[mewpmewp2]

My work laptop is a macbook and I have been using it for over 5 years, but I still can't get a handle on it, even for a right click. I am not sure how people find MacOS so good. It just constantly goes against my intution and muscle memory.

I also hate how I have to constantly turn of the mouse acceleration at random times using CLI.

[windowsrookie]

Right click is just tap with two fingers. What issue are you having?

[mewpmewp2]

You are right it works, but I guess I somehow usually expect it to happen in a lighter way, without the actual click going through. And when I do it, it feels weird to me. It feels like I have to exert more force than I would find "pleasurable" or "intuitive" for a right click. Like I either expect there to be a button that I have to actually press, or if it's a touchpad it feels like it should work with a lighter tap. It feels like having to press too hard for something that doesn't actually seem to go physically down enough.

Another thing that feels really weird to me is the cmd button location.

On windows I would use ctrl + c and v, it's easy to use my pinky finger, but with mac I have to twist my thumb and index finger.

I don't know. I just can't get into it. All of those little actions that are smooth for me otherwise feel like quite a chore and a turn off.

[al_borland]

In the settings you can set how much force is needed, light, medium, or firm. Try changing it to light (if you haven't already). You can also enable tap-to-click there if you prefer the lightest touch. The settings area also shows all the various multitouch things that can be done, which is convenient place to learn them, or get a reminder.

In the settings you can also flip the modifier keys around, like control and command. Though that could lead to other weird things like trying to do control+c in the terminal. I usually use my ring and index, or middle finger and index. If you're using pinky for control, why switch to the thumb when you can use a closer finger that would be over command with your hand in the same position?

I will say the command+c does get a bit cramped, but I think command+v feels better than the stretch of control+v.

[mewpmewp2]

So I tried changing the settings, and somehow during that, I accidentally managed to change the size of my menubar, I don't know how. But anyway - even after changing to light, which also seemed an odd process to me that I had to do it as a range slider, where it snapped at certain point in time, even though I was moving my hand smoothly, which I guess is NOT that bad, but it could've been just 3 radio button options, not this goofy slider. And somehow when I click on the option the range option, this simple animation lags and skips. It just doesn't feel smooth animation. I don't have the latest M chip, but I do have an M1 Pro chip, so I'd imagine it should be able to handle animating a slider change... But I didn't finish my sentence previously. Even at light, it doesn't feel like I would intuitively expect it to feel. Something is still wrong.

And another random grievance - what is the point of only showing X, - and the other icon when you hover on them. It's just weird decision to me. The Red > Yellow > Green thing.

[mewpmewp2]

Yes, exactly - I did the ctrl cmd switch previously, but then there's

1. Magic Keyboard with no "fn" button.

2. Macbooks own keyboard with FN button. Which really messes with me, because my pinky expects the left most button to be the CTRL action button.

All of it messes with my brain so hard - it makes those little actions hurt me almost every time.

And as you said, different sets of terminals drive me just so crazy.

I might try the settings, but I also overall hate the MacOS settings, as it seems it's all just so obscure and weirdly limited, like someone has given me those random options that do not adhere to me at all. As mentioned previously, no easy ability to turn off acceleration, which keeps gaslighting me and not feeling right even after using CLI to turn it off.

My solution has been to opt just for a mouse, but Magic Mouse feels extremely terrible and awkward to hold. I have Logitech MX Master 3 - which feels nice, but not with Macbook. It sometimes randomly starts to skip and lag, I have to reset it. And it still feels like at times some force is working against me when I'm trying to move the mouse.

I still feel it just somehow working against me even if I have turned off the acceleration, despite it working well with Windows.

And then the MacBook animations, which feel horrible. The jumping up down thing, feels just annoying. The genie effect, terrible, the having to move the app to install it and then no loading indicator, horrible. I know I can turn off the Genie, yes, but it feels so cheesy and cheap animations.

I can honestly list countless things more that I hate about MacOS, but feel so smooth on Windows.

Spotlight feels better with latest MacOS version, but previous ones I always write something, and it just changes moment before, or it gives me irrelevant result. Because I either use spotlight to open the correct app or Windows btn, which is very responsive and always opens what I want.

The search for correct app should be realtime. Also I'm not going to go into window management....

Then one of the very common things I have to do, taking a screenshot from part of a screen and putting it in a clipboard to share with someone. I have to use I think 4 fingers?? And then another click. And all of those 4 fingers in such an awkward position.

