Whenever I see tools like this for Mac I can't help but wonder if I am seriously missing something.
Unlike when I use Windows, I just don't use command (alt) tab on Mac. I rely almost entirely on gestures on my trackpad (three fingers swipe up to see all my windows that are not minimized).
With the added benefit of that allowing me to drag those windows to other screens/desktops right from that UI.
Is there some power user advantage I am missing out on here or is this sort of making Mac work more like Windows? On Windows I use alt tab all the time just because... I find its windows management sucks compared to Mac.
I'm already using [Contexts](https://contexts.co/) for this purpose, and I don't think I need anything else.
I switched from KDE to Mac some months back and I'm shocked how many window management features are missing. I'm especially disappointed about the dock. I would love being able to see native window previews when hovering over an application icon. Also I would like to split the dock into the different spaces (virtual desktops). Currently the dock seems not to be considering the fact tha Mac OS supports spaces.
Also check out my rcmd app (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd) for more keyboard centric workflows.
It’s definitely not as powerful as Witch for windows/tabs but rcmd’s one-key approach is instant for app switching.
Witch has some ingenious features indeed: searching browser/editor/terminal tabs, lingering on an app to show its windows etc.
I wish Apple would allow this kind of functionality in App Store apps.
How does it compare to AltTab? https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
I've found rcmd quite useful for window switching. It lets you use the right command key plus another key to switch applications; e.g., right ⌘+s for Safari. It can also display a switcher that shows the letter associations.
I’m sure I’m in the minority, but Stage Manager addressed nearly all of my window management woes on the Mac.
I purchased witch several years ago, and my main complaint is that it takes a long time to show all my windows if there's a lot of applications windows, and this did not use to be the case. It's fine if I'm switching between windows in one application, but if I say, want to show all the windows open on my computer, it takes 3+ seconds to display the interface.
I discussed it with the Many tricks support, and apparently it's a problem with MacOS
Kind of off topic, but has tiling managers for macOS improved in the last few years? I remember I tried one solution (I can’t remember the name now) which worked OK but it was a little buggy some times. Ever since I just use the standard window manager and try to manage with cmd + tab, cmd + `, and gestures to change spaces.
The trial expires after triggering Witch 50 times, and I was only beginning to configure it. Trial should be a a day or two for me to choose if I like it or not.
I have been a long time MacOS user and the app/window switching never made any sense to me. Windows and Linux just does it better.
I'm not a Witch user (found it to Windowsy), but I can highly recommend Moom and NameMangler from the same dev.
I’m a big fan of the functionality of witch and have had it installed for years. But honestly I’ve just about given up on it. It keeps breaking. Mac OS of course keeps updating itself and very often those updates cause Witch to stop working. It seems like I used to be able to fix it just by re enabling a permission setting. (Which is fairly obnoxious that I have to do this over and over again - how many times do I have to authorize the same app?) But recently it still doesn’t work after authorizing. And now whenever I hit the magic key combo the security dialog comes up and I can’t fix it. At this point it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle.
Cute app, but you can already switch tabs (opt + cmd + arrows) and windows (cmd + `)?
I'll just quickly plug Kanel ([link redacted]) which I use to generate Typescript types from a Postgres database. I agree with the author to think migrations-first, though I prefer to write them in SQL to ensure I can utilize all the powerful features that Postgres has to offer.
With it, I only get types for the tables and views etc., so any join will be untyped if done client-side. This is still a big win in my opinion, and I much prefer it to normal ORM's.
Coming from AltTab, what does Witch do better?
Hey awesome tool!
Myself; I’ve been using the “Windows” feature in Raycast; I highly recommend it. Extremely intuitive. I assign it to a shortcut and then use it to automatically list all the open windows I have and I just search through them to open the one I want
Witch looks awesome, and I think has a killer feature I've been looking for for a while on linux (slightly off topic).
I use rofi on linux to surface a dialog that allows me to execute programs, surface an X window, or change to a different tmux session. Rofi natively supports the first two, the tmux pane/session switcher being a little 10 line extension I wrote in bash.
I love rofi and the ability to do this, but there is a 'white whale' in this workflow setup that I have not been able to crack: A rofi dialog that displays and surfaces browser tabs. I have fought with chromium dev mode/flags/options on several occasions trying to plumb together something like this, but cannot for the life of me figure it out; apparently chromium does not really want you to get a list of tabs from outside the browser.
Has anyone with a similar workflow found a solution for this? I'd be willing to switch browsers, or try anything really.
The only thing I need from the existing app switcher is for it to ignore minimised apps.
That way I can have many apps open, but only care about a few at a time. And keep my focus.
Annoying that I have to install ae wizzbang addition to achieve such a simple thing.
macOS, the only OS that still empower its devs to do UX usable with a mouse and keyboard
Windows/Linux on the other hand, is all about scrolling
https://i.imgur.com/LYytae6.png
Why does this Linux/GTK desktop program looks like an iOS setting menu?
Compare to this, all settings available without scrolling: https://manytricks.com/witch/images/4/multiswitch_big.png
I love macs for their general feel, but the windowing paradigm is just weird. Their ux team should try i3 for a few months and come up with ab Apple version of that.
Cmd+`, anyone?…
After https://SwayWM.org I have told prospective employers that I'm gonna have to use a Linux system when working there and if not it's okay I can work somewhere else.
"But our security team can only support Mac and Windows" is a sad joke I hear too often.
A couple years ago I turned down an employment package offer that was too good to turn down and said I could be available as a contractor. A big part was I didn't wanna be forced to use a f**ing Mac. Taxes made more sense too so yeah.
Wow this is fantastic. I was gifted a MacBook a few months ago and I am continually surprised to learn how many features I just take for granted in windows. MacOS often feels very similar to Linux in that the core OS is very barebones and needs a ton of extensions to really be useable. The difference being in Linux most of the extensions are OSS while in MacOS they’re each $9.99.
Over the years, Apple has implemented inadequate window management in MacOS in a number of ways, empowering the user by giving them the choice of which method to be frustrated by.
For example, the CMD+Tab task switcher seems natural, but it has an issue where you can select an app and it does absolutely nothing, which is both infuriating and incomprehensible. Is it ignoring me because the app is minimized? Did it send it to another desktop? I have no idea! It must be deterministic, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. I am sure "real mac users" get it, and I'm happy for them, but poor benighted souls like me just wonder why their $2500 computer isn't doing what they're telling it to. And whatever that perfectly good reason is, there is an even more perfectly good reason to make it work the way users expect.
The Dock has the same issue with letting you click on an app, and then not bringing that app on screen, or telling me why it's ignoring my command. Both of the above patterns work better in Windows, and have worked better for decades, and Apple designers should be a little ashamed of that.
Mission Control is probably the most useful method, because it actually brings selected applications on screen (the minimum functionality you would expect). However, it does not support keyboard shortcuts for navigating and selecting an application! How is this possible? It feels like a couple story point ticket to me, yet it remains a problem after a decade. Maybe Apple stubbornly assumes everyone will use a touchpad for everything, despite them selling products without touchpads in them. For money.
The other problem with Mission Control is that it should not require your entire screen to switch apps. It feels too form-over-function to me.
I tried the newest entry, Stage Manager, for several months. It's like a cross between Mission Control and the Dock. It works well (that is, it does what it's supposed to), except it's missing the ability to change the size of the window thumbnails. It takes up quite a lot of the screen for the value it gives you. Not that being able to select a window and switch to it isn't valuable, just that that's how the Dock should already work, and Dock doesn't take up 10-15% of the screen.