[Zizizizz]

For me, who came from linux the only thing I don't like is the overview menu's lack of an (x) to close a window. The way slack stacks windows within the app so it's hard to find the right one. Pressing the red button doesn't close the app from appearing in your CMD+Tab cycle between apps, you also have to press CMD+Q. (Just a preference to how windows and linux treat windows, actually closing them. Rectangle resolved the snap to corner thing (I know MacOS has it natively too but it's not too great in comparison).

Things I prefer: Raycast + it's plugins compared to the linux app search tooling, battery life, performance. Brew vs the linux package managers I don't notice much of a difference.

Things that are basically the same: The dev experience (just a shell and my dotfiles has it essentially the same between OS's)

[tracker1]

I think the hardest part for me, is getting used to using CMD vs CTRL for cut-copy-paste, then when I start to get used to it... in a terminal, it breaks me out with a different key for Ctrl+C. I got used to Ctrl+Shift for terminals in Linux (and Windows) for cut-copy-paste, etc.

It may seem like a small thing, but when you have literal decades of muscle memory working against you, it's not that small.

[platevoltage]

I'm a lifelong Mac user, so obviously I'm used to using CMD instead of CTRL. Inside the terminal we use CTRL for things like CTRL-C to exit a CLI application.

What messes me up when I'm working on a linux machine is not being able to do things like copy/paste text from the terminal with a hotkey combo because there is no CMD-C, and CTRL-C already has a job other than copying.

IMO apple really messed up by putting the FN key in the bottom left corner of the keyboard instead of CTRL. Those keys get swapped on every Mac I buy.

[vel0city]

I'm only a recent MacOS user after not using it for over 20 years, so please people correct me if I'm wrong.

But in the end the biggest thing to remember is in MacOS a window is not the application. In Windows or in many Linux desktop apps, when you close the last or root window you've exited the application. This isn't true in MacOS, applications can continue running even if they don't currently display any windows. That's why there's the dot at the bottom under the launcher and why you can alt+tab to them still. If you alt+tab to an app without a window the menu bar changes to that app's menu bar.

I remember back to my elementary school computer lab with the teacher reminding me "be sure to actually quit the application in the menu bar before going to the next lesson, do not just close" especially due to the memory limitations at the time.

I've found once I really got that model of how applications really work in MacOS it made a good bit more sense why the behaviors are the way they are.