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What I’d like to see in OS X 10.12 (medium.com/pier)
14 points by pier25 on March 18, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 15 comments



Some additions: no more allowing apps to steal focus, especially while typing; fix the Mac AppStore or ditch it; fix or kill "All My Files", it's useless and annoying that it's the default; separate iTunes from iPhone syncing; keep apps from popping up when peripherals are plugged in / or fully charge up and turn on (like an iPhone/iPad); please fix Safari (crashes like craaaazy [and Chrome eats my battery]).

I'm tired of my OS letting applications surprise me, popups, or modals stealing my focus.

Tired of twenty damn windows opening up everytime I plug in an iPhone—I know I can do this per device, but as a developer it's very painful.

My OS not surprising me and apps not stealing focus was a big reason why I was able to motivate myself to switch to OSX in the first place.


Thanks for stressing out on stealing focus! This is a complete nonsense that's pretty much omnipresent in OSes. How many time I've been typing a password when an app steals the input focus, and the password or parts of it gets posted where it shouldn't (I type it and press Enter mechanically).

Also, I don't think Apple will ever fix Mac App Store as it wants to keep its huge cut, and app developers will always find cheaper marketplaces such as MacUpdate.

It's ridiculous that I need to have the Mac App Store, MacUpdate, and Homebrew to do something as basic as installing apps and system components! I'm sure if Apple reduces its cut, it will get more revenue because many major apps have fled its App Store. On the phone your can twist arms, but not on the desktop!

The notification popups need to have a close button and be transparent! Sometimes they cover up important screen real estate; I can't see what's below, and I can't close them.

The inability to search within the current folder is also a joke! Sometimes a have thousands of files and search is global - just ridiculous!

Maybe I don't know how to do these things; maybe there's a way to do these things, but it's definitely not intuitive!


> The inability to search within the current folder is also a joke!

You can search in the current folder. It's a setting in Finder > Preferences > Advanced > "When performing a search".


Thanks! This has to be the default behavior, and not an "advanced" setting!


I agree. It's one of the things I always change on a new Mac or OSX install.


> no more allowing apps to steal focus

Is is new, like in Lion or newer? Focus-stealing was one of the things that made me leave Windows for a Mac in the first place. It's definitely a pain point for me today on OSX.


I've given ShiftIt (https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt) a go for window management. So far its been stable and works for 99% of applications (Adobe products being a very notable exception).

Also, it's very minor, but I wish the "Go to folder" shortcut (⇧⌘+G) would show me a list. I use that shortcut to jump around folders a lot and it'd be great if I could use the arrow keys to jump back in history in the same way you would "cd" commands in Bash.


Thanks for the link. First time I hear about ShiftIt.

About moving to folders with the keyboard I use Alfred which is a spotlight replacement and it has history of commands. You could even have your own extension (called workflows) to customise this as you wish if you know a bit of coding.

Check it out, it's extremely powerful: https://www.alfredapp.com/


Similarly, I use Quicksilver (https://qsapp.com/)


Double Clicking on Top end of Window Actually Maximize the window. ( Not full screen )

Files inside Folder should align like Windows, Folder Fist before everything else.

Open up Quicktime Player, I can preview everything with Add on but i cant view MKV and other media files?

Network Stack seems to be slower then Windows10 ( No idea why ) NAS, WiFi and Ethernet performance.

Completely agree on iTunes. Worst pieces of software, it needs to die just like Flash.

Saferi, Can i have proper tab overflow like Firefox instead of this fancy unuseable way of MultiTab.

And lots of lots of other small things, to be honest if it wasn't Windows 10 having poorer drivers support, and ugly User interface, it is in many ways better then OSX now.


Windows 10 is much more optimised than OSX. In my experience it runs faster and uses less memory in the same hardware.

But yeah, it's ugly, and it lacks things like Spotlight or Quick Look which make your life a lot easier.


And that is the problem, because Apple, owning both the Hardware and Software used to be the most optimized. Now Mac OSX lacks behind in performance and memory consumption, and if it wasn't for Safari being a better browser, Win10 will properly wins the Battery Performance race as well. ( Edge will likely change that )

UX on Windows 10 is better in many ways as well.Sigh


Full-screen on one monitor should still allow normal operation on the other. And even allowing another full-screen app on the other monitor(s). It's ridiculous to waste a monitor displaying my desktop background when I'm running something full-screen.


You can change that behaviour in System Preferences > Mission Control > Displays have separated spaces.

It doesn't make much sense that the options is there...


IMO, OS X is becoming bloatware




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