Thoughts on MacBook Air
This year it was time for a hardware upgrade, so I opted for a MacBook Air M5. This will become my main machine. I’ve paired it with a NuPhy keyboard, a Logitech MX Master 4, and a 4K 28” display. It will replace my workstation and Lenovo Yoga notebook, both running Arch Linux and getting quite old.
It should simplify my workflow, strengthen security, and bring everything up to date for the foreseeable future. It will also make working while travelling easier.
My first impression of the MacBook Air is mixed. The hardware is excellent: great screen, speakers, and overall performance. When it comes to macOS, things get a bit sour.
It’s not all bad, but I’ve experienced more bugs than I expected. To be honest, some situations brought back memories of Linux from many years ago. This made me appreciate just how polished and well put together a desktop like GNOME actually is, both in terms of UX and general stability. That’s especially interesting considering GNOME is open source and supports a wide variety of devices, while macOS is a commercial product with a narrow, locked-down hardware set.
Finder has been especially frustrating. It lacks features I expect from a file manager: SFTP support, a reliable way to see file size, dependable default view settings, and clear progress indicators. All in all, it is quite a clunky experience, especially compared to Nautilus on Linux. The cherry on top is that there is no reliable and easy way to replace Finder, even if you find a better alternative.
Considerable improvements should be possible without much investment: fixing the inconsistent behaviour of the screenshot app, improving Alt-Tab behaviour, allowing the Dock to minimize apps on click, and adding a cut option to Finder. Instead, apps feel locked down, Finder and the Dock feel impossible to replace, and useless apps like Apple Music are not permitted to be deleted.
Why would Apple insist that I keep apps like TV, Music, or even Chess if I truly never plan to use them? Just trust your customers and allow them to remove clutter.
Finally, I’ll say this: the liquid glass UI is for the most part just not very appealing. I’m sorry to write this. It often looks weird and glitchy.
Apps
The app ecosystem on the Mac is great, though. Some of the issues mentioned above can be addressed with third-party apps. Here is the list of things I’ve installed so far:
| Name | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Affinity.app | Amazing free image editor. I’m absolutely pleased with this one. Nothing comparable exists on Linux, and please don’t mention GIMP. | Affinity |
| AltTab.app | Patches broken macOS Alt-Tab behaviour. | AltTab |
| Audible.app | Safari shortcut. It works quite decently, except it cannot pause with a keyboard shortcut. | Audible |
| CameraController.app | Allows me to configure my external webcam. | CameraController |
| ChatGPT.app | Works great. | ChatGPT |
| Claude.app | A rather fine app. Cowork is hilariously useless though. | Claude |
| Click2Minimize.app | Fixes the fact that the Dock does not support minimizing apps by clicking them. | Click2Minimize |
| Codex.app | Maybe it could be run from the editor or terminal, but here is the separate app. | Codex |
| Figma.app | Better performance than running directly in the browser, I think. | Figma |
| Ghostty.app | My preferred terminal app on macOS. | Ghostty |
| GitHub Desktop.app | I don’t think it’s very useful, to be honest. | GitHub Desktop |
| Google Chrome.app | My preferred dev browser. | Google Chrome |
| ImageOptim.app | Image optimization. I wish there was a resize option included in it. | ImageOptim |
| logioptionsplus.app | Needed for setting up my mouse. | Logi Options+ |
| mpv.app | For watching movies. I used it on Linux too, though performance here is somehow laggy. | mpv |
| Numbers Creator Studio.app | A simple version of Excel. I love this one. | Numbers |
| NuPhyIO.app | Keyboard settings app. | NuPhyIO |
| Opera.app | My preferred browser, same as on Linux. | Opera |
| Parall.app | Creates copies of apps. For example, I created Chrome Development.app with its own icon and data location, keeping personal development projects away from work and personal browsing. | Parall |
| Plex.app | Streams local media. | Plex |
| PopClip.app | When text is selected, a popup is shown with a copy-to-clipboard option. | PopClip |
| Proton Mail.app | Nicer than running it in the browser. | Proton Mail |
| Proton Pass.app | Password manager. | Proton Pass |
| Slack.app | Work communication. | Slack |
| Syncthing.app | Syncs photos from my Android phone until I find a better solution. | Syncthing |
| Telegram Desktop.app | I love Telegram, but it’s strangely buggy on macOS. | Telegram Desktop |
| Transmission.app | There is an abundance of beautiful modern torrent apps on Linux. On macOS, we’re still using Transmission. | Transmission |
| Umbra.app | Changes the wallpaper based on Dark/Light mode. More importantly, it can browse and download images from Unsplash. | Umbra |
| Updatest.app | Centralized app updating, since macOS lacks something like Flatpak and related apps. | Updatest |
| ViewCam.app | Allows viewing a CCTV camera. Works great, but it’s not free. | ViewCam |
| Visual Studio Code.app | Great for writing code. | Visual Studio Code |
| WebStorm.app | Mostly trying out its AI, Junie. For the most part, it seems neither worse nor better than Claude or Codex. | WebStorm |
| WhatsApp.app | For talking to people who do not use Telegram. On that note: less buggy than Telegram. | |
| Zed.app | Like Visual Studio Code, but faster and more buggy. | Zed |
| Zen.app | Arc-like browser based on Firefox. Not really using it, though I’m tempted. | Zen Browser |
| zoom.us.app | Work meetings. | Zoom |
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Hoc mense MacBook Air emi. Sententiae mixtae sunt. Plerumque contentus sum.