[al_borland]

I get it. I'm generally in favor of not changing too much, so I can sit down at other systems and use them, or get a new one and not have to spend 2 weeks tweaking and tuning stuff. I figure I'll get used to it eventually. Some things take longer than others, and some things just require acceptance. Deciding that doing things the Apple-way will be easier than fighting against it. I gave in long ago and things got easier. When on Windows or Linux, I try to have the same mindset of doing it the way they intend. I went so far as to read documentation and watch videos to try and figured how the hell Gnome expects people to manage windows without a minimize option, as the add-ons for that seemed very hacky. I don't think I'll ever get used to throwing something in a new desktop instead of minimizing it, but I was working with someone from Red Hat who seemed to do it without even thinking about it, as if it was normal... which I guess it is on Gnome.

lol, yeah, the screenshot keyboard shortcut is crazy (3 fingers). It took me a while to get the muscle memory down, but once I did I liked the flexibility of it way more than Windows (at least at the time which just had print screen, while Apple could do the whole screen, a selection, or a window).

I suppose these days spotlight can open the screenshot utility, although I never think to do that since I've got it down. It's worth going in there at least once, as you can change some settings, like not showing that little thumbnail, automatically saving to the clipboard instead of a file... stuff like that, depending on your needs.

I had the benefit of using OS X since version 10.2, so each year when stuff came out I could just learn those things. If I was starting now it would take me forever to find all the random little stuff and where various settings are hidden away. I don't even know where I'd go to try and learn it all. I'd probably be frustrated as well.

[mewpmewp2]

Yeah - I just never feel like I truly have the time or I guess the motivation to keep up to date with those OS updates or releases. I only got Windows for my personal laptop just recently, and it still somehow feels completely natural to me. Despite the last one I seriously used frequently being Windows XP. I don't know if it's just because I spent most of my youth on Windows, and I was tuned to it or not, but MacOS feels like something I'm constantly fighting with.

The only terrible thing about Windows is development, but right now it feels like I'm almost satisfied with WSL2. In the past for my side projects I used to do dualboot.

But also I somehow like Windows design and animations so much better. Another thing about MacOS I can't get hang of is the menubar below and how the windows adjust to it. And it is especially confusing with multiple monitors setup.

I've been trying to "Wing It" to understand MacOS a lot, which I admit, and it hasn't really worked, but it feels like Windows works for me without putting in effort or having to watch any YouTube videos. And I don't think in my youth I watched any tutorials, it's just something that I learned naturally. Then is it my age, but I wasn't that old when I started with MacOS.

Something like even the "Finder" icon bothers me. What is this weird happy, artsy smile, and why can't it just be something that resembles folders? It's just so random, everything about MacOS feels so "random" for me.

Plenty of icons I can't understand, and sometimes the hover text appears on what they mean, sometimes it doesn't. Idk.

[jwells89]

For me the standard Command position is much more accessible than the standard Control position, no twisting needed — Control is the one that I find my hand having to contort to reach.

Control still gets used fairly often under macOS though, so it needs to be easy to reach, and my solution is to remap Caps Lock to Control which is pretty comfy. If this remap weren’t possible under Linux and Windows too I think I’d go insane using them.

[mewpmewp2]

Which fingers are you using to CMD + C? Because this is one of the more common things I would do and it feels bad every time, I'm using my thumb to press command and it doesn't feel well, and index finger on C.

I have to use side of my thumb to press the CMD kind of.

[jwells89]

Not in front of my computer right now but I’m pretty sure it’s thumb and index finger. Feels completely natural.

Maybe it has to do with hand size, finger/joint length, etc?

[mewpmewp2]

Okay. Otherwise do you in your natural state hold your left hand index on F and right hand index on J? Going to A on pinky on your left hand and the key after L on your right pinky?

Because I think I have pretty much average male hands, but if I have to do CMD and C, with this natural state position, I have to hit the CMD with pretty much the nail of my thumb sideways, unless I rotate my wrist a lot.

[codegrappler]

I find that changing the right click to the bottom right corner works well for me. I constantly have two fingers resting on the trackpad. Other replies have commented about using the thumb to click while you drag with another finger. I do that constantly so I just gave up on the two finger right click. It would trigger all the time when I didn’t want it to.

[reedciccio]

How do you middle-click?