Thoughts on upgrading to Tahoe

[PotentPeas]

Posted a poll on 26.2 when it launched, the results (which I understand are "unscientific") as well as the discussion are not encouraging to me.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-tahoe-26-2-released-is-it-time-to-upgrade-from-sequoia.2474604/

(I'll do another one with 26.3, which should be dropping in ≈2 weeks.)

I get that it is working fine for lots of people. I'd really like to see it working fine for "almost everyone" though.

Sequoia is solid. It also had a bit of a rocky start though. I upgraded "at launch" and I was personally dealing with known bugs that weren't all fixed until 15.3, which made me way more cautious about upgrading this time. Having to roll back, while possible, is a hassle that I'd rather not go through.

Looking at the limited available metrics on user adoption (data from TelemetryDeck or Steam Hardware Survey), one can see that Tahoe adoption is lagging behind where Sequoia was at this time last year, and Sequoia itself lagged behind Sonoma (which was adopted very rapidly), that also makes me feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of just jumping right in.

If there's no specific feature(s) drawing you to Tahoe, there is no harm in waiting longer.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Wow—this explains everything. I’ve had the same issue and couldn’t understand why resizing felt so broken until now. Your animations nail it.

Apple:

“Muscle memory is legacy behavior. To resize a window, grab the invisible corner outside the window. You’re welcome.”

Its not solely down to muscle memory, its plain broken.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/do-you-like-liquid-glass-on-mac.2462862/post-34341293

 

[SaMMyS]

that's completely untrue; the aesthetic (of everything, really) matters a great deal to me.

what is true: we have different opinions. and that's just fine.

"MY workflow has not been hindered negatively", or "on MY mac, if i click...... i can resize the window." But what about those whose UX are hindered?
Yeah some of the critics have gone emotional, and some of the bugs/flaws are very subtle, I agree. But you are talking about your own experience, and calling design details "counting pixels", while the others are talking about the design choices and flaws, and how their UX are affected.

I took the plunge with my M4 Max Studio. The result? Its been fine.

And there's someone calls Tahoe a good upgrade because his M4 Max Studio runs Tahoe very smoothly.

Those surely are different opinions.

 

[fisherking]

"MY workflow has not been hindered negatively", or "on MY mac, if i click...... i can resize the window." But what about those whose UX are hindered?
Yeah some of the critics have gone emotional, and some of the bugs/flaws are very subtle, I agree. But you are talking about your own experience, and calling design details "counting pixels", while the others are talking about the design choices and flaws, and how their UX are affected.

that makes no sense. if some people like liquid glass, and some don't, that doesn't make LG perfect, or not perfect. no one's UX is 'hindered', simply because they don't like LG.

there's a wide gap between absolutes and opinions, and the forums are (mostly) littered with opinions (and that's fine)

 

[TechnoMonk]

I always upgrade Mac OS around March, will continue to do so with Tahoe. I usually upgrade iOS almost immediately and my iPad Pro runs beta versions. I wait for developers and libraries to be updated for latest Mac OS and it usually takes time. March-April is usually sweet spot. I am not busy counting pixels, I don’t buy computers for aesthetics, get my work done and make money.

 

[svenmany]

If I counted on Preview or Contacts for extensive work, then upgrading to Tahoe would have been a significant detriment. That's not the case.

There are minor screen flickering issues on my LG monitor. They had been fixed in Sequoia but have resurfaced in Tahoe. These issues affect people with Apple's displays as discussed here

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-tahoe-bug-causes-studio-display-flickering-issues.2474942/

I've encountered other visual peculiarities and flickering that are a problem in VMware Fusion and Screen Sharing. I haven't heard anyone else discussing these programs in particular. If I used those products more then the upgrade would have been a significant detriment.

The interface as a whole is more challenging for people who are visually challenged (which includes me). Apple allows visual effects to obscure information and controls. And there are enough bugs in the visual effects that it can become a distraction if you have good attention to detail. There are times when a Liquid Glass bug will cause some text to be completely unreadable. I've always been able to work around it by moving or scrolling something.

