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Re:Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a deve... by austhrow743 on Saturday September 01, 2018 @09:45PM (#17895030)
My favourite UX aspect of OSX is how spotlight works with searching for applications.

If the application isn't already open, it launches it. If the application is already open, it brings it to the foreground.

In contrast on windows, the search bar seems to just be a launcher. In that if the application is already open and you search for it, it opens a second copy. As far as I could find, this behaviour isn't changeable.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to get osx's search style on any of the nice gui having Linux variants?

Re:Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a deve... by pfranz on Sunday September 02, 2018 @03:17AM (#17896015)
If you're talking about an application launcher that's like Spotlight it sounds like Fedora 28 with Gnome 3 would work for you. I've literally only used it long enough to launch a Terminal, but I just confirmed it will switch back to Firefox instead of launching a second instance of Firefox. It also sounds like what Ubuntu has had for awhile with Unity desktop. Their launcher is called Dash.

If you're talking about file search, I'm not sure if they have them or how well they work. In macOS I tend to look for preference files or system files, so I usually avoid Spotlight for file search and I don't have much experience with the other two.

Re:Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a deve... by lozenge on Sunday September 02, 2018 @06:13AM (#17896428)
Windows key+1 cycles through windows of the first application, and adding the shift key opens a new window of that application. Just pin the 5-10 most commonly used apps and you're up and away with keyboard navigation.
Re:Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a deve... by dan0- on Saturday September 01, 2018 @09:52PM (#17895053)
I rather like Gnome on Debian, the hot corners and search are slick IMO. Never had to use OS X, but the UX is somewhat similar from what I hear.