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First Impressions?

vddobrev said:
:) Yes, I am well aware of this... was talking about the long edge of the Dock, i.e. it makes the Dock float... I found out it is a feature "Floating Dock", and I hate it: https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur/features/
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I see what you mean. Yes even more screen real estate taken away from us, for no good reason other than 'change'. It should have been called MacOS 11 - Big Waste.
 
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timelessbeing said:
In Finder, my window header is even taller than yours because I have a tab bar. How did you get rid of that?
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I expect it's because I have Finder tabs disabled. Go to Finder > Preferences > General, then uncheck the option "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows".
 
timelessbeing said:
I see what you mean. Yes even more screen real estate taken away from us, for no good reason other than 'change'. It should have been called MacOS 11 - Big Waste.
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Nah, it's iOS 14 Mac Edition. It's clear that it exists solely to foist tablet/phone design paradigms on us desktop users, whether we like it or not. You can even see the design decisions that are clearly to accomodate touch UI (the large empty space between buttons, etc) which are thoroughly inappropriate on a device family that Apple have steadfastly refused to introduce touch capability to, asserting that touch is unfriendly and inappropriate on a desktop computer.
 
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JonBOY26 said:
I expect it's because I have Finder tabs disabled. Go to Finder > Preferences > General, then uncheck the option "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows".
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I did have it unchecked. The solution as I posted above was to hide the tab bar.
 
Kyanar said:
Nah, it's iOS 14 Mac Edition. It's clear that it exists solely to foist tablet/phone design paradigms on us desktop users, whether we like it or not. You can even see the design decisions that are clearly to accomodate touch UI (the large empty space between buttons, etc) which are thoroughly inappropriate on a device family that Apple have steadfastly refused to introduce touch capability to, asserting that touch is unfriendly and inappropriate on a desktop computer.
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Surely it wouldn't be rocket science for Big Sur to detect whether it's running on a touch-enabled device or not, and adjust the header size and button spacing appropriately.
 
tornado99 said:
Surely it wouldn't be rocket science for Big Sur to detect whether it's running on a touch-enabled device or not, and adjust the header size and button spacing appropriately.
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It wouldn't be. Ironically, Windows has done this for years. But Apple doesn't like to have UI that changes from use to use, so you'll get touch UI and like it or get over it. I'm confident that it has something to do with being able to run iPad/iPhone apps on macOS without recompile.
 
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Okay, so after a few days of using Big Sur I've grown to actually like it better than the Yosemite-style OS, though if I had it my way Mavericks was still my favorite. ;)

Overall I find the new U.I. feels "lighter" and overall system responsiveness is better. Plus, I like the iOS style of widgets and notification grouping, though I which notification and widgets still had their own separate sections. I think my only complaints/feedback are the following (and I've non-preference ones to Apple).

  • I really don't care for the shading/bevel on many of the icons, but I'll adapt. I would have preferred straight iOS style. The bonus of the sameness of icon shape is that I'm now using magnification on the Dock which is neat I suppose.
  • Overall font/legibility is a bit reduced. I feel like they dialed back the font size in sidebars, menus, and some U.I. chrome and I find it a big hard to see on a 27" iMac. I wish we had a system option to dial these up a bit.
  • I wish we had an option less drastic than "Increase Contrast" to add button shapes. I don't like the idea that a single glyph acts as a button in a white toolbar. This is more preference that use-ability though.
  • I wish there were options not to hide away so much of the U.I. On iOS it makes sense due to screen size, but on a large 27" iMac I'm annoyed that I don't at least have the option to show more content. A few examples:
    • Music: You have to hover the mouse to see the song time played/reamining which used to be visible all the time and I used it.
    • Reminder and Calendar notification alerts are no longer single-click actionable. For example, reminder alerts used to have a "Complete" and "Later" button. Now I have to hover the mouse over them, click "Options" when it appears, and select this action. The alert is the same size, so what was the point?
Overall I'm more pleased than I thought I'd be. I think once Apple tweaks some of the element above, which I'm sure they'll do as they iterate, it'll be fine and definitely more approachable to the iOS-only crowd.
 
Traverse said:
I feel like they dialed back the font size in sidebars, menus, and some U.I. chrome and I find it a big hard to see on a 27" iMac. I wish we had a system option to dial these up a bit.
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It's called Scaling in the Display preferences. However, I noticed it's only available for my built in display and not my external one.
 
timelessbeing said:
It's called Scaling in the Display preferences. However, I noticed it's only available for my built in display and not my external one.
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Yes, I'm aware of that, but that scales the entire display to simulate a lower resolution display. I want my 5K iMac to display the same screen real estate as a 2560x1440 display. I don't want to lose considerable screen space and sharpness (due to an imperfect scaling) down to 2048 x 1152 just to make certain text eliminates larger that have been fine in my last 3 years of ownership.

Websites, Mail, Music, etc. are fine. I just think the some U.I. text is a bit too small.
 
As you say, it's simulated. You display resolution remains the same, so you don't lose any sharpness. (I run mine one notch down from default).

Yes you loose a bit screen space, but I guess that's how it is now if you don't want tiny text.
 
timelessbeing said:
As you say, it's simulated. You display resolution remains the same, so you don't lose any sharpness. (I run mine one notch down from default).

Yes you loose a bit screen space, but I guess that's how it is now if you don't want tiny text.
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If you look closely, you actually do loose a bit of sharpness. At default it's exactly 2x2 scaling. I don't remember what the next notch down is, but on the old MacBook Pro it was like 1.73 scaling. I work in text a lot and it's noticeable to me, but I use it on occasion to scale it up when I'm working on special projects.
 
I don't see any difference.
But then again, internet people told me that I need to visit an optometrist


scaledtxt.png
 
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timelessbeing said:
It's called Scaling in the Display preferences. However, I noticed it's only available for my built in display and not my external one.
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The option to increase text/font size has been removed. Only thing that is available in "Scaled" is to change resolution.
 

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timelessbeing said:
UI scaling isn't available on non-retina displays
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Apple support websites for Big Sur, does not mention non-retina displays.

examples;

Make it easier to see what’s on the screen of your Mac

If items on your Mac are hard to see, change the desktop appearance, make text and icons bigger, and use zoom.
support.apple.com

Change font sizes within the Fonts window on Mac

In many apps on your Mac, add or remove font sizes and change the maximum and minimum values that appear in the Fonts window.
support.apple.com
 
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63W said:
Apple support websites for Big Sur, do not mention non-retina displays.
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I can see that.

But it's available for my retina MBP, and not my external non-HiDPI display. It kind of makes sense, because you wouldn't use pixel doubling on a non-retina. I stand to be corrected though.
 
I like it.

I like the changes; there are a few rough edges, but I'm sure that will be sorted out in the 2021 release.

I haven't had any issues to speak of, and... most importantly...

THE BOOT CHIME IS BACK
 
I hated the boot chime because there was no way to silence it. Annoying when you're trying to keep quiet.
 

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