It does however include meta services, meta app manager, and meta app installer which you have to either disable after enabling view of system apps or use adb to remove it.
Hate that you have to even go through the process of removing meta services. Wish it wasn't there.
But, love the OS which is more feature rich than the custom roms of the past I used to use when combined with Good Lock. Love one hand operation+ which lets me not have to bother with gestures anymore and almost everything being available with the side gestures and edge panel. And I don't want to go without a stylus again on a phone, since I use it a lot to do write quick notes without unlocking the phone or selecting text or using it in DS games.
Haven't tried it yet, but solution someone posted there was
I've been coming back to this question periodically for about 10 years and I finally found a simple solution: AutoRaise https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise
By default it enables focus-follows-mouse AND autoraise. You can delay the autoraise with a config option.
It also has what they call "warp" function that centers the mouse pointer in a window when you Command-Tab to the window. I never knew I needed this until I tried it, but once I tried it, I can't live without it!
While AutoRaise is concerned with GUI window and mouse behaviour, as a command line application it lacks a GUI itself.
Here's where the Launcher app bundle comes into play: a menubar application that allows to control and configure the AutoRaise binary. A mouse click on it's menubar icon will start/stop AutoRaise, preferences can be configured from it's context menu and will be saved between sessions.
Current issue seems to be that it doesn't work on MacOS 14 yet, which I'm not on.
I do use a S23U and I surprisingly did like the default PenUP drawing app and how there's audio feedback that gives an additional feeling of texture to the drawing for that and Samsung Notes. S23U seems to make better use of the Spen than iPad does with the Apple Pencil. I use the smart select option all the time to do things like extract text. And wish iPad had an equivalent of one hand operation+ and edge panel.
I don't know I would change to a Samsung tablet though. Not because I greatly prefer the apps or OS on iPad, but because I feel more confident in long term support from them. If custom roms were around for Android tablets that had a spen quality stylus I'd switch in an instant knowing that when support stops I can move onto custom roms to use even longer. But until then I've been prioritizing updates for what is essentially a dedicated comic reader a majority of the time.
I was kind surprised how kind of hacky the experience of MacOS has felt having to search out so many different apps just to try to get the OS to behave how I'd like compared to Linux where I'm pretty happy with the out the box experience, and can just stick more to the app store just to find programs like firefox as opposed to trying to find a bunch of different apps to "fix" the desktop behavior for something as simple as display scaling.
Like one I hope there is a solution to is double click being required when Multitasking with a browser where the windows needs to be activated before it accepts user input. Has led to things feeling unresponsive, since not even split screen or floating app multitasking on phones require that. But, I'm sure I'll get used to it, and it'll be fun in the future to try out Linux on the powerful and very great value MacMini when Asahi Linux makes progress.
I would actually if it weren't for updates, but what I do on the tablet is so undemanding compared to phones that I made the concession for long term updates. Since the iPad for me is just a glorified comic reader most of the time. Didn't end up being the productivity laptop replacement I thought it would be other than writing on PDFs and drawing
I miss Tachiyomi and would actually get much more out of it than paperback. And vlc on ipad has struggled with playing some encoded x265 files compared to Android, and video options that are Foss so don't have ads or IAP are so lacking that that expensive paid options like Infuse is pushed.
And the file system is too restrictive. The nice specs seem to be held back so much by the OS. It is more filling the role a Kindle does for ebooks but for comics instead when it comes to the iPad for me. I wish it ran MacOS when you hooked it up to an external monitor or connected a keyboard to it. Although being able to use it as an external monitor with MacOS is really cool.
But, I am thinking of getting a Android tablet next time if there is one that has good custom rom community or at least official lineage OS support, since I would prefer the Android app alternatives for stuff like comics and video players and also being able to easily use emulators and play like DS games with the stylus would be fun.
If you haven't already I recommend one hand gesture plus. It's replaced gestures for me, and something I wish was standard, since I can perform various navigations actions and shortcuts without having to reach down. Very helpful on large phones when one handing it.
I posted on the firefox community too hoping someone has a solution whether it is about:config or an addon to change the behavior, since the active interaction requirement doesn't apply to the address bar. So at least changing the behavior of Firefox would be huge, since returning to the browser is such a huge part of my multitasking.
Yeah, I've used MacOS before but now getting one I intend to use personally after having last used a mac laptop years back it's been a lot of apps I've had to retrieve from outside the official app store compared to Linux. I've been pretty happy with the default Linux and Windows desktop behavior out the box, but with MacOS have had to look for bunch of apps to modify the desktop experience.
At least there's apps and programs for most of the simplification or functions I've been looking for. Was the reason for my title of Linux and Windows users, since they might be the ones more likely to go against the grain.
Still Apple is absolutely unrivaled when it comes to the price category the macmini falls into. Not going to get better hardware than what the macmini line goes for and overall very pretty UI and a sleep function that actually works.
And yeah the profile Pic you mentioned seems like an issue that would eventually have popped up haha. I've been putting photos I want synced to icloud separate from those I want to actually save, since got annoying deleting photos I just needed temporarily from iCloud after the storage started filling up from the iPad uploading everything with no exclusion seeming to be built in.
Still seemed odd to me why a preview doesn't have such a basic continuous function, since other native options for other OSS aren't full blown editors either. I think this picture function has been around in other OS for over a decade now?
Especially with more people who use phones or tablets than desktop OS it seems like coming into MacOS and opening a file to look at a larger preview and being able to continuously look with no additional steps would be the behavior they'd expect.
This is the one thing that has confused me more than the default windows snap behavior or the scaling options for external monitors, since it is so basic I never expected to not be a thing in any OS released these days.
Yeah, it seems like it has less development that even the photo viewing behavior in iOS. Like you can just navigate through the files app and open a Pic and just keep swiping right instead of running into this random limitation.
Yeah, basically the default windows or Linux pic behavior. When I saw you had to do these additional steps of space bar and selecting images in grid view I was like no... I could have lived with clicking space bar, but having to do the additional step of selecting images or do a folder view adjustment was just too clunky for me haha. It felt like someone trying to explain how downloading a PC game then going through setting options isn't that hard a opposed just downloading and playing a game on a console. My thought why does a simple image preview even need those steps.
With pixea I can just double click to open an image no matter the folder view it is set to and use arrow keys or scroll wheel to look through the images in the folder.
Meanwhile in Quick view I have to reach for the space bar. Mind you I'm using a macmini so my hands are more likely to not be near the space bar as it would be using a TouchPad on a laptop.
And then my preferred view is grid, but then the arrow key navigation stops at the row it started on instead of automatically proceeding to the next row. So I have to click down then have to use the opposite keys to look at the previews then down again and go the opposite direction. And scroll wheel navigation doesn't work either. So then if I want to use one key I have to go through the process of changing to list or column view so I can just click down to view the next. But, why would I have to do that? It just seems like too many unnecessary steps.
No need to highlight anything with Pixea. Or switch to space or whatever. Simply open the image and just look through the media in the folder with no extra steps, which more fits into my idea of simplicity that I expect from MacOS than the default behavior that doesn't feel mouse friendly either.
It does however include meta services, meta app manager, and meta app installer which you have to either disable after enabling view of system apps or use adb to remove it.