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If I jump from my currently used macOS 12 to the upcoming macOS 15, I’ll be skipping the Ventura version of the System Settings.

Exactly what I am thinking…if I jump from my currently used macOS 10.12 straight to macOS 15 - hopefully I c an avoid the mess I have been hearing about.
 
what does, "priority and overall importance" mean?
It means we'll need the search bar to find anything.

Not sure which of Microsoft's UI brain children is worse: the ribbon menu, or a system settings app so poorly designed it needs a search function. Apple should leave both as Windows exclusives.
 
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One thing I think could be done to improve it on iOS is strip out all the app-related settings. Each should be available from a Settings item on the shortcuts menu displayed by long pressing an app’s icon on the home screen or App Library. By definition, even apps like Safari and Mail don’t belong in Syatem Settings now you can choose a replacement.
THANK YOU. I've always hated that Apple's first party apps put their settings within the Settings app whereas every third party app has their settings within the app itself and only uses the Settings app to control certain permissions. Put app settings with the apps and leave the Settings app for system settings.
 
Honestly, I find it really difficult to locate anything I need in the System Settings app on macOS Sonoma. Put it back to how it was before Ventura, please.

I shouldn't have to search for everything.

And, why does it start on the "Appearance" item every time I launch it? Can't it remember where I was last time?
 
What Apple had in Big Sur and Monterey was fine… they ‘innovated’ themselves into a corner with Ventura. I for one hope they bring back what we had before… and please bring back the ability to rearrange the icons and let us sort by category or alphabetically.
Agree with you 💯%. 👍🏼 ✅

Unfortunately, this rumor — as described — is merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!

My hopes were dashed on the iceberg of Captain Cook's over-engineered, misguided, labyrinth of a GUI!
 
Honestly, I find it really difficult to locate anything I need in the System Settings app on macOS Sonoma. Put it back to how it was before Ventura, please.

I shouldn't have to search for everything.

And, why does it start on the "Appearance" item every time I launch it? Can't it remember where I was last time?
Yes! Or at least start on “General” …why Appearance of all options? That’s never made any sense to me. It’s not even the top of the list but the 2nd. Dumb.
 
Just moving options around the garbage iOS-style design isn't really going to fix that mess. Just bring back the proper System Preferences application.
A lot of the old ways of doing things in system preferences didn’t make a lot of sense either, especially after Apple crammed in the iCloud settings and the new security/privacy/accessibility stuff in the last decade or so. The new settings isn’t perfect, but I feel like it would be better to iterate on it and refine how stuff are organized than go back to the old style. Once you get used to it the new organization makes more sense imo.
 
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Gah. Don’t ruin it again, Apple. It’s a total mess right now. Try and find the old “Hot corners” wheee you can set a corner to turn the display off without screen savor (or other options) and it takes forever to find where they buried it! Should be right up in the Display category!
I don’t even bother looking anymore. I just search for what I want because looking where you expect it to be often comes up short.
 
Another thing that's bothering me is that none of the OSes actually have proper icons besides their version number on a gradient rounded rect. Also, why is the icon for the Focus feature still the half-moon, which is *one* of the focuses, Do not disturb?
Because it is broken. Clicking the icon directly should turn on the DND focus, but it always brings up the selection popup.

When you select that or another focus, the selected focus shows highlighted in that area.
 
Just moving options around the garbage iOS-style design isn't really going to fix that mess. Just bring back the proper System Preferences application.
And that is exactly what this sounds like: rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic rather than any serious do-over. Frankly, I wish Apple would move all macOS developers to the other side of the country from wherever the iOS gang hangs out. Cut down on the cross-contamination.
 
The strongest push at Apple in the Cook era comes from the bean counters, not the creators and designers.

Ol’ Timmy being the forefront bean counter himself.
 
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I don't even care about Settings any more. I've gotten used to it. Though I still search way too much because I never remember where things are

The things I want some attention on are Finder and multitasking. But Apple seems to think both have reached their apotheosis in features and usability.

I'd like to see real display scaling as opposed to whatever the heck Mac OS does. I have bad eyes and I want to scale text and UI by arbitrary percentage and have it look good, like on Windows and Linux, as opposed to buying a monitor with a certain sweet spot DPI to conform with the way Mac OS does scaling and picking from 3 resolution choices of too big, too small, and still not right.

Anyway, the list of new features, even if incomplete, doesn't warrant a whole new version number at all. But I guess that was the case with Sonoma too.
 
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Settings are one of the worst part of iOS. There are now way too many. Settings used to be a lot simpler back in the iOS 9 days. Now It’s dizzying. Whatever they do its sure to confuse us all over again. Not looking forward to mucking around in an alien settings interface once again.

It’s weird — they can’t even get settings to be nice.
I profusely disagree with there being "too many" settings. I think more settings and options are a good thing. What matters is how they're organized, and that is where iOS struggles, one example being how every app has its own individual menu in the Settings app instead of having them be under an "Apps" menu. I'm sure Apple will probably re-organize the Settings app with iOS 18 as well instead of only doing it for macOS 15 though.

Also, if Apple were to reduce the number of settings available, it would annoy a lot of people. But I think the worst offender in terms of having a crappy Settings app is Samsung. The Settings app for their One UI firmware is awful.
 
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Aqua was fun, but…
 
YES PLEASE! This style was the best/easiest layout. The current setup makes zero sense..
You mean a giant landscape monitor/screen with a floating single-column portrait control panel? I hadn’t noticed.
 
What Apple had in Big Sur and Monterey was fine… they ‘innovated’ themselves into a corner with Ventura. I for one hope they bring back what we had before… and please bring back the ability to rearrange the icons and let us sort by category or alphabetically. The haphazard mess that we have is unacceptable from the same company that produces the wonderful M4 and Tandem OLEDs. Let’s go Apple!
Agreed, it was fine! While there was some room for „evolutionary“ improvement, the changes they made in Ventura could not have possibly been informed by input from long-time loyal Mac users.
 
It’d be nice to have quicker access to stuff like Hide My Email.

Currently, it’s at least 10,000 taps away.
What’s needed is AI powered natural language search of EVERY SINGLE SETTING unlike what we have today, where half of the settings can’t be searched unless you remember what that setting belongs to which page.
 
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