macOS Tahoe: A Pattern of Poor Usability and Design Regression

[Cape Dave]

I really wish they'd dial back the rounding of the corners and excessive padding everywhere.

It's incredible how much screen real estate is getting stolen for purely aesthetic changes.

It really matters on the macbook screens.

I totally completely agree. This liquid glASS update is insanely stupid on every single possible level. Get ready, everything will be pink triangles for MacOS 28. Why you ask? No reason, just because the thought came into our minds.

 

[greenmike]

what DAW? i just abandoned waves (but those plugins worked for me), i use a lot of izotope stuff, no antares.

make sure (IF you move to tahoe) that all third-party plugins are up-to-date.

Pro Tools Ultimate 2026.4

I still use Ozone and RX, which will 100% not be officially supported in MacOS 27. AutoTune Pro X will probably also only work for Tahoe and not a later OS.

I unfortunately use Waves A LOT, even though I'd love to abandon them, it's impossible for me to do.

It's not my only stuff, I have tons of other plugins but the aforementioned are my bread butter.

I thought they are gonna make Tahoe great again before I settle on the OS for the next few years haha but seems like they just leave that for the next one.

 

[fisherking]

Pro Tools Ultimate 2026.4

I still use Ozone and RX, which will 100% not be officially supported in MacOS 27. AutoTune Pro X will probably also only work for Tahoe and not a later OS.

I unfortunately use Waves A LOT, even though I'd love to abandon them, it's impossible for me to do.

It's not my only stuff, I have tons of other plugins but the aforementioned are my bread butter.

I thought they are gonna make Tahoe great again before I settle on the OS for the next few years haha but seems like they just leave that for the next one.

where did you get this: "I still use Ozone and RX, which will 100% not be officially supported in MacOS 27"? current versions of both work in tahoe.

all of my plugins work in tahoe (again, in logic pro). and 95% of the sources & effects i use are 3rd-party.

anyway, can you clarify your statement about OS27? thanks

 

[greenmike]

where did you get this: "I still use Ozone and RX, which will 100% not be officially supported in MacOS 27"? current versions of both work in tahoe.

all of my plugins work in tahoe (again, in logic pro). and 95% of the sources & effects i use are 3rd-party.

anyway, can you clarify your statement about OS27? thanks

I mean that RX11, Ozone 11 and AutoTune Pro X for example won't be officially compatible with the new MacOS anymore unless I update them. They might work, but won't be tested and possibly not run stable without a patch.

If they didn't release a new OS every year, this wouldn't be such an issue.

I just wish I could update to the most current OS and run it for a while.

But yeah, if they keep Tahoe the way it is and just update on MacOS 27, it's very likely a skip for me.

 

[fisherking]

I mean that RX11, Ozone 11 and AutoTune Pro X for example won't be officially compatible with the new MacOS anymore unless I update them. They might work, but won't be tested and possibly not run stable without a patch.

If they didn't release a new OS every year, this wouldn't be such an issue.

I just wish I could update to the most current OS and run it for a while.

But yeah, if they keep Tahoe the way it is and just update on MacOS 27, it's very likely a skip for me.

'officially compatible' takes some time, with some developers. still, that's not the same as 'doesn't work'. and (here in logic) 3rd-party plugins work.

so: why can't you run the current OS, then run it as long as you want? 🤷

 

[greenmike]

'officially compatible' takes some time, with some developers. still, that's not the same as 'doesn't work'. and (here in logic) 3rd-party plugins work.

so: why can't you run the current OS, then run it as long as you want? 🤷

I don't like all the inconsistencies of Tahoe so far, I was hoping they are going to fix them but it looks like they'll just move on to MacOS 27 which is a shame. That's why I'm saying that I'll probably stick with Sequoia.

I can tell you from experience, with unapproved / untested software for a new MacOS version: it can work but it'll have bugs and crashes. I guess you just got extremely lucky.

 

[fisherking]

I don't like all the inconsistencies of Tahoe so far, I was hoping they are going to fix them but it looks like they'll just move on to MacOS 27 which is a shame. That's why I'm saying that I'll probably stick with Sequoia.

I can tell you from experience, with unapproved / untested software for a new MacOS version: it can work but it'll have bugs and crashes. I guess you just got extremely lucky.

i've been on the beta program for years; have worked thru some crazy bugs (at one point, i had to use the vsts instead of the au plugins in logic, run thru a container app), so... not lucky; persistent.

dealt with those moments, others... but truth is, i enjoy the adventure, & sometimes finding workarounds.

anyway, not sure which 'inconsistencies' there are in tahoe (or that they won't be there in some way in the next OS). but do what works for you 👍

 

[zenmacx]

I really wish they'd dial back the rounding of the corners and excessive padding everywhere.

