Which Finder window do you prefer?

[tenjikuronin]

I honestly don't believe Apple has retained the talent necessary to make a good, appealing UI. They once had it, but probably not anymore.

Plus, it's obvious their focus is heavily weighted toward phones now. So much that everything in the real computer OS is the result of taking the phone design and shoe-horning it into the Real Computer OS.

I think it's even worse than that. Liquid Glass is based on Vision OS and I don't know why you'd try to port the UI from one of your least successful products to your most successful ones.

I think you're right though in that while it's coming from Vision OS, the phones are getting way more attention than the Macs.

 

[judgeFire]

Sequoia is the result of continuous refinement over years, while Tahoe is… not.

 

[tomtad]

I honestly don't believe Apple has retained the talent necessary to make a good, appealing UI. They once had it, but probably not anymore.

Plus, it's obvious their focus is heavily weighted toward phones now. So much that everything in the real computer OS is the result of taking the phone design and shoe-horning it into the Real Computer OS.

Maybe they're not wrong with this approach though. People's primary computer is now a phone

 

[CasualFanboy]

Sequoia is the result of continuous refinement over years, while Tahoe is… not.

Sequoia may be better than Tahoe, but it's a stretch to call it refined. Big Sur marked a huge setback in the desktop UI.

 

[mikiotty]

I prefer this one

View attachment 2519220

Good old Tiger days... how I miss that OS!

 

[Snowlover]

Sequoia may be better than Tahoe, but it's a stretch to call it refined. Big Sur marked a huge setback in the desktop UI.

I think the really huge setback in desktop UI began with Jony Ive and Yosemite .

 

[CasualFanboy]

I think the really huge setback in desktop UI began with Jony Ive and Yosemite .

Yeah, but it seemed like a smaller step back, one that could potentially be salvaged. We still had titlebars, and a separation of window chrome from window content. It didn't leave the impression of trying to be a touch UI.

Things felt so much worse with Big Sur.

 

[axiom.atic]

Yeah, but it seemed like a smaller step back, one that could potentially be salvaged. We still had titlebars, and a separation of window chrome from window content. It didn't leave the impression of trying to be a touch UI.

Things felt so much worse with Big Sur.

It is an immense lack of respect to disregard the specificity of the platform just to follow a unifying theme, this is the company who invented meaningful, wise UI with the Lisa interface first and yes, some have used Macs since that era. It is mind-boggling to me that Apple would give up on this, it is not a matter of "people don't use computers anymore" for if you believe that you stop making them. Where is Apple's honesty? But other than matter of principle Tahoe just makes the Mac interface irrelevant to the basics of what an Operating System should be: neutral, unobtrusive, logical, forgettable. Tahoe is nothing of the above and is utterly non functional. You don't mess with the data, you don't create spectacle, you don't solve fundamental problems with blur and drop shadows, that used to be the Microsoft Windows way and now we are told that this is progress. It is not. And those window corners... what are you Disney?

 

[CasualFanboy]

... it is not a matter of "people don't use computers anymore" for if you believe that you stop making them. Where is Apple's honesty?

That's a really good point for all the people who say "the phone is now the primary desktop." If that was even close to true, Silicon never would have happened.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

It is an immense lack of respect to disregard the specificity of the platform just to follow a unifying theme (...) You don't mess with the data, you don't create spectacle, you don't solve fundamental problems with blur and drop shadows, that used to be the Microsoft Windows way and now we are told that this is progress. It is not.

Couldn't have said it better. I'm sat here looking at this

and I can't help but keep asking "What is wrong with this?"

The Finder in particular looks fantastic. I love the subtle hues shining through from the wallpaper, that's my way of distinguishing the side bar from the columns - not ANOTHER panel that 'floats' on top of the window, creating more visual noise. The buttons are well placed. The corners of the window maximise the amount of screen estate I can get from a notebook. Why are they going backwards?

If anything - and I accept that many will criticise me for saying - but I actually think Sequoia looks more modern than Tahoe. It's clean, functional, clear and obvious, and most importantly productive. It is the essence of what Apple was always about: function wins. Stupid glass panels add nothing to productivity.

 

[fisherking]

Stupid glass panels add nothing to productivity.

and take nothing from productivity. 👍

 

[CasualFanboy]

and I can't help but keep asking "What is wrong with this?"

The main thing wrong with this is there is no titlebar. I just don't get it. Removing them was clearly not done to conserve space.

 

[judgeFire]

This one was an interesting test, seeing how Liquid Glass works with a Finder window background image. Now that the fancy controls want something to refract, let's see how they do!

Result: a messy disappointment, most of the controls hover pointlessly. Not to mention the margins on the Tags and Quick Actions areas, or the legibility of the Status and Path bars.

Done with care, it could be kinda fun - even if only with solid color backgrounds, or sensible gradients.

 

[galad]

Window titlebar (without toolbar) is higher (almost the double of pre Big Sur macOS now), the system uses larger button styles in many UI now too.

 

[galad]

Not too much larger, but on smaller screen is a visible difference. Safari removed the compact tabs bar too, so that's even more lost vertical space.

 

[kalel5]

Sequoia:


View attachment 2518956

Tahoe:


View attachment 2520482

note: these are identical windows of the same size, with every option enabled.

this is one quarter of the screen as tiled by amethyst with 10 pixels of window padding, dock hidden, menubar enabled, 1728x1117

Tahoe is too white. The differentiation between sidebar and content looks jumbled. Also, I thought this was supposed to be glassy. Why remove the transparency?