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macOS 'Big Sur' Unveiled With Updated Design, New Features for Safari and Messages, and More

I watched the introduction of the new interface of macOS 10.16(macOS 11 apparently) Big Sur and the animation began? with a some aqua-like buttons that made we go "woo-hoo" until I saw that the got smushed to the interface and completely immersed in the window frame once again. Thank you, Alan Dye :( This was your time to shine after what's his name left. Edit.. I remembered just as I left the bathroom: Jony Ive

The Dock feels a bit -- not quite fitting the larger the screen gets - the rounded corner appears to have too much of a corner radius on it to be okay. I'm certain that I will have a fling or two with this release if my iMac is allowed to have it installed. May have to look for the system requirements.

Also, I was a bit puzzled that there wasn't any mention of the slight pressure they've put on macOS Catalina users with their requests for accessing the screen for recording when using a color picker and for all other, for me, dumb stuff. Now we get yet another access request with Clipboard access?! Do we get to use our Macs or are we destined to spent our time clicking away requester windows / dialog windows for all graphics apps that wants to use the color picker as an example. In case I missed the obvious point in which Craig mentioned it then I am sorry for my rant.

In addition I think the name Big Sur has in it what Yosemite had - Big Sir or Big Sur.
 
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it looks like those trash "concepts" that wannabe graphic designers plaster all over Behancé and Dribbble.

Also, the translucent effects have made text extremely hard to read especially on light backgrounds. I guess they’re making text impossible to read at this point.

The old icons’ shapes used to carry semantic meaning: circles for (generally) single-window apps (Safari, App Store, music), slanted rectangle for document-based apps (iWork, notes, preview), upright rectangle/square for utilities (preferences, terminal, activity monitor). Now that’s all gone.

It sucks, it’s windows 8 but with light gradients.
 
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DontPutTheFBack said:
This is the first time I did't like macOS design, it sucks 😡.
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It's not my cup of tea either but I'm willing to try it. I wouldn't say it sucks or that it looks different BUT that it's almost a carbon copy of iOS/iPadOS. So all three OS'es will probably share the same stuff including system updates which probably means once you update and Apple stops signing the previous version you can't go back.
 
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tomi03 said:
it looks like those trash "concepts" that wannabe graphic designers plaster all over Behancé and Dribbble.

Also, the translucent effects have made text extremely hard to read especially on light backgrounds. I guess they’re making text impossible to read at this point.

The old icons’ shapes used to carry semantic meaning: circles for (generally) single-window apps (Safari, App Store, music), slanted rectangle for document-based apps (iWork, notes, preview), upright rectangle/square for utilities (preferences, terminal, activity monitor). Now that’s all gone.

It sucks, it’s windows 8 but with light gradients.
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The UI needs tweaks. It's new and it will be tweaked throughout the beta process. They will hear feedback and make changes based on that feedback. It's basically sending out a "proof" to your customer. I won't pass judgement on anything until the final release.
 
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jml1982 said:
I can't believe they don't have a pull down for notifications/dashboard yet on the Mac. Especially now that they revamped the look and feel much more like the iphone. It's annoying that it's only in the top right. I should be able to drag my mouse fast to the top menu bar and then do a two finger pull down and then the notifications quickly pop up over the middle of the screen and then I can quickly flick back up to have them removed. They have expose, so they should really be able to implement this so easily.

… (Snipped…)
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I've actually always wished there was at least an option for putting it on the left to experiment with, though I'm not entirely sure what its top-level menu bar entry icon's placement would be if that were the case. (This would resemble how 'Dashboard as a Space' lies to the left of all your other Spaces somewhat.)
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Who used the old Today Extension APIs to add widgets to Notification Center on macOS? I don't remember many apps doing that, but maybe I just never ran into any…? Anyway, hopefully the new widget ecosystem thrives like Dashboard's did in its heyday.
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Some additional thoughts:
  • I sincerely hope there's an accessibility option to reduce the menu bar's transparency back to what it was before! (That is, on top of and separate from/in addition to the current option to disable menu transparency entirely.)
  • This…isn't how I imagined a redesigned Dock.
 
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Jynto said:
At least the versions of Word, Powerpoint and Excel they showed had the title bars in a different colour. You could even see a little bit of a gradient, which I appreciated. Makes me hopeful that it won't just be plain white apps across the entire OS, otherwise I'd probably leave it in dark mode most of the time.

View attachment 926152

The rounded square icons are a similarly hard sell for me. I was very worried when I first saw them, thinking that Apple might force this look on developers like they did with iOS. Knowing the way things are with graphic design right now, this would result in a ton of uninspired logos on plain white backgrounds. But thankfully a lot of the icons shown on-screen (including the MS Office icons) got to keep their existing shapes, and don't look too out of place among the square ones.

I mean, I can't believe we're at the point of praising Microsoft for their non-native design on an Apple platform, but...

View attachment 926144

...here's to the crazy ones!
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The only way this icon looks good is when you place it beside Adobe icons.
 
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So much resistance. SO much fear.

I remember being here a decade ago or so, when Yosemite came out. I REALLY learned to let go (somewhat) when Apple killed the 17" MBP (I'm writing this on mine).

Times have changed, folks. The Apple Steve led is long-gone. The circumstances and computing environment has changed as well, and will never go back to the way it was.

What makes a Mac a Mac? I think Apple is addressing this question from the iOS side, because it is the future (they're investing in).

I believe the Mac, as a lot of you are pining for, is "dead". OS X is the last "PC OS" (aka keyboard/mouse required) Apple will ever make. I bet Big Sur is iPadOS, in the same way "iOS is OS X" (according to Steve in the 1st iPhone keynote).

Apple OSes are headed towards convergence, and this release, combined with the new iPadOS capabilities and the move to A-Series, is the biggest evidence. Even the "failed leak" of Xcode on iPad is only a partial failure: it is currently running on a "Mac" with an iPad chip. Thus the macOS 11 designation.

So, it stands to reason that the iPad will eventually (as in, in 2 years when the tranny's complete) be able to do what the Mac can. The differences between platforms will be hardware only, and the constraints (or lack thereof) said hardware puts on the device being used. No different than now, really, in the same way that Safari is (called) Safari in the Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

But Apple knows that developers need freedom to install software, so I think Apple WILL NOT lock down the "Mac" like they do the iPad, again due to to the hardware limitations in the latter (regardless of the so-called "Pro" designation). Perhaps they will even end up opening up the Pro iPads, once the hardware reaches a certain point.

I could be wrong, but time will tell if I'm right.
 
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Ian Howlett said:
Will it stop the WindowServer process from taking about 60% of my CPU constantly, and making my fans permanently spin? So annoying.
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Is this a frequently encountered issue here? My WindowServer process is constantly pegged between 85 and 120% of CPU and it's making big sur unusable for me :(
 
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