This happens with weak leadership. You end up with politics and Machiavellism driving promotions etc. It becomes corrosive to the company like a cancer which at some point consume the host.
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John Gruber Shares Scathing Commentary About Apple's Departing Software Design Chief
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All I know is I despise Glass UI. If he was responsible for that then I'm glad he left.
The image of Gruber in a foot long beard, sitting in a darkened room, in his penthouse suite, Kleenex boxes on his feet, watching the Aqua intro video on repeat, is hard to shake.
There's a time and place for diplomacy and there's a time and place for brutal honesty. This is a time for the latter
Lemay has also been working on design at Apple for 25 years. I don't think he is going to bring a ton of new paradigms to the OS this late in his career. It will just be same crap, different talking head in the videos.
That’s fair…that’s how he sees things. I do wonder if Apple users under 30 who don’t have the same allegiance to the legend of Steve Jobs would feel the same. I’ve watched the Aqua introduction, its fine….Jobs was a great presenter. I don’t find it that much better than the Liquid Glass intro 🤷♂️
He’s already gone. It doesn’t make any difference now.
Being nice isn’t going to bring him back. Being mean isn’t going to keep him away.
I couldn't agree more with this. I hadn't put my finger on it as well as Gruber does here, but macOS 26 just feels like such a worse experience than iOS 26. IMO the Liquid Glass experience is very interesting on iOS (and even better on TvOS) but macOS feels like a sloppy port of the iOS design.
Very happy they're putting a real designer in this role. Apple hardware is just incredible these days, but IMO the software has a ways to go to catch up.
We'll see if there are any other departures following Dye to Meta. This might be the most telling thing with regard to his relationships with those about him, Senior Management aside.
Hard to think ONE person caused the recent chaos with Liquid Glass etc. I don't find it awful and I don't like different frankly. Turn on and off a few things in the appearance and accessibility settings and it makes it a bit better, for me.
Hard to think ONE person caused the recent chaos with Liquid Glass etc. I don't find it awful and I don't like different frankly. Turn on and off a few things in the appearance and accessibility settings and it makes it a bit better, for me.
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Maybe that says a lot of the current leadership's apathy towards software UI. Under Steve Jobs, Apple was a design-led company. Under Tim Cook, Apple is an operations-led company, with design as a back seat. It's quite possible that the current leadership doesn't view creatives in the same manner that Jobs did. Put another way, maybe Dye wan't let go because he was better at playing the political game instead of doing great UI design.
Most (not all) of the complaints I see about the Liquid Glass design are from Mac users, so there may be some truth to this.
Blaming the guy who left Apple 6 years ago makes no sense. Who did Dye report to after Ive left? Why didn’t they replace him if he had no business being in that role?
I don’t think you get a product like the Vision Pro out of an operations led company
Well LG compromised utility and functionality for me for a change for change sake cosmetic change.
Only reason I hold my nose and don’t downgrade is for under the hood functionality and new features that are only in iOS/macOS 26.
(watchOS 26 not so much because my crap Sony timer freaking display popped off my watch 6 for the 2nd time in 4 years, and I’m using my watch 3 now).
Biggest issue people have is Dye's background wasn't remotely in software design and it shows. If that many people in the field have issues with what he did, I don't see that as being grumpy.
Incumbency has its benefits.
Perceptual lag has its effects.
That said, if Dye was reporting directly to Tim or Jeff, or whoever, they are responsible for not pushing an organizational adjustment sooner.
But fact remains, Jony put him in that chair.
100% agree with everything Gruber said.
For the last decade, every version of macOS has been functionally worse than the version before it. Please make the bleeding stop.
If we can follow this up with Cook getting replaced by Ternus, man we'd have a great leadership situation at Apple again! Someone that cares about UI in charge of UI, and someone that values good hardware at the top of the org. Be still my heart.
... ideally they could somehow be legally forced to nix the services division after that.
For the last decade, every version of macOS has been functionally worse than the version before it. Please make the bleeding stop.
If we can follow this up with Cook getting replaced by Ternus, man we'd have a great leadership situation at Apple again! Someone that cares about UI in charge of UI, and someone that values good hardware at the top of the org. Be still my heart.
... ideally they could somehow be legally forced to nix the services division after that.
As I recall, people used to **** on Dye when he got promoted because he came from packaging design (which is funny with the amount of Apple users that keep their boxes for no reason).
I think we all kinda are ok with liquid glass, if it had been done with the attention to detail required to pull such an insane thing like that much on the fly rendering and it the apple way smooth as well glass. There are a few more heads that need to roll, and I hate to say it but my boy CRAIG, it may be your time to just ride the marketing mini bus and stay where they have the next retreat for good. The fact software with this many no just UI/UX bugs hit the street but battery life and performance issues is telling it is also time for CRAIG to bounce as well, and JAWS who has pushed so hard for new features every year at the cost of quality. Tim your not getting out this one alive either, you let all this happen and it is time you retire to you farm and live your life, The guard needs to change at apple, and it needs to change quickly to evolve into the next version of it self, the jobs era was products, the cook era was scale and profits to fund, the next chapter one of innovation and design changes. So I am sure most will not agree with me but it is time for a large portion of apple leadership to put down there iPads and take off there vision pros and leave it to the next crop of talented ready to try things group with a focus on what makes apple apple, which is quality above all, the joke it just works, was not a joke at one point in time it was the mantra to live by.
I'm just really hoping his replacement wants to make their mark by turning hard in another direction.