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What happened to the landscape wallpaper/ dynamic desktops?

Camerondonal

Camerondonal

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
129
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United Kingdom
So, as anyone who has installed Monterey will know by now, there is no new landscape photography wallpaper, in stark contrast to previous California-codename releases of macOS. Most conspicuously, there is no landscape photography dynamic desktop for Monterey. I know this doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but it seems such an odd thing to leave out all of a sudden. These wallpapers gave previous releases a distinctive visual identity and they just looked good, dammit. We've only had dynamic desktops for three years (since Mojave): why abandon this feature already?
Here are all the possible explanations I can think of:

*Senior figures at Apple don't want to spend money on this photography any more, and/ or pay licensing fees.
*Senior figures at Apple have decided they just don't like them.
*Monterey wasn't considered photogenic enough.
*Monterey is in Big Sur so Apple decided new landscape photography would be unnecessary.
*They have some reason to believe these wallpapers were unpopular with a majority of users.
*The Monterey wallpaper has been delayed to an upcoming point update for unknown reasons.
*Apple is in some kind of dispute with the photographer(s) who took the previous shots

What do y'all think? Maybe there were a few hints of this development in Big Sur last year, with the sudden appearance of the cartoon lake and beach dynamic desktops, and the sudden shift to the Big Sur graphic as the default.
 
It's definitely not a make or break feature for me. I usually change the desktop wallpaper after a couple of weeks. The only dynamic wallpapers I like are still there, i.e. the minimalists wallpapers. They also didn't take away any of the dynamic wallpapers from Catalina and Big Sur.
 
Heat_Fan89 said:
It's definitely not a make or break feature for me. I usually change the desktop wallpaper after a couple of weeks. The only dynamic wallpapers I like are still there, i.e. the minimalists wallpapers. They also didn't take away any of the dynamic wallpapers from Catalina and Big Sur.
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Yes, it's not make or break for me either: I upgraded to Monterey yesterday. And yes, the old wallpapers for Catalina and Big Sur are still there. The question wasn't: should we ignore avoid Monterey because wallpapers - it was why has Apple suddenly abandoned this feature ?
 
Personally I prefer the expressionistic default desktop look of Big Sur and Monterey. As an amateur photographer with OCD tendencies I found the photographs distracting.

I would catch myself critiquing them, noticing edits, like the surreally-sharp edges of those sand dunes, the color saturation, or the photoshop-iness of the perfect moonrise. There was too much information in them, for me.

I also don't have a lot of representational art hanging on the walls. I tend to go for abstract expressionism, for example Kandinsky prints. I find it more relaxing. But that's just me.
 
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Camerondonal said:
Yes, it's not make or break for me either: I upgraded to Monterey yesterday. And yes, the old wallpapers for Catalina and Big Sur are still there. The question wasn't: should we ignore avoid Monterey because wallpapers - it was why has Apple suddenly abandoned this feature ?
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Gotcha, well it's quite possible because we are now a microwave society that people tend to get bored rather quickly. Apple might have decided to change something just for the sake of change whether one agrees with them or not. They did it by moving away from naming their OS based on Big Cats to California locations and moving away from OS X to macOS 11 and now macOS 12.
 
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I don't feel it's a big deal either and much prefer to use a custom background.
 
rehkram said:
Personally I prefer the expressionistic default desktop look of Big Sur and Monterey. As an amateur photographer with OCD tendencies I found the photographs distracting.

I would catch myself critiquing them, noticing edits, like the surreally-sharp edges of those sand dunes, the color saturation, or the photoshop-iness of the perfect moonrise. There was too much information in them, for me.

I also don't have a lot of representational art hanging on the walls. I tend to go for abstract expressionism, for example Kandinsky prints. I find it more relaxing. But that's just me.
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Interesting perspective - not one I'd considered
 
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Heat_Fan89 said:
Gotcha, well it's quite possible because we are now a microwave society that people tend to get bored rather quickly. Apple might have decided to change something just for the sake of change whether one agrees with them or not. They did it by moving away from naming their OS based on Big Cats to California locations and moving away from OS X to macOS 11 and now macOS 12.
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Yes, perhaps it is simple as that
 
camerondonal I agree with you.

Ive always had those wallpapers across the last 3 releases and enjoyed the fact they changed throughout the day - it was almost like having constantly changing wallpapers without the faff.

I noticed immediately the purple thing that we get with Monterey and immediately went hunting for the new Monterey one.... but of course there isn't one.

I don't understand why.

And to all those that say they disliked them and didn't use them etc.. that's totally fine - each to their own - but its nice to have a choice.

I miss them. The purist in me won't use the Big Sur one as that's so last week now :)
 
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Maybe I'm misremembering but I seem to recall new desktop content arriving with an intermediate release of a recent macOS major version.

If so, it's possible Apple held back on a full set of new desktops for the first Monterey release so as to provide some sizzle later on down the road. Or maybe they just weren't ready for prime time.
 