It's incredible how much screen real estate is getting stolen for purely aesthetic changes.

It really matters on the macbook screens.

My primary, mission critical work computer is a 16" MacBook Pro where the rounded corners are not only a waste of space but a continual annoyance. It gets worse on my travel laptop a 13" MacBook Air.

That Apple would approve and ship such nonsense is a testament to their belief that only they know what's best for the consumer. While many of their decisions are worthwhile, this isn't one of them.

 

[AndiG]

My primary, mission critical work computer is a 16" MacBook Pro where the rounded corners are not only a waste of space but a continual annoyance. It gets worse on my travel laptop a 13" MacBook Air.

That Apple would approve and ship such nonsense is a testament to their belief that only they know what's best for the consumer. While many of their decisions are worthwhile, this isn't one of them.

In the good old days, Apple believed UI should be beautiful but stay in the background, never competing with the content.
The new, absurdly enlarged corner radius of macOS26 throws that principle out. The first thing you notice on screen isn’t the content — it’s the giant rounded corners shouting for attention. It’s like being handed DUPLO when you asked for Lego.

 

[zenmacx]

In the good old days, Apple believed UI should be beautiful but stay in the background, never competing with the content.

Well said! As one who has experienced and enjoyed Apples work from those early days, it’s disappointing to witness the regression.

The new, absurdly enlarged corner radius of macOS26 throws that principle out. The first thing you notice on screen isn’t the content — it’s the giant rounded corners shouting for attention. It’s like being handed DUPLO when you asked for Lego.

True. Then to make matters worse there’s absolutely no indication that things will improve going forward. There’s only the marketing fluff dialogue designed to appease.

 

[fisherking]

In the good old days, Apple believed UI should be beautiful but stay in the background, never competing with the content.
The new, absurdly enlarged corner radius of macOS26 throws that principle out. The first thing you notice on screen isn’t the content — it’s the giant rounded corners shouting for attention. It’s like being handed DUPLO when you asked for Lego.

'the good old days' - aqua, anyone? (certainly did not stay 'in the background'!) & i can't believe that anyone sees those little rounded corners before they see their content. so it goes 🤷

 

[SilentSpecter]

'the good old days' - aqua, anyone? (certainly did not stay 'in the background'!) & i can't believe that anyone sees those little rounded corners before they see their content. so it goes 🤷

Here is a concept you might wanna dig in. Everything that came before was better than anything they are putting out now. And every thing they released was a little bit of a mess compared to the previous version.

In some areas there was visible progress. But overall, when you zoom out, with each relase, every year, the UI and the experience was more and more ******.

iOS 6 was good, great. iOS 7, compared to 6, was a ****. iOS 8, yeah, compared to 7, it made some progress. 9? compared to 8, **** again. 10? Remember 10? What a big pile of crap.

Anyone remember macOS Big Sur? For me personally, that was the moment macOS design started to fall, little by little. Do I stay now on Sequoia? Yes. Would I prefer to be on ... hmm... Maveriks? OH YES! Do I dig Sequoia more than Tahoe? YES! Do I really love Sequoia? Oh, no.

You know what the problem is? We got used with the crap. Plain and simple.
We are not talking about Apple in terms of... they master the design and the logic behind it. We are talking about Apple Slop. And I fell Tahoe was too much.

 

[fisherking]

Here is a concept you might wanna dig in. Everything that came before was better than anything they are putting out now. And every thing they released was a little bit of a mess compared to the previous version.

In some areas there was visible progress. But overall, when you zoom out, with each relase, every year, the UI and the experience was more and more ******.

iOS 6 was good, great. iOS 7, compared to 6, was a ****. iOS 8, yeah, compared to 7, it made some progress. 9? compared to 8, **** again. 10? Remember 10? What a big pile of crap.

Anyone remember macOS Big Sur? For me personally, that was the moment macOS design started to fall, little by little. Do I stay now on Sequoia? Yes. Would I prefer to be on ... hmm... Maveriks? OH YES! Do I dig Sequoia more than Tahoe? YES! Do I really love Sequoia? Oh, no.

You know what the problem is? We got used with the crap. Plain and simple.
We are not talking about Apple in terms of... they master the design and the logic behind it. We are talking about Apple Slop. And I fell Tahoe was too much.

i honestly thought this was sarcasm... then realized it was real. i so disagree (am sure you expected that), and find the argument absurd; look at speed, functionality... possibility. these things go further, deeper, over time (and, to be fair, it's not a straight line forward).

i am, for one, grateful that apple keeps advancing the tech... even if they stumble occasionally. i mean, we all do... 🤷

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

i am, for one, grateful that apple keeps advancing the tech... even if they stumble occasionally. i mean, we all do... 🤷

The difference is; the ‘rest of us’ don’t have several trillion dollars to spend on resources that, if logic serves me correctly, could be used to fund an adequate research and testing period rather than relying on a ridged release cycle and picking up the pieces after.

