After three decades of Windows I finally switched to macOS with the M4 Mac Mini, and it was a disaster. The performance is incredible but the software experience. That’s been a nightmare I wasn’t for.
Switching operating systems would be straightforward. From the moment I pressed the power button, macOS threw curveball after curveball at me. Password for every single action. Mouse scrolling that feels backwards.
Installing apps became a puzzle game I never asked to play. Breaking down the 10 most maddening things about using macOS for the first time and switching back to Windows. About the jump to Mac, you need to read this first.
1. Mail takes too long to sync
Apple’s Mail app decided to test my patience. I wanted the full Apple so I my email accounts in the native Mail app. Two factor authentication code the app would just sit there spinning its had all day. Repeatedly hammering the manual sync button.
Grabbing my phone or opening the web browser just to get my verification codes. App was choking on downloading my entire mailbox history or something after a few days things. Plenty of email clients on Windows and none of them ever.
2. Inverted Mouse Scrolling
Scroll down, and the page goes up. Scroll up, and the page goes down. Touchpads work and Apple’s Mouse uses gestures for scrolling. Someone decades with traditional mouse behavior trying to write with my non dominant hand.
MacOS does let you flip this setting back. Windows 11 only the option to do the reverse, so maybe Apple isn’t off base.
3. The Power-On Jingle
Windows also has a startup sound when you reach the login screen, so calling this out might seem hypocritical. But hear me out, there’s something uniquely jarring about the Mac’s.
Mac Mini plays its cheerful after you press the power button there’s any output before the machine is actually. Certainly a strange design choice. Turn my computer off a civilized being.
4. The Option and Command Keys
MacOS replaces the familiar Windows and Alt keys with Command and Option and that alone would be fine. Keyboard shortcuts are split between these two keys in ways that make zero sense to my Windows trained brain. Windows hold Shift + Ctrl and use arrow keys to select word by word then Ctrl + C to copy.
Consistent, one modifier key for everything. Selecting words uses Option, but copying uses Command. Fingers are constantly reaching for the wrong keys, slowing me down with every edit.
5. Password Prompts Everywhere
MacOS asked me for a password in the first week buy another Mac Mini. Install a free app from the App Store. Need to restart to install updates. Baffling one is the App Store password requirement for free apps.
Apps have been vetted by Apple’s review process authenticate accessing nuclear launch codes.UAC prompts in Windows Vista? This is that times ten. It’s security theater at its finest.
6. Safari and Pinned Tabs
Embrace safar but safari’s handling of pinned tabs nearly broke me. Browser refuses to a window with only pinned tabs and those pinned tabs must appear in every single window you open. Tabs out to new windows or move tabs between windows.
But in Safari if you try to drag a regular tab out of a window that only has pinned tabs remaining the entire window moves instead. Chrome and Firefox work just fine on macOS so I quickly abandoned this experiment.
7. The Menu Bar System
MacOS’s menu bar system. Every app displays its menu at the very top of the screen regardless of where the app window actually is. Ultrawide 32:9 monitor this is borderline unusable.
Window on the right side of my screen. Access that window’s menu to move my mouse all the way to the left side of the screen menu bar at the top has now updated to show that window’s options.
8. Dock and App Management
MacOS dock might be my biggest confusion after two weeks of use. Pinned apps go here recent apps go there, minimized windows somewhere else and the trash lives at the end. Apps in the dock often have a little dot under them, supposedly indicating they’re running.
Clicking these icons just opens a new instance of the app no actual window open. Close button on an app window the window closes but the app stays in the dock with its little dot what you were doing. It’s simultaneously open and closed application.
9. Installing Apps from the Web
Nothing and nothing prepared me for the confusion of installing. App for the first time. DMG files mount as virtual drives, kind of like ISO files, weird for a app installer. After mounting the DMG you’re presented with a window showing an app icon an Applications folder and an arrow between them.
No buttons no instructions nothing. I clicked the app icon. I clicked the Applications folder. Nothing happened. I clicked the arrow. Google search discovered the secret you’re supposed to drag the app icon into the Applications folder.
10. Screenshots Save to the Desktop by Default
MacOS default that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever screenshots save directly to your desktop. Not to a Screenshots folder on the desktop. Not to a Pictures folder. Just straight onto the desktop.
Take five screenshots while troubleshooting something, ristine desktop is now a mess. Design and thought people want to manage their screenshots. Windows has been saving screenshots to a dedicated folder for years.
11. The Verdict macOS Has Been a Rollercoaster
Getting used to macOS as a lifetime Windows user has been one of the most humbling tech. M4 Mac Mini is an incredible piece of hardware and there are definitely aspects of macOS to appreciate. Sheer number of bizarre design choices counterintuitive and frustrating defaults has made this transition far more difficult than it needed to be.
MacOS might work beautifully for people who grew up in the Apple ecosystem but for someone fighting the operating system rather than working with it. M4 Mac Mini into both the highs and the lows of my first Mac. Spoiler alert the hardware is phenomenal but the software needs some reconsideration.
