Former Microsoft exec explain how a behavioral psychologist utilized Fitts’s law to place the Windows 95 Start button in the bottom-left.
Former Microsoft exec explain how a behavioral psychologist utilized Fitts’s law to place the Windows 95 Start button in the bottom-left.
I have to use Mac’s for work now and I will never understand how in 2026, they still insist on having both a dock and a system menu bar.
Like guys, it’s 2026, you can do all the OS stuff in one space, and leave the rest of the screen open for application stuff.
The dock is basically just an application launcher/switcher and can be hidden. Personally, I much prefer the MacOS way of doing most things to either Windows or Linux. But, to each their own.
It takes up as much screen space as the Windows taskbar while doing a fraction as much.
In windows that same screen spaces acts an application launcher / switcher, but also an individual window launcher / switcher, and a clock, utility, and notification space.
Mac smears half of those into a fully separate system bar that takes up even more space.
It’s not a mac vs anyone thing, it’s not a mac way of doing things, it’s not like if they had a better dock the whole OS would have to change or fall apart, it’s simply just a badly designed dock / taskbar.
They are not objectively worse than the way Windows does it. I find it way better. The Mac way works better for me. I’ve used Windows and Linux and prefer the menu bar and dock. On Linux, I’ll use a DE that mimics the Mac way.
You may not like it. It may be inefficient for the way you work but it’s not objectively worse. There can be more than one way to do desktop interfaces. It’s OK.
I listed objective UX shortcomings with it.
I’m open to being convinced that you honestly think it’s better than the Windows one, if you can explain why.
Otherwise this sounds like reflexive defensiveness.
On Linux especially you can customize a dock to behave literally exactly the same way as Mac, so it’s honestly kind of nonsense to say that you prefer Mac’s way.
Have they fixed the full screen blocking important buttons already?
Or are users still using floating screens everywhere because that is the only way to use them effectively?
Nope, they have not. It’s honestly a terrible OS.
I hide all that stuff and just use keyboard shortcuts. (I also use a MacBook for work like you)