 

[Cape Dave]

The difference is; the ‘rest of us’ don’t have several trillion dollars to spend on resources that, if logic serves me correctly, could be used to fund an adequate research and testing period rather than relying on a ridged release cycle and picking up the pieces after.

Precisely. Thank you. 100%

 

[Kal Madda]

The difference is; the ‘rest of us’ don’t have several trillion dollars to spend on resources that, if logic serves me correctly, could be used to fund an adequate research and testing period rather than relying on a ridged release cycle and picking up the pieces after.

They do have an adequate research and testing period. Bugs can pop up occasionally regardless, it’s just the way software works, especially when so many variables are involved. Code is incredibly complex, especially at that scale. Perhaps you should try maintaining an array of OS platforms with millions or billions of users, and see if you can make a perfectly bug free system…

No system, no matter how well funded or designed, can be perfect.

I honestly have to agree with @fisherking, the idea that the older versions of macOS were somehow perfect and everything that’s come since is supposedly worse I find to be completely absurd… Modern OSes are far more capable… And look far less hideous…

I for one am glad that Apple has pushed their software forward and improved it.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

They do have an adequate research and testing period. Bugs can pop up occasionally regardless

I don’t deny this and agree; if anything, I would expect more bugs as software becomes more complex.

I should have been specific to the UI. That required more research and testing, and it’s clear (excuse the pun) that by choosing to release this new design language across multiple platforms rather than one, the promise of the singular benefit of ‘improving consistency’ doesn’t exist. A gradual rollout would have allowed the company to learn from any mistakes, ready for general release on each platform over time.

 

[avkills]

They do have an adequate research and testing period. Bugs can pop up occasionally regardless, it’s just the way software works, especially when so many variables are involved. Code is incredibly complex, especially at that scale. Perhaps you should try maintaining an array of OS platforms with millions or billions of users, and see if you can make a perfectly bug free system…

No system, no matter how well funded or designed, can be perfect.

I honestly have to agree with @fisherking, the idea that the older versions of macOS were somehow perfect and everything that’s come since is supposedly worse I find to be completely absurd… Modern OSes are far more capable… And look far less hideous…

I for one am glad that Apple has pushed their software forward and improved it.

Wrong. The computer system for the Voyager probes was perfect; in fact they have been able to maintain them much longer than anticipated.

Granted, the code base is way more complex in macOS than the voyager probe, but "perfect" software and code is doable, it just costs a lot of time and money.

The good news is it only going to get worse as the use of AI coding is used more and more.

The other problem is that the CPU designs have gotten so advanced that even they have flaws also.

I think the better wording is that there isn't going to be a "civilian use" OS that is bug free.

 

[fisherking]

I don’t deny this and agree; if anything, I would expect more bugs as software becomes more complex.

I should have been specific to the UI. That required more research and testing, and it’s clear (excuse the pun) that by choosing to release this new design language across multiple platforms rather than one, the promise of the singular benefit of ‘improving consistency’ doesn’t exist. A gradual rollout would have allowed the company to learn from any mistakes, ready for general release on each platform over time.

or the betas serve their purpose. it's in the betas that those who run them get to see what works in the real world, what doesn't. and altho there's no one point-of-view on any of it, apple does seem to listen (when it wants to).

it seems to me that so many people go on the beta program just to be on top of 'the new', then melt down when betas behave like betas. it's that that i find terrifying 🤣

 

[Kal Madda]

I don’t deny this and agree; if anything, I would expect more bugs as software becomes more complex.

I should have been specific to the UI. That required more research and testing, and it’s clear (excuse the pun) that by choosing to release this new design language across multiple platforms rather than one, the promise of the singular benefit of ‘improving consistency’ doesn’t exist. A gradual rollout would have allowed the company to learn from any mistakes, ready for general release on each platform over time.