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stocklen said:
camerondonal I agree with you.

Ive always had those wallpapers across the last 3 releases and enjoyed the fact they changed throughout the day - it was almost like having constantly changing wallpapers without the faff.

I noticed immediately the purple thing that we get with Monterey and immediately went hunting for the new Monterey one.... but of course there isn't one.

I don't understand why.

And to all those that say they disliked them and didn't use them etc.. that's totally fine - each to their own - but its nice to have a choice.

I miss them. The purist in me won't use the Big Sur one as that's so last week now :)
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Yes indeed, well put
 
rehkram said:
Maybe I'm misremembering but I seem to recall new desktop content arriving with an intermediate release of a recent macOS major version.

If so, it's possible Apple held back on a full set of new desktops for the first Monterey release so as to provide some sizzle later on down the road. Or maybe they just weren't ready for prime time.
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That's possible! We shall see I guess
 
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Monotremata said:
I was kinda bummed we didn't get one in the final release (I was hoping they were just waiting to put it in at the end), but at least the Monterey artsy background isn't as hideous as the Big Sur one. Those were obnoxious heh.
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I am just wondering, what the heck does Apple have with purple and pink. These Monterey artsy & cartoony background are just hideous.
 
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I don't get the blowback and judging an operating system based on it's wallpapers. There are hundreds of thousands wallpapers of all kinds that are free.
 
Heat_Fan89 said:
I don't get the blowback and judging an operating system based on it's wallpapers. There are hundreds of thousands wallpapers of all kinds that are free.
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you are missing the point and the tone of the discussion here.

Of course nobody gives a fig about wallpapers.... and nobody is criticising or judging Monterey on that in here are they!

Nobody would reject Monterey just because they haven't made a photographic dynamic wallpaper.

ALL we are commenting on is that its strange that they did them for the last 3 OS releases and NOT for Monterey.

Those of us (Not you, granted) that used and enjoyed them are simply musing out loud why they would have not done so for Monterey.
 
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I thought I was missing something when I didn’t see any nice new dynamic photograph backgrounds. Personally, I dont care for shocking pink and was disappointed not to see some other choices.
 
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stocklen said:
you are missing the point and the tone of the discussion here.

Of course nobody gives a fig about wallpapers.... and nobody is criticising or judging Monterey on that in here are they!

Nobody would reject Monterey just because they haven't made a photographic dynamic wallpaper.

ALL we are commenting on is that its strange that they did them for the last 3 OS releases and NOT for Monterey.

Those of us (Not you, granted) that used and enjoyed them are simply musing out loud why they would have not done so for Monterey.
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So it seems we're weren't the only ones to notice this curious omission! Their effort looks pretty promising
www.macrumors.com

Trio of Friends Create Missing macOS Wallpaper of Monterey Landscape

Apple bucked a trend when it unveiled macOS Monterey in June featuring an abstract wallpaper graphic, breaking an eight-year tradition of using a...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
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Oh dear, so now it's time to ban color combinations, abstract art and cartoons. Y'all will soon be burning books you disagree with. Grow up, and read the history books. SMH
 
I use Windows 11 wallpapers - abstract but with taste - I think MS nailed those.

Usually I considered wallpapers as a crazy thing to get upset with but with these insane lollipop colors Apple is going on all devices, the OS-es seems like a joke - which they are not.

It's incredible how much a wallpaper nowadays (probably due to transparency of windows) impacts your mood and interaction with the OS.

I have a PC for gaming and since I installed Windows 11 I realized that I enjoy it a lot and the reason comes from the wallpaper! It really keeps distractions away, enhances the visibility and they are really nice.
Yeah... I know... maybe too much philosophy because of a wallpaper :)
 
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The Mavericks wave desktop is the first thing I transferred over to the new macbook pro. I don't know why, but I can't let myself stop using that one, even though it certainly doesn't hide the notch.
 
DaveWil said:
It was a shock to see the antacid commercial backdrop when my system restarted after upgrade. I am very worried that someone at apple thinks this looks good.
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Yes. After giving this whole question some thought, I have come to the conclusion the likeliest explanation for the non-appearance of landscape wallpaper in Monterey is that, pretty much. The crucial clue I hadn't considered is that the default log-in screen wallpaper in Big Sur was, for the first time, not a landscape shot but that abstract colour squiggle. It seems quite conceivable that a big cheese at Apple decided last year, for whatever reason, that the colour squiggles were the way to go and the Big Sur coastline photography was only included because it was already done and dusted by that point. If so, landscape photography would't even have been on the cards this year. And why the colour squiggles? If - as has been suggested - the default Monterey wallpaper is intended to represent an underwater canyon in the Monterey region, then last year's default must have been (?) an abstract representation of the Big Sur coastline. The latter is such an abstract image I didn't make the connection before
 
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