Mac OS 26 Is Utter Garbage and Apple Has truly lost its way....

[svenmany]

I've been thinking a lot about this. The macOS version that was mentioned as a comparison was High Sierra in post #550. One of my problems was that I don't know when different features were introduced. But, I encountered one recently that was certainly introduced after High Sierra - Live Text.

Live Text is really great when I need it. Some image is displaying on the screen (for me it's often a screen shot of something like a remote desktop). Being able to copy and paste text portions of that into an email or something else has been an amazing help.

If Apple ever introduces Live Text functionality into Spotlight importing, then we could have a disaster on our hands. We won't be allowed to turn it off and it will have a non-trivial cost. I wouldn't trust Apple to get this right.

The other day I had a notification pop up from Reminders. Apple added the ability to "mark as completed" to the notification at some point. Generally that works. The other day the notification refused to respond. So, that's new functionality supporting a new bug. But, usually it works and I'd rather have another bug along with the convenience.

I answered my phone on my computer the other day. It used to not work well, but since Tahoe I've not had a problem. My wife called and asked me to check on something upstairs. So after first answering on my computer, I picked up my phone, pushed some button, and the call transferred to the phone and I left my office, continuing the conversation. I was blown away. But, my faith in Apple is such that I wouldn't be surprised if that fails 25% of the time.

Apple is ambitious and careless. It's still the best platform for me.

There's another thing that I appreciate every time I use it. When my work server challenges me with Microsoft Authenticator, I don't even have to use my phone. The iPhone's notification pops up on the Mac. I click on it and iPhone Mirroring starts up and allows me to respond and use my thumbprint on the Mac to authenticate. That ability, the authentication within the mirroring app, didn't work for me on Sequoia; I've heard other people say the same.

And then I say, "Hey Siri, remind me to..." and my HomePod says OK. Then my desktop calendar widget gets a new entry. But, then Siri sometimes say "hang on" and just goes away.

When I think about all the things added that I appreciate, they are mostly related to the integration of devices and Apple's cloud services that come most to mind. That's also the stuff that malfunctions the most.

Does no one else have anything at all that is a significant feature added since High Sierra? The unified logging system was a great thing, but that was introduced just before High Sierra.

 

[blueflower]

I'm happily on 15.5 sequoia and reading this thread it seems I'll be staying that way lol

 

[Minghold]

Apple has been "losing its way" since October 7, 2019 (Catalina launch-date), and arguably quite a bit before then; i.e., when the bright idea to deprecate everybody's paid-for 32bit software and vandalize customer rotationals with mandatory APFS while Apple was still selling rotationals was green-lit in the corporate hive-mind. Let's not even talk about glued batteries and screen assemblies, or soldered drives with HID-locked startup code.

Pride in craftsmanship been replaced by contempt for the "mark" (customer); you're supposed to pay $3,500 for your laptop, more for the extended warranty, then throw it away in five years (nevermind 95% of the cross-platform software has a linux version that runs on a 2gb potato from 2006). Get used to the future, where your devices are glorified mobile VAX terminals whose primary function is tracking and fleecing you, with your productivity being a tertiary concern.

🔎 louis Rossmann Apple - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[fisherking]

Apple has been "losing its way" since October 7, 2019 (Catalina launch-date), and arguably quite a bit before then; i.e., when the bright idea to deprecate everybody's paid-for 32bit software and vandalize customer rotationals with mandatory APFS while Apple was still selling rotationals was green-lit in the corporate hive-mind. Let's not even talk about glued batteries and screen assemblies, or soldered drives with HID-locked startup code.

Pride in craftsmanship been replaced by contempt for the "mark" (customer); you're supposed to pay $3,500 for your laptop, more for the extended warranty, then throw it away in five years (nevermind 95% of the cross-platform software has a linux version that runs on a 2gb potato from 2006). Get used to the future, where your devices are glorified mobile VAX terminals whose primary function is tracking and fleecing you, with your productivity being a tertiary concern.

good thing you revived this thread 🙄. you're certainly entitled to your opinions (amazing that you have a start date for the decline & fall of apple 😳).

my new MBP is the best mac i've ever owned (loved my previous M2 air as well), and the current OS runs beautifully on it.

sorry your own experiences are disappointing, but there's a huge difference between your opinion and actual fact. 👍

 

[capamac]

glorified mobile VAX terminals whose primary function is tracking and fleecing you, with your productivity being a tertiary concern.

