Macos Tahoe
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Macos TahoeUI RedesignApple
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Macos Tahoe
UI Redesign
Apple
The release of macOS Tahoe has sparked controversy due to its significant UI changes, dubbed 'Liquid Glass,' which many users find aesthetically unpleasing and functionally problematic.
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https://mrmacintosh.com/download-the-new-macos-tahoe-wallpap... has them at the bottom of the link
Mad props and three cheers for the Alfred team!
https://imgur.com/a/6OeqJYQ
The most useful feature is the fact it uses my display layout + wifi name to figure out where I am and adjusts window locations accordingly.
For the last few years, it is a total gamble of what Spotlight's first suggestion will be when I trigger it and type "Pho"
Often, Photos.app Weirdly, about once a week, Photo Booth.app 80% of the time, it correctly guesses Photoshop.app
So I can't just trigger spotlight, type "pho", and hit return. I have to wait for Spotlight's guess, sometimes arrow to Photoshop, or sometimes just hit enter when it guesses correctly.
So many macOS microFrustrations like this, and now Tahoe looks like it does.
And it's open-source:
https://github.com/apple/container
It's not really supported before Tahoe, presumably due to required hypervisor support.
https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/
The only reason I even have to "upgrade" to a higher version number is how quickly app developers (including Apple themselves) drop support for older OS's. My iPhone which is stuck on iOS 15 runs just as well as the day I bought it, but every other app I download tells me (in essence) "LOL your phone is too old and our developers are too lazy to keep our software running on it. Upgrade your OS or get lost loser".
That's literally the only thing motivating me to upgrade anymore: The treadmill of software compatibility. Apple doesn't have to innovate--they just need to make sure the ecosystem is broken after ~5-10 years or so.
Operating systems like Debian is sufficiently boring that I can just upgrade and continue computing. macOS upgrades have become a small gamble, the stuff that I depend on may not continue to work, or at least it will take a good deal of work. There are however no reason to upgrade, so the risk isn't really worth the hassle of upgrading and breaking Java or Python.
Only thing I see on the Apple' what's new that looks interesting is Metal updates. Most of the rest is UI.
Apple actually partially solves this: as a user, if I have EVER downloaded Older Version X of an app, and then go to download it again, they let me. However, if I have never downloaded the old version and go to download it, they just say “this app is not compatible with your device.” and don't give me the chance to get the older, compatible version. I don’t know why they make this distinction.
Worse are the third party apps where the old version still actually runs, but the developer deliberately blocks you with a full-screen “go away” dialog (I’m looking at you, FlightAware).
It's all slow incremental updates pretty much.
But the situation now is: No recent apps work on Catalina since it’s considered obsolete (except open-source apps you compile yourself). But Big Sur and higher are ridiculously slow on Intel hardware, to the point where it’s unusable. I now have an otherwise perfectly good 2019 Intel MacBook that has been gathering dust for the past years.
[1] https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher
It’s less of a burden for corporate giants which is why you see much longer support timelines from e.g. Google.
But yeah, I agree with you.
- Terminal.app now supports 24-bit color and powerline glyphs
- Vehicle Motion Cues to reduce motion-sickness when in a moving vehicle
I might just leave it in perma-Windows Boot Camp.
It hasn't been able to find anything in years.
It's faster to scroll down in Finder than use the search box to locate anything =)
Spotlight now supports actions, so you can do things directly from Spotlight (kind of like Quicksilver back in the day, or Raycast more currently). Your custom made Shortcuts can also be triggered. It’s also context aware, so you can do things for the app/document you’re in.
Spotlight also integrates clipboard history.
The Terminal gets Powerline glyphs, new themes, and new fonts.
The full list of changes is here:
https://www.apple.com/os/pdf/All_New_Features_macOS_Tahoe_Se...
> With 24-bit color support, your commands now have over 16 million color choices.
I’m not sure if there are new fonts, expanded color support for the fonts, or both.
This summary looks acceptable: https://www.computerworld.com/article/4041433/spotlight-is-m...
There seems to be some expansion of screen time, finally, but I haven’t been able to figure out what it is yet based on the only *os 26 update I’ve done so far is the public beta on a single Apple TV.
Overall not pleased. I really did not want to care about the UI changes at all. But having experienced it now, I'm so annoyed I upgraded to iOS 26 and I'm having trouble focusing on the screen. I want WebGPU support, but I'm very hesitant to upgrade to macOS 26 (which is required for WebGPU in Safari).
Everyone’s different I guess :)
Is there any way to make it black? Like it appears on full screen applications? (apart from enabling the transparency together with a black wallpaper)
Currently even on dark mode it doesn't have a black background while reduce transparency is toggled on.
Tahoe lets you selectively remove app icons from the menu bar. I’m going to try that for a while and see if I can tolerate not using Ice anymore.
Eventually that will be gone too, and none will be the wiser except the old who remember the good old days.
I'm starting to think these settings are left there by rogue engineers who fight against the oppression while staying under the radar. It's like a secret cabal that works to maintain sanity while the plebs are left to suffer at the mercy of their own ignorance.
macOS applies something called "font smoothing" (image) which is adding a layer of pixels to your text. The effect is that text is made a little more bold—not "bad" but it isn't exactly as the typeface designers intended.
Here's a good example:
The thing about 4K on macOS is that its sharpest setting will be when you make it "look like 1080p" which means its sized like a 1080p monitor but its 2x sharper. If you make it "look like 1440p" which is what you're used to, macOS will draw a 5K image and scale it down to "look like 1440p" but it doesn't fit the pixels on your display 1:1, so there is a slight blur or its not as sharp as native "looks like 1080p"—but it will still be sharper than your 32-inch 1440p display, so I still recommend you move forward if sharp viewing is a priority. The only sharper alternative is to buy Apple's 27-inch 5K display at $1600 (although $1300 refurb) or a 32-inch 6K display (Dell and Apple make them).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_Strip
Solves this exact issue.
