macOS Tahoe: A Pattern of Poor Usability and Design Regression

[Kal Madda]

Yes, I understand that. Still merging too much with the background in my opinion.

Ok, I don’t really think it’s an issue if grayed out unavailable options merge into the background. 🤷🏼‍♂️. They aren’t usually very visible on a solid colored background either, because they aren’t supposed to be, that’s the whole point of graying them out. But to each their own. 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[star-affinity]

Ok, I don’t really think it’s an issue if grayed out unavailable options merge into the background. 🤷🏼‍♂️. They aren’t usually very visible on a solid colored background either, because they aren’t supposed to be, that’s the whole point of graying them out. But to each their own. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Yes, not the end of the world here.
But they would at least be more visible with a solid background. Or if the Liquid Glass could be set to have a more frosted look (like we talked about would be a nice option to get from Apple).

 

[capamac]

Design Lovers noted that glass is the wrong metaphor, as glass is hard and crystalline as commonly encountered. The presenter argued that the effect in macOS/iOS 26 is more like a form of clear rubber. Although even that doesn't fit.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Design Lovers noted that glass is the wrong metaphor, as glass is hard and crystalline as commonly encountered. The presenter argued that the effect in macOS/iOS 26 is more like a form of clear rubber. Although even that doesn't fit.

Liquid Goo if you ask me.

 

[svenmany]

It's amazing how people want you to dislike something, just because a Section of the Customer Base doesn't like it, without giving you persuasive evidence or information to allow you to examine and change your mind if you see fit. Many others like it, enjoy the new Interface and Aesthetic, and realize that No previous OS was perfect.

I don't want you to dislike it. What's important is for you to care that some others dislike it. This is not a thread about personal preferences. It's not about whether you or any other individual likes or dislikes it.

I've seen plenty of posts that give persuasive evidence of significant flaws. Many are Apple bugs or poor tactical choices. None of them affect my enjoyment of the UI. But they help me understand the relative success of Tahoe as a concrete implementation of a design.

 

[Kal Madda]

…What's important is for you to care that some others dislike it…

Uh, no… It isn’t important that I care that some others dislike it… Just as it isn’t important that I care that others dislike the iPhone, or dislike Apple for that matter… Other people’s opinions really don’t have much bearing on my own… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[fisherking]

I don't want you to dislike it. What's important is for you to care that some others dislike it. This is not a thread about personal preferences. It's not about whether you or any other individual likes or dislikes it.

I've seen plenty of posts that give persuasive evidence of significant flaws. Many are Apple bugs or poor tactical choices. None of them affect my enjoyment of the UI. But they help me understand the relative success of Tahoe as a concrete implementation of a design.

all of the threads on macrumors devolve into arguments about... personal preferences (this is outside of the discussions about actual bugs, of course).

there are always bugs, and we should be discussing them; finding solutions, workarounds... doing what this forum can do so well; help resolve issues. and the betas give us a chance to let apple know about concerns, issues...

but the amount of back-&-forth (i'm often part of that 😔) of 'i'm right, you're wrong, & this is why'... is ridiculous. we don't all see things the same way, no software is free of bugs, and technology is a future of constant invention. i find that exciting, challenging. your mileage may vary....

 

[yaddam205]

all of the threads on macrumors devolve into arguments about... personal preferences (this is outside of the discussions about actual bugs, of course).

there are always bugs, and we should be discussing them; finding solutions, workarounds... doing what this forum can do so well; help resolve issues. and the betas give us a chance to let apple know about concerns, issues...

but the amount of back-&-forth (i'm often part of that 😔) of 'i'm right, you're wrong, & this is why'... is ridiculous. we don't all see things the same way, no software is free of bugs, and technology is a future of constant invention. i find that exciting, challenging. your mileage may vary....

.....yeah 26 is still garbage. The look of liquid glass is subjective, but from a usability standpoint it's not. This release is covered it bugs and it's clear dev is being crunched without time to bake the product. Here's hoping later builds are better.

 

[Kal Madda]

.....yeah 26 is still garbage. The look of liquid glass is subjective, but from a usability standpoint it's not. This release is covered it bugs and it's clear dev is being crunched without time to bake the product. Here's hoping later builds are better.

