Comment by bmacho
3 years ago
I LOVE the desktop switching animations. On Ubuntu Unity when I send a window to another virtual desktop, it keeps the window still, and slides the background, while on Windows VirtualDesktopGridSwitcher just switches instantly. (Same for just switching desktop windows just switches, Unity slides it. But it is more common to slide that.)
On Ubuntu, I just know where am I and where are the things, while on Windows I have no idea.
On KDE my computer slides all the old windows and background away, and the new ones into the screen. Yes, it's a great thing that makes my brain know what I'm seeing.
It is also long finished by the time my finger is away from the switching key. And that is very relevant. I have no idea what Apple users experience, and "desktop switching animations" aren't all the same thing.
Mac OS takes about one second to switch desktops, with at least half that time used for the last fraction where the animation smoothly slows down. It's fine if you only need it now and then, but when switching repeatedly for some task it gets annoying quickly.
Much worse: Mac OS fullscreen mode works by moving the current window to a new virtual desktop while hiding the statusbar etc, meaning you always have a one-second delay when entering and leaving fullscreen, with videos on Twitter and some other sites it's even slower. But the UI is responsive sooner than that, so recently I accidentally minimized all applications by clicking while the screen was still completely black.
Animations are difficult to get right, I always err on the faster side because waiting for an animation to finish is never enjoyable.