(Hint: in the Settings app, go to System, then Multitasking.) How I Got Hooked by Apple Windows scatters its settings across the new Settings app and the old Control Panel, and I challenge you to find the setting that stops Windows from maximizing apps when you drag their window to the top of the screen. The Mac puts all its settings in a compact, easily searched System Preferences app, and if I accidentally press the keys that launch a feature like Dictation, a prompt lets me decide whether to use that feature or not. Like everyone, I like to customize my Mac and Windows systems. Modern versions of Windows, despite the fact that I’ve used them daily for more than 20 years, still induce low-level tension.

Almost everything about it feels consistent, predictable, coherent, and undemanding, and each new version lets me get to work without climbing a steep learning curve. It took the stress and tension of the pandemic era to let me see exactly what it is that makes macOS such a low-stress operating system. The past year led me to think a lot about the ways an operating system can make life easier or harder. Here, I want to focus on macOS 11, the culmination of those two decades of development. PCMag's Lead Software Analyst Michael Muchmore lays out the evolution of OS X in his piece, Mac OS X Turns 20: A Look Back at the Operating System That Helped Save Apple. This seems even truer today than when OS X was first released. I didn't have to struggle to understand it and it simplified things other operating systems insisted on making complex. Mac OS X-Apple’s original name for what is now macOS-impressed me right from the start as the first operating system that was enjoyable to use. For me, this efficient and elegant desktop operating system gets just about everything right.įurthermore, it seems to have been getting everything right for the past 20 years. But when I’m using a computer for entertainment or curiosity, or when I simply want to take a break, I pick up my MacBook Air and enjoy the real pleasures of Apple’s macOS Big Sur. When I sit down to work for my living or pay my bills, I generally use a Windows 10 machine. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.

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