I respect your opinion, personally, I disagree. I don’t see how making users on some platforms have to wait forever for the new design would make anything more consistent. Rolling out the same design at the same time is consistent and makes sense to me. Again, I respect your opinion though. 🙂👍🏻

And I do agree with @fisherking, I find it odd that people are shocked there are bugs in the betas. So many people in this forum seem to just be in the beta program to “have it first”, and don’t expect to encounter bugs. It’s a strange phenomenon I’ve noticed in the beta threads. That’s why I always warn people if they’re getting into betas, they’re opening themselves up to much higher risks of encountering bugs. 🙂👍🏻

 

[avkills]

I respect your opinion, personally, I disagree. I don’t see how making users on some platforms have to wait forever for the new design would make anything more consistent. Rolling out the same design at the same time is consistent and makes sense to me. Again, I respect your opinion though. 🙂👍🏻

And I do agree with @fisherking, I find it odd that people are shocked there are bugs in the betas. So many people in this forum seem to just be in the beta program to “have it first”, and don’t expect to encounter bugs. It’s a strange phenomenon I’ve noticed in the beta threads. That’s why I always warn people if they’re getting into betas, they’re opening themselves up to much higher risks of encountering bugs. 🙂👍🏻

Yes anyone downloading beta versions and expecting "normal day" usage to be flawless do not understand what a public Beta program is.

 

[Kal Madda]

Wrong. The computer system for the Voyager probes was perfect; in fact they have been able to maintain them much longer than anticipated.

Granted, the code base is way more complex in macOS than the voyager probe, but "perfect" software and code is doable, it just costs a lot of time and money.

The good news is it only going to get worse as the use of AI coding is used more and more.

The other problem is that the CPU designs have gotten so advanced that even they have flaws also.

I think the better wording is that there isn't going to be a "civilian use" OS that is bug free.

I would say that the computer system for the Voyager probes was very functional and good, but I don’t know that I would use the word perfect since we live in an imperfect world with imperfect knowledge. I guess it kind of depends on how you’re using the word? Perhaps I’m being pedantic?

Anyways, my point is, as you said, I think it’s entirely unrealistic and unreasonable to expect perfect bug-free systems at this level of complexity. It doesn’t mean the devs have ill-intent, want you to encounter bugs, are slacking, etc. It’s just practically impossible with so many variables that can impact things. Heck, some things people initially believe to be “bugs” turn out to be hardware related. There’s just a lot of variables.

Just because you have more money doesn’t mean you can make a perfect consumer OS that never has any bugs on anyone’s device out of billions of users… To me, this argument seems tantamount to saying “you have unlimited resources in terms of oxygen to breath, oxygen helps your muscles, so you should be able to lift the Statue of Liberty over your shoulder”… It just doesn’t translate that way… I think Apple clearly puts in a lot of effort to keep software smooth and operational, in my experience, I’ve encountered far less bugs in Apple’s developer betas than in public software versions on Windows and Android… 🤷🏼‍♂️

I think people should be slower to judge with things like this. Developers have a tough job as it is, yet I see people time and again who seem to think they know better how to do their job than they do, claiming the devs “just don’t care”, “aren’t willing to put in the effort”, etc… To be clear, I’m not saying that anyone here is saying that, I’m just explaining my perspective. I see that kind of attitude in forums for small indie apps that are very cheap or even free. One of my dev friends ran into a lot of that kind of stuff and got really discouraged by it after a while. So I just think people should give developers slack, things are incredibly complex and can have bugs regardless of the level of effort or the good intentions of the developer. 🙂👍🏻

 

[fisherking]

Wrong. The computer system for the Voyager probes was perfect; in fact they have been able to maintain them much longer than anticipated.

Granted, the code base is way more complex in macOS than the voyager probe, but "perfect" software and code is doable, it just costs a lot of time and money.

The good news is it only going to get worse as the use of AI coding is used more and more.

The other problem is that the CPU designs have gotten so advanced that even they have flaws also.

I think the better wording is that there isn't going to be a "civilian use" OS that is bug free.

uh... that comparison doesn't work. there's (logically) no betas of the voyager probe systems, the same way automakers don't release 'beta' autos.

'perfect' software in the mac/pc/etc world is not realistic; too many users with too many variables, over different hardware. in which case, you're last sentence, at least, makes sense 👍

 

[CrabQueenInc]

Anyone remember macOS Big Sur? For me personally, that was the moment macOS design started to fall, little by little. Do I stay now on Sequoia? Yes. Would I prefer to be on ... hmm... Maveriks? OH YES! Do I dig Sequoia more than Tahoe? YES! Do I really love Sequoia? Oh, no.

I still can’t get over Big Sur and how far Apple’s design has fallen since that release. I echo your sentiments, but just replace Sequoia with Sonoma in my case.

 

[Kal Madda]

I really liked Big Sur, it finally started to bring the Mac closer to modern design we see in iOS and iPadOS, and 26 further unifies everything and adds really nice visual polish. 🙂👍🏻. I personally despised the design of Catalina and prior, weird inconsistent shaped app icons, weird App Dock shape, it looked like a design from the early 2000s like Windows XP or Vista or something. To me, 26 strikes the perfect balance of adding depth and visual polish, while looking sleek and modern. 🙂👍🏻