Cocoa UI elements are still the same exact size as the first release of Mac OS X. Why do you think they are smaller?
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Stephen Hackett Shares Over 1,500 Screenshots of Every Mac OS Release Since 2000
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Cocoa UI elements are still the same exact size as the first release of Mac OS X. Why do you think they are smaller?
Some things derfinitely seem smaller to me. Like buttons, the stop light, and even text.
If you compare a screenshot from 10.0 and one from 10.13, you will see they are the same size. If you have a Retina display, make sure it's set to the real screen resolution (Apple now defaults to a larger screen size).
I’m a weird and do like smaller text but not to small. The thing I hate is how now on Apps like MS outlook you can determine the top ribbon to the left pane and the email pan because it’s all dam white. In the past there was yellows and blue and bubble style when clicked on something.
I remember the first time I dabbled into OS X, I used an old Acer laptop and created a Hacintosh, hours and hours messing with Plist and kext files. Eventually one morning after working on it all night for days I got the Apple intro video and managed to login! About 6 months later after I saved up enough money I bought my first MacBook Pro!
Missing from these images are the faces of horror for those who beta tested OS X before it went public.
I can't recall exactly when, but it took a few updates before the OS became usable.
We've certainly come a long a way!
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I can't recall exactly when, but it took a few updates before the OS became usable.
We've certainly come a long a way!
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Oh god no. after a few hundred installs it wears your soul out.
When Yosemite launched and the dock basically reverted to the dock from Tiger (which was the OS I entered the ecosystem on) I actually felt personally affronted. I want my translucent shelf back, Apple!
It's the opposite, really. The effect-filled design elements of the late '90s and '00s were the result of new designers going buck wild with computing power that was never available before. I abused the hell out of Photoshop filters, myself.
If you look at historical design trends, you could say things have returned to sanity.
I wish for a link to download the whole thing. It is a lot of work to do it picture by picture in high res.
How is that bad? Makes things faster and distracts less from your work.
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macOS has lots of accessibility options, not sure if you explored them. I always enable "increase contrast" nowadays, adding back the much-needed depth and borders you used to see in older versions. Before and after:
Reducing transparency doesn't make a huge difference but is still nice, also seems to reduce lag on underpowered machines.
There's no option to increase text size by itself, but you can scale up all UI elements in your Displays settings if you're using a Mac with a built-in "retina" display.
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I got a little bored, so I scraped most of the links. There's some file naming choices that I didn't take the time to wade through, so I'll leave it up to anyone else who wants the complete set.
Rather than host >400MB of Hackett's hard work, I've compiled direct links that you can use with the downloader of your choice instead:
http://www.ceceliaproductions.com/misc/aquascreenshotlibrary/
Originally I was thinking only on the literacy aspect vs the efficiency of visual recognition ... which I have to agree on.
Its amazing how back in 2002 the OS was pretty much what it is today, it just shows how much advanced things were. I mean if you bring an OS X user from 2002 and given him High Seirra, he will know his way around easy no hassle. Its basically the same thing, that being said so is Win10 and Win95.
I really feel its looks mostly the same with variational differences. Its not like Win8 and Win7. I liked the Aqua interface.
So much THIS!
Apple's idea was to make computers more like an appliance in the home for the average consumer. I must say the current day experience with Apple software is a huge mess with things being complicated to figure around. I really remember Apple software was like "How can I do this?" and in few moment you figure out it. There is just so many confusing gestures and hidden features, and pop out menus and hidden menus.
Now you have to read online guides and YouTube tutorials.
I never got why people were so happy with SL and specially the performance and stability, almost all OS X version work just as good and just as stable except maybe for early releases. They also look very similar.
I really feel its looks mostly the same with variational differences. Its not like Win8 and Win7. I liked the Aqua interface.
So much THIS!
Apple's idea was to make computers more like an appliance in the home for the average consumer. I must say the current day experience with Apple software is a huge mess with things being complicated to figure around. I really remember Apple software was like "How can I do this?" and in few moment you figure out it. There is just so many confusing gestures and hidden features, and pop out menus and hidden menus.
Now you have to read online guides and YouTube tutorials.
I never got why people were so happy with SL and specially the performance and stability, almost all OS X version work just as good and just as stable except maybe for early releases. They also look very similar.
I disagree. A Windows 95 user can't get their way through Windows 10 (or 8 for that matter).
macOS is so neat.
