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Do you like Liquid Glass on Mac?

Do you like Liquid Glass on Mac?

  • Yes

  • Meh…

  • No

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Heindijs said:
I really like the look of liquid glass, but especially on macOS. It really makes me feel like going back in time, it reminds me of messing around with Compiz and Beryl on Linux. Making stuff look as glassy as possible, and it really fits well on my 2006 iMac-turned-display.
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But where is the liquid glass? Just the dock, menubar, and widgets?

I would be glad to see some depth and texture come back to the UI. It should be more than just a few background elements, because as it is right now it looks inconsistent. It would have been better if they put more focus into the chrome to make it less stark. The dock and menu bar were already somewhat transparent and blurred, which is good.

Until something is done about the flatness, dark mode is a necessity just as much as a preference.
 
CasualFanboy said:
But where is the liquid glass? Just the dock, menubar, and widgets?

I would be glad to see some depth and texture come back to the UI. It should be more than just a few background elements, because as it is right now it looks inconsistent. It would have been better if they put more focus into the chrome to make it less stark. The dock and menu bar were already somewhat transparent and blurred, which is good.

Until something is done about the flatness, dark mode is a necessity just as much as a preference.
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Well, I don't work at Apple so I'm afraid I can't help you with that 😆
 
CasualFanboy said:
Sequoia is another stop along the path of bad UI that started with El Capitan
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Did you mean Yosemite? Because I feel like that's where things took a wrong turn and we saw an erosion in the quality of UI design, right after Forstall's departure (Mavericks, coinciding with the release of iOS 7, was a bit directionless already). I don't remember El Capitan, specifically, making anything worse. The change to a new system font—San Francisco—actually improved readability a bit. Yosemite just looked awful, in my opinion, and was certainly a shock at the time.
 
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The only thing that annoys me with the new look is Synology Drive Client's icon in the finder sidebar is annoying as all get out.

I'm guessing the only way to fix it is for Synology to update the icon.

Screenshot 2025-08-31 at 2.51.16 AM.png
 
Heindijs said:
I really like the look of liquid glass, but especially on macOS. It really makes me feel like going back in time, it reminds me of messing around with Compiz and Beryl on Linux. Making stuff look as glassy as possible, and it really fits well on my 2006 iMac-turned-display.
View attachment 2542077
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Is that a prior version? My widgets aren't that clear anymore.
 
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auxbuss said:
Yes, transparency/translucency is the biggest problem. Some people like it, some people hate it – me included. So why not make it optional? After all, it doesn't mess with the Great Design or the Glorious Aesthetic. We get to choose the Highlight Colour and the Accent Colour, and transparency/translucency is in the same category.
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I don’t think Apple has explained very well what the benefit of transparency is.

Opaqueness? Okay, I understand window tinting if it takes on some personality of the background image/wallpaper. But full-on transparency doesn’t add any benefit to usability. It’s just eye candy that Apple describes as “allowing you to view more of your content”; which belies the fact that most users choose to view/interact with content in front of a user interface.
 
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tkermit said:
Did you mean Yosemite? Because I feel like that's where things took a wrong turn and we saw an erosion in the quality of UI design, right after Forstall's departure (Mavericks, coinciding with the release of iOS 7, was a bit directionless already). I don't remember El Capitan, specifically, making anything worse. The change to a new system font—San Francisco—actually improved readability a bit. Yosemite just looked awful, in my opinion, and was certainly a shock at the time.
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Yeah, that's the one. Yosemite brought the flatter design. Although it wasn't nearly as offensive as Big Sur +.
 
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Ok just jumped on the beta train. For what I do daily, works just as I need it. No issues with any programs I use. Liquid Glass is fine and I really like the default macOS 26 wallpaper.
 
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tkermit said:
Agreed, looks like that's when Apple removed the titlebar and totally got rid of button borders. At least Tahoe is a slight improvement over that. Borders have returned, dialogs are left-aligned again—albeit they remain unnecessarily narrow and are still displayed in the middle of their parent window—and text in sidebars generally has better contrast now, unless there is window content underneath.
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The death of titlebars has always been very annoying to me, and still is. The first time I saw Big Sur, it was the first thing I noticed. And I never have been able to adapt, because I still don't see a good reason for it. If it was to conserve space, it didn't work because everything is too padded now.
 
