because getting hysterical (and indignant) at changes in the OS (especially in the GUI) is an annual tradition on this forum 🤷
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Do you like Liquid Glass on Mac?
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It's also strange that they even put simple UI settings into the Accessibility submenu. So they split the Appearance menu into two submenus. I bet a ton of people disable transparency without having some kind of problems. The same goes for animations. I disable it because I hate the new animations.
Oh my, people who don't like changes to a working UI that makes their lives harder because their work depends on it is hysterical now?
Discussion boards are for... discussion... and not glorifying a bug ridden early access release that would've never been released when they didn't have to rush stuff for annual updates / new versions.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I had someone on Reddit insist to me that this was a bigger UI makeover than Big Sur, Yosemite, and Leopard were, when 80-90% of the interface is exactly the same as it was in Sequoia.
Now to be fair I'm not a huge fan of the 10-20% that did change (the toolbars and sidebars specifically), but the majority of the OS still looks largely the same and a lot of big name 3rd party apps won't even bother adding Liquid Glass because they use their own custom on-brand interfaces anyway (Adobe, Microsoft, etc.)
Sorry, this is an unnecessarily dismissive and disrespectful take. I get that we're all, presumably, Apple fans and many of us have invested a small fortune in their products and depend on them daily. Maybe you're in the same boat. But this is beyond a critique of aesthetics or trivial annoyances, it's a matter of usability and accessibility. I believe in the "Design is how it works" adage and has been a big reason why I've invested so much into Apple products. Aesthetic critiques are valid as well. I'm usually up for change and refinement, but I'm really not up for the attention seeking look and feel of the new GUI. Even seems antithetical to the aesthetic of the hardware. In the case of the other OS26s, we have no recourse but to critique, complain, or possibly jump ship, since Apple stopped signing the OSs and you can no longer "downgrade". I get that it can be obnoxious to have to scroll through all the hot takes, but this situation really sucks for a lot of us, possibly a majority.
Funny.
Seeing this thread I wondered what the big deal was. It looks pretty-much the same to me.
Then I saw "Reduce Transparency" was enabled on my macbook. I must've been playing with that setting at some point in the past and forgot about it
Fixed it now. I'll be back in a few days to weigh in.
Seeing this thread I wondered what the big deal was. It looks pretty-much the same to me.
Then I saw "Reduce Transparency" was enabled on my macbook. I must've been playing with that setting at some point in the past and forgot about it
Fixed it now. I'll be back in a few days to weigh in.
everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course. but it really is an annual event to melt down on this forum with each new OS. not being disrespectful in this... just observant. so i respect your opinion, that you're 'not up for the attention seeking look and feel of the new GUI'.
but 'us, possibly a majority'? that happens on this forum (and probably other mac-centric forums), and does not necessarily reflect the much-larger mac user base that doesn't in fact live on forums, people who instead live on their macs.
You just can't help yourself, can you.
It's as transparent as liquid glass. The trolling, I mean.
Some fair points here with a few caveats. Of course there is always a bit grumpy complaining about this and that UI change. I haven't been an exceptionally vocal commenter in the past but I've scrolled these forums and others enough for a number of decades to know this is more than the usual list of gripes. For many many people the GUI is fundamentally broken. Many of the legibility/usability issues can be fixed or mitigated but for many it will not be enough because of aesthetic design decisions instead of UX accessibility issues. It's the old form over function debate. Traditionally, Apple has leaned on the latter. Not always of course. In fact, Alan Dye's stated goal was to design a UI that got out of the way. They've accomplished the opposite. UI elements are often obscured by the light reacting engine, some controls seem to pop in and out of existence, and fail to successfully adapt to their surrounds. It is a UI designed to work within the pristine confines of a graphic design studio, not in the real world. Do I really need a UI that refracts the virtual illumination of a Zappos ad? Do we need to drool over the gloppy toggle. That's not design that gets out of the way, it's not design that works. And for all of that that needed to implement a rendering engine that seems to be a real resource hog, memory and battery wise. And then there's the macOS window corner radii. I know it probably seems like a small annoyance and aesthetic quibble but it truly affects the screen real estate and is such a waste of space, for what? Because it rhymes with the screen cutouts? I get the impulse but not at the cost. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. As for folks complaining or scrolling the forums, I can't recommend the updates to anyone in my life with any kind of vision issues. This truly feels like an even bigger misstep than Apple Intelligence and if you're on iOS26, you're out of luck.
Excellent post, bravo sir.
Thanks! I appreciate that. There's a lot of passionate people on the forums these last few days. I'm not usually this active, but the latest release really have me worried. While a single or a few hundred people might not have an effect, debate and criticism is our only recourse. It also seems like excellent opportunity to argue and critique with denigrating others and their legit opinions. I feel like we could all use a little extra practice in that.
i hear you, really, but that doesn't change my own perspective. so, fine-tuning notwithstanding, this is the look we'll be living with for some time, and am perhaps lucky that it works fine for me.
I think it's fair to say that we're all rooting for Apple. I hope that you're right but this seems different to me. I'm usually very optimistic, open to change, and really excited about the rumors but this really feels like a failure of design philosophy and leadership. I hope I'm over-reacting. I'll continue to be open but I really needed to roll back the updates. It took a lot for me to do that.
This isn't a huge impediment but is it ever irritating. I'm mad just looking at it.
This is just awful
This is just awful
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My old eyes prefer the classic look. Since I am old I don’t like change just for the sake of change. If it made things easier to see and distinguish, that would be ok, but it doesn’t.
I have Tahoe on one of my older Macbooks. It is really not radically different as far as I can tell. The OS was released too soon and has a number of bugs but it is not unusable. Yestereday the computer locked up and the cursor disappeared, track pad was totally unresponsive. I did a hard shut down from the keyboard after looking up on how to do it. It booted back up and everything was okay. The liquid glass is really not that much of a departure.