I've started having drive disconnect issues as of 26.2. Long ago I stopped my computer from sleeping to prevent this. But something in the most recent upgrade has caused the problem to start. I can't rule out some other hardware problem on my end, though the timing made the OS suspect.

Every now and again I do have cursor issues trying to grab the corner of windows. That kind of falls under the radar for me since most programs I use are not Apple's; most don't have overly rounded corners. Sequoia had more cursor issues for me, which Apple eventually fixed. But, here's an article about the resizing mistakes in Tahoe.

Why It’s Difficult to Resize Windows on MacOS 26 Dyehoe

https://noheger.at/blog/2026/01/11/the-struggle-of-resizing-windows-on-macos-tahoe/

daringfireball.net

Even though there is some intolerance in this thread of careful analysis and attention to detail, there is definitely a issue when resizing doesn't carefully cater for the curvature of the window corners.

The more Apple tries to do, the more they show their technical limitations. Tahoe with its Liquid Glass was a very bold move by Apple and will take quite some time and fixes before winning me over. Because Liquid Glass is such a big change, and because the designer who drove the change has now left Apple (https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/bad_dye_job), a more cautious person might hold off until the next OS, unless there is some explicit reason to upgrade.

Given my circumstances, Tahoe is not killing me. I'm absolutely certain that some users, due to their circumstances, are being significantly negatively impacted by this upgrade.

 

[maflynn]

And there's someone calls Tahoe a good upgrade because his M4 Max Studio runs Tahoe very smoothly.

And? I’m not sure I understand your point

 

[jz0309]

Hi,

Can I get some thoughts on Tahoe, I guess now OS 26.2?

So far, the bits and pieces I've heard haven't been too flattering, but I wanted to get thoughts for or against from users
who aren't necessarily looking for clicks.

Is it still too early to upgrade, or should I just stay with Sequoia?

I'm running a 2022 Mac Studio with an M1 Max processor, 32 GB of RAM.

Thanks!
Michael

M1Max Studio 64GB here, installed Tahoe a day or 2 after release, no issues for me, just as stable as before and no legibility issues either ... I continue to use it as a computing tool and it gets the job done perfectly fine for me

 

[jz0309]

Because we care about UX and you don't.
Have you read the article posted above? Clearly it's not about counting pixels but about SERIOUS USER EXPERIENCE.

I don't need to read an article, Tahoe works just like Sequoia before in getting the job done, I'm sorry you feel it's not a good experience for you, it is a good experience for me

 

[Starfia]

Hey, PhysicsClubReject –

Tahoe works well and has a few good enhancements. The operating system is not "broken."

Meanwhile: for the first time using a Mac since before the dawn of Mac OS X, I envy Sequoia every time I see someone using it. In particular: the "glass" treatment of window toolbars, app icons and widgets sometimes are all enormously unappealing. I've never gotten used to them and I've never found the taste in them. Safari's upper toolbar and tab area had arrived in a pretty decent place with some customization options, and all of that's been tabled for Tahoe's version. And the beautiful Launchpad was removed entirely.

Some people don't mind that stuff, as you can see. But if you think you might, I would suggest staring very long and hard at screen shots and videos and ask yourself very slowly whether you will.

 

[svenmany]

Just now I was offered to upgrade OmniOutliner. I downloaded to the new version to take a look. They have adopted most of the bad of Liquid Glass. Luckily they didn't make the toolbar translucent.

This feels different than deciding whether to upgrade the OS. There's a lot of other stuff in an OS version beyond Liquid Glass. For this product, the biggest thing is the adoption of Liquid Glass. I'm not going to upgrade - the first time I've chosen that in decades with Omni products. All they've done is made the application harder for me to use.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

I upgraded my M1 MBP to Tahoe, from Sonoma, when 26.2 came out (I like to wait a couple of "dot" releases to squash the bigger bugs). Yes, the interface looks a little different, but I've gotten used to it, and it's not the terrible experience that the Apple media illuminati have made it out to be.