That’s just your opinion… 🤷🏼‍♂️. And I disagree. I haven’t run into a single bug that has any impact on functionality. And I’m running the developer betas…

 

[fisherking]

.....yeah 26 is still garbage. The look of liquid glass is subjective, but from a usability standpoint it's not. This release is covered it bugs and it's clear dev is being crunched without time to bake the product. Here's hoping later builds are better.

for you, i guess. outside of my calendar opening to the wrong day occasionally, am not experiencing any serious bugs (& that one's not serious).

'covered in bugs' - could you be specific? (and am honestly sorry you're experiencing issues)

 

[Kal Madda]

I installed macOS 26.4 developer beta 2 today, and it corrects 2 of the visual bugs people complained about.

First, the search bar in Settings is fixed to behave just as it does on iPadOS 26. So background text isn’t visible through the search bar.

And the additional WiFi networks page in Control Center is now properly using drop shadows just like the rest of Control Center, so it’s legible even on a bright white wallpaper. And it’s even better if you do the obvious and don’t use a bright white wallpaper, but this is an extreme case to show the change.

So there go the 5 or so screenshots people tried to use to argue macOS 26 or Liquid Glass was “unusable” or “problematic” or whatever… The others were already made irrelevant by other updates. 👍🏻

 

[landshark2]

Because of Tahoe's Music App moving the control bar from the top to "near" the bottom of the window, I want to stay with Sequoia. That is unless someone knows a way to get the Tahoe Music control bar back to the top of the window?

My everyday Mac is the Mini so it is doing the heavy lifting. A clean reinstall of Sequoia would be more work than it will be for the MacBook. Luckily Tahoe is just downloaded on the Mini, not installed, and I'd like to make sure it doesn't install. How do I keep the Mini from installing the already downloaded Tahoe?

Right now the Mini is prompting me to do a Sequoia security update, and probably a Safari update, but I'm wary of doing those while Tahoe is waiting in the wings?

 

[steve333]

Because of Tahoe's Music App moving the control bar from the top to "near" the bottom of the window, I want to stay with Sequoia. That is unless someone knows a way to get the Tahoe Music control bar back to the top of the window?

My everyday Mac is the Mini so it is doing the heavy lifting. A clean reinstall of Sequoia would be more work than it will be for the MacBook. Luckily Tahoe is just downloaded on the Mini, not installed, and I'd like to make sure it doesn't install. How do I keep the Mini from installing the already downloaded Tahoe?

Right now the Mini is prompting me to do a Sequoia security update, and probably a Safari update, but I'm wary of doing those while Tahoe is waiting in the wings?

Do the security update but not the Safari update, it is most likely the newest version which sucks as bad as Tahoe

 

[Wolf1701]

I've been using Tahoe for weeks, first in beta and now on all my machines... but I just can't get past this crap every time I open the Finder.

 

[capamac]

I've been using Tahoe for weeks, first in beta and now on all my machines... but I just can't get past this crap every time I open the Finder.
View attachment 2608574

It looks amateur. The curve doesn't look right. The position of the three dots in relation to the curve is off-balance. The double lines are unnecessary. The reason they put double lines there is they wanted to make "glass" more apparent -- that's it.

 

[Kal Madda]

It looks amateur. The curve doesn't look right. The position of the three dots in relation to the curve is off-balance. The double lines are unnecessary. The reason they put double lines there is they wanted to make "glass" more apparent -- that's it.

It looks awesome! I love the new design! And since you seem to like Linux so much, why not go to Linux and Linux fan forums?

 

[Wolf1701]

It looks amateur. The curve doesn't look right. The position of the three dots in relation to the curve is off-balance. The double lines are unnecessary. The reason they put double lines there is they wanted to make "glass" more apparent -- that's it.

Not only amateurish, but also annoying for the average user (like me, with no background in design). Simply useless and distracting.

For someone...

'If everyone in a village is laughing at someone and you don't understand who it is..."

 

[capamac]

It looks awesome! I love the new design! And since you seem to like Linux so much, why not go to Linux and Linux fan forums?

I'm in Linux and NetBSD irc chat rooms on Libera. 🙂 Also been a Mac user since the Mac IIsi was new. And what Apple is doing now is dumb, and they deserve to be called-out on their dumb behavior.

 

[Kal Madda]

I'm in Linux and NetBSD irc chat rooms on Libera. 🙂 Also been a Mac user since the Mac IIsi was new. And what Apple is doing now is dumb, and they deserve to be called-out on their dumb behavior.

