John Gruber Shares Scathing Commentary About Apple's Departing Software Design Chief

[Rogifan]

No one cares what Gruber and his aging clique of Mac design snobs think about anything. Let them continue raging over icon design and App Store policies in their little Mastodon echo chamber.

Let’s not forget Gruber argued the iPhone is a console/appliance, not general purpose computer, just so he could defend Apple’s 30% rent seeking.

 

[rappr]

If there is one person who does not care about design at Apple it is Tim Cook. He has single-handedly killed design at Apple with the endless reusing of chassis designs to save on tooling costs. So much so it got to the point that there was nothing left for Jony Ive to do but to leave Apple. This is going to bite Apple hard in the a**. With Apple so far behind in AI, the new Ive/Altman partnership leaves Apple ripe for disruption. Not surprisingly, dozens of Apple’s design team have left to join Ive in the years since and he continues to attract them.

Wait…I thought we were blaming Jony for everything “wrong” with Apple design before he left (butterfly keyboard, thin MacBooks). Now he’s good again?

 

[jz0309]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1996694182401134611

Is there anybody not leaving Apple these days?

both retiring ...

Apple announces executive transitions

Apple today announced that Jennifer Newstead will become Apple’s general counsel on March 1, 2026, following a transition of duties from Kate Adams.

www.apple.com

 

[Joe Mac User]

I think all those years hanging out with Marco Arment has finally changed him.

Not to get you-know-what in this thread, but I do seriously wonder if Gruber's change in tone has to do with world events upon which he often posts angrily about, and it's just bleeding over into other topics (as well as possibly his life, but I wouldn't know).

 

[teaneedz]

I still have not "upgraded" to macOS 26 or iOS 26 for fear of Liquid Glass. Wake me when the nightmare is over... 😴

this. the non-glass people are likely still the happiest of mac users.

 

[hgfjhbvytjdnb]

I mean MacBooks have a freaking user experience interfering notch even though they don't have the Face ID. If that's not a stooooopit AF kind of design I don't know what is. And it's not like the notch is housing anything that couldn't be handled within the confines of the bezel.

 

[Rogifan]

Alan Dye shared a longer note about his departure. Let’s see how quickly Gruber & Co. decide to crap all over this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1996655598000058521

 

[DogHouseDub]

Similar to when Hoolie hired Big Head away from Pied Piper.

 

[GioGiusi]

You could objectify the success of a UI design by surveying customer's satisfaction with the UI.

Customers, yes. Not dorks on anonymous message boards.

 

[tomtad]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1996539937454477442

 

[progx]

Quick internet search would show you he’s much younger than Cook. Looks like he graduated high school in 1993, so 49 or 50 years old.

Tried searching for him and it didn’t give me any information. Glad you were able to find out.