As a longtime macOS user, while I don't mind the rest of how it handles windows/apps I've never liked the fullscreen mode that was added in 10.7, and the GNOME fullscreen mode mentioned in the blog post is identical. I don't maximize windows often, but when I do I don't usually want the window to be spirited away to its own separate universe, and the apps that actually need fullscreen implement that functionality independent of the window manager.
It's interesting they're considering implementing a way for apps to signal to the window manager the size it prefers for its windows. This has been a concept on OS X since 10.0, though it's only ever been used by the OS figuring out what size to zoom to/from when the user clicks the green zoom button. If this feature makes the cut it I'll be curious to see what other uses they find for it.
One concept I'd like to see return in modern desktop environments are 2D grid virtual desktops. OS X 10.5/10.6 had what I'd consider the best implementation of the idea and I loved it. It leveraged spatial memory much better than the linear layouts popular these days, especially with short smooth animations to make movements between desktops more concrete mentally. 2D grid virtual desktops can still be found in more "old school" type DEs like XFCE but the level of polish isn't comparable.
> the GNOME fullscreen mode mentioned in the blog post is identical
after being given a macbook pro for work, i can't stop thinking that gnome developers/designers people are just people that didn't manage to get hired by Apple, and just keep copying mac os over and over again.
What GNOME takes from macOS is mostly things that are shared with iPadOS, interestingly. The Mac-unique bits, especially anything power user oriented, don’t typically get copied.
So if anything I’d say that GNOME is more like a desktop reimagining of iPadOS.
I used to think that GNOME 3 was a poor rip-off of Unity, which was a quite decent rip-off of OS X which I still enjoy using today. I am typing in a Waterfox window under Unity right now.
But then I worked out that no, that's just cosmetics, similarly to ElementaryOS. In fact, it's a desktop version of iOS/iPadOS, as implemented by people who don't know how to drive MS Windows with the keyboard, so they reinvented a whole bunch of stuff.
> As a longtime macOS user, while I don't mind the rest of how it handles windows/apps I've never liked the fullscreen mode that was added in 10.7, and the GNOME fullscreen mode mentioned in the blog post is identical. I don't maximize windows often
As a longtime Windows user who recently moved to Linux, I can't live without fullscreen mode: all my apps are run in fullscreen, not with F12 """fullscreen""", just normally and without useless decorations like a titlebar.
I love the new UI that started on Windows, where Edge doesn't lose a full line to a useless titlebar and close button: instead, there's a X at the top right.
You'll wonder, but what if I need to resize the window or move it? But as I run my windows in fullscreen mode, I don't need to do that: if I want to start a terminal, it's started on another "virtual desktop" where it'll also be run in fullscreen mode
Someone else said they thought "tabs on browsers were invented because no desktop environment or GUI toolkit ever came up with a decent solution" - I don't want a decent solution!
I'd rather have edge offer me vertical tabs with icons, wezterm offer horizontal tabs with ascii text and so on - more room for content! And no tabs when there's only 1 opened tab, and ideally, no space lost for the scrollbar either: unless I'm actively scrolling, I don't need to see it.
> One concept I'd like to see return in modern desktop environments are 2D grid
It's too complicated: just give me a line, with numbers from say 1 to 9 like the numbers on my keyboard: if I press Win + 1, take me to that desktop. If I'm already there and the app I pinned to that desktop isn't there, start it.
> the level of polish isn't comparable
Try hyprland with Arch: before I did, I thought I hated Linux, turns out I just hated Gnome and Ubuntu.
macOS's full screen mode is like the experience of using hyprland. It is vastly inferior. Yes, it hides window decorations and that is good. But its lacking shortcuts to switch directly to a particular workspace (so it lacks the Win + 1 feature that you are talking about, you can only transition between workspaces with a keyboard in order with ctrl + left or right)
> it lacks the Win + 1 feature that you are talking about, you can only transition between workspaces with a keyboard in order with ctrl + left or right
I hate it when I can't change the shortcut to be what *I* like, so I'm not a big fan of macOS either.
hyprland looks better and that's important, but to me its #1 strength is how you can use it as a solid base to build your workflow, with whatever keyboard or mouse shortcuts or even a mix of them (like Win + mouse dragging is often configured to reposition windows in non-tiling mode)
The number of people talking about how great it was, while it's much more recent that sway: it was too high to just be by chance.
Eyecandy is important, and so is flexibility: check https://github.com/end-4/dots-hyprland and you'll see very different styles made from the same hyprland that I use in "each window is fullscreen" mode.
But to stay with a desktop, you've got to integrate it to your workflow, and what made me stick to hyprland is that it's possible to define a keyboard oriented workflow, like I had on Windows
FYI, there's no default panel in hyprland: if you want something you've got to configure it. ewww or waybar give you something like a dock or a taskbar, while wofi gives you menus.
For wofi, I have configured the window key to open a textual list of all the apps I have install, so if I press Win it list them all, if I follow by vl it shows VLC as the only remaining entry: I can then start VLC by just hitting enter, which also makes this menu vanish as wofi runs in transparent mode over the top window.
