase]").

                • By staticassertion 2026-02-1323:42

                  > It’s certainly “bad design” if we’re designing specifically with the OS convert who has a grudge against trackpads as the target user.

                  "holds a grudge" no? I just sit at a desk.

              • By Aloisius 2026-02-1322:00

                If you don't have a multi-touch pointing device, I suppose. Though, it's like trying to use Windows with a single mouse button.

                You can also hit ctrl-left or ctrl-right to move spaces without one or ctrl-1, ctrl-2, ctrl-3, etc. to switch to a specific virtual desktop directly.

                You can also hit ctrl+ scroll wheel if you have one. Or add mission control hot corner to one of the screen corners.

              • By speed_spread 2026-02-1412:21

                It's especially ironic coming from the company that resisted the two-button mouse for so long because they thought it would confuse people.

        • By theodric 2026-02-140:20

          Here, return to sane behavior: https://blazingtools.com/right_zoom_mac.html

      • By hbn 2026-02-1320:461 reply

        You're making multiple desktops sound very confusing when it's really not. Every desktop OS has them and macOS' implementation is quite good. You want bad virtual desktops, try Windows.

        Maybe you're better suited for an iPad.

        • By staticassertion 2026-02-1320:492 reply

          I've used multiple desktops before. I love virtual desktops. They really shouldn't be confusing. It's a testament to the bad UX of macs that they are.

          The fact that a full screen window creates a whole new virtual desktop is hilarious and I dare you to justify it.

          Appeals to "Windows is bad" or whatever mean nothing to me. Stupid comments like "get good" mean nothing to me.

          • By hbn 2026-02-1321:141 reply

            It sounds like you don't actually want the app in fullscreen. Fullscreen is "I only want to be in this one app window with no distractions." I pretty much only use it for watching videos.

            If you want the window taking up the entire screen while staying on the desktop, double click the window chrome and it'll expand to fill the screen. And if you want the dock not taking up space, there's a setting to auto hide the dock (which I always enable)

            • By staticassertion 2026-02-1321:27

              > It sounds like you don't actually want the app in fullscreen. Fullscreen is "I only want to be in this one app window with no distractions." I pretty much only use it for watching videos.

              I do want that. Every other OS has no issue with what I'm describing. Who said I don't want distractions? I want the video content to be expanded as widely as possible, that is what "full screen" means. Who said "full screen" means a separate desktop?

              Ridiculous tbh

              > And if you want the dock not taking up space, there's a setting to auto hide the dock (which I always enable)

              Yes, me too.

          • By idle_zealot 2026-02-1321:051 reply

            > The fact that a full screen window creates a whole new virtual desktop is hilarious and I dare you to justify it.

            I can kind of see the idea here. The alternative is that all the other windows in the working desktop get hidden behind the fullscreen window. That's pretty bad UX. I personally avoid it on Linux by always moving a window to its own desktop before fullscreening it.

            That said, the implementation is awful, and exposes the rotten foundations of Mac's window management paradigm.

            IMO floating windows always fall apart and should be reserved for modals and transient dialog boxes only. Everything gets a lot easier to understand when applications can't occlude one another or occupy the same space.

            • By staticassertion 2026-02-1321:062 reply

              > The alternative is that all the other windows in the working desktop get hidden behind the fullscreen window. That's pretty bad UX.

              How? It means I could have a full screen video and then overlay something smaller over it, or maintain my alt-tab behavior as it plays in the background, etc. I'd maintain the same UX. Why would full screen have such a weird behavior?

              • By idle_zealot 2026-02-1321:19

                You're right that it's more consistent to have windows behave as you describe, and Windows and Linux both treat fullscreen windows this way. I posit that Apple cares more about not hiding windows behind others than it does consistency. This also shows with their new window placement algorithm that results in an absolute mess of windows all partially occluded but with some corner or edge peeking out of the stack for a user to visually identify and click to focus/being-to-top. Compare to Windows that (at least when I last used it) opens new windows at a slight diagonal offset from the last focused window, almost like building a neat deck of cards. Apple's ethos is also on display in the design of Stage Manager, which groups windows into these messy clumps and creates a visible shelf to swap between window bundles. Everything is optimized for hunt-and-peck visual users. If you're the type to organize your windows and workflows then you're fighting the system.

              • By bfbf 2026-02-1321:17

                If you click the full screen window, your little window is now behind it…

      • By tagirb 2026-02-1323:13

        Love Linux, been using Manjaro with Gnome for the last 10 years, but need to use Mac on my current job, so I tried to approach this constructively and work around the rough edges: * Rectangle Pro for window management * Better Display for better picture on non-4k display + a couple of more similar tools + retrainig muscle memory from Ctrl to Cmd and Emacs-y instead of Windows-y shortcuts

        Feels okay now. Plus native ms365 apps, smooth sleep mode, great hardware and great battery time -- mac has its sweet spots as well.

