How to improve macOS in 5 steps, by Alex Potenza
To be clear: bottom-of-the-barrel Windows laptops, Linux laptops, and Chromebooks can plug into these multi-display docks over one cable. No Mac can, regardless of its price.
Hilariously I have even seen Intel Macs gain MST support once booted into Windows via Boot Camp, which at least suggests software and driver support are and always were a huge part of this story.
1. Add DisplayPort MST support.
Brightness control on non-Apple displays is smaller, but it points in the same direction. A lot of displays support DDC/CI. In plain English, the display already knows how to listen, but macOS behaves as if only Apple’s own displays deserve convenient controls. If a connected display supports standard brightness, the keyboard keys, the menu bar, and Control Center should be able to use it. MonitorControl and BetterDisplay exist because people clearly want this to be native.
2. Add brightness control to non-apple displays. I use both apps (one on my M1 and another on my Intel MacBook pros) for my external LG displays.
What if Apple Intelligence was smart enough to know ‘you’re using these three specific windows from different apps and swapping between them to do this one task’ and intelligently surface those groups of app windows for users. Picture an Apple Intelligence managed better version of Stage Manager where you can easily orchestrate it all from ‘Mission Control 2’. Those are the sorts of features I want from Apple Intelligence.
3. Focus on user tasks, and not application or window-level UI control.
Apple could retire Zoom entirely, make Fill the standard ‘make this window bigger’ action, and have the green button, title bar, and top-edge drag all follow the same model.
4. Bring back old maximize.
udio has gaps too. Per-app volume control should be built into the system, and external audio devices, in particular USB audio interfaces, should be more widely supported from the keyboard and menu bar. SoundSource is useful precisely because it solves both problems at once. The market keeps proving demand for things Apple could and should have built years ago.
5. App-level volume control.
You do the five things, and I won’t consider moving to linux anytime soon. Your move, Apple.