macOS 27: All The Little Things

[Luftkopf]

This is not a step forward. It is a return to the past.
The past cannot be brought back to life. Attempting to step back into that time or to revive relationships or revisit places that have outlived their purpose leads only to disappointment. Time moves only forward, and the conditions of the past no longer exist.

I get it, I argue pretty hard against the return to the past that some here want, but we can look back and draw inspiration from it. A quick side-by-side will show pretty massive difference between GG traffic lights and those of Aqua.

 

[fisherking]

This is not a step forward. It is a return to the past.
The past cannot be brought back to life. Attempting to step back into that time or to revive relationships or revisit places that have outlived their purpose leads only to disappointment. Time moves only forward, and the conditions of the past no longer exist.

and yet...

 

[tkermit]

I wouldn't mind if they brought back the Tiger UI . There wasn't anything wrong with it. This still looks much easier on the eyes and far more usable than anything we've had since.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

When Apple released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on April 29, 2005 for $129, it did so while taking big swings at Microsoft Windows. Tiger boasted features like Spotlight file search and more robust graphics APIs, as well as improved 64-bit support. With this release, Safari gained RSS support, Mail...

512pixels.net

 

[n-evo]

I wouldn't mind if they brought back the Tiger UI . There wasn't anything wrong with it.

Lol… Mac OS X Tiger was by far the most incoherent version to date. It was a total mess of different window styles with no clear rule set of how to apply them (Aqua, Brushed, Unified Title/toolbar look). Even certain apps like Mail had those weird purple-ish pill shaped toolbar buttons no third party app had access to. iTunes had its own window style. Etc. Apple made a huge deal out of finally addressing that (sort of) with Mac OS X Leopard.

 

[tkermit]

Lol… Mac OS X Tiger was by far the most incoherent version to date. It was a total mess of different window styles with no clear rule set of how to apply them (Aqua, Brushed, Unified Title/toolbar look). Even certain apps like Mail had those weird purple-ish pill shaped toolbar buttons no third party app had access to. iTunes had its own window style.

That didn't hurt usability one bit. If anything, it was a feature to be able to easily tell apps apart. It's become much more difficult these days to tell at a glance which app, icon, or UI widget you're looking at, even when they behave very differently.

 

[n-evo]

That didn't hurt usability one bit.

I responded to you saying there wasn’t anything wrong with it. The mess of different window styles did start to make things overly complex and cluttered. A very much heard point of view at the time. Yours not so much from what I’ve read back then. And having six heavy on the eyes Brushed windows open didn’t make things more distinctive at all. It was generally welcomed that Apple unified things when Mac OS X Leopard was introduced.

 

[CrabQueenInc]

I wouldn't mind if they brought back the Tiger UI . There wasn't anything wrong with it. This still looks much easier on the eyes and far more usable than anything we've had since.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

When Apple released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on April 29, 2005 for $129, it did so while taking big swings at Microsoft Windows. Tiger boasted features like Spotlight file search and more robust graphics APIs, as well as improved 64-bit support. With this release, Safari gained RSS support, Mail...

512pixels.net

I disliked brushed metal back in the day, but Tiger was an absolutely phenomenal version of OS X on my PowerBook. I used a VM to revisit it last year, and was overwhelmed with how colourful, thoughtful and detailed it was. My opinion on brushed metal has softened over time, and while it is still not my favourite window trim, I agree with you about the usability.

 

[n-evo]

Mac OS X Tiger brought about a lot of much needed performance improvements. My eMac felt like a new machine coming from Mac OS X Panther. Spotlight was phenomenal and unlike anything Windows users had at the time. It also featured my all-time favorite intro video. Too bad Apple axed those (although they could have included a skip button lol).

 

[liquidnonsense]

Bringing us back on topic... new Preview icon.

