I have my streaming machine "again", rebuilt and whatnot. I'll do a post and video separate I think and just link the video when I have time. However the intention was that my streaming machine go back to being alpha and the 1,1 be the Omega to use when just editing. Only I don't want to use my streaming machine because windows is such a shit user experience in my opinion and its nothing major, but just tiny little bullshit.
Interface
So I have to use windows 10 with the machine I have for arbitrary hardware reasons (the motherboard is a lenovo TS130 board and it has some wierd shit that unless I have a lenovo build of 8.1 it runs like shit [considering that every other windows machine I have {2} has 8.1 on it this is arbitrary to me] so 10 just ~happens~ to sync up nicely) and thats a problem in and of itself. Now windows is just cumbersome after using OSX (and that may be because I am used to a dock in my everyday system as a linux user) from everything being in one bar, but even tab-switching seems slower. I dunno really. I don't like the button placement, I don't like the constant updates and notifications are in the worst spot, and I don't like that I can't search anything natively, easily. Spotlight is a HUGE upper compared to windows search (which has never been great).
The windows search thing can /sorta/ be fixed with Launchy, but its not optimal and I can't search for much more than apps. Where as with Spotlight its 1 2 go hey heres all the things in alphabetical order with your name on it etc. Just in comparison spotlight is 10 times better.
Dock VS taskbar I like the dock more. Just switch to another app. In windows I get problems with "Oh you wanted that? It crashed we never told you tho LOLOLOLOLOLOL" a lot. Or used to, might not now as my streamer is on a xeon. Also theres an annoying bug that has been in windows since XP with hiding the tbar where if an icon is lit up and you go to that app and go back so the bar goes away it will randomly decide to never go away even if you close the troublesome app. Even killing explorer.exe doesn't fix it it's just stuck there. With the dock its also bound to the window-mod buttons (exit etc) and the top bar. The Dock is only for app switching, the buttons are lined up with the top bar and you close and use functions of your apps with the top bar. I love that about Unity in Ubuntu as well and even in Awesome WM I mod it to do that as well. And give it a dock for that matter. I guess I've always had the apple workflow and didn't know it, haha!
Lastly I like the "App Drawer" thing. I like that you can link you app folder to your dock and just click it and theres all your shit. I don't know if its all symlinks or thats the actual installation location or whatever, but thats 10 times more handy than everything windows can do for me.
Hardware
I have to bring this up because I want to use my XFX R7 250X in my mac pro and can't, but I can use my XFX R7 370... I was told that XFX isn't useable with macs all too often but that's just annoying me and I can't find a way to get it all working for me. Dunno, just pisses me off. Though for getting my mac pro for basically nothing its still got an upgrade path. Albeit a limited one but I am still looking forward to it. Windows I can use whatever I want and not have a problem. Its a combo of hardware firmware and drivers for mac whene on EFI/BIOS machines it's just a matter of "Can I see it, yes, ok" and then OS compatibility. Arguably it makes tnhe system more stable(?) the way apple does it but it still annoys me.
Apps
Same problem in OSX as in Linux. Windows has everything and no devs on games want to learn OGL. Games run great, but there is the annoyance that comes with the territory that OSX isn't a gaming system. Though, exactly like Linux, OSX is a bomb on work tasks. Windows seems annoying to do basic work with. I like Pages in OSX and I use nano for any writing in linux and copy it to LibreOffice for editing and finalization. Windows I only have Liboff and the pile of shit that is MS word. In windows I can't get chromium but I can in everything else which is nice. A lot of apps that I use in linux I can use in OSX and a lot of apps I use in OSX I can't use in any other OS. One day I'll go through my applist in OSX. BUT, I can most likely find a note taking app that I want to work this way and ONLY that way in OSX. Linux, nano, windows.... notepad.... Annoying. Also OSX hooks to my phone globally. Before I pull into that shit....
Overall Workflow: OSX VS Windows
We'll go over this in categories:
- Tab switching (Alt tab and similar key combo's)
- Workspaces
- Window setup
- Phone access
In tabbing I get problems in both OSX and windows where it just doesn't work sometimes. In OSX it's easier to fix because I also set hotkeys to a window but in windows it's just dead. I like that in OSX tabbing could be done for the day and that I can reset it to work in a different way and just hit F1 or whatever. When it isn't fucky I get a list of Icons rather than Text and a picture of a window. Someone else may go "Oh thats a web browser and thats libre office" but for me I have to look at the border, and often do upon switching windows, to instantly know what's what. I blame this mostly on my bad eyesight and needing to adjust where I it constantly to see things. Otherwise it's a guess of what is what and I just cycle windows until I find the right one in Windows. OSX that isn't a problem.
For basic workspaces I can swap in between them in OSX and not have a problem. In windows 10 I know you can do workspace switching, but even now if I open a game and swap wspaces the game will crash. ANY game. It does net matter whatsoever. In OSX I can split workspaces up between monitors and have 4 on this one and 36 on another, have different backgrounds on every workspace on every monitor (so for me I can tool and label them easier) and it's a lot more fleshed out. In windows it's all one workspace. Make one more here and theres one on EVERY monitor. No splitting, nice theme-ing, none of that. No nonono thats too user friendly. Also, for my NORMAL windows experience I don't even have workspaces but I know someone will be a twat and tell me to use 10 an since I have to for this one singular machine I am making it an even argument but I am not happy about it (because I don't like 10).
Window setup is about even. Resizing is all around the same. However it is easier in OSX to me because I don't have to get that 1 pixel edge I can just set the window in place and go to the corner. However I like the fullscreening in OSX more than the BS in windows. I don't like that in windows apps seem to have better usage in a fullscreen space and that setting up apps in a specific ways is NOT memorized. In OSX I can set windows to be in certain spots or in their own workspaces and that is always remembered and not reset unless I put the window somewhere else. The only problem is theres a bug where if I reboot and till it to not reset my windows that one time it will do it anyways. Or on boot anyways.
Lastly phone access. In OSX I can manage my phone from my desktop. I can use my phone in my content creation 1:1 (I have an iphone by the way [it was free]). In windows I can't have global access. I can pull stuff off but thats it. Can't really lock it in-OS easily, can't wifi pull, can't push notifications from windows to my phone (can in OSX), can't bounce notifications from my phone to windows but can in OSX (if I have a popup in my phone I can just open the notebar and tada theres all my stuff! Very handy, that.
Also I like having bash and knowing how to use it so a lot of my linux tendencies feed into OSX just as easily as they do when I use just BSD. Very nice.
Over all I like OSX more I think. There are some issues but nothing I can't handle. OSX offers me what I loved when I started hacking hardware and video game consoles in 6th grade. Always something to rip at and make my own. Can't really do that in windows, or at least easily. It pisses me off sometimes but I still HAVE to use windows for streaming. I'll argue even that windows is more walled than OSX is because at least OSX has holes designed in the walls for you to poke at and rip into bigger holes if you know how. Windows doesn't have that. Will soon, doesn't now. And even WHEN windows has bash and all of the open sauce goodness I still won't like using it.
At this point I think OSX/My mac pro will probably be my main system and my streamer will definitely be a secondary. I don't have a use for windows anymore now that I have way more options. And yeah, the preference argument. I just wanted to post my opinion after coming back to windows. Thought it might be interesting to someone.
Off to the next adventure!