      • By dsego 2026-02-1320:301 reply

        > I figured out

        Or you could maybe learn how to use the OS, in linux lingo RTFM. I don't want to be rude, but the critique was very flippant, the arguments vague, all about expectations based on years using a different OS, doesn't seem you want to give it a fair chance.

        • By staticassertion 2026-02-1320:481 reply

          This is pretty funny.

          > the arguments vague

          I gave both generalized and highly specific cases where I felt the UX failed. I referenced principles of UX as well as literal "here is what my experience was in a concrete story".

          > , all about expectations based on years using a different OS

          No? I mean, again, funny. I explained how I've been using MacOS for years. Actually a decade, now that I count it out.

          > doesn't seem you want to give it a fair chance.

          a decade lol

          • By dsego 2026-02-1321:371 reply

            Plenty of people use an OS for years without learning. And you admitted to spending time in the terminal, which indicates lack of will to try and learn macos shortcuts, gestures, windowing model, spaces, and so on. And the comment used sweeping generalizations, without referring to any specific principles broken which aren't just personal dislikes or unfamiliarity with a different way of doing things.

            > I gave both generalized and highly specific cases where I felt the UX failed.

            No guidelines named, no principles defined. No comparison standard is established.

            The earlier fullscreen story is a specific case, maybe a discoverability argument, but not not that UX violates every principle. MacOS spaces and fullscreen apps follow a workspace concept, it's not a window resize mode.

            > Asymmetric user experiences

            What’s asymmetric is not the command — it’s the spatial context. The claim that it’s violated is arguable.

            > Heavily reliant on gestures

            Not sure which guidelines this breaks, but every gesture has a keyboard shortcut alternative, there is mission control key, menu bar, dock.

            > Ridiculous failure modes

            No failure mode is defined.

            • By staticassertion 2026-02-1321:42

              > And you admitted to spending time in the terminal, which indicates lack of will to try and learn macos shortcuts, gestures, windowing model, spaces, and so on.

              It indicates no such thing, other than that my preferred UX on a mac has landed on the terminal. It doesn't indicate whatsoever that I never tried to learn, or that I haven't learned, unless you presuppose that learning would necessitate using the computer a specific way.

              Indeed, I have learned quite a lot of the various gestures, spaces, etc, unsurprisingly. I avoid them because they suck, and the learning experience was shit.

              > And the comment used sweeping generalizations, without referring to any specific principles broken which aren't just personal dislikes or unfamiliarity with a different way of doing things.

              All design principles are going to boil down to personal dislikes lol but no, nothing was "unfamiliarity" you can stop saying that thanks.

              > No guidelines named, no principles defined. No comparison standard is established.

              I could cite guidelines if you think it would help. Microsoft released a UX guideline years ago justifying why magic corners etc are a bad idea. Of course, they obviously don't follow that guide these days. What would you like?

              I'm not interested in debating this. I'm perfectly fine with how I've expressed myself, I'm just not motivated enough this late in a Friday to get more detailed, so you'll have to just try to decipher what I've said and find if there's value to you or reject it, which I think is your prerogative.

      • By zeppelin101 2026-02-1319:551 reply

        And if you bring up these points to an Apple fanboy, they'll tell you that "you just don't get it" or "forget all the 'bad Windows habits' and just learn the Apple way of things. It's soooo intuitive!!".

        • By staticassertion 2026-02-1320:012 reply

          > "forget all the 'bad Windows habits' and just learn the Apple way of things

          I mean I'd be willing to say I don't get it, because I sure as fuck do not get it. But I think I'd absolutely reject the "forget all the other stuff, learn this". It's been literally years on a Mac. I remember the frustration of going from Windows to Linux, I look back at that adjustment and laugh, it's hilarious to me that that felt frustrating when I contrast to my Mac adjustment. At least the Linux adjustment was tractable, the Mac adjustment is a total joke.

          I actually suspect that people don't "adjust" in the sense of learning how to do things with a mac but instead adjust to not doing things with a mac, like how many mac users I know of outright say they just don't use full screen mode because it's confusing.

          • By zeppelin101 2026-02-1320:051 reply

            And yes, the fullscreen mode is the perfect example. It is so shockingly poorly implemented that I almost never use it. Even if someone thought it was 'good enough', that doesn't change the fact that there is a forced transition animation when going to/from fullscreen that is unreasonably slow and awkward.

