macOS Sonoma: All the little things!

[redheeler]

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a terrible idea in tech. if apple adhered to that, we'd all be running classic OS 9 or something on picture-tube monitors 😳

also, much of this is subjective; i personally much-prefer the new settings, and the back-&-forth buttons? icing on the cake 👍

Butterfly keyboards, trash can Mac Pro...these are better examples of fixing things that ain't broke.

In any case, at least there is a mindset indicative of bringing back useful features from the old UI. Hoping it'll get to a better place eventually, might take some years like with the Disk Utility redesign.

 

[fisherking]

Butterfly keyboards, trash can Mac Pro...these are better examples of fixing things that ain't broke.

In any case, at least there is a mindset indicative of bringing back useful features from the old UI. Hoping it'll get to a better place eventually, might take some years like with the Disk Utility redesign.

i had a 2016 12" macbook for 6 years, loved the butterfly keyboard. and my friend is still running his music studio with a trashcan mac.

no one is saying apple doesn't stumble sometimes; this is, after all, all an adventure. there's no rulebook for the future (just a foundation to build on). i, for one, am grateful that apple drags us forward (even if, sometimes, it's kicking & screaming) 🤣

 

[redheeler]

i had a 2016 12" macbook for 6 years, loved the butterfly keyboard. and my friend is still running his music studio with a trashcan mac.

no one is saying apple doesn't stumble sometimes; this is, after all, all an adventure. there's no rulebook for the future (just a foundation to build on). i, for one, am grateful that apple drags us forward (even if, sometimes, it's kicking & screaming) 🤣

And you would’ve been equally fine with a MacBook with the standard keyboard. Just as your friend would’ve been equally fine with a refreshed 5,1 to run his studio. Neither of these things were broke, and while the “fix” was equal to what it replaced for you and your friend, for a large amount of people it wasn’t.

Let’s not pretend making MacOS more like iOS is dragging us forward either. I don’t want a touchscreen Mac and prefer to get a catered experience for the input method I’m currently using. This is what separates MacOS from Windows.

Windows 8 introduced a settings app that was designed for touchscreens and ended up a terrible experience on desktop. I don’t think Microsoft ever made it work as well as the old Control Panel which is why that remains in the OS to this day.

 

[fisherking]

And you would’ve been equally fine with a MacBook with the standard keyboard. Just as your friend would’ve been equally fine with a refreshed 5,1 to run his studio. Neither of these things were broke, and while the “fix” was equal to what it replaced for you and your friend, for a large amount of people it wasn’t.

Let’s not pretend making MacOS more like iOS is dragging us forward either. I don’t want a touchscreen Mac and prefer to get a catered experience for the input method I’m currently using. This is what separates MacOS from Windows.

Windows 8 introduced a settings app that was designed for touchscreens and ended up a terrible experience on desktop. I don’t think Microsoft ever made it work as well as the old Control Panel which is why that remains in the OS to this day.

and you? equally fine with a picture-tube monitor? horse-drawn buggy? floppy disks?

what's your point? where's the moment when tech development should stop? (not going to happen, anyway).

in the real world, my butterfly keyboard felt good, and my friend's trashcan mac works. and progress continues, and it's nothing to fear...

 

[gilby101]

where's the moment when tech development should stop

The Settings App (and other recent visual changes to macOS) are not development in the sense of going forward. At best it is movement sideways, bringing iOS features and style to the Mac.

 

[fisherking]

The Settings App (and other recent visual changes to macOS) are not development in the sense of going forward. At best it is movement sideways, bringing iOS features and style to the Mac.

your opinion. i'd say that system settings is forward motion. so... everyone has an opinion 👍

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Back on topic…

Are there any noteworthy right-click / context menu changes?

 

[zevrix]

The Settings App (and other recent visual changes to macOS) are not development in the sense of going forward. At best it is movement sideways, bringing iOS features and style to the Mac.

I never liked the pre-Ventura System Preferences. To me, it was a bizarre counter-productive approach: once you open a specific preference pane you can't see other available preferences anymore. Constant clicking back and forth.

I even submitted a suggestion to Apple some years ago to redesign it so that we have the list of available preferences in the sidebar. Just like, you know, preferences are structured in most apps on the Mac anyway (and have been for decades). So the new System Settings isn't some kind of iOS style. The new redesign finally makes system preferences adopt the standard UI of Mac app preferences.

