For the past few days, for the first time, I’ve seriously tried MacOS and I became distinctly aware that anyone who calls Gnome similar to MacOS has never used MacOS.
If you’re just looking at screenshots, Gnome and MacOS do bear a resemblance. Gnome’s Dash looks similar to the Dock; Gnome’s app launcher looks similar to Launchpad; Gnome’s top panel looks similar to the menu bar.
But actually using each desktop, the UX, design philosophy, idealogy, and feel is miles apart. I think the three biggest differences are
- No menu bar
- Minimizing distractions, so no dock
- Interacting with windows is closer to Windows and KDE (fullscreening windows keeps them in same workspace, can interact with a window’s content without first clicking to focus it)
I am addicted to the mouse gestures from years using OS X for work, and use Gnome despite kiiiind of hating it on anything I plan to code on. Trust me, it’s similar. And getting that same experience elsewhere is difficult and janky.