            • By pjerem 2026-02-1320:34

              I actually like the concept of an app in full screen creating a new virtual desktop.

              I feel like it’s really intuitive when you switch desktops with the trackpad.

              It’s just incredibly poorly implemented, like all the window management on macOS.

              Disclaimer : I own MacBooks since 2010 and I have seen macOS rotting update after update. To me they achieved a really mature and pretty well thought OS with Snow Leopard and it’s been slowly rolling downhill since then.

              I can totally say that KDE AND Gnome AND Cinnamon AND Sway AND even the immature Niri are all better experiences than macOS.

          • By zeppelin101 2026-02-1320:03

            Agreed. On MacOS, I use a variety of smaller apps and scripts to make it less awkward, e.g. Karabiner, BetterTouchTool, Hammerspoon, and, of course, "Alt-Tab" (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/). I am even contemplating starting to use a dedicated window manager, such as Aerospace (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/). But all of this is a massive time investment.

    • By sjogress 2026-02-1313:495 reply

      Personally replaced Windows 10 with Linux Mint on my very computer illiterate mother in law's laptop a few months back. Haven't heard any complaints so far.

      Linux is ready for prime time for anyone not bound to Windows/MacOS software.

      Personally, I'm still on MacOS for work, but all my personal devices run some form of Linux. It's been liberating to say the least.

      • By AmazingTurtle 2026-02-1315:473 reply

        I set up windows 11 on a laptop for my dad so he can read emails and browse the web. Came back 3 months later when he told me he couldn't see the PDF files anymore. Turns out he installed THREE different PDF viewers that he randomly found on google, they installed tons of bloatware/spyware, replaced browser toolbars and searches etc. to a point where I decided to just restore from a recovery point. Told him not to download weird stuff (again) and ask me when he needs help.

        At that point I questioned myself: I really should have installed linux for him.

        • By jermaustin1 2026-02-1316:03

          > replaced browser toolbars

          This is still a thing? Browsers still have toolbars???

          My go to for family is giving them no install rights, and adding a remote desktop app for me to connect to them when they need something to install.

          I don't get called very often anymore, and when I do, it's for their work computer or something, to which I say, talk to your IT department, I can't fix that.

        • By dpe82 2026-02-1318:591 reply

          ChromeOS is a really great option for "just want to read emails and browse the web".

          • By pjerem 2026-02-1320:36

            Oh yeah, at least with ChromeOS, Chrome isn’t installing itself like a spyware alongside any other software installer.

        • By mc32 2026-02-1316:59

          Browsers today view and can do limited editing for PDFs. No need for a dedicated reader. One does need a dedicated authoring tool if you need to create PDFs from scratch. Most OSes support print to PDF as well if you only need conversion.

      • By fullstop 2026-02-1314:571 reply

        My daughter did this for her boyfriend's grandma, except she used Kinoite. The immutable aspect of it makes it very difficult to break.

        She was over there recently and the downloads folder was littered with malware .exe files, so the grandma is trying her hardest to break it.

        • By abdullahkhalids 2026-02-1315:211 reply

          UBlock origin will fix most of that problem.

          • By kgermino 2026-02-1315:342 reply

            But it creates other issues, especially for a non-techsavvy user

            • By array_key_first 2026-02-1318:11

              I've never seen a website break because of ublock, at least not in the default config. If it's that much of a problem you can just remote in on grandmas computer and disable it for whatever website.

              I think that beats remoting in when granny inevitably gets scammed by an ad.

              There really is no excuse in my mind for not running an ad blocker. It's as vital to personal computing security as firewalls and anti malware.

            • By abdullahkhalids 2026-02-1315:52

              Blocking ads helps grandma not accidentally leak private information that could have disastrous consequences, for example, getting scammed out of their money.

              Not blocking ads helps grandma visit a few more websites that don't work well with adblock.

      • By virgil_disgr4ce 2026-02-1314:321 reply

        > Linux is ready for prime time for anyone not bound to Windows/MacOS software.

        I suspect in order for this to be true we'd need a PR campaign that can shift culture on the scale of civil rights.

        I'm not trying to be hyperbolic or deride Linux or anything—I agree that technologically it's probably ready. Overall UX I'm slightly skeptical. But the far bigger problem is culture.

        There's already been a shift away from "PCs" among younger people. The majority of my kids friends have never touched a "regular computer." I've heard an unsettling number of reports of new hires who have never heard of a spreadsheet.