What Apple is doing now is smart, and they deserve credit for their very smart behavior. macOS actually looks far more modern now, rather than looking like an abandoned project from the 90s or early 2000s. Far more consistent with Apple’s other platforms, making it much more approachable and congruent. And moving between devices feels much smoother with a more unified design, rather than the old, jarring, and disjointed design macOS used before… Apple is proud of the Mac and putting it fully on display and making it far more appealing to people, rather than it practically being hid in the basement from embarrassment like before. And it now looks less like a dying platform that will be obsolete in a few years, like it did with Catalina time period. It used to be the black sheep that didn’t fit well, now it’s far better and more consistent… 👍🏻

 

[capamac]

What Apple is doing now is smart, and they deserve credit for their very smart behavior. macOS actually looks far more modern now, rather than looking like an abandoned project from the 90s or early 2000s. Far more consistent with Apple’s other platforms, making it much more approachable and congruent. And moving between devices feels much smoother with a more unified design, rather than the old, jarring, and disjointed design macOS used before… Apple is proud of the Mac and putting it fully on display and making it far more appealing to people, rather than it practically being hid in the basement from embarrassment. It used to be the black sheep that didn’t fit well, now it’s far better and more consistent… 👍🏻

Are you Alan Dye, by chance?

 

[Kal Madda]

…and they deserve to be called-out on their dumb behavior.

If you believe this, then send your complaints straight to Apple. Use Apple’s Feedback forum for greatest effectiveness. Apple likely never will see your comments here. So it’s ineffective… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[capamac]

If you believe this, then send your complaints straight to Apple. Use Apple’s Feedback forum for greatest effectiveness. Apple likely never will see your comments here. So it’s ineffective… 🤷🏼‍♂️

I'm gonna vote with my OS. I'm not really worried about macOS too much coz I do like the freedom of Gnu/Linux. Linux and BSD are true multi-user Un*x-like OSes with pre-emptive multitasking and protected memory, same as macOS. MacOS is based on NeXT which is based on BSD. The command lline tools that work in Gnu/Linux or one of the BSDs are the same command line tools (more or less) that operate in a macOS terminal. ls, cp, vi, ssh, sftp, pipes, tail, less, cat, scripts, top, ps, etc etc ... all the same. A switch to PC means I'd be functionally trading one BSD for another BSD.

I used a Gnu/Liinux-only system for four years, 2007-2011, when I had zero macs for personal use. (I used a Mac at work during this period.) I was quite content with Gnu/Linux during this period, and only bought a MacBook again coz I wanted InDesign, which I no longer use.

Gnu/Linux and BSD have a wide variety of desktop environments and window managers, while macOS offers you "their way or the highway."

However, I don't upgrade my hardware every day. I do have two macs now ... they weren't cheap ... and probably will continue to use them for months or a year. So I have an invested interest in Apple not producing a crap OS. But at some point, Apple will either produce an OS I find acceptable or I'll switch to PC hardware running Linux/BSD.

Linux has had a tremendous surge in popularity lately due to Windows sucking more than usual and coz Linux gaming has truly arrived thanks to Proton and the efforts of Steam. There's Bazzite and other gaming-centric Linux distrubitions. Linux gaming is the "foot in the door." The tip of the spear.

 

[Kal Madda]

I'm gonna vote with my OS. I'm not really worried about macOS too much coz I do like the freedom of Gnu/Linux. Linux and BSD are true multi-user Un*x-like OSes with pre-emptive multitasking, same as macOS. MacOS is based on BSD. The command lline tools that work in Gnu/Linux or one of the BSDs are the same command line tools (more or less) that operate in a macOS terminal. ls, cp, vi, ssh, sftp, pipes, tail, less, cat, scripts, top, ps, etc etc ... all the same.

I used a Gnu/Liinux-only system for four years, 2007-2011, when I had zero macs for personal use. (I used a Mac at work during this period.) I was quite content with Gnu/Linux during this period, and only bought a MacBook again coz I wanted InDesign, which I no longer use.

Gnu/Linux and BSD have a wide variety of desktop environments and window managers, while macOS offers you "their way or the highway."

However, I don't upgrade my hardware every day. I do have two macs now ... they weren't cheap ... and probably will continue to use them for months or a year. So I have an invested interest in Apple not producing a crap OS. But at some point, Apple will either produce an OS I find acceptable or I'll switch to PC hardware running Linux/BSD.

