Technology

Longtime Mac user here. Most of this is valid, and some of these are my biggest gripes.

A couple tips:

I can’t easily see the size of hard drives/folders and how much space is left available.

In the Finder, go to View > Show Status Bar. That'll show you free space easily. (This used to be on by default. I don't remember when they changed it, probably with 10.7 Lion's increased iOS-ification.)

Files are just scattered willy nilly in a folder instead of snapped to a grid unless I set that folders defaults…per folder?!

From a Finder window in icon view, go to View > Show View Options. Select Sort By > Snap to Grid, then click "Use as Defaults". Then it will apply to all your folders that use the default view. Why is "Snap to grid" under "Sort" when it does not sort? WHO KNOWS?!

That said, icon view suuuuuucks. Learn to love list view and you will be happier for it. I gave up on icon view like 25 years ago, after migrating from Mac OS 9. Apple half-assedly ported the Mac OS 9 Finder, and then proceeded to neglect it for a decade or two. At least you can change the grid spacing now.

Doesn’t like to display 1 window across 2 screens.

I'm not totally sure how it works now, but I think this changes if you go to System Settings > Desktop and Dock and turn off the "Displays have Separate Spaces" box.

I’m still not sure how to uninstall things.

There's no universal method. :(

Basic case: just drag the app to the trash. This will leave your user settings in place in ~/Library/Preferences.

Complex cases should have a vendor-supplied uninstaller. For manual cleanup, you have to hunt through your /Library and ~/Library folders to delete related junk from the vendor. Mostly this will be in the LaunchAgents and Application Support folders. But again, no universal method.

If I click x on a browser or app, it doesnt actually shut the program, it just minimizes it.

This is the one thing I strongly disagree about, although I totally understand how it feels wrong when you've spent years learning different behavior.

It's one of the biggest fundamental differences between Mac and Windows UI design, going all the way back to the 80s: Windows is window-centric (I mean...hence the name, right?), while Mac OS is application-centric.

You can still interact with Mac applications with no windows open, via the menu bar. Closing a window and quitting an application are two entirely different concepts. This is not the same as "minimizing" the app. An app can be in the foreground with no open windows. There are plenty of times when I close the last window in an app with the intent to continue using the app (e.g. opening another file or creating a new one).

Fun fact: many years ago, Apple made a few of their apps behave this way by default, with an option to change it back to normal Mac behavior. TextEdit, Preview, and maybe QuickTime Player. Just those few. I guess they wanted to accommodate Windows users' expectations, but it was so half-assed that all it did was ensure that everyone was confused at some point by the inconsistency. They only recently changed it back so we have consistency by default again, but now there's no option at all. Go figure. I wouldn't mind if they implemented an option in a whole-assed way, but I'd go absolutely batty if Windows-like behavior were forced on me.

Coming from an IT background. I 100% agree with this assessment.

The scroll thing is annoying. I like the “natural” scroll on a touchpad but not a mouse also.

The multi desktop is the same as on Windows and Linux… I don’t use it on any system. I like how MacOS handles fullscreen apps better than either of those.

You can disable the startup sound very easily: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102230

I have only used mirroring to external monitor and not extending a desktop, so I don’t know. As far as maximization I personally hate windows expanding when I move them to the top of the screen. It’s rarely what I want so I turn it off. If I want to maximize it, I hit the green button.

You uninstall Apps by dragging their folder from the Applications folder to the trash can.

Closing the window and leaving the application running is how MacOS has worked forever for some Steve Jobs reason. I am used to hitting Cmd-Q.

The folder stuff can be weird. The way the Desktop icons work is one of the worst aspects, thigh they kind of fixed that (using expanding smart folders or whatever used to be chaos if they had a lot of items in them).

You can check the usage of a Volume from right clicking it in Finder and choosing Get Info. Or just df -h

This is because a Mac is basically a giant iPad with a keyboard. Everything is abstracted away, so if you're actually a computer person and try and take command of what's going on, the giant iPad will say "no you can't do that" constantly

It feels like trying to drive a car with no steering wheel or pedals, and you're expected to vibe your way through it with an overly helpful touchscreen interface running interference. Like just please God just give me the steering wheel

These seem like mostly familiarity issues, where Windows issues are malicious in nature.