The number of people quoting my posts saying they are not resistant to change is interesting. Out of all the things I said this is one thing most people are taking out of my post and responding.
People say they are not resistant to change and list the number of changes they don't like in LG to prove me wrong.
I don't know what anyone is thinking but myself. All I can say is that there is a pattern of behavior that I am observing and it has nothing to do with what I am saying.
If you hate LG and are considering getting rid of your Mac or apple products I say do it. Don't just talk about it. This release is ******* and Apple is going in the wrong direction. Sell it all off. Buy an Android phone and Windows PC and Android tablet. Put your mouth where your money is. I did it. I also learned MacOS at it's worse is still better than the alternatives. I came back and learned something in that process.
But I suspect most of the people saying they are selling their Apple stuff is in a few months they will move on, and complain about something else.
Maybe LG sucks but you can either deal with it, make suggestions directly to Apple to help improve development in a direction you want or get out of the Apple ecosystem. The hyperbolic discussion in here is also indicative of something greater going on.
Either way I am not on here to tell people what to think or that my opinion matters any more than anyone else. I can see for myself a lot of people are really upset about LG and honestly I feel bad for them. I know what it feels like to have something drastically change and it is completely out of your control in the short term at least. It sucks. So I get the responses. I just wanted to say that I am not against anyone's opinion. If you hate LG I am with you. I don't agree with you but I can see why you would be upset and if I were in your shoes I would be upset too. So I am not against anyone's take on LG and I can see some flaws that need to be addressed.
I honestly hope that LG gets better for those who don't like it. At least another major releases will happen in a year so it is possible it could change in a way they like. In other words these changes aren't forever and there is a possibility it will go back or in a better direction. LG won't be forever.
People say they are not resistant to change and list the number of changes they don't like in LG to prove me wrong.
I don't know what anyone is thinking but myself. All I can say is that there is a pattern of behavior that I am observing and it has nothing to do with what I am saying.
If you hate LG and are considering getting rid of your Mac or apple products I say do it. Don't just talk about it. This release is ******* and Apple is going in the wrong direction. Sell it all off. Buy an Android phone and Windows PC and Android tablet. Put your mouth where your money is. I did it. I also learned MacOS at it's worse is still better than the alternatives. I came back and learned something in that process.
But I suspect most of the people saying they are selling their Apple stuff is in a few months they will move on, and complain about something else.
Maybe LG sucks but you can either deal with it, make suggestions directly to Apple to help improve development in a direction you want or get out of the Apple ecosystem. The hyperbolic discussion in here is also indicative of something greater going on.
Either way I am not on here to tell people what to think or that my opinion matters any more than anyone else. I can see for myself a lot of people are really upset about LG and honestly I feel bad for them. I know what it feels like to have something drastically change and it is completely out of your control in the short term at least. It sucks. So I get the responses. I just wanted to say that I am not against anyone's opinion. If you hate LG I am with you. I don't agree with you but I can see why you would be upset and if I were in your shoes I would be upset too. So I am not against anyone's take on LG and I can see some flaws that need to be addressed.
I honestly hope that LG gets better for those who don't like it. At least another major releases will happen in a year so it is possible it could change in a way they like. In other words these changes aren't forever and there is a possibility it will go back or in a better direction. LG won't be forever.
No. Not liking the new look doesn't make one hysterical. The hyperbolic response does that. It is entirely possible to say "I'm not a fan of the new look. I find it makes it more difficult to use [insert reasons here]." But a solid proportion of posts here are MUCH more vitriolic, using hyperbolic language, insulting people deemed responsible for it, insulting people who like it, etc.
not trolling, just perhaps not the popular opinion on this thread. not sure why anyone would find that so threatening 🤔
Update: Got three old Thinkpads running various Linux distros (Neon, Silverblue, and Aurora). Playing around with whether they could be daily drivers.
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I just screenshotted one very stupid Finder bug and one very ugly reduce transparency version of control center just a few posts back, and I've posted and commented multiple other posts about atrocious text legibility (including the menubar, control center, the dock, and Music app).
As a UX designer and instructor, I would have marked my students down for nonsense like this (does that sound like an insult? Because it's just a fact). You shouldn't have to endure UX, you should enjoy it.
I've used OSX since Jaguar at least (and OS8/9 before that!) and this is the most phoned-in I've ever encountered an OS update from Apple. I learned UX from great Apple designers in the Bay Area, but if I were still teaching UX, I'd be scrubbing a lot of the Apple examples from my lectures at this point, because they don't show represent good UX. Legibility is fundamental UX design.
macOS has always had bugs, weird UX/UI, especially for new releases. However for me, as a long time user, it's been increasingly clear for years, but especially with Tahoe, that macOS is an afterthought for Apple.
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Clearly I’m in the minority, because I’m enjoying it.
I don’t have anywhere near the knowledge or authority to talk about UX/UI that you do, and I have no desire to argue. I didn’t accuse anyone specifically, I just called out vitriolic hyperbole. You don’t like it, and have good reason. Great! I’m not asking you to like it, just don’t call us stupid for liking it! (I’m not saying you ever did do that!)
I just don’t have the energy to deal with vitriol online these days. Maybe I don’t belong on this forum any more.
i've been on since 10.3, and the OS always seems to move forward (albeit sometimes in starts and stops). bugs? all software has bugs. but nothing has ever stopped me from doing what i need to do. tahoe, to me, seems like simply the next mac OS 🤔
Made the move back to Sequoia today. Much better for me. First time in 16 years of macs I've ever gone back to a prior version.