        I'm bringing this up because if kids aren't using PCs as much in the first place and quite literally don't know what an operating system is (and please challenge this assumption; I'm going off of anecdata) it's going to be even harder to try to create cultural awareness and acceptance of linux.

        But even disregarding that there would need to be a massive, massive coordinated campaign to create a real culture shift. I'm talking superbowl ads.

        Again, not trying to be pessimistic, I'm trying to say that "ready for prime time" at this point has little to do with engineering or even design and far more to do with PR. Once I started launching my own products I quickly discovered (as everyone does) that making the thing is like 5% of the job and the remaining 95% is marketing.

        • By treis 2026-02-1314:54

          The frustrating thing is that developers are some of the most reluctant to change. I'm sick of fighting docker on my Mac among the many other problems. But if we can't break away nobody else is going to either.

      • By deaddodo 2026-02-1315:231 reply

        I mean yeah, Chrome and Firefox both run on Linux. And that covers 99% of what most "normies" need.

        It's funny when people say Linux is difficult for their grandparents or siblings, when that's the place it covers best. And it keeps them from calling you about random adware/spyware/viruses they accidentally installed.

        It's prosumers and professionals that have more issues with Linux, because they tend to rely on proprietary software that's problematic to install/use.

        • By tracker1 2026-02-1318:34

          Before she passed, I had one of my Grandmothers on Ubuntu for about a decade... I had to set it up for her, and I ran updates every few months for her, but she really didn't have an issue... Her Windows 9x era games even ran under Wine when they wouldn't load on Windows (7 I think), correctly.

          Email, browser and a few games... she was pretty happy with it.

      • By dfxm12 2026-02-1318:351 reply

        I was so close to getting my parents to switch to Ubuntu in the late 2000s. It stuck until my dad needed some piece of software on the home PC for work that only worked with Windows. Today, they have iPhones and they think it will be more convenient to have a Mac to "sync things". Oh well...

        • By microtonal 2026-02-1319:13

          Today, they have iPhones and they think it will be more convenient to have a Mac to "sync things". Oh well...

          And for a very long time they would have been right. But it seems that all the commercial desktop OSes are in the maximize money extraction-phase now.

    • By kn100 2026-02-1314:042 reply

      Gnome Shell in particular offers a ridiculously coherent, sane window management. Nobody agrees with all the choices the Gnome Team took to get here, but it sure is nice there being one way of doing everything that makes sense contextually.

      • By donmcronald 2026-02-1320:07

        I don't even know if Gnome and Gnome Shell are the same thing. One thing I do know is the default install of Gnome on Debian 13 leaves you without a dock, without a system tray, and without minimize/maximize buttons. They purposely remove the three most important tools the average user relies on for navigation.

        It's like trying to make a car without any round edges because "square edges are better". Good luck with the wheels!

        I can fix that somewhat with extensions, but every normal person I know will take one look at the defaults and abandon it. That's a reasonable choice in my opinion. Why use something where the first interaction gives you a clear indication you're going to be fighting against developer ideology?

      • By horsawlarway 2026-02-1316:511 reply

        I agree.

        If you want to customize your DE a lot - Gnome isn't for you.

        If you just want a clean and productive environment by default... Gnome is great.

        Once you stop fighting it, sigh, and go with the flow... modern Gnome is genuinely pleasant in that I spend almost zero time thinking about it, and shit just works.

        I still run other DEs for some specific purposes where "general use" isn't the goal, but I can reliably hand non-technical family members a machine with Gnome and they don't have to come ask me a bunch of questions.

        • By microtonal 2026-02-1319:19

          My problem with GNOME (after having used it as my main desktop on my Linux systems for many years) is that it removes some really useful features and they are not just expert features, but also features that non-technical users are used to, such as system tray icons and menu bars. You can bring them back with GNOME Extensions, but for instance, the system tray icon extensions are very buggy.

          KDE on the other hand just has these and is also great out-of-the-box (I pretty much run stock KDE).

    • By readme 2026-02-1314:152 reply

      Even gnome tries to be too modern imo. KDE is perfect. I used to feel like KDE was too much like a toy. Now by comparison it looks utilitarian.

      • By Munky-Necan 2026-02-1314:22

        I've been using KDE for a decade and I completely agree. It used to be only better than GNOME because I could remove features from it and now I run completely stock KDE and it's solid compared to anything else.

      • By dlcarrier 2026-02-1316:311 reply

        I bought an SBC that booted into Gnome on the official disk image, and it didn't recognize my mouse. It was entirely unusable. In applications that were part of Gnome itself, like the settings menu, it was impossible to navigate using tab and arrow keys.