 

[Saint_Blaise]

Has Apple by any chance added "Outlook" account support (different than "Exchange" account support)?

 

[VanXava]

OCR recognition when scanning documents is now available, that's great 👍

 

[fisherking]

experiencing some weird behaviors with Launchpad. if i open, say, Feedback Assistant, the icon 'locks'' in place in Launchpad (ie it can't be clicked on, or moved), and the TEXT for the icon "Feedback Assitant" stays on my screen, overlaying everything. force-quitting the Finder doesn't fix this, only a reboot does.

anyone else seeing this?

this is such a great forum; lots of reasonable, intelligent discussion. but any minute now, the public beta will drop, and here... all hell will break loose... 😳

 

[NJRonbo]

experiencing some weird behaviors with Launchpad. if i open, say, Feedback Assistant, the icon 'locks'' in place in Launchpad (ie it can't be clicked on, or moved), and the TEXT for the icon "Feedback Assitant" stays on my screen, overlaying everything. force-quitting the Finder doesn't fix this, only a reboot does.

anyone else seeing this?

this is such a great forum; lots of reasonable, intelligent discussion. but any minute now, the public beta will drop, and here... all hell will break loose... 😳

Basically, Ventura has been in public beta. The public has had access to it. But I know what you mean...

 

[fisherking]

Basically, Ventura has been in public beta. The public has had access to it. But I know what you mean...

right, just referring to the people who will dive into sonoma with the first public beta, and, early in the beta cycle, have meltdowns about 'things not working', 'changes i don't like'... and so on

 

[BigxMac]

Only 4 pages on this thread compared to 13 at the same time last year for Ventura. Does Sonoma have the feel of a feature light "Snow Leopard" style release?

 

[gilby101]

Does Sonoma have the feel of a feature light "Snow Leopard" style release?

The only feature of note is the list of dropped Macs.

 

[MacGizmo]

The only feature of note is the list of dropped Macs.

Really? LOL. Do you actually believe that, or are you being snarky?

 

[elptdbi3lYI]

Only 4 pages on this thread compared to 13 at the same time last year for Ventura. Does Sonoma have the feel of a feature light "Snow Leopard" style release?

controversial preferences redesign

 

[fisherking]

Only 4 pages on this thread compared to 13 at the same time last year for Ventura. Does Sonoma have the feel of a feature light "Snow Leopard" style release?

just less to complain about? it's running really well here (some quirks of course, but nothing life & death...)

 

[gilby101]

Do you actually believe that, or are you being snarky?

Yes, I do believe that. When Sonoma was announced the first thing I did was to check the supported list (pleasantly surprised to find my 2019 iMac included). So the supported list is the most important thing for me. And honestly when I looked further at 'new' features, the standout was widgets and that is just a rehash of old ideas.
And, yes, I was being a bit snarky.

 

[zaxxon72]

OCR recognition when scanning documents is now available, that's great 👍

how? where? source?

 

[zorinlynx]

Found a bug in the Music app, when you switch a playlist view to "As songs" it doesn't survive a restart of the app.

This is a bit annoying as I never use the "As Playlist" view; it's less efficient with screen space.

 

[n-evo]

Having read through previous threads, I'd like to ask that this one be kept to little things, aka features, not bugs or gripes etc.

It seems it’s too much of an ask.

 

[VanXava]

how? where? source?

 

[zevrix]

Just noticed that the Add New User window in System Settings > Users & Groups has been redesigned in Sonoma - and not in a good way.

Text entry fields don't look like text entry fields anymore - they look like static background areas that don't accept any editable text.

Populating this window is now a confusing experience. Not good for an area where users should enter important security-related info like passwords (or any other area for that matter):

Same window on Ventura (the proper normal way):

 

[fisherking]

Just noticed that the Add New User window in System Settings > Users & Groups has been redesigned in Sonoma - and not in a good way.

Text entry fields don't look like text entry fields anymore - they look like static background areas that don't accept any editable text.

Populating this window is now a confusing experience. Not good for an area where users should enter important security-related info like passwords (or any other area for that matter):

View attachment 2234952

Same window on Ventura (the proper normal way):

View attachment 2234939

first, have you tried it? it works. you type a full name where it says 'full name'... etc. and how often do you do this? sorry, but i don't see the problem, it's as clear as could be.