The people who can fix them are not in control. The org must be very top-down. But Steve Jobs had a top down style, so what's the difference? Its: Using and caring about the product.
It's top down direction with the people at the top not using/caring about the product. Presumably they're concerned with other things like efficiency, stocks, clout.
The wrath of Steve was a real thing that people feared.
It seemed to work for Apple/Steve Jobs, but I'm not convinced it would work for everyone.
There are some dedicated apps for that like Say No To Notch.
Maybe I'm misremembering the video though.
(edit) The linked page seems to hint at it:
> Personalized controls and menu bar. Your display feels even larger with the transparent menu bar. And you have more ways to customize the controls and layout in the menu bar and Control Center, even those from third parties
Apple…if you’re listening…please fix this.
(I'm not digging through Wikipedia to double check but my previous 2 Macbooks Pro felt like they lasted about as long.)
It'll be interesting to see if they change this with the (presumably cleaner slate) Apple Silicon-based hardware.
I'd heard from people who were running the betas that it's not ready and they are surprised Tahoe wasn't delayed.
No way I'm upgrading any time soon to Apple's least cared for OS with a change this big (and this untested).
Windows, on the other hand…
I won't ever touch a .0 macos release again.
<rant> They had an SQL driver bug where, if you turned on record-level security, running a query with one set of credentials, then another query with different credentials without first unloading the driver, you'd get access to things you shouldn't. And their response was "won't fix". </rant>
I was the same way for until one of the upgrades, I forget which, broke resume from suspend about 10-20% of the time for my combination of laptop and monitor. Every morning I’d get a sense of dread when I tried to open the laptop to see if today was a day where I’d get to pick up where I left off or if I was in for a crash and reboot as soon as I tried to use the laptop.
I thought for sure it would be fixed with one of the point updates, but it went on for the better part of a year.
There aren't always huge issues or huge time sinks but I'm happy to let other people be on the bleeding edge and I'll upgrade once the Github issues, blog posts, etc have been created/fixed so that when I upgrade I can easily find solutions to any remaining issues I might run into. Especially with Tahoe, I've heard that some apps are just broken, period, unless the developer makes (sometimes significant) changes to get the same functionality working again (that was working fine in Sequoia).
At this point I'm doubtful that these will be addressed in the 26.X updates, so the wait begins for 27.0...
I ran the whole beta on all my devices. Every new beta I'd ask myself "Surely they fixed 'x' by now, right?" and we advanced, beta after beta, with the same bugs and performance regressions all the way up to launch.
The icons still need to redraw in the settings app and app library. It's overall sluggish. The drop shadows are huge in the finder and other apps top bar. If you turn on always show scrollbars they get cut off at a weird angle due to the excessive corner radius.
My iPhone 16 PM runs hot all the time, even on release now, vs. iOS 18.
I don't mind the transparency or glass effects. I actually like it in some areas. But man does it need some serious polish and bug fixing, and a lot of time and effort spent on consistency.
This should never have went live in this state. I consider .0 just another beta, really. Actual release will probably be .2 or .3
This is good advice for Apple software in general. Always let it burn in for a couple patch releases. Being a guinea pig for Apple is a losing bet.
For what it’s worth, there where threads here on HN where people complained at length about the bugs and inconsistencies in the previous version of the Apple operating systems.
Fixing this mess will surely take a while but then they use that as PR in future keynotes, saying how hard they were working on it.
I’m not a fan of Windows but I believe that probably the best modern UI design system for desktops right now is probably the flavor of Fluent used in Windows 11. It still retains somewhat desktop-like information density, doesn’t go overboard on radii, and has a touch of depth. I’d like to see more design languages exploring in its general direction.
Apple still has the best "get out of the way, be invisible" UI.
Both are valid ways to approach to a problem, but I like KDE's batteries included, infinitely customizable way better.
I don't customize it heavily either. Move tray, clock and menus to the top, a-la GNOME2, leave taskbar at the bottom, both auto-hidden and narrower than screen.
Add four desktops as a 2x2 grid, re-enable old CTRL+ALT+$ARROW keyboard shortcuts, add a couple of usability effects with custom key combinations and two active corners, and I'm done.
Some applications (Konsole, KATE) get custom fonts and themes, but everything else is bog standard. Setting it up takes 30-ish minutes, and it's the same config for decades now. Probably because of sharpening the same tool and optimizing without knowing.
Then, I can just concentrate and fly on that environment.
Also, they have improved a lot in the small areas where it was lacking. You can use your system without a terminal if you want, plus Baloo works really well.
The only missing piece is "global menu bar" and full-screen applications.
Since I don't use KDE on a mobile system, I don't know how well multi-touch trackpad works, but the rest is almost there.
As I said that I neither need or desire to go that far (my custom layout works like a charm for me more than ~15 years now), but it's not off the left field for KDE.
I guess it still can be done.
How mouse/keys/scrolling behaves, what pointing devices do in what cases are easy cases for KDE. Notification system is also pretty powerful.
The reality is, everything is cross-pollinating from each other. Even if making pixel-perfect copies is not possible, both are pretty interchangeable.
I use both Macs and KDE for more than 15 years now, and can switch from one to other instantly. Both are in front of me during a normal workday, and I just switch without thinking.
"right angled corners again"
I have a feeling you aren't and haven't been a Mac user for a long time. When was the last time Macs had right angled corners!? 30+ years ago?
[1] https://wiki.cemu.info/images/1/1a/Wii_U_Menu.png
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/macos-26-tahoe-the-a...
It's embarrassing that it took them that long but they have in fact fixed it.
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