If you're happy with Sequoia, stay with that a while and see how Tahoe evolves in future releases.

But if you do switch to Tahoe, you'll be getting a stable and functional OS.

 

[Runaway Train]

All good, no crisis here. I ripped the bandaid off and moved on. Not even a speed bump for me, more like a non-event.

 

[SaMMyS]

no one's UX is 'hindered', simply because they don't like LG.

Ofc you can have your own opinions here, but again, have you read the article? Do you know what they are talking about?
Btw, Earth is Flat, that is also an opinion.

And? I’m not sure I understand your point

Sorry to bother. Performance problems should be concerns of the third-worlds.

 

[maflynn]

Sorry to bother. Performance problems should be concerns of the third-worlds.

What are you talking about?

 

[brgjoe]

Just upgraded my Macbook Air to Tahoe. I wasn't planning to, since I felt a little bit unsure of upgrading to Tahoe at present. Well, got the notice it was time for an update. I *thought* I was just upgrading Sequoia. I didn't look close enough when I agreed to update.

When it was through I go the Welcome screen and lo and behold, Tahoe was the new OS on my laptop. Oh well. I tried out a few things, including making sure Steam and Baldur's Gate 3 ran OK. So far, everything is good. Haven't done a deep dive into it yet.

So I am cautiously optimistic right now that it's OK.

 

[ignatius345]

Tahoe is such a piece of crap on my iMac that I'm letting my Air breathe easy on Sequoia for as long as it takes for them to make Tahoe work properly.

Yesterday I tried the exact same operation side by side on my two M4 Macs. I was flipping through a shared photo album in Photos, showing and hiding the comments. Under Tahoe on the iMac it was throwing up beachballs and huge pauses left and right. Did the same thing on my Air running the lastest update of Sequoia and it was totally smooth. No pauses, no beachballs. Similar experience researching travel routes on Maps. Tahoe has more clicks and more weird, slow animations while Sequoia is much faster and has fewer weird sidebars sliding in and out constantly.

These are just a couple random "tests", but I've found this is quite reflective of generally how slow and ***tty everything is with Tahoe. Even if you ignore the cartoonish corners and the piles of weird translucent rectanges everywhere, it's just a crap OS so far on a usability and smoothness level. This is on very recent Macs, too.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Tahoe is such a piece of crap on my iMac that I'm letting my Air breathe easy on Sequoia for as long as it takes for them to make Tahoe work properly.

Yesterday I tried the exact same operation side by side on my two M4 Macs. I was flipping through a shared photo album in Photos, showing and hiding the comments. Under Tahoe on the iMac it was throwing up beachballs and huge pauses left and right. Did the same thing on my Air running the lastest update of Sequoia and it was totally smooth. No pauses, no beachballs. Similar experience researching travel routes on Maps. Tahoe has more clicks and more weird, slow animations while Sequoia is much faster and has fewer weird sidebars sliding in and out constantly.

These are just a couple random "tests", but I've found this is quite reflective of generally how slow and ***tty everything is with Tahoe. Even if you ignore the cartoonish corners and the piles of weird translucent rectanges everywhere, it's just a crap OS so far on a usability and smoothness level. This is on very recent Macs, too.

Im finding this more and more, especially with typing. It's sooo slow and laggy and this is on an M4! MacRumors forum is bad when typing but TextEdit and other apps too.

 

[fisherking]

Ofc you can have your own opinions here, but again, have you read the article? Do you know what they are talking about?
Btw, Earth is Flat, that is also an opinion.

an opinion that can be disproved easily is just an opinion, so... we know the earth is not flat, we have a provable fact. as for our opinions, we're all entitled to them, so neither of us is wrong or right.

the only difference here is, i am accepting of the real world GUI on my mac (which i mostly like), so am not suffering. and for that, i am quite happy ☺️

 

[fisherking]

Im finding this more and more, especially with typing. It's sooo slow and laggy and this is on an M4! MacRumors forum is bad when typing but TextEdit and other apps too.

i find this happens sometimes in safari when my vpn is open (active or not). are you using a vpn, or any extensions in safari? not sure why textedit etc would be a problem tho.

when the vpn is quit, typing online is as fast as it ever was...

