Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What do you think of the new lack of translucent menus?

  • Translucent menus back for everyone! That's the way it SHOULD be!

    Votes: 67 13.3%
  • Opaque menus are best for EVERYONE! They're the most usable!

    Votes: 36 7.2%
  • I preferred the translucent menus back in 10.5.1 and would like the option back.

    Votes: 227 45.1%
  • I prefer the near-opaque menus we have in 10.5.2 but wouldn't mind the option of both.

    Votes: 80 15.9%
  • Huh? The menus changed?

    Votes: 93 18.5%

  • Total voters
    503
Here is a co-worker's MacBook screenshot before the update
 

Attachments

  • BeforeUpdate.png
    BeforeUpdate.png
    1,011.9 KB · Views: 355
and now the screenshot of after the update
 

Attachments

  • AfterUpdate.png
    AfterUpdate.png
    1.1 MB · Views: 287
Transparent options for all! And a few other options wouldn't hurt either. No one's forcing you to change from the default if you can't be bothered.

Actually, I will say that at first I thought the original menus were a bit much but I got used to them and I find I prefer them to the 10.5.2 ones. I agree with whoever said that more transparent menus should go with the more transparent menu bar, if they don't want to complicate the issue too much.
 
easy:

re-made the whole appearence prefpane with all customization options what we can do.

options for: dock, status bar, menu bars
 
10.x.x -> 10.5: People whine about the menus being too transparent and having "vista blur".

10.5.1 -> 10.5.2: People whine that Apple change them back to higher opacity.

Conclusion: :apple: Unable to win.

Solution: People need to find more important things to whine about.
 
10.x.x -> 10.5: People whine about the menus being too transparent and having "vista blur".

10.5.1 -> 10.5.2: People whine that Apple change them back to higher opacity.

Conclusion: :apple: Unable to win.

Solution: People need to find more important things to whine about.
Exactly, especially when the changes are so minor that most people don't even notice. Everyone here complaining probably makes up the 0.5% of people worldwide who have cared about this enough to even notice the change.

Really, this is just complaining for the sake of complaining, it makes people feel important.
 
10.x.x -> 10.5: People whine about the menus being too transparent and having "vista blur".

10.5.1 -> 10.5.2: People whine that Apple change them back to higher opacity.

Conclusion: :apple: Unable to win.

Solution: People need to find more important things to whine about.

No, the solution was quite simple. Most of the people before were whining about the translucent menu bar, not the menus. Apple gave them the option of turning it off, while those of us who liked it kept it on, and if Apple decided to mess with the translucency too by effectively turning it off (yes, I know it's still there, but really, it's next to impossible to notice it at all) then what would have made the most sense is to put that as an option, too. It makes no sense at all to make one an option and flat-out change the other when someone people preferred it the original way.

Exactly, especially when the changes are so minor that most people don't even notice. Everyone here complaining probably makes up the 0.5% of people worldwide who have cared about this enough to even notice the change.

Really, this is just complaining for the sake of complaining, it makes people feel important.

It's not complaining for the sake of complaining. There were plenty of people who had other problems before the update complaining about the menu bar because it legitimately bothered them. Why is it complaining for the sake of complaining when an aspect of the GUI--one which Apple obviously liked in the first place but then gave into peoples' complaints--legitimately bothers us? Not to mention that if the other 99.5% of the people won't notice, then they didn't have a problem with the translucency, and thus there was no reason to change it in the first place.
 
I like the update. Much more readable. This was especially noticeable with a menu drop-down over text or contrasting backgrounds. When you got a drop-down over a floating menu, for instance, it was much harder to read.

I've posted some screenshots pre and post update in this thread

Dave
 
I like the update. Much more readable. This was especially noticeable with a menu drop-down over text or contrasting backgrounds. When you got a drop-down over a floating menu, for instance, it was much harder to read.

I've posted some screenshots pre and post update in this thread

Dave

I looked at your pictures and almost posted with "Looks great that the menus are better-sized, but it's too bad they took away the translucency--they look so much better in the before-shots" but then i decided to keep my desires over in this thread. Like was said before, many of us never had a problem with the translucency. By the way, your pictures are showing the little question mark box and no longer loading when I went to check again. :confused:
 
Despite it being called "eye candy" and "aesthetics," I found the translucency more subtle. The opacity level of it now makes them seem as if they're trying to "win" the focus of the screen, and force you to focus on the menus, which isn't subtle at all. Before, with the translucency, the menus didn't try to be any more than a member tool of the application, and the translucency reflected this, and didn't take away too much focus from the application, instead simply allowing one to focus on what they were trying to use the menus to accomplish for that application rather than the menus themselves.
 
they're trying not to copy vista by making it non translucent. this is so ugly now. they should have an opacity chooser to set the transparency-ness just like vista (for once vista is better than mac).
 
Seriously,

Huh? The menus changed?

I had no idea. Menus are the least of my worries when I have my wireless dropout to think about.
 
I've noticed the sheet windows are as still transparent as the old menus were:

picture1mj1.png


I personally like them more transparent, any terminal hacks?
 