        • By hollandheese 2026-02-1322:09

          >settings menu, it was impossible to navigate using tab and arrow keys.

          Huh? All you need is tab and the arrow keys to navigate the GNOME Settings app. I'm literally doing that right now. Maybe it was a later addition but it works perfectly fine in GNOME 49.

    • By kilroy123 2026-02-1313:321 reply

      I think you can absolutely set up a Linux box for grandma / grandpa.

      • By Loudergood 2026-02-1315:201 reply

        Anyone who lives in the browser really. My mom and my kids all are on Ubuntu these days.

        • By horsawlarway 2026-02-1316:44

          Anyone who lived in a browser was fine a decade ago.

          At this point... it's basically anyone who doesn't want to play competitive mp games with poorly implemented anti-cheat, or who doesn't have niche legacy hardware (ex - inverters, CNCs, oscopes, etc).

          Steam tackling the gaming side of things has basically unlocked the entire Windows consumer software ecosystem for linux. It's incredibly easy to spin up windows only applications with nothing but GUI only software on most distros at this point.

          Crazy how much better a system with a modern linux kernel and Gnome or KDE is than Windows 11. I'm at the point where I also prefer it to macOS... which is funny since I think Gnome was basically playing "copy apple" for a bit there 5 years ago, but now has really just become the simpler, easier to use DE.

    • By hs86 2026-02-1313:552 reply

      In the past few years, I’ve started to develop a form of “upgrade dread” when it comes to OS upgrades. What are they going to enshittify now? What are they going to drop support for now?

      This somehow excluded Linux and its DEs, and I eagerly read any news, changelogs, and announcements in this space. They’re still not perfect in every aspect, but at least I see things improving instead of public turf wars between departments trying to improve their KPIs.

      Why is there an extra URL handler for MS Edge that bypasses the default browser config? Why is the search bar this wide in the default taskbar config instead of showing a simple button? Why are local searches always sent to Bing with no easy way to switch it off or change the search provider?

      • By jraph 2026-02-1314:252 reply

        > I’ve started to develop a form of “upgrade dread” when it comes to OS upgrades.

        I've been going the other way on Linux.

        I used to think it might be wise to postpone updates if you were traveling, especially using a rolling distro. Today, I would be quite confident running the updates 10 minutes before leaving.

        Granted, this is also because I'm more confident than ever that I could fix most breakages, and worst case the smartphone is there, but I've also not seen big breakages for years.

        • By kccqzy 2026-02-1419:06

          I have a somewhat opposite experience. I also use a rolling distro, and in the past six months, I've seen wine break, and I've also seen Citrix Workspace break due to a dependency problem (perhaps Mesa?). Granted, these two cases are somewhat unusual because Citrix Workspace is closed source and the software I'm running with wine is also closed source. I rarely experience breakages of open source software other than GNOME extensions.

        • By microtonal 2026-02-1319:22

          Yep. I run NixOS unstable-small on my ThinkPad and there is rarely breakage in daily updates. If it ever happens while on the go, I can just boot into a previous generation. The immutable OSTree/bootc distros are similar, as well as openSUSE, which uses btrfs snapshots on updates.

      • By Tannic 2026-02-1316:13

        [dead]

    • By kreco 2026-02-1313:29

      In all fairness I wouldn't recommend macOS to my grandparent either.

    • By zimmund 2026-02-1314:061 reply

      Given that a lot of things happen in the browser, I think it wouldn't be too crazy. There are even distros that look like Windows if you're after that. What part of it do you think isn't ready for this scenario? (honestly curious)

      • By olivierestsage 2026-02-1319:14

        I wouldn't know what to recommend for "just works" photo syncing from the phone à la iCloud.

    • By Finnucane 2026-02-1313:53

      There are no good options for grandma these days. I've been helping my 85-yr-old mother with her computer stuff (she has an iMac) and there's so much user-hostile, broken stuff--not just on the Mac itself, but many of the internet-based services she has to use--it makes you want to take a baseball bat to the while affair.

    • By edoloughlin 2026-02-1313:411 reply

      I set up Elementary OS for my 79 yr old mother. No issues.

      • By ronjouch 2026-02-1313:45

        Similar experience here: I setup Debian stable for my 76 yo mother, and for a 79 yo friend. Works like a charm, and the 2 years release schedule is perfect for people who don’t care about bleeding edge and would rather have stability.

        Unattended security upgrades keep it secure, and in my experience a bit of initial “locking things down and simplifying” is valuable, but after this it’s smooth sailing compared to other older folks I help with Windows systems where MS is constantly throwing at them insane bugs, complete UX changes, ads, or Copilot everywhere.

