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Tahoe looks so bad I am about to give up Macs altogether
- Thread starter innerproduct
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The OS that sent all of your displays into grey linen mode if one of them was full screen?
That was the peak?
Okay…
I’m in the minority on this forum, but I think Liquid Glass hasn’t gone far enough! It looked amazing in the reveal, and promised the end of a flat and lifeless interface. While it has brought a bit of life and depth, there’s still a lot of flatness.
I do think the odd corner radius was a poor choice. However it’s the sort of thing I look at, think “that’s a bit silly,” then get on with what I’m doing. I stopped noticing after a few hours.
The design of the music app is the only big miss for me, the new layout doesn’t make much sense. But I really like Apple Music, so I learned the changes and got on with it. Hopefully Music is one of the things that gets a decent update.
Overall I quite like iOS and macOS 26, and am looking forward to seeing how Apple evolves it in the future. I hope they stick to their guns and continue to create something beautiful as they also knock the rough edges of it.
I do think the odd corner radius was a poor choice. However it’s the sort of thing I look at, think “that’s a bit silly,” then get on with what I’m doing. I stopped noticing after a few hours.
The design of the music app is the only big miss for me, the new layout doesn’t make much sense. But I really like Apple Music, so I learned the changes and got on with it. Hopefully Music is one of the things that gets a decent update.
Overall I quite like iOS and macOS 26, and am looking forward to seeing how Apple evolves it in the future. I hope they stick to their guns and continue to create something beautiful as they also knock the rough edges of it.
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I run it on my intel iMac. It’s fantastic!
Apple spends a lot of time improving their operating systems (mobile and pc) very impressed. It’s a much more intuitive OS and couldn’t be happier! Edit (I’m in hospital recovering from a stroke - my typing is a bit off some times - fixed typos)
i was of that opinion initially, as well (regarding the Liquid Glass effect not going far enough), however one thing that is so incredibly jarring to me is 3rd party apps--and thus, I am now of the opinion that if there won't be widespread adoption of this glass look by major 3rd party iOS/MacOS apps (Spotify, Google Suite, banking apps, e.g.), then it should be minimally implemented. A lack of cohesion, is in my opinion, a worse offence than a few transparency issues in original iteration.
There was a level between Liquid Glass and the flat interfaces that Apple could've achieved (and achieved quite well, imo, with Big Sur--although I would've preferred that design language on iOS rather than MacOS), that wouldn't make switching from a native app to a 3rd party app completely jarring and un-uniform.
Yeah, un-updated apps are a bit jarring, but it always took a bit of time for most software to transition to new looks. If I recall, I think it was a couple of years before all my apps had the life flattened out of them when Apple went to the flat look, so I expect that over the next 18 months most apps will have adjusted.
I haven’t updated to either Tahoe or iOS ‘26.
During the butterfly keyboard era, I seriously shopped around for a Windows laptop, believing that MacBooks with good keyboards were a thing of the past and that Apple had left customers like me behind forever. To my surprise, Apple turned things around with their Magic Keyboards (which still aren’t as good as the 2008 Unibody MBP’s or the 2012 Retina MBP’s keyboards).
If Apple can recover from their horrible butterfly keyboards, then they can recover from Liquid Glass. It might be rewarding to be patient and bide your time until the post-Alan Dye software has time to come out.
During the butterfly keyboard era, I seriously shopped around for a Windows laptop, believing that MacBooks with good keyboards were a thing of the past and that Apple had left customers like me behind forever. To my surprise, Apple turned things around with their Magic Keyboards (which still aren’t as good as the 2008 Unibody MBP’s or the 2012 Retina MBP’s keyboards).
If Apple can recover from their horrible butterfly keyboards, then they can recover from Liquid Glass. It might be rewarding to be patient and bide your time until the post-Alan Dye software has time to come out.
I really like how Tahoe works and look forward to when there’s more uniformity with the new window corners.
That said I feel like Tahoe is more frosted glass than Liquid Glass. I like it quite a bit but was hoping they’d lean a little harder into the Liquid Glass like on iPad OS.
It gives me old Aqua vibes that I missed so dearly.
That said I feel like Tahoe is more frosted glass than Liquid Glass. I like it quite a bit but was hoping they’d lean a little harder into the Liquid Glass like on iPad OS.
It gives me old Aqua vibes that I missed so dearly.
I dusted off my personal Mac (on macOS 26.2) to work on a personal project over the holiday break. I really don’t see what the big deal is, it seems fine.
Rounded corners don’t bother me anywhere near as much as icons in menus, or rather the mixed-level indentation of menu item names depending on whether they have an icon.
Perhaps I am cynical, but I don't see the same "speed" for 3rd parties to adopt the new Liquid Glass look as they did for iOS 7's flat redesign (even 18mos). Namely because there's no meaningful usability benefit in doing so. The iOS 7 redesign was to bring more clarity to one's content by removing unnecessary ornamentation (that was once required to help people adopt to the mobile experience).
If VR/AR adoption was rising exponentially, then perhaps app developers could be moved to integrate Liquid Glass into their design languages, as it would almost be their "testing ground" for developing future VisionOS apps; but not even Meta's much cheaper AR/VR devices are a lucrative enough market for companies to put the R&D towards adopting a virtual-ready design language (which I believe Liquid Glass is).