No, the solution was quite simple. Most of the people before were whining about the translucent menu bar, not the menus. Apple gave them the option of turning it off, while those of us who liked it kept it on, and if Apple decided to mess with the translucency too by effectively turning it off (yes, I know it's still there, but really, it's next to impossible to notice it at all) then what would have made the most sense is to put that as an option, too. It makes no sense at all to make one an option and flat-out change the other when someone people preferred it the original way.

No, the reason people complained about the menubar was because it lowered readability and was nothing more than a "me-too" of Vista's effects. People were complaining about the menus, exactly how I stated. They called them harder to read, and coupled with 'lame vista blur'. Of course, now they've changed it, people always jumps on the bandwagon of "Oh it's the wrong thing! Apple doesn't do what we want! The sky is falling!" which happens every time people decide they know how to manage OS X better than them.

Arguing for customizability is all well and dandy but as a previous poster said, for the most part it adds nothing but confusion to new users. It doesn't matter anyway, most people will have forgotten about the whole thing by 10.5.4, and moved on to arguing about the next inane thing (MBA will never sell! Why is there no xMac?! etc).
 
Translucent menu was stupid. I mean what is the point of it except decreasing readability. I am glad its back to normal. Vista offers more of that though.
 
No, the reason people complained about the menubar was because it lowered readability and was nothing more than a "me-too" of Vista's effects. People were complaining about the menus, exactly how I stated. They called them harder to read, and coupled with 'lame vista blur'. Of course, now they've changed it, people always jumps on the bandwagon of "Oh it's the wrong thing! Apple doesn't do what we want! The sky is falling!" which happens every time people decide they know how to manage OS X better than them.

Arguing for customizability is all well and dandy but as a previous poster said, for the most part it adds nothing but confusion to new users. It doesn't matter anyway, most people will have forgotten about the whole thing by 10.5.4, and moved on to arguing about the next inane thing (MBA will never sell! Why is there no xMac?! etc).

What's confusing is when they give us something.... then we get used to it... then they take it away. That is the part that is confusing. At first, I didn't like the transparent menu bar but, I've gotten used to it.... and now I prefer it to the opaque one... strange. I always liked the more translucent menus and now they've taken that away from us with no options for the people who PREFERRED IT.

It's a question about taste. I never found it unusable.
 
No, the reason people complained about the menubar was because it lowered readability and was nothing more than a "me-too" of Vista's effects. People were complaining about the menus, exactly how I stated. They called them harder to read, and coupled with 'lame vista blur'. Of course, now they've changed it, people always jumps on the bandwagon of "Oh it's the wrong thing! Apple doesn't do what we want! The sky is falling!" which happens every time people decide they know how to manage OS X better than them.

Arguing for customizability is all well and dandy but as a previous poster said, for the most part it adds nothing but confusion to new users. It doesn't matter anyway, most people will have forgotten about the whole thing by 10.5.4, and moved on to arguing about the next inane thing (MBA will never sell! Why is there no xMac?! etc).

There's no bandwagon, and there's no one saying they know how to manage OS X better than Apple. Apple was the one that originally implemented the translucent menus, and really it's the people who wanted the opacity that are saying they know how to manage OS X better. I liked the translucency, and never found it harder to read. In fact, in another thread, I explained just how the translucency could even be very useful for some of us. Back in 10.5.1 I wanted the whiners to get their OPTION opaque menu bar so they could be happy. They got it, and they are happy. I was never expecting that it would mean losing translucent menus, otherwise I would have been against the idea back in 10.5.1. It makes no sense to make one an option and the other not. Why are you so against us getting the option to have our translucent menus again?
 
There's no bandwagon, and there's no one saying they know how to manage OS X better than Apple. Apple was the one that originally implemented the translucent menus, and really it's the people who wanted the opacity that are saying they know how to manage OS X better. I liked the translucency, and never found it harder to read. In fact, in another thread, I explained just how the translucency could even be very useful for some of us. Back in 10.5.1 I wanted the whiners to get their OPTION opaque menu bar so they could be happy. They got it, and they are happy. I was never expecting that it would mean losing translucent menus, otherwise I would have been against the idea back in 10.5.1. It makes no sense to make one an option and the other not. Why are you so against us getting the option to have our translucent menus again?

IT SUCKS that they force this stuff on us. They give us some things... and they take some away... that's crap. If they ship an OS with certain "features" I don't think they should take them away in point upgrades. And before anyone tells me not to upgrade, I want the bug fixes just like everyone else, so it's either -- stay in a buggy version of the OS just for cosmetics... or upgrade and be reminded of how terrible the menus look now every time I click one.
 
IT SUCKS that they force this stuff on us. They give us some things... and they take some away... that's crap. If they ship an OS with certain "features" I don't think they should take them away in point upgrades. And before anyone tells me not to upgrade, I want the bug fixes just like everyone else, so it's either -- stay in a buggy version of the OS just for cosmetics... or upgrade and be reminded of how terrible the menus look now every time I click one.

This was just how I felt. It felt terrible saying goodbye to the translucent menus, but I needed X11 to work, which 10.5.2 promised (and it does work now), so I had no choice but upgrade. I just want my menus how they were...

Still no Terminal command?
 
This was just how I felt. It felt terrible saying goodbye to the translucent menus, but I needed X11 to work, which 10.5.2 promised (and it does work now), so I had no choice but upgrade. I just want my menus how they were...

Still no Terminal command?

It's probably hard-coded into the OS
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.