I'm curious if you bought a laptop or if you bought a windows 10 license and did a fresh install?
When I built my PC with windows 10, the experience was way different from buying a laptop with windows 10. The laptop manufacturer purposely loaded a bunch of bloatware that I had to get rid of.
I also don't launch any apps from the start menu. I usually click the search bar and then type the name of the app then hit enter. So maybe that's another area that I don't see that other people consider noisy.
A person’s main task shouldn’t be computing, but to be human. Yes things can be improved with a bit of effort, but Mac OS doesn’t require so much fighting.
I just booted a new-to-me MacBook and I only had to clean a few icons from the dock. It took me two days to decrapify my Microsoft-built Surface Go 2 before I returned it.
I use Windows to launch and run a single game, and it can’t even do that without pissing me off.
That's probably because you're used to it so you're biased without even realizing you're biased, since everything is second nature to you at this point, but give a person new to the Apple ecosystem a Mac and see what happens.
When I first touched a MacBook a few years ago, during a job interview, I bombed it because, as a long term user of Windows and Linux, instead of being able to focus on coding the sorting algorithm, I was too busy fighting MacOS (some swipe gesture on the touchpad or some hot corner hid away my coding window and browser or the entire virtual desktop, and I didn't know how to restore them to get back to work).
So yea, to me, MacOS is horrible for first time users as it's full of these hidden cryptic gotchas.
There's a big difference between "I struggle to use a new technology" and "I am familiar with this technology, but it's built to serve its own ends over mine"
Maybe good technology shouldn't require (even tech savvy) users to struggle with it. IIRC Motorola (or someone else, maybe Braun, I can't remember exactly who) originally had a philosophy, which Apple later also adopted, but seems to have forgotten about lately, which stated that "if a user actually needs to pull out the manual in order to figure out how to use the product, then the product is a UX failure".
Like I said before, and I'm saying it as a fan of your work, but your viewpoint on the OS has little substance in it and can be shortened to "I just like MacOS and I really hate Windows, period", which would have been fairer to say than your original one liner which seems heavily biased, as you did not provide any arguments to why one is better than the other. Not saying Linux or Windows are better but at least I gave you precise example from my personal life where MacOS just bombs new users completely and I can in no way crown it a great UX example that gets out of your way and lets you get work done.
Each to his own of course, but for healthy debates it's good to provide some arguments and comparison points when picking out winners over losers instead of just throwing hot personal opinions around as facts. Like, you say you "refuse to go near Windows", which is fine, but how can I trust your unbiased opinion on it when you didn't go near it? Would you believe a car review from someone who didn't actually drive the car?
> can be shortened to "I just like MacOS and I really hate Windows, period"
Which is a perfectly reasonable stance. I have used Mac OS, Windows and Linux for many years each, and Mac OS is the one that supports my use case the best. If your experience differs and you picked something else, that's fine too.
There are no winners and losers, because those choices are not part of our identity. I'd be happy if we could move past that, because one more year of this debate won't settle anything.
> A person’s main task shouldn’t be computing, but to be human.
Ok that's fine. I'm not sure what part of my statement required computing vs being human. Installing an OS isn't some herculean effort, and if you're fine with Linux then I'm sure you would agree with that statement. And if you bought a laptop, "decrapifying" it is a one day thing. It's not a continous fight that you're having everyday.
> I use Windows to launch and run a single game, and it can’t even do that without pissing me off.
Why? If it's just because you don't like windows, that's fine, but I think it reads a lot better if you say that instead of masquerading your opinion as some objective fact that applies to everyone:
> A good operating system: Mac OS. Windows has become so user-hostile that I refuse to get near it. Linux breaks the rule above: a person's primary task should not be computing, but being human.
This gives me no information on what constitutes a good OS. You talk about how we shouldn't be computing but being human, and give a bunch of great examples, but none of them are OS specific:
Notifications, email, calendar, apps, social media, news and feeds, reddit, websites, and behavior.
None of these are OS specific induced noise, with the exception of notifications. And in the case of notifications I feel like a Mac requires more effort to turn them off.
Anyways, I agree with the overall premise, but I think it would have been a much better read if you had said something like: "A good operating system: Whichever OS makes you work the most productively, for me that's Mac OS."
Linux doesn't necessarily make people feel like they're computing and not being human, and Windows can be less user hostile depending on the person. Anyways, good article, I was just curious if there might have been specific instances that caused these feelings. I'm buying my first MacBook in over 10 years in November and I'm interested to see if my opinion changes :)
UX is just a feeling. Mac OS just works for me, and generally gets out of the way. Windows frustrates me because it does not respect my consent. Linux frustrates me because it offers me freedom I don't need at a cost I'm not ready to pay.
I frankly wish that we could talk about something else. It's a really boring topic and I have nothing to add. Just try it and see if it works for you.
When I built my PC with windows 10, the experience was way different from buying a laptop with windows 10. The laptop manufacturer purposely loaded a bunch of bloatware that I had to get rid of.
I also don't launch any apps from the start menu. I usually click the search bar and then type the name of the app then hit enter. So maybe that's another area that I don't see that other people consider noisy.