I've seen this complaint before from Windows users interacting with Finder, but I've never understood where it is coming from.

Aside from the "Recents" tab, everything is organized into files and folders, just like any other file system explorer. The sidebar is mostly shortcuts to different folders, and I always navigate down in a nested folder hierarchy to find my files.

Is it that the "Recents" tab is the default view that gives this impression?

And this drives me nuts :)

If you want to force system wide view settings in finder, delete all DS_Store files and then do the thing with cmd+j

Unfortunately I have to interact with finder when I want to use things like Firefox or Jetbrains IDEs.

You can't traverse the filesystem tree without descending and then reascending, and for complex paths it's impossible to know where you're going.

Finder is garbage at finding and exploring.

Cmd+Opt+C on the other hand does not copy the current path into my clipboard.

I have the downloads folder in the dock and use it frequently.

It's pretty accessible. Most of the complaints I see regarding Finder seem to be a result of trying to use a Mac in the same way as another OS. It's different, but takes just a quick search to find all the shortcuts and stuff and it's very simple.

Command-Option-C: copy the full path of the selected file or folder as plaintext, with space characters not escaped with backslashes.

Command-C, then Command-V into a terminal prompt: paste the full path of the copied file or folder, with space characters backslash-escaped. Tested in Terminal and iTerm2.

Did you even use Finder or are you just trolling?

The actual keyboard shortcut, if you'd like to reproduce the behavior you get with Cmd+L in a browser, is Cmd+Opt+C Cmd+Shift+G Cmd+V.

I first used mac os seriously starting with 10.5, when it was possible to it run on a PC, and I was lucky enough to have a compatible enough PC.

The experience was unbelievable to me. Everything was so smooth and snappy. I was using mainly linux at the time, with KDE. I naturally wanted to get an actual mac, especially since I was tired of the plastic laptops of the time, failing in random ways, being noisy, shoddy linux support, etc.

My current daily driver is a late 2013 15" MBP and it is honestly the best computer I've ever had. It's almost 7 years old and it never had any kind of problem whatsoever. Connectivity is superb (integrated optical out, sd card, thunderbolt, 4K60 output, HDMI). The only thing I sometimes missed was an ethernet port (I work in operations). I actually enjoy the touch of the metal, prefer it to the plasticky PCs. Yes, the glossy screen is sometimes a pain, but it's actually usable outside whereas my work PC with the matte screen is a mess. Performance is sufficient for my needs, though, granted, I don't do heavy lifting with it.

While I love the computer itself and used to love mac os, I do have the feeling that it's gone downhill. As others have noted, there's random lagging in Safari, random system services start using the cpu at 100% for no reason, etc.

So I guess my point is that a lot of people used to love the mac ecosystem, which I think was really great, and they still want to love it despite the drop in quality, maybe hoping it's only temporary. There might also be some kind of "brand loyalty" / "emotional investment" going on. Although, as far as I'm concerned, I seem to be looking much more at thinkpads as a possible replacement if I had to get a new computer right now.

Hardware aside, I honestly don't understand why anyone who writes software would write software on a closed source OS.

The excuse I most often hear is that "they have better things to do than mess with Linux configuration". That's a healthy viewpoint, for say, a scientist or an artist. But if a software developer does not like hacking around with software they are probably in the wrong career. In my opinion, giving up control over your most important tools for a bit of short term convenience is bad economics.

But instead you use macOS?

You should give it a shot :)

1.) I absolutely agree on the Ubuntu front (though I don't believe for a second that things are better elsewhere. E.g.: Python on Windows is way worse in my experience). But I dislike Ubuntu (and Debian, for that matter) for many related experiences I had in the past.

2.) I'd say, though, that you're missing out on good containerization solutions if you're wrestling with Python installations on a server distribution.

3.) Most importantly: Where things like Docker or LXC don't apply (or don't apply as much; like development/desktop usage), the single best concept I've encountered so far would be the way NixOS and Guix handle installations. I sincerely hope that model will take off in the next couple of years. And I'm pretty sure that if it takes off, it will be on either Linux (most likely) or BSD.

Otherwise the fair comparison would be to a hackintosh, which would probably much more work.

This is some gatekeeping right here. There's a lot more to developing software than hacking and dealing with low level linux configuration just to get my graphics and sound working at the same time after a system update

Sounds like you’ve never used a modern Arch based distro. In 2 years of using Manjaro as my daily driver that’s never happened to me.

In general i can live with the all the aforementioned, but i hated the previous 2 year period with the random Wifi disconnection issues; it sometimes made my work unbearable.

Hence, i would say that the biggest issue with MBPs is the deterioration in apple software.

I've had sane settings for macos for years and migrated with them.

But I've set up a fresh machine recently and I will say the default settings for macos have changed. There are a lot of annoying "recent apps" and "recent files" and non-filesystem things in sidebars that I keep banging my head against.

It takes a while to set it up to do just simple files and folders.

I do keep applications and utilities in the dock, and set that up as:

  display as folder
  view contents as list

I'm no Mac fanboy, at all. But I love my 2014 MBP, best money I ever spent on tech. Its 2020 now, it runs like new, withstood mechanical stress, battery still holds all day with careful use. Bluetooth works fine. Keyboard is fine for laptop. CPU is fine for intensive calculations. Terminal is as good as Linux. Homebrew 'just works'; I can't count how many times I got my apt package manager into a major pickle, that required awkward backtracks. I went through a number of system upgrades that didn't break anything. 'Setting up' the computer involved powering it up, I didn't have to debug my hardware like I had to every time with new/upgraded Linux.

This is 180 deg different to my Linux experience, never mind Windows (that's a disaster). Linux is cute, but caused me issues with all the points above.

Sounds like this is very different to your experience, so much so that perhaps it is just that Macs have a large variance in quality over the years. Reading what I see now, I'm not sure I would buy another Mac. This makes me sad - my trusty 2014 MBP is the perfect computer, as far as I'm concerned, but surely at this age its days are counted.

People who seem to share this opinion often mention the 2014 vintage.

Because you just can't abstract away the existence of a filesystem to create a "simpler" experience for some users. You just have to teach them how to use one and avoid letting them shoot themselves in the foot.

Then I became a developer, around the same time that MacBook keyboards started to suck, and now I use a ThinkPad and haven't looked back.

I personally love Miller Columns and the lack of them in any other file browser is one of many things keeping me from switching to Linux. Navigating my entire file system just with arrow keys feels like a breeze.

If I remember correctly, Windows 95 opened a new window for every folder you clicked on. I recall very messy desktops on being five levels deep.