Liquid Glass vs Aqua

[Scarrus]

For those have been around for that long.

My first Mac was a 2010 15" MBP which came with Snow Leopard on it and God! did I love that operating system and interface. I really though 10.7 was way worse and that came out months after I bought my MBP so it wasn't nostalgia or anything, I think the design language really was objectively worse.

How do you feel about Liquid Glass? I am somewhat torn on it. I think it does look a bit more inspiring than the flat design we had until now and I can even see some hints of Aqua in it but I still think it lacks that function first, looks second aspect that Aqua had.

 

[johto]

Yeah, i remember fondly the days of Tiger and and then Leopard and Snow Leopard, with that they actually just optimized the system better.

 

[turbineseaplane]

@Scarrus

I was hoping you'd add some screenshots so we could have some fond memories of better looking UI.

 

[fisherking]

i don't get nostalgia; it seems ppl reach a certain point when they suddenly 'remember' how much better things were back in the day. sure, some things get worse; some get better. but i wouldn't go back to a powerbook, or Tiger or Snow Leopard, for anything. innovation and change is (for me) exciting, challenging. interesting. sometimes great, sometimes frustrating. but it's never boring. and i'd rather be challenged than bored.

 

[orsev]

@Scarrus

I was hoping you'd add some screenshots so we could have some fond memories of better looking UI.

That makes two. Reminds me of this blog post from a few months back:

What would an Aqua UI look like in 2025? - Low End Mac

Aqua was a UI that dominated much of macOS’s existence from 2000 – 2013, losing bits and chunks of it’s style along the way while morphing into multiple different versions that longtime Mac users have grown to love. The very last version of Aqua to contain any elements of the original Aqua was...

lowendmac.com

 

[turbineseaplane]

That makes two. Reminds me of this blog post from a few months back:

What would an Aqua UI look like in 2025? - Low End Mac

Aqua was a UI that dominated much of macOS’s existence from 2000 – 2013, losing bits and chunks of it’s style along the way while morphing into multiple different versions that longtime Mac users have grown to love. The very last version of Aqua to contain any elements of the original Aqua was...

lowendmac.com

I could probably pass on the pin stripes and be ok with selective brushed metal and be happy as a clam with something like this.

If I were choosing, I really like the Lion look (recreated below for high res by someone in Sketch I believe)

 

[orsev]

I could probably pass on the pin stripes and be ok with selective brushed metal and be happy as a clam with something like this.

If I were choosing, I really like the Lion look (recreated below for high res by someone in Sketch I believe)

View attachment 2550879

I've been following the 'glow' project for a while now. Saw this in the server earlier, which might take your fancy:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1968405307056390436

I would second the Lion look, i wouldn't have batted an eye if things never moved on. The button highlight is what I miss the most.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I've been following the 'glow' project for a while now. Saw this in the server earlier, which might take your fancy:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1968405307056390436

I would second the Lion look, i wouldn't have batted an eye if things never moved on. The button highlight is what I miss the most.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on!
Thank you for sharing that.

Here's a Snow Leopard one from Discord

 

[Scarrus]

I might look for some screenshots and put something side by side.


EDIT:

Of course, today's OSs have way more functionality, features, apps, and so on. It's not even a comparison. What if you compare it for the time though? I certainly think things could be better with current systems.

 

[orsev]

Definitely worth keeping an eye on!
Thank you for sharing that.

Currently exists in beta and install requires disabling SIP and some manual work, once it picks up I'll likely help spread the word on here. Not to hijack this thread (this will be the last image, i promise!), but here is another example of 'Snow leopard':

Another project from days long gone is vitae:

<!--:en-->Vitae Theme Now Available For Snow Leopard<!--:-->

This is a post aimed to all of you Mac customization nerds. That said, you should probably know Vitae, one of the best custom OS X themes available for Tiger and Leopard. Now, since Snow Leopard hit the shelves back in August, many users started to request a porting of Vitae to Snow Leopard. Due

www.macstories.net

Oh, the good days!

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

but I still think it lacks that function first, looks second aspect that Aqua had.

By the time of snow leopard, Aqua had been around for almost a decade.
But the very first several versions of it were absolutely not function first, anyone who dealt with Chita or Puma can absolutely confirm that.
Plenty of reviews from the time you can find, it was not received very well.
Aqua started off as an interface absolutely not meant for the hardware it was being ran on, it was slow, graphically intensive, and, according to ArsTechnica in 2001…
“Mac OS X does not yet live up to the level of user interface excellence set by the technically inferior Mac OS 9.”

Mac OS X 10.0 - Page 1 - (03/2001)

Ars Technica. Power users and the tools they love, without computing religion. Oh yeah, did we mention we are unassailable computing enthusiasts.

archive.arstechnica.com

This isn’t to say that liquid glass is necessarily better than Snow Leopard Aqua, that’s obviously up to personal taste.
But at least compared to Aqua on day one, liquid Glass on day one appears to be getting a much better reception…

 

[ppdix]

For those have been around for that long.

