I find nothing wrong with it. I would have found nothing wrong with it 10 years ago...as it looks like something designed years ago.
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Do you like Liquid Glass on Mac?
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Well, here's why I use stage manager.
My vision isn't great. I run my 4k monitor at 2048x1152 scaled. Not a lot of space. I also use dark mode because light mode is painful to my eyes.
The problem with dark mode is overlapping windows tend to blend into each other. My eyes get confused picking out content in front window from the window behind it. With light mode, the dark shadow brings out the front window. In dark mode, it's black on grey on black. I also turn up the monitor's gamma and contrast a bit so it looks better, but this also crushes shadow details a bit making the problem worse.
So when you combine running many apps maximized b/c I have the content (web pages, document, code) enlarged + having a hard time picking out foreg and backg windows, just having one app on the screen at a time actually makes sense. That's right, I've dumbed macos down to old ipados pre-multi-windowing. I autohide the stage manager thing so it doesn't get in the way.
Occasionally I do need to have two windows on the same screen. Then it becomes a PITA. Also it's dumb to have an app like calculator on the screen by itself. I had some ideas to remedy these two issues and sent feedback to apple. It went to /dev/null as expected.
I don't know what normal people use it for. Maybe there's a better way to do what I'm doing. In any event,
I feel ya —though I often run the Apple Studio Display at 1920x1020. The blending of objects on the screen is more challenging than ever. Since Tahoe released Ive sent a handful of feedback to Apple, though I feel like it falls on deaf ears.
Ive used the Finder in ways that helps my sight, though this week Ive thought about trying Stage Manager (for the 1st time) in hopes of finding better solutions.
Ive used the Finder in ways that helps my sight, though this week Ive thought about trying Stage Manager (for the 1st time) in hopes of finding better solutions.
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I wanted to share some examples of how jagged icons look when they are a bit smaller. They look bad in both Default Mode and Dark Mode, but it's more prominent in Dark Mode:
As icons go into larger view, they look normal in either mode, even if there isn't much of a glass effect, and on the dark icons, you just see those annoying edges which make the icons look more laminated (versus glass) with rough cut edges (and this is on a retina display). Apple has got to smooth out the icon edge lighting effect at the very least.
Between the execution of Liquid Glass and the overall UX of Tahoe, this just isn't the Apple of yore, yet they still go on and on about how they agonize over details, but what we actually got are icons that don't really look like they have a glass overlay, and the effect they are applying to achieve this subtle look is making the icons look awful when the icons get smaller on a more crowded dock, or just off-looking while in Dark Mode.
How can a company the size of Apple with endless resources produce a GUI and icons that are so inconsistent and amateurish as compared to what amazing GUI artists are doing out there? And to add insult to injury, we can't even use amazing icon alternatives because Apple locks out the option to change most of them).
If this and other elements of Tahoe aren't addressed or fixed in the next update or two, then we know that Apple is losing that Apple touch and focus. I take no pleasure in revealing this sloppy execution (and I am jokingly known by friends to be the town Apple apologist). Unless this is just a bug affecting my Mac?
Hey, I'm sorry if that came off as condescending or rude. I meant it as a joke about reducing MacOS to iOS, but didn't intend to imply that something is wrong with people who use it.
I've always thought of stage manager as a bridging tool for people moving from iPad OS to a proper mac, or the reverse. I'd never considered the reasons others would use it, and you put things into perspective for me. Thank you for taking the time to explain why and how it works for you.
I don't think the way you use Stage Manager makes you a not 'normal user'. I do the same thing with fullscreen applications and Spaces; Two spaces on the left for Home and Mail, two spaces on the right for Messages and another Instant messaging app (I miss Adium). One space in the center for regular desktop usage.
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For me, Stage Manager is a notebook feature because it makes good use of the screen estate that I have. I like how you can have it 'hide' too so that it only appears when the cursor is on the edge of the screen. I did used to use spaces, but I found that it used a lot of VM and it wasn't worth the trade-off. Plus, pulling windows between spaces can be fiddly, so it's best of using it for when you know those apps are staying in said space.
On my desktop, I use spaces because I have more RAM and with the extra screen estate I only need two spaces realistically - work and leisure.
On my desktop, I use spaces because I have more RAM and with the extra screen estate I only need two spaces realistically - work and leisure.
