Rather than continue to read what people disapprove of before they even download and install this beta, here's a review since I did download it and install it. This review is KNEE-JERK, first impressions. There's probably a lot of tweaking one can do in Control Panel that isn't covered here yet.
1. Apple must have told the developers "the install *cannot* go as it did on the first few Catalina releases - no mistakes!" It was smooth as glass on a 2019 13" MBP. I run an LG 4K monitor and it and my external drives came right up. I pucker up on my external drives showing up correctly ever since I went with Catalina.
2. ICONS: Obviously, developers haven't had a chance to redesign their icons to conform to the new design so it's hard to get a feel for the new ones. I like the depth and color of the new Apple-specific icons, however. They look amazing. You have to see this stuff for yourselves instead of relying on screenshots or a video.
3. Safari: I'll get this out of the way immediately. As soon as I saw the same old lame, goofy tab sizes I shut it down. I didn't need to see any more. C'mon Apple, bring your precious browser that can't compare in any way to really well done modern professional browsers such as Edge, which I've moved to permanently, into the 21st century or otherwise, why bother? Thank God you're finally letting us choose which browser is the *full* OS replacement in iOS 14.
4. Window frames: My favorite part. They're finally gone! Well, in Apple apps anyway. Edge still has a frame border along the top. Not for long. These look amazing. Oh, and the close/minimize/fullscreen buttons are finally properly placed on the Music app. This new look with rounded corners doesn't suggest the iPad to me - I thought they would. Well done, Apple. Well done. If it took the Windows 10 previews to make you abandon Ive's flat crap that ruined the look of the Mac for years, so be it.
By the way - shadows on the windows look like they always did. Stop trying to make judgments based on a video. That's the default anyway, I haven't gone in to see if these can be reduced - I'm guessing the effect probably can be reduced.
5. Finder Folders, etc: I nearly teared up looking at these open Finder windows. Apple has brought sexy back to the Mac. If you use larger icons in list view as I do, you're going to be impressed with how good they look.
6. I'm digging the menu bar. iStats stands out like a sore thumb because they haven't had a chance to change their menu bar icons yet. They're black while everything else is white. The white text is the default. I'll update if this can be changed in Control Panel.
7. The new icon designs look great on the desktop. Since this was an upgrade, my Finder choices were respected and my drive icons are still there.
8. Notification Center. What's the point of having widgets when you can't keep them on the desktop? Maybe there's a hack like 10 years ago. I don't see anything in Control Panel to directly affect the NC itself, just the notifications. Jeez...anyone remember the widget wars and how all them, including the ones in Win 7, suddenly faded into the sunset? They're baaaaackkk...but we already knew that from the iPad.
This was either in co-development with Catalina or it's Catalina with cosmetic changes. This beta is awfully smooth and putting it through its paces, it's stable - nothing like the first Catalina beta. Photos came right up without any rigamarole or an update to the database. Music and TV - same, no changes. All the album art and TV/Movies were there. No iCloud conflicts. My iPhone registered in Finder immediately.
That's it for now - just a knee-jerk first impression. I'll update if I find anything to really note.
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