    • By smallstepforman 2026-02-1314:10

      You’ve never tried Haiku, you’re missing out on a remarkable desktop experience.

    • By AshamedCaptain 2026-02-1316:511 reply

      If you want to compare on the basis of microissues like this one, then note that KDE Plasma has exactly the same issue with the resizing area of rounded corner windows aa the one pointed by TFA.

      • By estebank 2026-02-1318:161 reply

        On the other hand, it does have Alt+right click & drag as a mechanism that doesn't require any manual dexterity to hit arbitrary edges.

        • By someguyiguess 2026-02-1321:181 reply

          Oh yes. Alt+right click + drag. How intuitive. (not)

          • By estebank 2026-02-1323:00

            Learnability and usability are related but independent concepts. This feature is difficult to find out about unless told, relatively easy to remember once you first learn about it, and very intuitive once you try it out. Dragging from the corner is slightly easier to stumble upon or infer, but most people will learn about it because they were told about it. The alt drag version (both for resizing and moving windows around without having to go to the title bar) is in addition, becomes second nature quickly and is significantly nicer once you learn it.

    • By amelius 2026-02-1314:012 reply

      The main problem is that Apple wants to be opinionated. Linux is the polar opposite of that. People used to say the latter is bad, but it turns out the former is way worse (many hackers of course already knew this).

      > Not quite at the point I'd recommend them for grandma and grandpa, but not that far off, either.

      But at this point grandma and grandpa are the only ones I'd recommend to use Apple devices.

      • By doodpants 2026-02-1314:192 reply

        Opinionated design was great back when Apple's Human Interface Guidelines were based on concrete user testing and accessibility principles. The farther we get from the Steve Jobs era, the more their UI design is based on whatever they think looks pretty, with usability concerns taking a back seat.

        • By ryandrake 2026-02-1316:261 reply

          It was good because it was both Opinionated (in other words, the path to write software that follows the design was easy, and the paths to write software that violated the design were hard), and also well-researched by human interface experts.

          Now what we appear to have is "someone's opinion" design. A bunch of artists decided their portfolios were a little light and they needed to get their paintbrushes out to do something. I don't work at Apple, but my guess is that their HI area slowly morphed from actual HCI experts into an art department, yet retained their power as experts in machine interaction.

          So here we are, we still have Opinionated design, but it might just be based on some VP's vibes rather than research.

          • By system7rocks 2026-02-1318:09

            I don't like to paint Apple as being completely incompetent (but damn have they been screwing stuff up), but I do think trying to solidify the experiences around a common codebase has become untenable. The idea is great thought - write one app that works on macOS, iPadOS, iPhoneOS, visionOS, etc. What a time saver that is for developers - but the problem is that screen sizes and interactions with those different platforms vary. Yes, resizing a window with your clunky finger needs a bit more wriggle room, while a pixel precise mouse or touchpad is a lot different.

        • By someguyiguess 2026-02-1321:19

          And ironically, it has also gotten far less pretty. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was beautiful. Tahoe is flat and generic looking.

      • By virgil_disgr4ce 2026-02-1314:381 reply

        Opinionation (heh, opinionatedness?)'s value is entirely different depending on the user category.

        Hackers by and large don't want opinionated, because they're willing to spend the time configuring & customizing AND have the knowledge to do so.

        Just about everyone else (as far as I can tell) very specifically do not want this, and for those who do, the amount of customizeability e.g. MacOS offers is enough. Having an immediately-useable computer (recent problems notwithstanding) is of much greater value.

        So when you say "The main problem is that Apple wants to be opinionated" I can only conclude that you're coming at this from the 'hacker' POV. But I may be misunderstanding your comment.

        • By amelius 2026-02-1314:431 reply

          I think the problem is that opinionatedness assumes that the average user exists and represents the majority of your users.

          But every user is in many ways non-average.

          Thus if you create a system tailored at the average user, then none of your users will be happy.

          • By virgil_disgr4ce 2026-02-201:49

            > But every user is in many ways non-average.

            This is objectively true. There's an excellent 99PI about exactly this: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/on-average/

            > Thus if you create a system tailored at the average user, then none of your users will be happy.

            This is objectively false. Some users will find some frustration or unhappiness with certain things, but remarkably, there are plenty of software UIs that get the job done for just about everyone.

    • By someguyiguess 2026-02-1321:171 reply

      This has to be sarcasm. Either that or you have never used KDE or Gnome even once in your life. No DE for Linux is anywhere near as polished as the DE in Mac OS. You have to spend hours customizing KDE or CFCE to get them to function even halfway near what an average user would expect. Gnome is okay but so bloated and even more opinionated than MacOS or Windows.