I don't like to do that often: if I find myself using something often, I assign it a number between 0 and 9 to have it as Win+number.
> Is there any showcase that shows actual work
Not any that I have bookmarked, because I'm used to hyprland and I wouldn't have ever thought about watching how other people use it.
But here's an example from the last 30 seconds from my actual workflow where I'm using my own remapped shortcuts (some people may need F1, F2 etc to be actually doing their "function" but I don't, so I've remapped them to jump directly between desktop)
I pressed F1 to go to desk 1 where wezterm is running, to check how some long running operation is going, then F2 to go back to edge to type this: I have different shortcuts for the desktop, like Win+PageUp and Win+PageDn configured to move to the next or previous one, but I seem to prefer one-key shortcuts to go directly to the one I want, so I've remapped Win+F1 to instead "transfer" a window to desk 1, say if I want something tiled next to the terminal.
While I typed this message on HN I remember to do something, so I pressed Win-Grave to open zimwiki in "floating" mode above the edge browser full screen, started taking my note, then I realized I needed to test something in a terminal, so I quickly spawned a foot terminal next to the floating zim with Win+Enter (a shortcut I've setup to get myself a terminal immediately) and used Win+Left to change the splitting ratio to get more room for the terminal, doing Win+Tab to move the focus back and forth between the terminal and zim.
When I was done, I pressed Control-D to close my terminal, and Win-Grave to stash away as I may have to take more notes later.
This is how I use hyprland, like how I was using Windows 11 before, with some custom AutoHotKey scripts to be a keyboard-only workflow.
I mostly use full screen apps and spend 95% of my time between the terminal and the browser, which I each prefer fullscreen on their own desktop
Sometimes I do tiling: when I tile something next to the terminal, I have wezterm running on my desktop 1: so F1 takes me there, where I will start whatever I need with Win + the first letter of the name.
Win+J change the tiling, so if there're only 2 windows tiled vertically, they become tiled horizontally
The rare few times I need a mouse experience, Win+F "floats" the window which is more like what you get from a traditional window manager: I can press on the hotkey + use the mouse to resize or move the window to a specific part of the screen, but I don't think I've done that in the past weeks or even the past months!
I’ve taken a peek at hyprland in the past and it looks great for what it is, but tiling is not my cup of tea, and even if it can be configured to float everything by default its design isn’t floating-first.
I use almost exclusively fullscreen windows in macos. A couple of apps are splitscreen. I like to have 2 terminals side by side. And there is a kitchen sink screen where I put random windows.
I tried that (e.g. having one workspace for my fullscren IDE, then to the "right" of that a workspace with a fullscreen terminal), but I found macOS rearranged my workspaces, so about 10% of the time when I went to the app by Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right I'd end up looking at a different app. So annoying!
I found there was an "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use" which I could switch off, which helped, but it still did it sometimes (I can't remember why now).
So now I just don't use that feature at all, which is a shame. It was just too jarring to be looking at the wrong thing 10% of the time, really broke the flow.
Plus when you use Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right you have to wait for the animation to end before typing, otherwise your key presses are lost, which isn't great when you want to Ctrl-Right twice to get to the terminal and then type a command. Have to always remember to wait 0.5 seconds or so before typing otherwise you've typed "s -l" rather than "ls -l" etc.
Do you have the same problems, and if so how did you solve them? I'd love to be able to use this feature but for me it was just too annoying.
Yes, you must switch off the rearrangement. Never had a problem with it. I 3-finger-swipe. Don't know if that's any different from using the keyboard.
Waiting for the animation is annoying and stupid. macos knows where the focus will end up and should ate least switch it when halfway there. It is a bug imho.
I hate fullscreen mode, and I use an addon, Rightzoom, to disable it. I don't use gestures, and I sold my Magic Trackpad. I use a PC mouse on my Mac, with 5 buttons, including critically a middle button, which I use hundreds of times a day. And a mechanical clicky full-travel keyboard. I have 2 × 27" monitors and each is usually showing at least 2, maybe 3, windows. I only keep Spaces enabled for the independent menu bars; I never use the functionality.
I am not saying you're wrong. I just find it an amusing example of how different separate people's preferences can be.
It's interesting they're considering implementing a way for apps to signal to the window manager the size it prefers for its windows. This has been a concept on OS X since 10.0, though it's only ever been used by the OS figuring out what size to zoom to/from when the user clicks the green zoom button. If this feature makes the cut it I'll be curious to see what other uses they find for it.
One concept I'd like to see return in modern desktop environments are 2D grid virtual desktops. OS X 10.5/10.6 had what I'd consider the best implementation of the idea and I loved it. It leveraged spatial memory much better than the linear layouts popular these days, especially with short smooth animations to make movements between desktops more concrete mentally. 2D grid virtual desktops can still be found in more "old school" type DEs like XFCE but the level of polish isn't comparable.