Honestly, this looks like a "skin" made about 10 years ago for other products or interfaces. It is not so novel looking nor add anything. It might have had that Apple "cool factor" as said, a decade ago. Candidly, it doesn't do anything for me.
Already I've seen users of 3rd party apps complaining about their windows not having round corners and wanting to know when the app will be rebuilt with the new SDK so all their windows will match.
Dread it, run from it, the glass man cometh.
This ain't no country for square men
Dread it, run from it, the glass man cometh.
This ain't no country for square men
I quite like Liquid Glass on my iPhone. Haven't used it on my iPad enough to pass judgment yet, but so far there's been no issues.
But I definitely hate it on Mac. Within the first 5 minutes of using it I encountered hard to read text. It's pretty terrible and I had to reduce the transparency almost immediately.
Who signed off on this? It's dreadful. I really hope this isn't what macOS is going to be for the next decade, because it's terrible and makes me not want to use my Mac.
But I definitely hate it on Mac. Within the first 5 minutes of using it I encountered hard to read text. It's pretty terrible and I had to reduce the transparency almost immediately.
Who signed off on this? It's dreadful. I really hope this isn't what macOS is going to be for the next decade, because it's terrible and makes me not want to use my Mac.
My Dock icons are set to 48x48 pixels and I don’t have that issue.I wanted to share some examples of how jagged icons look when they are a bit smaller. They look bad in both Default Mode and Dark Mode, but it's more prominent in Dark Mode:
The gaslighting from Apple, in this way, has really become tiring.
I was trying to move my monitor to the left to match its physical placement. Click and drag? No. Right click? No. I swear didn't there use to be an arrange button? Wait, they moved it to the bottom of the screen. So after much agonizing, they decided to move the arrange button as far away as possible from the graphical representation of the things to be arranged?
No doubt this was done for uniformity or whatever. Still dumb. A foolish consistency...
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Really? That's lame. We've only been able to click and drag since the Monitors Control Panel was introduced with the Mac II in something like System 3.
why is everything so
r o u n d
literally every element. so much round. tabs? round. buttons? round. menu bar? round on hoover. menus? round and divorced from the menu bar.
The radius appears to match the bezel of the MacBooks? Was that the intent?
r o u n d
literally every element. so much round. tabs? round. buttons? round. menu bar? round on hoover. menus? round and divorced from the menu bar.
The radius appears to match the bezel of the MacBooks? Was that the intent?
Rounded corners are the new "thing". Welcome to Windows 11. Windows 11 introduced the rounded corners to its UI a year or two ago. I have a Galaxybook 4 and the screen has 4 rounded corners that match perfectly with Windows 11 UI.
It is the new big thing. Everything will have rounded corners despite the fact this is not a good use of the space.
I already got used to it. Hate the rounded UI on my HP laptop with a rectangular screen.
On my M2 MBA the rounded corners look okay. I bet the next big hardware redesign will integrate rounded corners on all 4 sides of the screen.
As a guy with a Galaxy smart watch I long for s rectangular screen like Apple watch.
I get it, trends and I will go along with it even though I don't think it is the best decision it does look cool. Lol
I am a big suckered for nostalgia and the original liquid glass UI.
This is not as good in my opinion as the original and it certainly needs more polish but I like the direction they are going in.
I get that the new UI may violate basic design principles and I get the UI may be less efficient for the majority posting but my personal experience has been different. Despite some UI rough edges the basic OS seems pretty stable so far. I like a lot of the new UI details like the glossy button on Apple TV, and plenty of other small UI details I am discovering with use.
Overall my general impression is pretty good. I like when things get mixed up and reworked. Eventually as the OS matures a lot of the complaints people have now will get resolved and some will never change.
This new UI seems to be a major UI design trend across platforms getting more eye candy than in the past. A lot of optimization and improvements need to be made to these new OS GUI and under the hood. As an older user of tech I have seen this exact story play out many times. This is probably why I reserve a lot of judgment for subsequent . releases moving forward.
This is either a breath of fresh air after years of the same looking GUI that was pretty basic and flat to something with more emphasis on flair, color, and effects. I love it and encourage more. I want more liquid glass and more 3d effects. GPU now a days don't really even blink at these effects so the argument that it deletes resources is really only valid for older devices. On top of that these type of desktop visual effects have been around for years. Liquid glass is an old design that used much less resources than modern GUI without LG. On Linux you can have all sorts of crazy desktop animations and they really don't tax the system at all.