My first Mac was a 2010 15" MBP which came with Snow Leopard on it and God! did I love that operating system and interface. I really though 10.7 was way worse and that came out months after I bought my MBP so it wasn't nostalgia or anything, I think the design language really was objectively worse.

How do you feel about Liquid Glass? I am somewhat torn on it. I think it does look a bit more inspiring than the flat design we had until now and I can even see some hints of Aqua in it but I still think it lacks that function first, looks second aspect that Aqua had.

Yeah. A while ago I already mentioned the fact that Liquid Glass was a modified Aqua... 15 years later...
I started using Macs with System 6 in 1988... Then in 1991 came the major update system 7 with about 10 floppy disks to install... Then the newly called "Mac OS" 8... That still looked flat and PC-like. Then came "The Best Internet Operating System Ever" Mac OS 9 with a Liquid Glass looking "9" and finally the completely new Light Blue Liquid Glass Mac OS X in 2001... Things really haven't changed that much. It's all a cycle. Everything goes back to basics..

 

[TumbleDryer]

Snow leopard was by far the best OS. It just worked and had no added gimmicks. I used spaces all the time. It was efficient and allowed you to get stuff done without distractions. Then the changed spaces into a convoluted mess and made it ever more convoluted since. I thinks it now called stage manager with mental ui and wasted space and overlapping windows and god know what else. Whats wrong with clicking a button and seeing 4 screens and choosing the the one you want in 1 second and continuing with your work? I stopped using spaces once they changed it from the elegant simple snow leopard iteration.

Snow leopard was efficient and gimmick free.

Aqua when it first came out was definitely a mess. I upgrded from 9.2 i think it was and immediately downgraded. Mainly because it was just vastly different but it was also very buggy. That was Cheetah i think. Then with Puma the bugs were nixed and aqua had grown on me and after a while it was clea OSX was a massivestep forward. It kept moving forward to snow leopard then it stopped being efficient. And it’s getting worse.

Apple keep harping on about how the OS shouldn't been seen and focus should be on the content but then they add stupid features that no one needs and are buggy and everyones focus becomes 'how do I turn it off' or 'why has this changed when it worked perfectly before' therefore meaning people have to change the way they work because of the OS. This is not 'hiding' the OS its making it front and centre.

Personally I would love it if there was a completely stripped back version aimed at professional people. No needless animations, pop-ups, animated faces and all that crap. Just give me an OS where I can see my content, use it efficiently and not be bothered by pop up windows, 3D this, glass that. I don't need shiny edges on windows to get my work done. Its distracting and uses compute power.

I don't need an animated me watch myself type my password in to login and give me a thumbs up when I get my own password correct.

Snow Leopard was all of that. We were supposed to get a 'snow leopard' after every feature pumped version, the very words Jobs used was 'tick tock'. We only ever got one 'tock' and its now a distant memory.

 

[maflynn]

How do you feel about Liquid Glass?

I loved Aqua, and the skeuomorphism was something that just looked great - so much better then the flat icons we now see. In all honesty I thought liquid glass was return to this ui, without really investigating or seeing examples - to my detriment. I don't follow the beta stuff nor do I load it on my phone or mac. I usually wait until it goes live to form an opinion anyways I absolutely hate the implementation of liquid glass in ios.

From my initial research, it doesn't appear to be horrible on the Mac, plus the way I use my mac, is that I have icons on the dock, and start new programs by spotlight. I never go to finder, and the applications folder, so I may not even notice a lot of the UI for icons, it may not impact me like it would on my iphone.

Saying that, I may look to upgrade my Studio where as I'm not going to upgrade my iphone

 

[MBAir2010]

For those have been around for that long.

My first Mac was a 2010 15" MBP which came with Snow Leopard on it and God! did I love that operating system and interface.

me toos! I still use a MacBook Air 2010 11" with yes Snow Leopard as I might just post here with that al October!
Tahoe is great but too many slowing launch items as Snow Leopard tackles these in nano-seconds, even today!

 

[thebart]

I could probably pass on the pin stripes and be ok with selective brushed metal and be happy as a clam with something like this.

If I were choosing, I really like the Lion look (recreated below for high res by someone in Sketch I believe)

View attachment 2550879

But the UI is supposed to go away. You're not supposed to see what things are where. This design leaves nothing to the imagination. /s

 

[orsev]

I loved Aqua, and the skeuomorphism was something that just looked great - so much better then the flat icons we now see. In all honesty I thought liquid glass was return to this ui, without really investigating or seeing examples - to my detriment. I don't follow the beta stuff nor do I load it on my phone or mac. I usually wait until it goes live to form an opinion anyways I absolutely hate the implementation of liquid glass in ios.

