(Once you install 4 different 3rd party software tools (2 of which require licenses to buy (1 of which is abandoned and doesn't work smoothly on any officially supported Mac OS)) to fix it)
Anyway this is a way of saying yes, stock Mac OS UI is very lacking and also asking, what Linux distro should I try if I like a lot of things about MacOS's UI especially with the trackpad geature control and keyboard shortcuts for window organization and resizing I get from third party applications?
Fedora Workstation or Silverblue. They come with the latest GNOME desktop environment which is closer to Mac's design vision minus all appleisms and steve jobs worship. You can easily install extensions using the extension manager flatpak application which adds neat functionality like window tiling and blur.
If you want complete customization and control you can instead use Fedora KDE/Kinoite which you can customize to look like MacOS or your own custom design. I personally think KDE is generally more powerful and feature-rich than GNOME but GNOME has a simple but unique and intuitive design that doesn't change and the GNOME devs are legit artisans when it comes to eye candy. GNOME is also the default Linux desktop on a lot of distros which is a plus.
Silverblue and Kinoite are atomic variants of Fedora that are based around atomic (one-click) updates to the OS image. It eliminates the haphazard-ness of Linux updates but certain things that are basic on non-atomic spins are slightly more involved (like installing additional programs outside of the ones in the image).
Any distro that uses GNOME as the desktop environment will have touch screen/trackpad gestures, an app tray, and virtual desktops, as well as a touch screen friendly interface.
Fedora Workstation uses GNOME by default and I really like the way that distro feels. Their full drive encryption is very easy to set up during install process too, just check the box and come up with a password.
If you haven't tried Linux before, make a Live USB and boot from that to check that your hardware works with it. There is no fully stable Apple Silicon Linux distro so it will have to have Intel, AMD, or ARM cpu.
https://fedoraproject.org/workstation/download
There is a popular GNOME extension that adds window gestures as well. Video demo and link to get it
That's fine, I don't have and I'm sure will never get Apple Silicon anyway, the new machines are extremely expensive, deliberately fragile and difficult to repair and maintain, and I hate the direction MacOS is going in (worse UI, genAI -- one advantage of not having apple silicon is the ai bullshit doesn't run on older chips!)
If your device has nvidia graphics you will need proprietary drivers, otherwise the kernel should "just work" without any tinkering. So if you have to buy new hardware, avoid an nvidia discrete GPU. But if that's what you have, you can work around it. Intel and amd integrated graphics work great out of the box.
This is such an accurate comment. Mac is antithetical to productivity, out of the box. Managing windows on Mac is so frustrating. Especially if you run a vertical monitor because now the task bar is physically disconnected from the window. I hate it.
Whenever I used macOS I felt very restricted, like as if I had to do real work but all I had in front of me was a toolbox full of plastic toys meant for children. It was NOTHING like GNOME, despite what many like to parrot. Compared to macOS, GNOME on Linux or BSD is SO much better in terms of workflow.
keyboard shortcuts for window organization and resizing
the window management options available for linux will make whatever you're using on macos seem primitive, so it's hard to tell you. best to look at your options and see what people do with them (i.e. on places like !unixporn@lemmy.ml)
Np! But also apologies because if you go down this rabbit hole it'll make macos or windows even that much worse, especially if you get into the tiling window management options.
I use fancy zones on windows and yabai on macos but they're poor imitations of my linux setup.
No, MacOS's UI is fantastic!
(Once you install 4 different 3rd party software tools (2 of which require licenses to buy (1 of which is abandoned and doesn't work smoothly on any officially supported Mac OS)) to fix it)
Anyway this is a way of saying yes, stock Mac OS UI is very lacking and also asking, what Linux distro should I try if I like a lot of things about MacOS's UI especially with the trackpad geature control and keyboard shortcuts for window organization and resizing I get from third party applications?
I dunno what's best for you, that's what's so beautiful about Linux
Fedora Workstation or Silverblue. They come with the latest GNOME desktop environment which is closer to Mac's design vision minus all appleisms and steve jobs worship. You can easily install extensions using the extension manager flatpak application which adds neat functionality like window tiling and blur.
If you want complete customization and control you can instead use Fedora KDE/Kinoite which you can customize to look like MacOS or your own custom design. I personally think KDE is generally more powerful and feature-rich than GNOME but GNOME has a simple but unique and intuitive design that doesn't change and the GNOME devs are legit artisans when it comes to eye candy. GNOME is also the default Linux desktop on a lot of distros which is a plus.
Silverblue and Kinoite are atomic variants of Fedora that are based around atomic (one-click) updates to the OS image. It eliminates the haphazard-ness of Linux updates but certain things that are basic on non-atomic spins are slightly more involved (like installing additional programs outside of the ones in the image).
Any distro that uses GNOME as the desktop environment will have touch screen/trackpad gestures, an app tray, and virtual desktops, as well as a touch screen friendly interface.
Fedora Workstation uses GNOME by default and I really like the way that distro feels. Their full drive encryption is very easy to set up during install process too, just check the box and come up with a password.
If you haven't tried Linux before, make a Live USB and boot from that to check that your hardware works with it. There is no fully stable Apple Silicon Linux distro so it will have to have Intel, AMD, or ARM cpu.
https://fedoraproject.org/workstation/download
There is a popular GNOME extension that adds window gestures as well. Video demo and link to get it
Cool! Thanks for the suggestion :)
That's fine, I don't have and I'm sure will never get Apple Silicon anyway, the new machines are extremely expensive, deliberately fragile and difficult to repair and maintain, and I hate the direction MacOS is going in (worse UI, genAI -- one advantage of not having apple silicon is the ai bullshit doesn't run on older chips!)
If your device has nvidia graphics you will need proprietary drivers, otherwise the kernel should "just work" without any tinkering. So if you have to buy new hardware, avoid an nvidia discrete GPU. But if that's what you have, you can work around it. Intel and amd integrated graphics work great out of the box.
This is such an accurate comment. Mac is antithetical to productivity, out of the box. Managing windows on Mac is so frustrating. Especially if you run a vertical monitor because now the task bar is physically disconnected from the window. I hate it.
Whenever I used macOS I felt very restricted, like as if I had to do real work but all I had in front of me was a toolbox full of plastic toys meant for children. It was NOTHING like GNOME, despite what many like to parrot. Compared to macOS, GNOME on Linux or BSD is SO much better in terms of workflow.
libinput-gestures
the window management options available for linux will make whatever you're using on macos seem primitive, so it's hard to tell you. best to look at your options and see what people do with them (i.e. on places like !unixporn@lemmy.ml)
Whoah. Cool, thank you!
Np! But also apologies because if you go down this rabbit hole it'll make macos or windows even that much worse, especially if you get into the tiling window management options.
I use fancy zones on windows and yabai on macos but they're poor imitations of my linux setup.