Does anyone know how to fix the colour of the menubar to be a consistent colour? I can see it's based on the wallpaper (which I don't like) but it also isn't consistent between desktops for me, even if I have the same wallpaper. There appears to be a "random" factor in the tint it decides to take... really really annoying.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
First Impressions?
- Thread starter ZestyOne
- Start date
-
- Tags
- big sur
- Sort by reaction score
I was going to attempt to rename the old sound files to match the new ones, then replace them, but then realized that the system folders are locked and the contents probably cannot be changed (or would be restored on a restart). It would be great if someone more technical and in-the-know can confirm this!
I think that the only way to make the menu bar non-transparent is to select reduce transparency in Accessibility options, but unfortunately, that option makes everything else look terrible.
I really cannot stand Apple's 'it's our way only when it comes to options' when their aesthetic choices have been very questionable. I cannot get over how inconsistent the GUI/Icons are coming from a company who has the most resources than any other, and who obsesses over details in every other area.
I've soured more on it the more I use it. The UI is still just as bad to me as it was at first, some apps are worse than others and it stinks of inconsistency already. The Music being bugged or something is annoying me. Music app crackles a lot and I can't find out why. It could be my specific install, so I may try redoing the OS. I use my Mac for music a lot, got it hooked up to a nice sound system and before I could always fire up iTunes and play what I wanted with excellent sound, now I can't really use it because it's so unbearably crackly.
To be honest, I'm really liking it so far, minus a few issues I have with it. First and foremost, I know this sounds weird, but I really like the rounded corners on apps, windows, and UI elements. I think it looks nice and it matches the rest of Apple's product feel. I do like the changes to Mail personally (the new look is great IMO) and I'm liking the new Control Center and Notification Center. Having those toggles all in one spot is pretty handy and I'm happy with it so far.
One big issue I'm having is the loss of iCloud browser tabs. In the bottom right corner of Safari where the customization toggles are, the list doesn't include an option to turn on iCloud browser tabs, even though in every video/press photo on Apple's website shows that the toggle is there to show iCloud Tabs on the start page of Safari. Anyone know how to fix this?
Also, the Messages app icon is hideous. Whoever designed that needs to be reprimanded, it looks terrible.
One big issue I'm having is the loss of iCloud browser tabs. In the bottom right corner of Safari where the customization toggles are, the list doesn't include an option to turn on iCloud browser tabs, even though in every video/press photo on Apple's website shows that the toggle is there to show iCloud Tabs on the start page of Safari. Anyone know how to fix this?
Also, the Messages app icon is hideous. Whoever designed that needs to be reprimanded, it looks terrible.
All I can say I agree so much and here is a message to Apple :
PLEASE SACK THE PERSON WHO CREATED THE MESSAGES AND MAIL APP ICON. THEY ARE A DISGRACE
On the very first day after upgrading, I noticed that I couldn't change the sound volume with the wheel of my Logitech mouse after clicking on the menulet. That's quite embarrassing, as I do it many times a day. So I need to click and drag the slider, which is far less comfortable.
To test more, I connected the "magic" mouse — and found out I could change the volume by sliding my finger on its surface. It seems that Apple tested this control with their mouse/trackpad but forgot about third party mice.
Learning to use multimedia buttons on my Microsoft 4000 keyboard
I already forgot they existed.
To test more, I connected the "magic" mouse — and found out I could change the volume by sliding my finger on its surface. It seems that Apple tested this control with their mouse/trackpad but forgot about third party mice.
Learning to use multimedia buttons on my Microsoft 4000 keyboard
I already forgot they existed.
Just poking around, things seem unchanged from how they were in Catalina.
There are two volumes mounted which reflect what you are used to seeing in the Finder. One volume is mounted at "/". I guess that's called the system volume. It is mounted read-only. There is another volume mounted at "/System/Volumes/Data". This is the user data volume. It is modifiable by you.
