> Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe.

That's full-screen, not maximised[1].

It's also something I hate - I make an app full-screen and suddenly it's on a different desktop, so my awareness of what apps are on which desktop is completely gone - I can no longer to ctrl-alt-right twice to get from my golang desktop to my browser desktop, I need to move away from my keyboard, lean over to the macbook and three-finger swipe.

As far as Apple are concerned, no one ever docks their MB into an external screen, keyboard and mouse. You're supposed to do all of your work squinting.

[1] Someone will no doubt correct me if I am using the wrong terms.

I've used MacOS for about 15 years now, and I almost _never_ use full-screen [1]. What I do instead is group windows in the different desktops by task / context. These windows are mostly sized to take ~80-90% of the screen, but I make them all different sizes and slightly offset from each other. That way I can switch from one another by clicking on the small sliver that peeks out from behind the current foreground window. That type of context-switching is a bit more rare; the most-used action is the 3-finger swipe / ctrl-arrow.

One thing I miss from Leopard is the ability to put your spaces into a grid instead of a line; made for a bit more efficient switching between them.

[1]: The only exception which is pretty much always full-screen is my terminal. I use tmux for multitasking in that "space".

I've been using a Mac full time for a little over a year. I'd agree fully with you on the full screen going to a separate desktop. Extremely annoying.

However, you can switch desktops with control + right/left arrow. No need for the trackpad.

Because I'm easily distracted, I frequently have all major applications maximized. That's how I always used Windows. Fortunately, I can have the same on the Mac. Maximized with the dock showing below and all apps on the same desktop. Full screen is a rarity for me.

My issue with control + right/left arrow is just how freaking slow it is. If I realise that I went the wrong direction I have to wait for the animation to finish before going in the other direction. It locks you in the animation.

Note: As I was writing this, I was making sure that I was right. I notice that it will allow me to ignore the animation sometimes, but i am not sure what triggers that.

That approach only works on the 13 and 14 inch laptops because the screen isn’t big enough to show more than one application. On anything larger the green button is basically never what I want.

The green button is just a very ill-considered piece of functionality imho. I find window management on macOS too frustrating to tolerate without moom installed.