Am I the only one that can't stand non-maximized windows on Windows but hate maximized windows on Mac?

Could this be a psychological phenomenon in which the designs of these systems make you use them in a specific way? Or am I just retarded?

Anyone else does the same?

Also I don't really see much difference in how windows work between Windows and Mac (only some aesthetic differences). I guess I'm retarded.

Well, the main application menu for Windows applications is part of the window itself while Mac applications have their main menu on top of the area where Windows can maximize. My personal opinion is that I do not like applications on the Mac sharing that main menu area based on which application has focus. Maybe your preference has to do with that menu placement as well.

@monkeyboy Yeah I hate that too, but I rarely use this top menu. Maybe somehow I think it's too much of a hassle to change between applications because modifier keys in Mac are fucking ridiculous (so I need to ctrl + tab and muscular memory does not allow me to do that without at least 2 tries). So instead of switching windows I just keep them on screen at all times. Also Mac's taskbar is either disgusting (why right click to choose which window I want?) or I don't know how to use it...

I used to be all maximized in Windows but switched to a more windows everywhere style after using Mac for a while.

Window management in Mac is used to bother me, but I've come to like clicking the just-visible corner to bring an app into focus over shortcuts or the taskbar so the shotgun approach suits me better now.

I use ultrawide monitors mostly, so I stick to 50/50 pinned most of the time. See how you feel about paperWM:

https://github.com/paperwm/PaperWM

In support I used to have my windows placed center and with the minimize button stacked, so I could quickly minimize through a stack to get the window I wanted - some of them would specifically have the close button there so I shut them down regularly, like this one program that would claim exclusive connection to a piece of hardware as long as the app was running.

I ran a window manager for a while, but modern windows apps didn't work well with it.

There are a lot of good points here, but my two cents is:

It's to do with the GUI design, the OSX Dock is IMO intrusive and either causes waste real estate either side of it, or it in the way / not always accessible.

Windows task bar isn't the best either, but it at least gives you an "expected real estate" you know you're working with.

If that makes any sense, that's how I see them anyway.

@Jilano
It's pretty nice, I'm doing wait and see though, the Samsung CF791 burned me pretty hard I'm the backlight department. Might make the jump if it turns out they're comparable to micro-leds.