When you are looking at "/Users", you are actually looking at "/System/Volumes/Data/Users". The "almost" complete mapping of such things is documented in "/usr/share/firmlinks". Some of the application override this mapping:
/Applications/NonAppleProgram is really /System/Volumes/Data/Applications/NonAppleProgram
but
/Applications/Safari is really /System/Applications/Safari.
Here is where I learned about this.
A lot of that is a bit over my head. 😊
I have the Catalina system sounds folder from a TM backup ready to go. And you're right, Big Sur's system sounds are located in the same directory/location as in Catalina - but I cannot swap them. The folder is locked. I disabled SIP at the terminal level using recovery startup thinking that would give access, but I still cannot modify the system sounds folder in Big Sur.
Sorry about that. I was kind of answering generally about how a whole ton of stuff is read-only and how it's hard to work around that. I completely missed the gist of your question
. In a nutshell, most everything under /System will not be modifiable. If you try to work around that somehow (e.g. booting from another disk to do surgery on the main disk), I suspect you'll run into some problems related to the signed system volume. But, I really know almost nothing about that.
I hope I'm not stating the obvious. If all you're trying to do is use the old alert sounds which are chosen in the System Preferences, you can just drop them in ~/Library/Sounds or, with administrator access, you can create a folder /Library/Sounds and add sound files there. But, that won't help you with the other sounds, like the trash.
Best of luck.
Thank you. That makes sense - I wish it wasn't a limitation, but I guess Apple doesn't want users playing around with system folders. I get that, but a good workaround would be a user interface in the sounds control panel where you can safely pick and choose/browse system sounds. But, since Apple likes to decide what we want and don't want, that will not be happening any time soon. Things are getting a bit to iOS-y for me, in that regard.Sorry about that. I was kind of answering generally about how a whole ton of stuff is read-only and how it's hard to work around that. I completely missed the gist of your question
In a nutshell, most everything under /System will not be modifiable. If you try to work around that somehow (e.g. booting from another disk to do surgery on the main disk), I suspect you'll run into some problems related to the signed system volume. But, I really know almost nothing about that.
I hope I'm not stating the obvious. If all you're trying to do is use the old alert sounds which are chosen in the System Preferences, you can just drop them in ~/Library/Sounds or, with administrator access, you can create a folder /Library/Sounds and add sound files there. But, that won't help you with the other sounds, like the trash.
Best of luck.
Last edited:
My approach has been to divide my computer usage betwen two OSs.
Linux (Manjaro KDE Plasma) - both at my workplace, and for everyday web browsing, email, reading pdfs, coding, and word processing. The font rendering on Linux is superb out of the box and I can customise my desktop exactly how I like for the most efficient workflow. Software is no problem as everything is cross-platform, Google Docs is excellent, and even LibreOffice is ok.
OS X - for when I have a photography or video editing session. Photoshop and Lightroom are still far above any opensource alternatives, and when I'm editing photos I don't particularly care about the OS underneath.
Sorry Apple, but it has now got to the point where your GUI prevents me from getting work done most efficiently, and also I don't want to have to stare at design choices I can't change all day. The annoyances are too many to list here, but a major one is fitting a lot of information on the screen. Believe it or not, many Apple users are not passive youtube-browsing consumers and actually need to do serious work on their machines.
Linux (Manjaro KDE Plasma) - both at my workplace, and for everyday web browsing, email, reading pdfs, coding, and word processing. The font rendering on Linux is superb out of the box and I can customise my desktop exactly how I like for the most efficient workflow. Software is no problem as everything is cross-platform, Google Docs is excellent, and even LibreOffice is ok.
OS X - for when I have a photography or video editing session. Photoshop and Lightroom are still far above any opensource alternatives, and when I'm editing photos I don't particularly care about the OS underneath.
Sorry Apple, but it has now got to the point where your GUI prevents me from getting work done most efficiently, and also I don't want to have to stare at design choices I can't change all day. The annoyances are too many to list here, but a major one is fitting a lot of information on the screen. Believe it or not, many Apple users are not passive youtube-browsing consumers and actually need to do serious work on their machines.