 

[svenmany]

i find this happens sometimes in safari when my vpn is open (active or not). are you using a vpn, or any extensions in safari? not sure why textedit etc would be a problem tho.

when the vpn is quit, typing online is as fast as it ever was...

Ah. I did have a problem in Safari. I ended up rebooting to fix it. Other browsers were working and Safari would really be struggling (very slow to load or not loading at all). I'm pretty sure I had run ProtonVPN earlier, but I didn't have the program running at the time and the VPN connection was not up. Interesting that there might be some VPN related interference.

 

[fisherking]

Ah. I did have a problem in Safari. I ended up rebooting to fix it. Other browsers were working and Safari would really be struggling (very slow to load or not loading at all). I'm pretty sure I had run ProtonVPN earlier, but I didn't have the program running at the time and the VPN connection was not up. Interesting that there might be some VPN related interference.

nordVPN, when open (even when not active), creates an issue typing on some sites, renders some sites unusable (ie rottentomatoes), and hides the navigation menu for two of my business sites) 😳

i've notified them.

 

[svenmany]

"MY workflow has not been hindered negatively", or "on MY mac, if i click...... i can resize the window." But what about those whose UX are hindered?
Yeah some of the critics have gone emotional, and some of the bugs/flaws are very subtle, I agree. But you are talking about your own experience, and calling design details "counting pixels", while the others are talking about the design choices and flaws, and how their UX are affected.

You make a very good point and it's something I've been thinking about quite a bit.

A lot of people like Liquid Glass and a lot of people don't. We've no idea of the numbers and how the general population leans. People who have bothered to respond to one poll on this sight lean towards disliking it, but that doesn't mean much.

The real question is whether there are serious flaws in the UI choices of Liquid Glass. If there are, some might not notice the flaws, might only notice them subconsciously, or might only suffer after a period of time (e.g. months of experiencing subtle inefficiencies). Others might be seriously impacted.

There will be a standard question therapists ask their patients who don't know why they are so stressed. "How many times today did you try to resize a window and struggle for a moment?" There will eventually be a new entry in the DSM: LGD "Liquid Glass Disorder".

Many believe UI design is just an art form. The people who do it professionally understand it to be different. Decades of refinements and hard-learned lessons contributed to a bit of a science. When professionals chime in and point to mistakes, then it's really worth taking notice and educating oneself. Liquid Glass has made some very serious mistakes. It's not hard to find the better educated people talking about them. I don't mean reviews from the standard websites which just seem to get a quick positive first impression and write it up.

To define a successful design, you have to establish the goals that were attempted to be achieved. A good looking UI is certainly a goal. An efficient UI should also be a goal - a UI that makes it easy for all users to accomplish things. Large-scale user studies have to be performed to be able to optimize choices that maximize efficiency over the entire population. Best practices are refined over decades.

It's good that you pushed back against the subtle criticism aimed at those who pursued and presented the details of the resizing problem. The design error is kind of well-documented, pretty easy to understand, and the additional analysis can only help push Apple to fix it. As more applications convert to the extremely rounded corners, the problem will get more notice. The investigators were clearly motivated by a pain point and the lack of compassion is hard to look at.

Unlike some others, it's really not enough that I might not be suffering. I and other designers are not happy when others are suffering. Not liking the UI is one thing, but struggling to use it is at another level.

 

[CyberDavis]

I have updated my Mac Studio and MacBook Pro and do not have any issues or concerns.
My photo editing works just fine, and my Parallels virtual machines work well.
I have not experienced any performance issues or problems.

 

[TumbleDryer]

i find this happens sometimes in safari when my vpn is open (active or not). are you using a vpn, or any extensions in safari? not sure why textedit etc would be a problem tho.

when the vpn is quit, typing online is as fast as it ever was...

I did have a feeling it might be NordVPN I turned it off (but didn't quit it) and it still laggy so I'll give it a shot quitting.