I used VAX/VMS as a student in the 90s ... VMS is pretty cool! With terminals, no matter where I logged in on campus, my home directory was right there.

 

[Minghold]

my new MBP is the best mac i've ever owned (loved my previous M2 air as well), and the current OS runs beautifully on it.

The phrase "runs beautifully" in a forum associated with expensive corporate products with increasing churn-rates is the "thank you kindly" version of smarmy tech spam.

sorry your own experiences are disappointing,

I'm sure this alleged sorriness is genuine.

but there's a huge difference between your opinionand actual fact. 👍

The "actual facts" are that tossing "apple tahoe bricked" at a search-engine is illuminating: https://www.google.com/search?&q=apple tahoe bricked

 

[Minghold]

I used VAX/VMS as a student in the 90s ... VMS is pretty cool! With terminals, no matter where I logged in on campus, my home directory was right there.

Once upon a time it was possible to imagine that not every corporate server project was a skinsuit for data-harvesting intelligence entities.

 

[fisherking]

The phrase "runs beautifully" in a forum associated with expensive corporate products with increasing churn-rates is the "thank you kindly" version of smarmy tech spam.

I'm sure this alleged sorriness is genuine.

The "actual facts" are that tossing "apple tahoe bricked" at a search-engine is illuminating: https://www.google.com/search?&q=apple tahoe bricked

nothing changes my opinion (or yours, obviously).

'runs beautifully' is an accurate description of my experience, nothing more (or less).

am honestly sorry where anyone is experiencing difficulty with their macs; this forum is (sometimes) a great place to get help (it has a life beyond 'ranting & raving').

searching for any OS (current or previous), apple or otherwise, brings up a lot of issues; makes sense that people who are having a good experience don't need to post about it, but people who need help (or need to vent) do post.

 

[MajorFubar]

I've had weird things happen. I wouldn't say it's unusable, but certainly weird experiences I just did not have prior to upgrade.

Such as trying to restore a file from an always-connected Time Machine backup can often cause Finder to freeze. (Did anyone at Apple actually try using this OS with Time Machine?)

On another occasion Finder just simply refused to copy-paste a file from one folder to another, both in Documents. No error, just a basic 'no pal I'm not doing it', as in click Paste and nothing happens. It's only done this once (fixed by a reboot) but that's basic stuff my Amiga didn't fail at in 1988 using 3.5" floppy discs.

Then yesterday was the best one yet. Suddenly for no reason, typing was giving me weird characters as if I was holding down Alt, yet I wasn't, nor have I enabled stickykeys. Again, a reboot fixed it.

But that's the kind of annoying but not-show-stopping **** I'm finding it throws at me. Just basic stuff, that OS's have been mundanely doing without issue for 40 years, are now 'sketchy'

(M1 Studio/64GB/4TB, for reference.)

 

[Minghold]

(Did anyone at Apple actually try using this OS with Time Machine?)

I am firmly convinced that the only reason TM ever existed in the first place is because Apple tried to buy out Steve Bombich, and he wisely said no. (Then they discovered that, if they could hoodwink the user into having it default on that it would eventually swallow up all drive space, artificial-obsolescencing that unit. Handy when you're still hawking Airs with minuscule drives.)

 

[fisherking]

I am firmly convinced that the only reason TM ever existed in the first place is because Apple tried to buy out Steve Bombich, and he wisely said no. (Then they discovered that, if they could hoodwink the user into having it default on that it would eventually swallow up all drive space, artificial-obsolescencing that unit. Handy when you're still hawking Airs with minuscule drives.)

'firmly convinced'. no need for facts, when guesses & theories will do 🙄 (btw, CCC rules 👍)

 

[fisherking]

I've had weird things happen. I wouldn't say it's unusable, but certainly weird experiences I just did not have prior to upgrade.

Such as trying to restore a file from an always-connected Time Machine backup can often cause Finder to freeze. (Did anyone at Apple actually try using this OS with Time Machine?)

On another occasion Finder just simply refused to copy-paste a file from one folder to another, both in Documents. No error, just a basic 'no pal I'm not doing it', as in click Paste and nothing happens. It's only done this once (fixed by a reboot) but that's basic stuff my Amiga didn't fail at in 1988 using 3.5" floppy discs.