Leaking much more? What’s leaking? Maybe a change in caching? Does the system become unusable after 5 days?
meh... I don't get what the big deal is. IFAIC, it's change for change's sake. But, if it helps someone else get their work done easier/faster then OK. As for me, enough apps are broken that I realize now I should have stayed back. But then for how long? They were going to break eventually anyway when I was forced to Big Sur, so just as soon deal with than now.
I've also been tracking my memory. In Catalina at this point I would have 28GB available. In Big Sur at this point I have 36GB available. The biggest ram hog in Catalina, at least on my machine, was the mail app. It's way better in Big Sur, by 8GB less ram usage.
I remember reading this article ages ago. One of the points it makes is that what appears to be "free memory" is not really relevant (at least back in 2001). The operating system tries to consume all free memory for performance reasons. What is consumed is readily given back when needed. I wonder how relevant the details of the article are in today's version of the OS. I have a feeling it's still very easy to misinterpret the various readouts from Activity Monitor or the top command.
Just that it isn't. MacOS both compresses and swaps before getting rid of cache. No other OS behaves like that.
Thanks for adding that detail. The article I linked to was from 2001; there was no memory compression and people were still using hard disks.
Do you have any references so that I can read more? I'm most interested in technical references about how MacOS does it now and whether they have made the most efficient decisions. You're saying that OS decides that the memory is not needed (to decide to discard cached values) if it can compress and/or swap. That's very interesting and I appreciate the input.
Are you suggesting it's leaking in the sense of this? That would be an amazing bug if Big Sur had that problem. Though, it would be very important input if there were some program that you're running that leaks memory under Big Sur and not under Catalina.
I reported that SmartGit was working based on a 30 second test. SmartGit now pops up an alert to postpone upgrading to Big Sur until they work through some issues. This is just a heads up; it's not a blocker for me since there are other ways to work with Git.
I agree 100%. I took my 2018 Mini and have relegated it to streaming Spotify in my home office and for a few mundane banking tasks. Using a HP Workstation for my CAD and Office work now. Not sure that I see myself buying another Mac desktop / laptop once my Mini and 2017 Air run out of gas. I really enjoy iOS and will probably move to something like an iPad for my personal computing needs and Win 10 for my business needs.
I never write in here but had to for this; why has the Safari window size been increase so much at the top? I've had to hide my favourites to increase the browser experience. What the hell is this crap?!
Also, Mac Mail preview font and seems lighter and smaller, plus generally the lighter grey colour makes everything look faint.
Also can't click at the top of my inbox to jump to the top of the inbox? I have to look through many emails for work, jumping to the top was just so convenient. Why take away this basic function, even if they have moved it.
Also, Mac Mail preview font and seems lighter and smaller, plus generally the lighter grey colour makes everything look faint.
Also can't click at the top of my inbox to jump to the top of the inbox? I have to look through many emails for work, jumping to the top was just so convenient. Why take away this basic function, even if they have moved it.
Does it always take that long after a clean install until all domains and web sites you visit do work properly in Apple Safari? Is this the new software IT era where the user has to wait until the browser gets leveled off and IT settled? I needed to switch my WLAN on and off several times to access websites like the search engine quant.com or bricklink.com and other websites after a clean install with iCloud login ... it takes hours for some websites to load in the Apple Safari browser. Switching on and off helps to accelerate the process.
It feels like "China Web" but I don't even live in China. I only use ad blocker and cookie cruncher software.
Regards,
BLACK BARON
Design / Photo / Art / Music
So I wiped my drive, erased everything. Did a fresh install of Catalina from a thumb drive, to get rid of Big Sur. After few minutes of using Catalina, I no longer like the outdated look.
Formatted the drive again, installed Big Sur from Thumb drive. Its running well, no issue so far and fixed few visual issues on top bar. Text/font is still small. But I like the fresher look that is similar to iOS vs Catalina.
Running it on 2014 MacAir.
Formatted the drive again, installed Big Sur from Thumb drive. Its running well, no issue so far and fixed few visual issues on top bar. Text/font is still small. But I like the fresher look that is similar to iOS vs Catalina.
Running it on 2014 MacAir.