Linux has had a tremendous surge in popularity lately due to Windows sucking more than usual and coz Linux gaming has truly arrived thanks to Proton and the efforts of Steam. There's Bazzite and other gaming-centric Linux distrubitions. Linux gaming is the "foot in the door." The tip of the spear.

By all means, move over to Linux. Nobody’s saying you can’t or shouldn’t. 🤷🏼‍♂️.

I switched to the Mac after Windows 10 and the forced automatic updates. I grew up using Windows when I was younger. I had an iPhone before I got the Mac, so I was surprised by how much was different and unintuitive. Where iOS was clean and modern, macOS looked like it had been abandoned to die. The design language looked like it came from Windows 7 era at best. A smiley face represented a file manager app for no apparent reason… When I first started using the Mac, I spent far too much time looking through the entire Launchpad looking for the file manager. Finally after I had spent a long time looking there, I googled it and was shocked they expected new users to look at the smiley face icon and think “file manager”… 🤦🏼‍♂️. That, to me, is a dumb decision… And regular system apps I used all the time on iOS looked almost completely different. It was so frustrating and annoying to have to essentially relearn basic apps… 🤦🏼‍♂️ There was just a ton of unnecessary friction, and the system looked as if it had been abandoned.

Big Sur improved things somewhat, but many unnecessary points of friction still remained. At least it looked somewhat better, but it still wasn’t the level of design I had come to expect from iOS.

To me, Tahoe removes far more of those friction points, with more consistent app UIs for system apps, and a more modern design language. It doesn’t look like Apple’s equivalent of Windows XP or 7 anymore… It actually looks consistent with all of Apple’s other platforms. Sadly, the smiley face icon is still there, hopeful we see that replaced with Files, or at least the Files app icon in macOS 27. But it feels like we’re finally seeing progress with macOS 26. Like with anything else, there’s still some more improvements I’d like to see. But at least we’re finally moving in the right direction in my opinion. macOS is finally allowed to shed the legacy baggage that was beginning to make it look like an antique, and become a more modern platform/system.

At least, that’s my opinion. 👍🏻

 

[Wolf1701]

Some people's favorite topic is how MacOS is less intuitive for younger generations compared to iOS (which they grew up with). Well, as a member of Gen X, I can say that with this mindset and learning difficulty, I would not have made it through puberty.

 

[onepotatoetoo]

By all means, move over to Linux. Nobody’s saying you can’t or shouldn’t. 🤷🏼‍♂️.

I switched to the Mac after Windows 10 and the forced automatic updates. I grew up using Windows when I was younger. I had an iPhone before I got the Mac, so I was surprised by how much was different and unintuitive. Where iOS was clean and modern, macOS looked like it had been abandoned to die. The design language looked like it came from Windows 7 era at best. A smiley face represented a file manager app for no apparent reason… When I first started using the Mac, I spent far too much time looking through the entire Launchpad looking for the file manager. Finally after I had spent a long time looking there, I googled it and was shocked they expected new users to look at the smiley face icon and think “file manager”… 🤦🏼‍♂️. That, to me, is a dumb decision… And regular system apps I used all the time on iOS looked almost completely different. It was so frustrating and annoying to have to essentially relearn basic apps… 🤦🏼‍♂️ There was just a ton of unnecessary friction, and the system looked as if it had been abandoned.

Big Sur improved things somewhat, but many unnecessary points of friction still remained. At least it looked somewhat better, but it still wasn’t the level of design I had come to expect from iOS.

To me, Tahoe removes far more of those friction points, with more consistent app UIs for system apps, and a more modern design language. It doesn’t look like Apple’s equivalent of Windows XP or 7 anymore… It actually looks consistent with all of Apple’s other platforms. Sadly, the smiley face icon is still there, hopeful we see that replaced with Files, or at least the Files app icon in macOS 27. But it feels like we’re finally seeing progress with macOS 26. Like with anything else, there’s still some more improvements I’d like to see. But at least we’re finally moving in the right direction in my opinion. macOS is finally allowed to shed the legacy baggage that was beginning to make it look like an antique, and become a more modern platform/system.

At least, that’s my opinion. 👍🏻

That is one of the worst posts I've read about a macOS convert. Long term Mac users and probably rolling their eyes and quadruple face palming after reading it. Every single statement is demonstrably false and dreadful in the worst ways imaginable.