This is not as good in my opinion as the original and it certainly needs more polish but I like the direction they are going in.
I get that the new UI may violate basic design principles and I get the UI may be less efficient for the majority posting but my personal experience has been different. Despite some UI rough edges the basic OS seems pretty stable so far. I like a lot of the new UI details like the glossy button on Apple TV, and plenty of other small UI details I am discovering with use.
Overall my general impression is pretty good. I like when things get mixed up and reworked. Eventually as the OS matures a lot of the complaints people have now will get resolved and some will never change.
This new UI seems to be a major UI design trend across platforms getting more eye candy than in the past. A lot of optimization and improvements need to be made to these new OS GUI and under the hood. As an older user of tech I have seen this exact story play out many times. This is probably why I reserve a lot of judgment for subsequent . releases moving forward.
This is either a breath of fresh air after years of the same looking GUI that was pretty basic and flat to something with more emphasis on flair, color, and effects. I love it and encourage more. I want more liquid glass and more 3d effects. GPU now a days don't really even blink at these effects so the argument that it deletes resources is really only valid for older devices. On top of that these type of desktop visual effects have been around for years. Liquid glass is an old design that used much less resources than modern GUI without LG. On Linux you can have all sorts of crazy desktop animations and they really don't tax the system at all.
I looked up some Windows 11 UI screenshots... The windows don't seem to be any more rounded than the ones on Sequoia and earlier post-Big Sur systems (which covers the last 5 years). Or is there something I don't see in the screenshots? I don't have a Windows machine.
Here is a picture of the Windows 11 UI notice the web browser and the corners are now rounded when previously they were square. The laptop also has rounded corners on its screen as you can see in the picture. The rounded corners on the minimized browser Window has the same rounded corners and matches the hardware. This laptop is over a year old closer to 2.
Every previous version of Windows had rectangular windows with square corners. I believe even Windows 11 when it was initially released had the old UI layout and the rolling release changed that but my memory could be incorrect.
Samsung s25ultra has rounded corners making all bar smartphones have the same basic shape. Tablets like iPad and most new mid to high end Android tablets have rounded corners. A lot of new Windows laptops are coming out with rounded corners and all current MacBooks have rounded corners at the top two points.
I imagine new redesign MacBooks will likewise adopt a 4 rounded corner screen in the future.
After 5 or so years this trend will revert to hard edges and square and rectangular design again. It all goes in cycles.
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^^^^Hey, another Mac user who uses Samsung phones. I use two Galaxy S23+. The timer for my toothbrush is a Google Pixel 7.
Lou
Lou
Rounded corners actually started with Windows XP in 2001, with only the top two corners being rounded. In Windows Vista (2006) and Windows 7 (2009), all four corners were rounded. Windows 8 (2012) and 10 (2015) changed to square corners. Windows 11 (2021) brought rounded corners back to be more like Windows 7.
I don't think people are complaining about the round corners per se. MacOS has had rounded corners since Mac OS X Lion (2011). It's that Tahoe made the radius bigger...not just for the corners of windows, but also for the UI controls/elements (buttons, text boxes, etc.).
That goes to all the people that say Tahoe is completely fine and okay. I mean. Look at the Plus. It doesnt fit to the rest of the UI and they cut it. It is way bigger than all the other buttons. This is not a desgin choice. This is bs that is everywhere. You can't tell me that none of them through all the betas opened Calendar.app and tried to add a new calendar.
And it especially looks like sh*t when the inner round corner doesn't fit to the outer one. Which isn't the case in every app.
I am strongly opposed to having to upgrade to Tahoe or its successor at some point because Sequoia is no longer receiving updates. Apple has made many things worse in recent years, especially the system preferences. But Liquid Glass just looks so incredibly awful. I hope that there will be usable Linux versions for arm devices by then.
There already are. Every major Linux distro has an Arm version. And there is at least one that works on Apple Silicon machines: https://asahilinux.org/
Note: Asahi is actually a project that aims to bring Linux to Mac machines by providing drivers etc - the first distro using it is Fedora - with the Fedora Asahi Remix.