macOS

What hackers pick instead

• WindowsRecommended for running the software and games people depend on, day-to-day stability and solid underlying engineering, but critics widely object to Windows 11's ads, telemetry, forced accounts and UI regressions.1287recommend
• LinuxA free, open-source OS praised for total control, stability and wide hardware and software support, especially on servers; desktop use can still take extra effort and debugging.745recommend
• HaikuA free BeOS-inspired desktop OS praised for being extremely fast and responsive with a clean, consistent UI, though many say it's not yet practical as a daily driver.115recommend
• NetBSDRecommended for running on almost any hardware, including old machines, with a clean, well-documented design, though support for modern hardware and drivers is weak.100recommend
• ChromeOSGoogle's locked-down, auto-updating operating system that people praise for security, speed and ease of use. Common caveat: Google ends update support early, and apps are limited.91recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 4682 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Shortcuts map to menu item titles which means you can set a "Select Next Tab" shortcut and that shortcut will work in every single app that uses "Select Next Tab" in a menu - it's one of the best features on macOS.

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “MacBook Neo Review: No Other Budget Laptop Can Compete”

2. Many people, mostly folks who adopt the Apple ecosystem, see this as a positive thing that allows them to delegate undifferentiated decisions on security and ways of working to the vendor.

   Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Phone is about to stop being yours”

3. Not only is every app sandboxed in a usefully robust way (even ones distributed outside the app store) but this has been done in a way smooth enough that users didn't revolt.

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “Dirtyfrag: Universal Linux LPE”

4. 26.0 had a very annoying video jitter issue, but that was the first things that I noticed to be fixed in the next 26 release. Other than that, it worked just fine.

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “About the security content of macOS Tahoe 26.6”

5. The way macOS handles permissions with user prompts might be the wrong UX, but giving every program carte blanche by default is definitely not the answer either.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “You can't trust macOS Privacy and Security settings”

6. MacOS (or whatever they're calling it now) for all its faults is still probably the best desktop OS for getting things done without having to fiddle around much.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “John Giannandrea to retire from Apple”

7. macOS has the best system here in principle with its bundle signing, but most developer tools are not in bundles so its of limited utility in this circumstance.

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Shai-Hulud compromised a dev machine and raided GitHub org access: a post-mortem”

8. Primarily due to suspend/resume working properly, the touchpad, and certain user interface things in MacOS that make working with a single smaller screen easier

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Apple announces changes for apps in the European Union”

9. Definite visual and UX improvement over 26, fixing the most egregious issues with 26 implementation of Liquid Glass, but maybe not quite as good as 25 overall.

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “About the security content of macOS Tahoe 26.6”

10. Nobody's popped the storage encryption on iOS or MacOS devices yet AFAIK; and the fact that it's tied to a hardware secure element makes it pretty strong.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Mystery Microsoft bug leaker keeps the zero-days coming”

11. the best things from macOS (drag and drop everything nearly anywhere, consistent keyboard shortcuts and interfaces, scriptability of everything, etc.)

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Stop the Apple Music app from launching”

12. Unless they speed up a major internal shakeup they don't seem to be in a position where their products will be interesting. Amazing hardware though.

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “People keep flocking to Linux, not just to escape Windows”

13. I'm a heavy keyboard user so rotating apps and windows in apps means I always know where I am and don't even notice the costs you're talking about.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Gnome is better macOS than macOS”

14. This isn't to take away from legitimate criticisms such as the issue with the resize hotbox not being updated to match the more rounded corners

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe”

15. Nothing deal-breaking for me, but there are all kinds of little things that just don't have the polish long-time macOS users are accustomed to.

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Apple Announces New Mac Sales Record Following MacBook Neo Launch”

16. macOS keyboard commands are great for working in the terminal since system shortcuts use a different key and don't interfere with control codes

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Cocoa-Way – Native macOS Wayland compositor for running Linux apps seamlessly”

17. For those it works for, it works really well. For those who came from windows always being maximized or split into a grid, it’s a nightmare.

    Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues”

18. Ecosystem integration is the shining difference between Apple and others, as it is radically better than any other available implementation.

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “MacBook Neo”

19. the overall combination of Apple Silicon (hardware) and Mac OS (operating system) is the best combination you can buy today for most people

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “macOS Golden Gate Is a Buggy Mess”

20. macOS is the only OS I've ever used that has never booted to a black/blue screen with relatively cryptic error after performing an upgrade

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I said no and Apple said yes”

21. Not quite as good as a command palette but close, and devs don't need to do anything to opt in except populate the app's menus properly.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven”

22. macOS takes it even further and actually allows things like "storing secrets on disk in a way that can't be read by random programs"

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS”

23. macOS of all things is maybe "best" theoretical platform for all this because it does not require you to trust anyone beyond Apple

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Steam Machine”

24. There's a really nasty bug in Golden Gate 27.0.1 which causes ANECompileService, mediaanalysisd, duetexpertd, and other apple intelligence-related features to thrash and permanently spike your CPU.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026

25. MacOS is following the same trend as windows as to become measurably worse over time, with bloat, slop, user hostile/dark pattern, removing freedoms configuration and escape hatches

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “macOS 27: Workaround to avoid downloading AI models and save storage”

26. In default MacOS setting, the scrollbar is invisible, which literally spent me many minutes in some cases to even find that I could actually scroll down to find more options.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “The Windows 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering”

27. In macos 25, there's no throttle for mds (spotlight), and running builds at a normal developer pace produces about 10x more indexing churn than the Apple silicon can handle.

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “Discontinuation of ARM Notebook with Snapdragon X Elite SoC”

28. Look no further than the various Mac subreddits for applications such as TextEdit, Calculator, Safari, and other first and third party applications leaking like a sieve

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account”

29. It's been a few years since I had to use OSX for work, but last I used it, you couldn't maximize windows without a 1+ second animation playing when you cmd+tabbed

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Phone is about to stop being yours”

30. If you compound the whitespace, the thick borders and the generally oversized UI controls, not much of "productive space" remains available to get the work done.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Make macOS consistently bad (unironically)”

31. The farther we get from the Steve Jobs era, the more their UI design is based on whatever they think looks pretty, with usability concerns taking a back seat.

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues”

32. There's a windowing bug that was introduced in 2009 that I'm confident will persist until MacOS has another MacOSX-style transition to something entirely new.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”

33. Similar with MacOS. Sure, if you do a bunch of songs and dances, you can get what resembles root. But every version closes and makes being a owner harder.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Apple broke an essential presentation feature of iPads”

34. There are a lot of users who don't want to do tasks more advanced than browsing, email, and ssh, and will go far into diminishing returns of additional hardware cost to polish the performance

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Can you slim macOS down?”

35. It's ironic after fighting the good fight for so long and finally making their own hardware that Apple should fall on their own sword with software now.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Last Week on My Mac: Losing confidence”

36. I do like some of the things they do to free up screen space, but having components being to programmatically complex is bound to cause issues.

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “It's hard to justify Tahoe icons”

37. I've long been thankful for a lot of ADA requirements in software, like OSX, which has enabled some interesting automation tools over the years

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Amazon vs. Perplexity – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit”

38. Mac OS can be buggy and occasionally is a bit annoying in my case (Tahoe though is actually rather stable besides a few visual glitches for me

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Windows 11's Patch Tuesday nightmare gets worse”

39. The Mac desktops and laptops kind of stretch this by allowing more things, but they still largely try to focus the user into certain workflows

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Your Phone Is an Entire Computer”

40. Liquid Glass actually looks like glass now, the weird side panel changes in apps is reverted, music slider hitbox hiccups are now fixed

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “macOS Golden Gate Is a Buggy Mess”