Then yesterday was the best one yet. Suddenly for no reason, typing was giving me weird characters as if I was holding down Alt, yet I wasn't, nor have I enabled stickykeys. Again, a reboot fixed it.

But that's the kind of annoying but not-show-stopping sh*te I'm finding it throws at me. Just basic stuff, that OS's have been mundanely doing without issue for 40 years, are now 'sketchy'

(M1 Studio/64GB/4TB, for reference.)

are these common problems? reported here (and on other mac forums) as bugs? perhaps next time something weird happens, start a thread here, see if it can be figured out; might be worthwhile.

hmmm, how many things can your mac in 2026 do vs the things you did with your amiga in 1988? 🤔

 

[Cape Dave]

The phrase "runs beautifully" in a forum associated with expensive corporate products with increasing churn-rates is the "thank you kindly" version of smarmy tech spam.

I'm sure this alleged sorriness is genuine.

The "actual facts" are that tossing "apple tahoe bricked" at a search-engine is illuminating: https://www.google.com/search?&q=apple tahoe bricked

Let's be scientific about it. Tahoe blows chunks. End of story 🙂

 

[fisherking]

Let's be scientific about it. Tahoe blows chunks. End of story 🙂

sorry that, for you, this is true. am grateful my own experience is so different.

 

[Minghold]

'firmly convinced'. no need for facts, when guesses & theories will do 🙄

My ass-facts are better than your "reliable sources", and cleaner too.

 

[fisherking]

My ass-facts are better than your "reliable sources", and cleaner too.

how so? really, speculation & guessing are basically the same thing. i have my own opinions about things, but prefer facts to theories...

 

[throAU]

Apple has been "losing its way" since October 7, 2019 (Catalina launch-date), and arguably quite a bit before then; i.e., when the bright idea to deprecate everybody's paid-for 32bit software and vandalize customer rotationals with mandatory APFS while Apple was still selling rotationals was green-lit in the corporate hive-mind. Let's not even talk about glued batteries and screen assemblies, or soldered drives with HID-locked startup code.

Pride in craftsmanship been replaced by contempt for the "mark" (customer); you're supposed to pay $3,500 for your laptop, more for the extended warranty, then throw it away in five years (nevermind 95% of the cross-platform software has a linux version that runs on a 2gb potato from 2006). Get used to the future, where your devices are glorified mobile VAX terminals whose primary function is tracking and fleecing you, with your productivity being a tertiary concern.

🔎 louis Rossmann Apple - Google Search

www.google.com

If you have ancient software, virtualise it or upgrade.

 

[MajorFubar]

are these common problems? reported here (and on other mac forums) as bugs? perhaps next time something weird happens, start a thread here, see if it can be figured out; might be worthwhile.

Dunno tbh...I mentioned them just as examples of annoying glitchy experiences that have only happened since I upgraded to MacOS26 in March. They didn't bother me enough to start individual threads about them.

how many things can your mac in 2026 do vs the things you did with your amiga in 1988? 🤔

Well crashing while c&p'ing one file between two subfolders in Documents is definitely one thing my Amiga couldn't do 🙄 Albeit so far my Mac has only done it that one time.

But to give you a less facetious answer, I know where you're heading, but it's a ridiculous strawman argument that you and I both know undermines your intelligence and is easy to pick apart. The fact that I can eg edit 8K videos on a machine exponentially more powerful than the one I owned 38 years ago doesn't excuse it for eg tripping over its own feet while doing basic tasks like c&p'ing a file between folders. Not even if it's only tripped up the one time (so far).

 

[fisherking]

Dunno tbh...I mentioned them just as examples of annoying glitchy experiences that have only happened since I upgraded to MacOS26 in March. They didn't bother me enough to start individual threads about them.


Well crashing while c&p'ing one file between two subfolders in Documents is definitely one thing my Amiga couldn't do 🙄 Albeit so far my Mac has only done it that one time.

But to give you a less facetious answer, I know where you're heading, but it's a ridiculous strawman argument that you and I both know undermines your intelligence and is easy to pick apart. The fact that I can eg edit 8K videos on a machine exponentially more powerful than the one I owned 38 years ago doesn't excuse it for eg tripping over its own feet while doing basic tasks like c&p'ing a file between folders. Not even if it's only tripped up the one time (so far).

why do people think a glitch is something more than what it is? and what computer OS at any time has not had bugs? really tho, why are some people so afraid of dialog? it's ok to have different opinions, make different observations.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I've had weird things happen. I wouldn't say it's unusable, but certainly weird experiences I just did not have prior to upgrade.