Should Apple's rumoured cheaper AR device begin to have a promising level of early adoption, I could see developers begin to take Liquid Glass seriously. But as I see it now, 3rd party Liquid Glass adoption will be limited; a few rounded menu bars, some more blur and translucency, and that's it--and I believe Apple themselves realized that, and it's why we're seeing a much less intense Liquid Glass in iOS 26.2 than we did in the WWDC presentation.
Apple now prevents you from exempting specific apps from Spotlight search, unless you do the entire Application directory. So now I get the stupid TV app, Freeform, Stocks, and all the other stuff I never touch, without a way to remove it or even hide it from search.
At least on Windows there exists tooling to revert the rounded corners back to square ones.
That’s not borderline crazy. That’s just regular crazy.
Apple love making change for changes sake and the rounded corners seem to be another example of that seeing as they don’t improve anything in any way.
I guess only time will tell, but I think the majority of apps will adapt.
Tahoe is quite good. I’ve been using it since the first developer beta release, and I’ve encountered no bugs, except for Safari occasionally, particularly when watching YouTube videos. Since Safari is updated separately, I can’t exactly blame Tahoe for that. It’s true that the overly rounded corners bothered me at first, but I’ve gotten used to them. The glossy look? I like it; it reminds me of Windows Vista.
If rounded corners (lol) are the biggest baddest issue then it sounds like a raging success.
Very well said, thank you!
My work _dictates_ I use macOS, Windows and Linux. However prior to Tahoe my personal favorite was macOS hands down. It was a very enjoyable experience on my MacBook Pro with its stellar design, beautiful display, great reliability and terrific keyboard.
As much as I have tried to accept Tahoe which I have running on my secondary MBP, it’s just annoying. Suddenly my Linux laptop is looking better than ever.
Bottom line I will hold off for a while longer and see what Apple does.
That would make sense if it was supposed to "fit" into the corners, but it's not. The menu bar fits into the rounded corners. The rest of the desktop area is strictly rectangular.
I said, "In terms of a carefully planned UI appearance," not in terms of stability and reliability. (In terms of stability and reliability, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was the pinnacle.)
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Innerproduct –
I completely emphathize with your choice (and applaud your restraint) in refraining from installing Tahoe for those reasons.
My opinion is that there is certainly hope. I deeply feel the concern, but I think it's totally irrational to believe that Apple's strong roots and memory make it remotely susceptible to going "off the tracks" like a rusty train with no driver. Apple's been "doomed" every year since the dawn of time, according to spectators who don't think very far and forget very quickly.
As you point out – evidence against said spectators – Sequoia (and even Tahoe, setting aside the overzealous design traits) are in many ways the best macOS has ever been; in some ways the best any computer operating system has ever been. Some of those "ways" have been in place for years and years.
Apple has its priorities and areas of focus, but it does listen to user feedback, it does browse hives of opinion like this one, and it's seen at least one hopeful shift in leadership with respect to this topic. Proceed with merited caution, certainly, but give it the spring. June's not too far off, and we can all check back in then.
I completely emphathize with your choice (and applaud your restraint) in refraining from installing Tahoe for those reasons.
My opinion is that there is certainly hope. I deeply feel the concern, but I think it's totally irrational to believe that Apple's strong roots and memory make it remotely susceptible to going "off the tracks" like a rusty train with no driver. Apple's been "doomed" every year since the dawn of time, according to spectators who don't think very far and forget very quickly.
As you point out – evidence against said spectators – Sequoia (and even Tahoe, setting aside the overzealous design traits) are in many ways the best macOS has ever been; in some ways the best any computer operating system has ever been. Some of those "ways" have been in place for years and years.
Apple has its priorities and areas of focus, but it does listen to user feedback, it does browse hives of opinion like this one, and it's seen at least one hopeful shift in leadership with respect to this topic. Proceed with merited caution, certainly, but give it the spring. June's not too far off, and we can all check back in then.
I don't think the concept behind Liquid Glass is an utter failure necessarily, but it needs refinement still. I've been running it since Public Beta and felt like they would have it more refined by the time it released, but that was an incorrect assumption. macOS 26 is still admittedly a little "rough around the edges" for a traditional Apple release.
macOS 26 isn't really bothersome to me, it just is what it is. It doesn't impact my work or usage at all. There are a few new things, but operating system UI/UX has never remained static and never will. The "core" of macOS remains the same. I know a lot of folks are pretty happy with Sequoia, but remember that it's the end result of 10 years of UI iterative refinement from the major overhaul that started with OS X 10.10 Yosemite (which had its fair share of issues).
I think it will get there, you probably don't need to write off macOS entirely. macOS 27 might be the one to bank on.
macOS 26 isn't really bothersome to me, it just is what it is. It doesn't impact my work or usage at all. There are a few new things, but operating system UI/UX has never remained static and never will. The "core" of macOS remains the same. I know a lot of folks are pretty happy with Sequoia, but remember that it's the end result of 10 years of UI iterative refinement from the major overhaul that started with OS X 10.10 Yosemite (which had its fair share of issues).
I think it will get there, you probably don't need to write off macOS entirely. macOS 27 might be the one to bank on.
When they don’t change things, people complain they are boring and never change anything 🤷♂️