      • By olivierestsage 2026-02-1321:331 reply

        This is definitely not the case, and I invite anyone reading this comment to install a Linux distribution themselves in a VM or something to find out via direct experience. Fedora is a good place to start in my opinion.

        • By lunar_rover 2026-02-149:49

          Window management mostly works fine, but app design is years behind.

          KDE Dolphin has a static toolbar like Finder, with its config menu being two lists like some Microsoft toolbars, and the available items list is sorted alphabetically.

          The flat view switcher is multiple separate items, named directly after their corresponding view type, one called list, another called icons and so on.

          So if you want a Finder style view switcher, you first need to know it exists beforehand because the naming is confusing, then you need to know how many views are available beforehand because they're separate items, and finally you need to hunt them down because the list is alphabetical.

          This is pretty much the quality you can expect when using KDE software.

          Another example is breadcrumbs, the current folder doesn't have an arrow, so you can't browse deeper with it without perhaps expanding folders, unlike on Windows 7. Side bar favourites also replace the top folder, so if you browse the home folder with it you'll often find yourself suddenly unable to use it.

    • By tracker1 2026-02-1318:30

      Of course I've been using Cosmic for most of the past year now... It's getting better, but still some rough edges... the launch bar still doesn't feel quite right, and there's still times where keyboard navigation doesn't quite work right/smoothly.

      It's speedy though.

    • By russellbeattie 2026-02-1314:233 reply

      > "...while KDE and Gnome slowly get better and better"

      These projects have been around for literally decades and really haven't changed much during that time. I think what you're noticing is that Linux desktops are as good as they always have been, but since Apple and Microsoft keep messing with theirs for marketing reasons, in comparison it seems that Linux GUIs are improving.

      • By olivierestsage 2026-02-1316:45

        Gnome has improved significantly since the difficult Gnome 3 launch, and KDE Plasma was a massive upgrade that keeps getting better all the time.

      • By bsimpson 2026-02-1315:53

        This feels untrue. Granted I haven't tracked it closely, but the Adwaita design system and the GNOME HIG feel like relatively recent developments.

      • By array_key_first 2026-02-1318:18

        This is just not true at all. Yes Gnome and KDE are old, but they've changed SIGNIFICANTLY.

        Gnome 2 => 3 was a bigger and more ambitious transition than anything Microsoft has done. Except maybe DOS => NT. Same thing with KDE 3 => 4.

        KDE gets new features on a very regular basis and they're not just, like, little checkboxes added here or there. No. Theyre huge changes. New system resource monitor, new notification center, new widget editor, new panel editor, window tiling... the list goes on. And that's just, like, the past 2 ish years.

        Linux GUIs are improving, and rapidly. Before, they were close. But the gap keeps widening. At this point, KDE is so unbelievably far ahead of windows in terms of UI, UX, usability, performance, and feature set that it doesn't seem fair. I don't know if Microsoft can catch up. And, if they could, it would take multiple versions of windows.

    • By mohragk 2026-02-1313:50

      I disagree.

      I've actually bought a Mac Mini which I use for media consumption and run it besides my Linux (Cachy OS) gaming PC. I have a jellyfin server, but the media client for linux is totally broken.

      And, when you use an nvidia card, you really have to do a deep dive on which settings and which render client you want to run. I now have a stable solution that runs KDE Plasma via Wayland, that allows for games to run smoothly. It took me a while to figure that out.

      The Linux community also, quite frankly, sucks. When you need to figure something out, you really need to make it a study and only if you know the correct jargon, you are deemed worthy of help. Othrwise you're bombarded with rtfm comments.

    • By qaq 2026-02-1316:07

      actually hunting for i9 macbook in good shape to switch to linux after decades on mac

    • By wonnage 2026-02-1319:521 reply

      As long as you stay far away from Wayland, flatpaks, and nVidia drivers

      • By hollandheese 2026-02-1322:13

        Wayland and flatpaks work perfectly fine. nVidia drivers on the other hand...

    • By bjackman 2026-02-1313:531 reply

      My mother (age 70, non technical) uses Gnome with no issues.

      • By bpavuk 2026-02-1314:44

        Gnome is just perfect for non-techies :)

        my mother and younger sister both prefer it over default Windows 10/11 design. mum says, "feels similar to my phone [pure Android 12] yet I can do so much more".

        given that sister only really needs Steam Big Picture and everything mother uses is already in Flathub or defined in a Nix flake, they didn't experience any ecosystem issues

    • By kevstev 2026-02-1318:59

      I don't love all the new tahoe stuff, and do wish I could go roll back, but this hand wringing around Apple is way overblown IMHO. What he is reporting is real, but in my actual usage I haven't noticed this at all- in other words, if this wans't called out, I am not sure I would have ever realized it.