Such as trying to restore a file from an always-connected Time Machine backup can often cause Finder to freeze. (Did anyone at Apple actually try using this OS with Time Machine?)

On another occasion Finder just simply refused to copy-paste a file from one folder to another, both in Documents. No error, just a basic 'no pal I'm not doing it', as in click Paste and nothing happens. It's only done this once (fixed by a reboot) but that's basic stuff my Amiga didn't fail at in 1988 using 3.5" floppy discs.

Then yesterday was the best one yet. Suddenly for no reason, typing was giving me weird characters as if I was holding down Alt, yet I wasn't, nor have I enabled stickykeys. Again, a reboot fixed it.

But that's the kind of annoying but not-show-stopping **** I'm finding it throws at me. Just basic stuff, that OS's have been mundanely doing without issue for 40 years, are now 'sketchy'

(M1 Studio/64GB/4TB, for reference.)

I'm convinced there are bugs and memory leaks in Tahoe Finder.

Like you, I've found it doing just flat out weird stuff I didn't have on Sequoia when doing the same things, with the same network and drives and NAS, etc.

 

[zevrix]

if they could hoodwink the user into having it default on that it would eventually swallow up all drive space, artificial-obsolescencing that unit.

well. TM (or any other backup utility) should never be set to backup to the machine's drive.

 

[redjar597]

Personally, couldn't be happier with Apple hardware (3 decade user). Especially since Jony Ive left, and the design wasn't quite so form over function, eg the scissor keys with low depth on the MBP around 2016-20.

I think the M2 MBA might be one of the most complete laptops have ever produced for most people at that price point, given the SoC, design, battery life, screen, mics, speakers etc. And given that in most use cases, it's just as good as a new M5 MBA.

I usually upgrade my Apple hardware every 1-2 years. With the M2, albeit with 24 GB RAM, I can't think of a reason to upgrade it yet, and we are now just about 4 years since release, with it flying like new.

Similarly with the Pros, and the Max M chips.

The hardware looks great, performs unbelievably, has longevity and reliability, and batteries last a long time.

Majority of users see computers like a washing machine, not a philosophy or lifestyle, so aren't worried about user upgradable RAM or glued in batteries. And they can still be repaired in any case.

I'd take the the SoC RAM, with the added efficiency and speed, over being able to slot in RAM myself in a clunky machine any day.

The only criticism I would have is the software support. 5-7 years isn't enough, especially as the M chips perform for many years.

But on the hardware side they are killing it, especially on the chip side.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Personally, couldn't be happier with Apple hardware (3 decade user). Especially since Jony Ive left, and the design wasn't quite so form over function, eg the scissor keys with low depth on the MBP around 2016-20.

I think the M2 MBA might be one of the most complete laptops have ever produced for most people at that price point, given the SoC, design, battery life, screen, mics, speakers etc. And given that in most use cases, it's just as good as a new M5 MBA.

I usually upgrade my Apple hardware every 1-2 years. With the M2, albeit with 24 GB RAM, I can't think of a reason to upgrade it yet, and we are now just about 4 years since release, with it flying like new.

Similarly with the Pros, and the Max M chips.

The hardware looks great, performs unbelievably, has longevity and reliability, and batteries last a long time.

Majority of users see computers like a washing machine, not a philosophy or lifestyle, so aren't worried about user upgradable RAM or glued in batteries. And they can still be repaired in any case.

I'd take the the SoC RAM, with the added efficiency and speed, over being able to slot in RAM myself in a clunky machine any day.

The only criticism I would have is the software support. 5-7 years isn't enough, especially as the M chips perform for many years.

But on the hardware side they are killing it, especially on the chip side.

The hardware is fantastic, I think we all agree!

This thread is about frustrations with macOS 26 software.

 

[redjar597]

The hardware is fantastic, I think we all agree!

This thread is about frustrations with macOS 26 software.

I agree, but it was hijacked by Minghold yesterday sounding off about Apple losing its way with hardware too. See a few posts back.

 

[capamac]

Majority of users see computers like a washing machine, not a philosophy or lifestyle, so aren't worried about user upgradable RAM or glued in batteries. And they can still be repaired in any case.

Washing machines last like 15-20 years tho.