Despite an ongoing attempt to remain open minded and embrace change, this upcoming version of macOS is a bit off-putting. Running each beta version on my secondary MacBook Pro has been a window into Apple's thinking.

Having relied on various MacBook models for years to get work and personal tasks accomplished, these changes seem geared more to aesthetics than effectiveness and efficiency.

Changes like this remind one of Apple's focus on attracting the kids that will be their future long term customers. It's about entertainment first, and other things secondary. Nothing against a fun experience, but many of us spend hours producing work on our computers.
 
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zenmacx said:
Changes like this remind one of Apple's focus on attracting the kids that will be their future long term customers. It's about entertainment first, and other things secondary. Nothing against a fun experience, but many of us spend hours producing work on our computers.
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Unfortunately, this has been the case with Apple for a very, very long time now. Each WWDC, when a new macOS version is introduced, I go back home, thinking to myself: Well, I guess the new emoji-stuff is more important now.

The times Apple innovated with truly groundbreaking OS enhancements have passed. The last thing I remember that truly took macOS forward was APFS, and that was an outlier in years of "look, we have fun emojis in iMessages now".

Remember when the first multi-core processors took off and most software wasn't ready, and then came Apple and brought Grand Central Dispatch in 10.6? Yeah. That was the last time Apple was truly innovative with macOS.
 
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Comfortably Numb said:
Unfortunately, this has been the case with Apple for a very, very long time now. Each WWDC, when a new macOS version is introduced, I go back home, thinking to myself: Well, I guess the new emoji-stuff is more important now.

The times Apple innovated with truly groundbreaking OS enhancements have passed. The last thing I remember that truly took macOS forward was APFS, and that was an outlier in years of "look, we have fun emojis in iMessages now".

Remember when the first multi-core processors took off and most software wasn't ready, and then came Apple and brought Grand Central Dispatch in 10.6? Yeah. That was the last time Apple was truly innovative with macOS.
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The whole 'appeal to children' complaint was a big one when OS X was first released. There was a lot of bluster online about the new style being to toy like, no one will take it seriously, and devs will leave to go work on more serious platforms. So, that complaint has been around over 20 years. Soon I will be old and crotchety enough to use it myself... 😆

The complaint about emojis is common, and I find it interesting because it's all about presentation and perception. Apple doesn't sit around thinking what new emojis can we make, they make new emojis to match the new ones released by the Unicode Consortium. Should Apple not make new emojis match the existing art style and use the Unicode default for new emoji, or should they just not announce it with as much fanfare? I'm not having a go at you, @Comfortably Numb it's just something I see around, and you just happened to remind me.
 
Bungaree.Chubbins said:
The whole 'appeal to children' complaint was a big one when OS X was first released. There was a lot of bluster online about the new style being to toy like, no one will take it seriously, and devs will leave to go work on more serious platforms. So, that complaint has been around over 20 years. Soon I will be old and crotchety enough to use it myself... 😆

The complaint about emojis is common, and I find it interesting because it's all about presentation and perception.
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Sure, but the complaint (in my case) wasn't really about emojis. I just used them as an example to prove a point: The fact that Apple emphasizes playful "toy features" over substantial OS innovations in their presentations of new macOS updates. A metaphor, if you will.

I am not complaining about emojis, I am complaining about a lack of innovation.

Apple really left a lot of pros and prosumers alike in the dust. Gone are the days of pro apps like Aperture and OS innovations like Grand Central Dispatch. We're in the emoticon in iMessages era. I preferred the former. And that has precisely nothing to do with my age.
 
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Comfortably Numb said:
Sure, but the complaint (in my case) wasn't really about emojis. I just used them as an example to prove a point: The fact that Apple emphasizes playful "toy features" over substantial OS innovations in their presentations of new macOS updates. A metaphor, if you will.

I am not complaining about emojis, I am complaining about a lack of innovation.

Apple really left a lot of pros and prosumers alike in the dust. Gone are the days of pro apps like Aperture and OS innovations like Grand Central Dispatch. We're in the emoticon in iMessages era. I preferred the former. And that has precisely nothing to do with my age.
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Just another side effect of Apple's fixation with smartphones because they love subscriptions and dumbed-down applications.
 
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