Liquid Glass vs Aqua

[CasualFanboy]

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.

Yep. Everything I don't like about the UI since Big Sur can be traced back to the obsession with making MacOS more like something else - mostly iOS, and now this AR slop that I have no interest in at all.

It's perfectly fine that many people are interested in those things, but why shove it down the throats of people who aren't? There is no benefit to making macOS more like a phone interface. It makes no sense, it's all just manufactured hype to create a marketing slogan - "seamless integration of all your apple devices in the 'ecosystem'."

 

[turbineseaplane]

It makes no sense, it's all just manufactured hype to create a marketing slogan - "seamless integration of all your apple devices in the 'ecosystem'."

And one can have seamless feature integration without everything having to look identical.

 

[thebart]

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.

This is especially not great for me because Mac is the only Apple product I use. I do tech support for friends and family so I'm familiar with Apple things, but for myself I only care about the Mac. Apple trying to tie together all their OSes ends up being mostly a negative for me.

 

[redheeler]

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.

The icons are more flat, not less. A good example of this is the System Settings icon. It's a big letdown for those of us thinking Apple was headed in the skeuomorphic direction again.

 

[redheeler]

Yep. Everything I don't like about the UI since Big Sur can be traced back to the obsession with making MacOS more like something else - mostly iOS, and now this AR slop that I have no interest in at all.

It's perfectly fine that many people are interested in those things, but why shove it down the throats of people who aren't? There is no benefit to making macOS more like a phone interface. It makes no sense, it's all just manufactured hype to create a marketing slogan - "seamless integration of all your apple devices in the 'ecosystem'."

It goes back to Lion, not Big Sur. Almost every MacOS update since has contained some kind of feature or tweak designed for iOS and none of the careful attention to detail and desktop-focused optimizations of a decade of Mac OS X development happening completely independently from iOS.