[doublepost=1535235008][/doublepost]What this collection really goes to show is that to a remarkable degree the current look and feel of OSX is dictated by one guy sitting in one chair in Cupertino. One guy was addicted to skeuomorphism, we got lotsa cheap-looking leatherette. Jony Ives likes wimpy flatness, we get wimpy flatness. Sooner or later Ives will get up and leave that chair, he'll be replaced by somebody else and for better or worse we'll get whatever happens to suit his taste. What Apple will never give us is the ability to choose our own themes. Compare the dull drabness of Safari with the huge range of options Chrome has to offer, Apple took that away from us when it replaced OS9. Customer choice just isn't the Apple Way. Apple's paternalistic philosophy (it comes out in the earpieces for the Air Pod too) is a paternalistic one that says one size has gotta fit all, we know what's good for you better than you do.
Relay FM co-founder Stephen Hackett today shared an extensive collection of screenshots for every major release of the Mac operating system in the past 18 years, over which time its name has changed from Mac OS X to OS X to macOS.
The library of over 1,500 screenshots is available on Hackett's blog 512 Pixels, providing a look back at the visual history of Mac OS X Cheetah in 2000 through macOS High Sierra in 2017. Hackett plans to update the library for every major release of macOS going forward, including Mojave in the next couple of months.
Hackett says he ran every macOS release on actual hardware, including various models of the Power Mac G4, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro, capturing screenshots of major features and other elements he felt were important over the years.
The screenshots show the evolution of the Mac's visual theme Aqua, ranging from gloss and pinstripes in the early days, to brushed metal and corinthian leather during the skeuomorphic days, to the flatter, translucent look of today. Highlights are available in a related blog post on 512 Pixels.
Hackett says he put an extraordinary amount of time into the collection, which is certainly worth checking out for a trip down memory lane.
Article Link: Stephen Hackett Shares Over 1,500 Screenshots of Every Mac OS Release Since 2000
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I liked the look of the early OS X releases. The icons and text still kind of had some resemblance to OS 9.
I love the evolution of the OS in many ways. I actually love the current aesthetic. I agree with others about the sidebars and the removal of colour there though; it requires a bit more time to find the right icon to click. And it’s especially strange as I find, overall, the OS is more colourful than ever before. This also happened in other apps like iTunes. The problem is, in many ways they had everything “right” somewhere around Snow Leopard. And it could have stayed basically the same and would have been fantastic. But in the attempt to keep things new and interesting, we have lost some great ideas just for the sake of change. The most devastating change for me was the adoption of mission control instead of separate expose and spaces. I had hot corners and the mouse button squeeze mapped to trigger these separately, and the speed of my workflow was the fastest ever.
Launchpad I have never understood, or more specifically, I understand the idea to make the Mac mimic the iPad, but I don’t think it was a useful idea. Just bloat.
Not sure how I feel about the new “dark mode”. This actually seems very unlike Apple. To me, it makes the system less vibrant and less inviting. Perhaps it is useful for certain people, so it’s a nice option to have, but it’s definitely not for me.
Finally, iTunes is not the OS specifically, but it always seemed like an integral part of new releases in the early days. And it is such a disaster today compared to earlier releases. Overall, it is my greatest disappointment as far as the included apps go, as I use it regularly. The removal of a singular sidebar with everything was a mistake imo. It is now very cumbersome to find things, and those with older non-Apple Music libraries have a complete mess to deal with. In many ways, it might have been better to create a separate app for Apple Music, but perhaps that would be even more confusing. I don’t know what the answer is exactly, but the iTunes app needs a complete overhaul and return to the usability of the past.
Launchpad I have never understood, or more specifically, I understand the idea to make the Mac mimic the iPad, but I don’t think it was a useful idea. Just bloat.
Not sure how I feel about the new “dark mode”. This actually seems very unlike Apple. To me, it makes the system less vibrant and less inviting. Perhaps it is useful for certain people, so it’s a nice option to have, but it’s definitely not for me.
Finally, iTunes is not the OS specifically, but it always seemed like an integral part of new releases in the early days. And it is such a disaster today compared to earlier releases. Overall, it is my greatest disappointment as far as the included apps go, as I use it regularly. The removal of a singular sidebar with everything was a mistake imo. It is now very cumbersome to find things, and those with older non-Apple Music libraries have a complete mess to deal with. In many ways, it might have been better to create a separate app for Apple Music, but perhaps that would be even more confusing. I don’t know what the answer is exactly, but the iTunes app needs a complete overhaul and return to the usability of the past.
I disagree. A Windows 95 user can't get their way through Windows 10 (or 8 for that matter).
macOS is so neat.
Its the same thing, the icons, the start button, right mouse click...
compare that to a totally different system say like Linux and AmigaOS, or OS X and OS 9
