Program Menus, can they be moved to the window itself?

When Apple bought NeXT they did so for the NeXTStep / OpenStep operating system. This is where the dock came from and the menus were originally not attached to the windows. The menus floated like a window and could be moved around. Pinning the menu to top of the screen like Macintosh was therefore easy. The early beta's of Mac OS X looked more like NeXTStep but over time became more and more Macintosh like in appearance. It's an evolution. Ironically, much of the NS API is still in macOS. NeXT technology became a secret weapon for Apple. It's what allowed them to easily port from PowerPC to Intel to mobile ARM CPUs to Apple Silicon ARM64 SoC. The iPhone and iPad would not have come about were it not for the technology. NeXT was first with object oriented graphical rapid application development. When it hit the scene people were still drawing out screens on graph paper and calculating the dimensions to hard code the widgets into C++. NeXT was years ahead of VisualBasic, etc. Because macOS is UNIX it quickly became the best laptop for developers after the Windows vs Linux war was won. Linux powers the cloud and developers coding for the cloud love Mac's. Because the alternative was Windows with PuTTY vs. Linux which barely ran on most laptops at the time. At some point, there were more Mac's being carried at USENIX conferences. This is why Microsoft has added the WSL2, updated Windows Terminal, ported SQL Server to Linux, bought Github, allows Linux in Azure. Ported PowerShell to Linux / macOS. Most Silicon Valley Big Tech & startups use Mac's with some Linux for engineers. Linux is amazing as a server and cloud container OS. Lately, it has made tremendous progress on the desktop. But it's still so fragmented and it feels like attention to fine details is not in the Linux DNA like it is in macOS. I like the way macOS just works and manages to stay out of my way. With Linux Desktop I end up tinkering way too much as there are simply way too many options. Mac's feel like a polished and comfortable tool or an appliance while Linux is a full blown DIY mail order kit you will spend years fabricating in your garage. The 1984 Macintosh was the computer anyone could use. Adding UNIX and NeXTStep developer tools with a mature API at the right place at the right time is the reason for Apple's massive success.

Evolution in Pictures

NeXTStep

OS X Server 1.0

Mac OS X Public Beta

Bottom line, the menu bar paradigm is not going to change. It's baked into Apple culture. The original reason for the menu bar was to always be able to jam your mouse pointer up there and browse through the menu items. Whichever app has focus the menu will always be in the same place at the top of the screen. A menu bar is for novices. It acts like an app command reference as well as providing a shortcut key reference. It's a lot like whichkey in ViM / Emacs.

Personally? I don't care about the menus at all. On laptop screens I hide the menu bar and the dock. I use mostly keyboard shortcuts or trackpad gestures.

The answer is simply: no.

Menus belong to the apps in Mac world, not the window.

Two things that might help: One is to learn the simple keyboard shortcuts, most of which are common across all apps like ⌘N for new file or ⌘P for print etc

Other wise install and app like this:

https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/menumate/id518594271?mt=12

which you can invoke all the apps menus under your mouse.

No problem. Install a virtual machine, and then install an ARM64 (Aarch64) version of Linux, and you have everything in one place.

When it comes to a GUI interface, I’m macOS all the way.

But I spend all day ssh’ed into Linux development systems at work using Vim to develop kernel level file system software, protecting my session with tmux.

I prefer ssh over VNC (or MS Remote Desktop) and working with the Linux GUI and one of the Linux terminal emulators.

UTM

https://getutm.app/

Oracle is not ready for the Apple Silicon based Macs, so waiting for VirtualBox may not be worth it. After all, it has been at least 2 and a half years.

Or buy Parallels. They are serious about supporting the Mac. And Parallels has a deal with Microsoft to legally run the ARM64 version of Windows on the Mac.

+1 Parallels is the way to go at the moment if you truly require a full blown Linux VM. You will need an ARM64 distribution of Linux. You can't emulate x86_64 on ARM64 host hardware.

Personally, I use iTerm2, ssh, tmux, ViM, Emacs/Tramp and even Blink on an iPad while traveling. I've not yet needed to install a Linux VM except for some very specific scenarios that don't come up very often. Most all the Linux software runs fine on macOS. I've used Spice to remote desktop to Linux as well.

I am currently reviewing Warp.dev which is a new terminal with modern code editor features written in Rust. It has A.I. to help you compose complex commands, write scripts, etc. They will be adding collaboration terminal sharing features and literate programming run books. Early impression, it's mind blowing and game changing.