Closing Window Closing App

[Zazoh]

Historically, clicking the red button closed the window not the app.

Reminders / Photos / Calendar close now on clicking red button.
Notes / Messages / Mail and many others retained the close the window paradigm.

I don't think this is new to Big Sur, but it isn't consistent. Is it tied to the transformation of apps? To the universal build across platforms, as an example?

 

[chrfr]

I don't think this is new to Big Sur, but it isn't consistent. Is it tied to the transformation of apps? To the universal build across platforms, as an example?

It's not new to Big Sur, and has nothing to do with the switch to Apple CPUs.

 

[Zazoh]

So I guess it is just bad design? In other words, we have a button perform a task, but the task behaves differently just because? I guess it is a bug. Or, just sh&*y quality control.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

It isn't a bug or a quality control issue, really, either. Some apps have always quit when you click the red X. Apple seems to be perfectly comfortable with this behavior. You could say that it is bad design, though.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Some apps have always done that.

 

[Honza1]

So I guess it is just bad design? In other words, we have a button perform a task, but the task behaves differently just because? I guess it is a bug. Or, just sh&*y quality control.

It is programmer choice, provided quite logically.
Principally, there are two types of applications - some which can have only one window opened (e.g., Facetime) and when you close that window, it can (and will) safely close. But most applications can have multiple windows (e.g., Pages) and those can stay opened even when you close all windows. And then there are those behaving randomly. On Windows closing the last open window - as far as I know - always quits the application. It is bit annoying variability as users may not know/understand the expected behavior.
But this has been around for ages on OSX and now macOS, this is nothing new or worth getting angry about.