I know it's very tempting to make this topic about personal opinions and complaints and reminiscing and bug reports but can we please try to keep it to its original purpose please? Thanks all! 🙂

please keep it to new discoveries only.​

 

[Brettka7]

I just posted this in the iOS 27 speculation thread, so apologies if you’ve seen this before.

iOS 27 is finally beautiful to my eyes after the fixes they released from DB4 and beyond. MacOS 27 and iPadOS 27 on non-HDR capable displays still look unfinished to me, and I won’t ever be able to change that about my M1 iPad Air.

Do y’all have any speculations on whether they’ll adjust the glass controls design before mid-September or if we’re just going to have a subpar experience on every non-HDR device for the foreseeable future? IMO, glass controls on a non-HDR device should have darker shadows in the center of each button to mimic the look you get on HDR-capable devices. Or they should just change to regular circles with an even, non-oval outline.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, the Gamery app developer did a deep dive here.

 

[nortonandreev]

I just posted this in the iOS 27 speculation thread, so apologies if you’ve seen this before.

iOS 27 is finally beautiful to my eyes after the fixes they released from DB4 and beyond. MacOS 27 and iPadOS 27 on non-HDR capable displays still look unfinished to me, and I won’t ever be able to change that about my M1 iPad Air.

Do y’all have any speculations on whether they’ll adjust the glass controls design before mid-September or if we’re just going to have a subpar experience on every non-HDR device for the foreseeable future? IMO, glass controls on a non-HDR device should have darker shadows in the center of each button to mimic the look you get on HDR-capable devices. Or they should just change to regular circles with an even, non-oval outline.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, the Gamery app developer did a deep dive here.

I think the design will suffer on non-HDR devices, as it does now, and honestly, it already looks suboptimal even on HDR.

I’ll never understand why they introduced Liquid Glass to solve a problem that didn’t really exist, only to then add more effects and complexity to fix problems created by Liquid Glass itself. And now we’re ending up with a UI that isn’t even consistent across devices, because HDR and non-HDR displays render the same components differently.

Personally, I still don’t think it looks particularly good even with HDR, and even in version 27. A lot of controls are barely visible, the address bar in Safari is a good example.

 

[Brettka7]

I think the design will suffer on non-HDR devices, as it does now, and honestly, it already looks suboptimal even on HDR.

I’ll never understand why they introduced Liquid Glass to solve a problem that didn’t really exist, only to then add more effects and complexity to fix problems created by Liquid Glass itself. And now we’re ending up with a UI that isn’t even consistent across devices, because HDR and non-HDR displays render the same components differently.

Personally, I still don’t think it looks particularly good even with HDR, and even in version 27. A lot of controls are barely visible, the address bar in Safari is a good example.

I’m actually enjoying iOS 27 quite a bit on my HDR displays. I never thought I’d warm up to Liquid Glass after hating it every second of every day from September 2025 to June 2026.

I just really hope they don’t leave non-HDR capable devices & external displays unfinished. It truly looks like it’s messed up with accessibility settings in light mode.

 

[MBAir2010]

in Sequioa, dragging files to another folder is tedious, is this the same in Golden gate?

 

[Tenseiren]

Hello, I've been a lurker for some time, but this is my first actual post.
Loving GG thus far, but has this been bothering anyone else? I really want a small line here to divide the sidebar from the rest of the app. Left is default, right is my mockup. Sequoia had this as well iirc

 

[zevrix]

Hello, I've been a lurker for some time, but this is my first actual post.
Loving GG thus far, but has this been bothering anyone else? I really want a small line here to divide the sidebar from the rest of the app. Left is default, right is my mockup. Sequoia had this as well iirc

If you enable the Show borders accessibility option, there will be a line. There also will be other changes that you may or may not like. Luckily for me, I only find the Golden Gate UI acceptable with the Show borders option enabled.

 

[CrabQueenInc]

Hello, I've been a lurker for some time, but this is my first actual post.
Loving GG thus far, but has this been bothering anyone else? I really want a small line here to divide the sidebar from the rest of the app. Left is default, right is my mockup. Sequoia had this as well iirc

View attachment 2654608View attachment 2654607

I could go for this design. Add a little circle in the middle of the line like in the first few versions of OS X to indicate that the sidebar can be grabbed and resized, too.