From my initial research, it doesn't appear to be horrible on the Mac, plus the way I use my mac, is that I have icons on the dock, and start new programs by spotlight. I never go to finder, and the applications folder, so I may not even notice a lot of the UI for icons, it may not impact me like it would on my iphone.

Saying that, I may look to upgrade my Studio where as I'm not going to upgrade my iphone

FWIW, Tahoe feels pretty good. It’s nowhere near as much of a shift as iOS. The rounded corners do look different , but it’s nothing major. Spotlight has some okay new features (although if you’ve used Alfred etc it won’t be anything new).

I’d argue that OSX has become sort of the middle child in the operating system family and (in this case, thankfully) has avoided as much of a stark redesign as the others. Command line hasn’t been touched, so I’m happy; Emacs didn’t break like it it did with some of the early betas so no issues with running it on my work machine.

 

[CasualFanboy]

Here's a Snow Leopard one from Discord

My personal favorite, tbh.

 

[StellarVixen]

I've been following the 'glow' project for a while now. Saw this in the server earlier, which might take your fancy:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1968405307056390436

I would second the Lion look, i wouldn't have batted an eye if things never moved on. The button highlight is what I miss the most.

Looks promising. How do SwiftUI apps look?

 

[turbineseaplane]

My personal favorite, tbh.

I really miss how icons were so unique and crafted per App, especially indie Apps, where you could just see all the thought and care that went into ... just the icon!

We've really lost something with how undifferentiated and boring Apps have become (from icons down to the UIs).

 

[auxbuss]

I really miss how icons were so unique and crafted per App, especially indie Apps, where you could just see all the thought and care that went into ... just the icon!

We've really lost something with how undifferentiated and boring Apps have become (from icons down to the UIs).

I'm one of those holdouts who kept the icons from old apps, and uses them on the apps I have in the Dock. I really dislike the regimentation of the sqircle jails.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

For me, Aqua makes (made) more sense from a purely conceptual standpoint; equally, it was the result of a different Apple, sadly.

Liquid Glass is born from the software of an AR headset, where distinct elements - controls, content - are layered in multiple planes. This works fairly well in an AR experience because a sense of depth is beneficial to the user as they scan a 3D environment. Parallax compliments motion.

But on a screen that displays images without the necessity for environmental and focal distance changes, where the display is a static environment, such as a notebook, the concept falls apart because you’re adding complexity rather than removing it. Now you’re adding shadows, pill-like containers, refractions, for absolutely no reason; it’s a step backwards.

Worse, Apple’s marketing team presents this as “providing greater focus and clarity to your content”, which is borderline insulting. Who on earth looks at an opaque control panel with a sigh of relief that said album artwork was peeking through all along? Why would anyone agree that less screen estate is better, and more transparent controls improve usability?

Aqua, on the other hand, was designed squarely around usability. Indeed, eye candy was a result of the new capabilities of both hardware and software of the day, but what I love about Aqua is that every material, every control design, has a clear sense of purpose.

Traffic light bubbles were 3D dots layered on top of a 2D surface, which was intended to create contrast. Grey was used for windows as a soft medium colour that opposed most content. Brushed metal gave a sense of purpose, integrity. Developers were encouraged to design creative 3D icons, many of which were verging on artwork in their own right.

Above all, Aqua was uniquely Mac. Its playfulness was the result of tapping into basic behavioural quirks - “things could look so sweet you’d want to lick ‘em” - whereas today, Apple situates itself on such a high moral pedestal that they truly believe they can do no wrong: that because they worked so tirelessly to deign Liquid Glass on their workbenches made from a rare tree in some undiscovered faraway village forest, it must be good.

Simply, Liquid Glass is a metaphor for how up their own trunk Apple has become.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Wonderful post @Apple Knowledge Navigator 👏

Liquid Glass is a perfect fit on VisionOS.
That's really where it should have stayed.

 

[CasualFanboy]

Simply, Liquid Glass is a metaphor for how up their own trunk Apple has become.

The UI is Liquid Glass without the Gl.

 

[maflynn]

Liquid Glass is born from the software of an AR headset, where distinct elements - controls, content - are layered in multiple planes. This works fairly well in an AR experience because a sense of depth is beneficial to the user as they scan a 3D environment. Parallax compliments motion.

That's an interesting correlation that makes so much sense, now that its been said aloud. I can see this being the justification and they are trying really hard to make their VR headset the next big thing.

I love about Aqua is that every material, every control design, has a clear sense of purpose.

Yep, but changes to macOS these past few years were more about their desire to have a certain look regardless of the impact to usage. The change to the system settings is a prime example of form over function, this was done a number versions ago, not in Tahoe, but it highlights their desire to make macos more like iOS. Now with their VR headset we're seeing a similar approach.