Your assessment sounds exactly right. SM seems designed to solve a problem that most in this forum don’t struggle with.
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That is a great tip! I’m going to try it with my Dad. I hope it catches on with him.
I’m not sure that was Apple’s intention at all. My gut feeling is Stage Manager was designed to support and enhance iPad multitasking, and to enable iPad to offer full external display support. I think it was added to macOS to open up a consistent multitasking experience across devices. In other words, anybody coming to macOS from iPadOS would hardly see a difference. Otherwise, it makes almost no sense.
My case for this position follows….
The public has been living with pointer-and-keyboard gui interfaces for some 38 years. I don’t think most users were having a hard enough time with macOS’s windowed environment to justify Stage Manager to solve a problem for the few people who struggle that much with window management.
Also, using it day-in-and-day-out I don’t find it to be an easier form of a multi-windowed interface. I think it’s different and that’s it. One may have a preference in terms of which form appeals to them, but one is not inherently easier than another. With one exception. It is a little bit harder, but not impossible, to get lost with a messy desktop while using Stage Manager. But with Stage Manager you could get lost with a messy set of stages (and full screen windows in other spaces!).
In other words, I think these are really six-of-one-half-dozen-of-the-other interface options. As such, it seems Stage Manager on macOS was not to solve a user interface problem on macOS, but to solve the problem of bringing parity of design between multitasking devices (and, to take it one step further, was done because it was easier to conform the mac desktop to the iPad experience than the reverse).
Q.E.D. (Maybe?)
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I believe I stand corrected. Your explanation makes a lot sense and mirrors frustrations about iPad multitasking I’ve heard on several podcasts. Thanks!
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To take your point (which I think is correct) one step further, given the information available about how apps will work on “RealityOS”, stage manager might be a better way to manage multiple apps on a virtual head’s up display than either Split View or Spaces would be… Perhaps the odd addition of Stage View to MacOS is a signal of other interfaces to come.
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I’m back to trying it on my Mac. I really like the idea. I like that I click on the desktop and my apps go off to the side clearing the way. I can see a lot of potential in it. I like how it displays items off to the side that I can click and get back to. I like that I can set up “screensets” and go back to those when switching back.
I have been a heavy user of spaces and I can see where this might work. It is a bit clunky to setup - and the SM Dance is peculiar - and not very Apple like.
I don’t know if Apple is going to go all in on SM - or like many things before, just let it linger and wither. But if they go all in, and fix some of these issues, I can see it working well for me and replacing what I currently do with Spaces.
I’ve been using Stage Manager / Sonoma for the last 2 weeks on an M1 Mac Mini with 2 Displays.
It’s a nice feature, but I have noticed an overall lag (2-3 seconds) and some sluggishness with Safari over 2 displays. I think Stage Manager is good when you’re in a focused zone mode. But I don’t think it’s convenient (at least not for me), if I just casually browsing or what not.