      Tbh I have always found window management on Macs to be annoying and something to be avoided- Rectangle or something similar is one of the first things I install and try to use the shortcuts to just put windows in either a quarter or half of the screen.

      That said, I use Macbooks for the hardware, if for whatever reason I had to switch to Linux I would just shrug and not care one bit. It took me a few years to realize, but MSFT just disappeared from my life one day and I didn't even notice.

    • By microtonal 2026-02-1319:08

      Also, for some reason KDE renders everything super-fast/smoothly on my 120Hz 4k display, whereas macOS on Apple Silicon is often stuttering (no, it's not the Electron bug). The tables really turned, when I first switched to macOS on the desktop in 2007, the GPU-based rendering was insanely good compared to... pretty much everyone else.

      Rather than evolutionary improvements we get Liquid Glass and ads in iWork applications. The enshittification has started I guess.

    • By fleroviumna 2026-02-141:09

      [dead]

    • By sgt 2026-02-1314:144 reply

      Sorry but you clearly haven't used macOS. Linux on the desktop is still about 15 years behind, and I tried it recently. It's such an inconsistent experience it's almost hilarious.

      Speaking as a Tahoe user by the way who is not experiencing any issues to speak of (on 26.0.1 - and I can't reproduce the resizing inconsistency either). I've been using macOS since 2003 (back when it was called Mac OS X) and before that I was a Linux desktop user since 1996.

      • By olivierestsage 2026-02-1316:48

        I used macOS as my daily driver from Tiger to last year, actually. I don’t know what the inconsistencies you’re referring to are, but I certainly prefer them to cloud account nagging and constant attempts to monetize user behavior, which is the modern macOS experience.

      • By readme 2026-02-1314:16

        which desktop experience did you try

        i'm a daily mac os x user (for a long time) and I think kde plasma is better

      • By endemic 2026-02-1315:06

        I'd be curious to hear more specifics regarding the "15 years behind" and "inconsistent experience."

      • By jraph 2026-02-1314:18

        Inconsistent experience maybe, but does this inconsistency really get in the way of actual work?

    • By carlosjobim 2026-02-1316:37

      If you're a developer or sys admin, sure. Or nowadays, if you're a gamer.

      If your computer work is anything else, Macs are still decades ahead. With the highest quality software available for any task at cheap prices.

      I can't work with a sub-par e-mail client, calendar, no good invoicing app, photo editing, etc.

      And web apps do not cut it if working with these things is your job.

      As for grandma and grandpa, iPad is their solution. With all the faults of the devices.

  • By learn_more 2026-02-130:414 reply

    >In total the thickness went down from 7 to 6 pixels, which is a 14% decrease, making it 14% more likely to miss it.

    Pedantic, but chance of miss is actually less than 14% more likely since the user's click location is not uniformly random over the thickness area, it's biased toward the center (normally distributed).

    • By eviks 2026-02-134:532 reply

      Pedantic, you don't know the distribution, so the chance could be higher

      • By odie5533 2026-02-137:141 reply

        The reduction was specifically to the in-window side of the edge, so it's definitely greater than 14%.

        • By Nition 2026-02-138:211 reply

          Interesting, I've always approached from the outside in.

          • By rezonant 2026-02-138:412 reply

            I approach from whatever side the mouse happens to be on...

            • By disconcision 2026-02-1316:59

              never thought about it before but after playing with it a while i notice i tend to approach from the right, which means moving out if i'm inside on the right side. i think this is because my positioning accuracy seems to be higher moving leftwards than rightwards...

      • By adammarples 2026-02-149:231 reply

        We can safely assume they're more likely to be close to the edge they're trying to grab than some random location on the window

        • By eviks 2026-02-149:58

          Aim wider: why window and not screen?

    • By montroser 2026-02-131:45

      Yeah, and not to mention the increase in likelihood click events the user intends for the application will make it through successfully, rather than being stolen by the window manager.

    • By patrickmay 2026-02-1315:19

      Technically correct is the best kind of correct.

    • By dagi3d 2026-02-131:172 reply

      I had similar thought but didn't want to be that guy.

      • By andrei_says_ 2026-02-131:46

        My take is sometimes we get paid to be that guy and precision has its place and value.

        We get lost when being right is seen as having value - instead of improving clarity and precision if needed in a specific context.

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