What would you like to see in the next macOS release?

[TriciaMacMillan]

When you say AFP, do you mean the more modern APFS, as opposed to HFS+? I just bought a new portable hard drive and had to reformat it for APFS in order to get Time Machine to work properly.

Two different things: AFP is a network protocol. If you have a portable drive, it doesn’t apply to your scenario.

 

[Hippo76]

Two different things: AFP is a network protocol. If you have a portable drive, it doesn’t apply to your scenario.

That makes more sense. Thanks for clueing me in.

 

[petvas]

I only have one wish. We need a complete overhaul of the Mail.app. Everything must change, including the UI, better Exchange/O365 support, support for business functions, better signature editor, better Junk mail features, and performance and stability improvements.

 

[Juuro]

Monterey:

Search in Mail is a search box and always has been. It only becomes a button if you have too many icons in your toolbar or have made your window too small.

macOS 12.3 Monterey:

 

[Andrew73875]

Search in Mail is a search box and always has been. It only becomes a button if you have too many icons in your toolbar or have made your window too small.

macOS 12.3 Monterey:
View attachment 1983309

Yeah, but it wasn't becoming a button before.

In Big Sur and further the window has to be super wide in order to make the search field to appear. Maybe it's not a big issue on 27" screen, but on 13" it's pretty much a thing.

 

[Nermal]

I had no idea that the box appeared when you made the window bigger. The default window size on a 27" display has the button.

 

[tomtad]

Window management, window management, window management. It needs a complete rethink

 

[orionquest]

They have done it before, Snow Leopard for a good example. And since the updates are free, what reason would people have to not update?

True Snow Leopard was a great release I was on it until 10.9 Mavricks. Skipping a bunch of updates.

 

[orionquest]

Don't think so ;-) Snow Leopard is a good example. Mountain Lion as well.

Well exactly, if Snow Leopard is an example users liked they would stay on it? Not so sure about Mountain Lion, I skipped a bunch of updates. Wasn't ML the one with the pseudo texture effects in calender and contacts?

 

[Realityck]

From last August 9to5Mac.com

macOS Mammoth concept redefines the Mac experience - 9to5Mac

macOS 13 'Mammoth' should redefine the Mac experience and introduce major changes to the desktop, menu bar, widgets, search, and the dock.

9to5mac.com

redesigned dynamic menu bar would help with MBP notch.

Concept: How macOS Mammoth could improve productivity, entertainment, and safety with new apps (part 2) - 9to5Mac

In the first part of our macOS Mammoth concept, we shared a look at ideas for improving the system and...

9to5mac.com

 

[hagjohn]

I would also like to see a larger search field in Mail App.

It's a frequently used feature and a large search filed was always there. That's what many people use the most in Mail app.

The search field became a button and shrinked in size in Big Sur.

Monterey:

Catalina:

Snow Leopard:

I would rather have buttons available that I use more. A slider that you could widen or shrink would be a good solution.

 

[Mr.Suave]

I’d like to see the Mac OS naming convention change to Star Wars characters:

For example: Mac OS Skywalker 16.2 or Vader 19.0.1

Could you imagine discussions with users saying things like ‘does Yoda work with my HP Printer?’

It’d be amazing.

 

[Apple fan from Korea]

I think the Mail app needs a some attention and maybe a new look. I miss the font bar being in the tool bar and there does not seem to be a way to add it in. I also would like to see more color. I would not mind having different colors for different mailboxes. These are small items, but make a difference.

For me the Mail app takes around 2 minutes (not exaggerating at all) just to open (2020 M1 MBP) I don’t know what’s wrong with it :/

 

[bluecoast]

We all have our little features that we’d like fixing so I’ll just focus on some broad themes:

• Continue the UI & framework merge between iPadOS and macOS
• Following from the above: unveil the ‘proper’ 1.0 versions of Catalyst/SwiftUI with powerful cross platform updates of mail, calendar, music etc. Basically all of the ‘in-box’ apps
• Tone down the saturated look of the macOS UI. Or at least (as others here have mentioned including the OP, implement a ‘platinum’ mode). I’m not too nostalgic about snow leopard or iOS 6 but the platinum / blue UI elements were simply easier on the eye instead of vast expanses of brilliant white.
• Spend lots of time fixing the innumerable bugs in the system (although I realise that this aim might be severely undermined by introducing new versions of Mail, etc.)

 

[SKB_1965]

I'd like the "Snow Leopard" version of whatever it's called.... Optimise...optimise and optimise....plus a wee bit optimisation. I've noticed far too many resources aren't used to the (M1) Max...

 

[Shirasaki]

If anything, fix the garbage Safari first.
Same website, works flawlessly on Chrome, has all kinds of issues on Safari. I don't care how "advanced" they are under the hood, but Monterey Safari is an absolute **** show and utter disaster.
I have never seen a single web browser could be THIS bad compared to other browsers. There's a reason why Chrome is the most popular browser even on iOS devices.

 

[Andrew73875]

Well exactly, if Snow Leopard is an example users liked they would stay on it? Not so sure about Mountain Lion, I skipped a bunch of updates. Wasn't ML the one with the pseudo texture effects in calender and contacts?

Yeah and also expanded iCloud integration, brought iMessage to the Mac, notification centre and many others.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Ability to set a default viewing option and it apply to ALL folders unless specified otherwise. I like having all of my folders organized by kind and then file name. I find I have to do this with each and every folder instead of it applying to all folders.

No sure if someone else has replied, but you can do this, although I'm not sure about the "unless specified otherwise" part of this.

Open your home folder (command shift H)

Press command J to "Show View Options"

Make your adjustments to reflect your preferences.
Click "Use as Defaults"

 

[markfc]

I'll settle for a button to choose the location of iPhone / iPad backups over USB.

 

[Macative]

Window management, window management, window management. It needs a complete rethink

Lol what? On macOS? Exposé has worked perfectly since Panther. Combined with Magic Trackpad, it is better than anything on any other device, Apple or otherwise. Add a hot corner to reveal desktop for drag and drop convenience, and you're golden.

 

[svenmany]

Lol what? On macOS? Exposé has worked perfectly since Panther. Combined with Magic Trackpad, it is better than anything on any other device, Apple or otherwise. Add a hot corner to reveal desktop for drag and drop convenience, and you're golden.

I'd go even further. In addition to Expose I also make use of command-` and command-tab. Having those two different functions is a major help when I have lots of windows open. Just because I have 10 windows open in one application doesn't mean I want to cycle through them all when I'm trying to quickly switch between different Finder windows.

When I work on Windows I often struggle with alt-tab and tend to just use my mouse to find the window I want.

 

[harriska2]

Bug fixes. And a Finder that remembers your setting per folder. Especially column widths.

 

[Andrew73875]

I had no idea that the box appeared when you made the window bigger. The default window size on a 27" display has the button.

Yeah it's not very straightforward.

There's not enough space for the search field as all the buttons were moved to the right. So the search field changes into a button due to the lack of space.

In Catalina, for example, due to the location of the buttons there's enough space.

Mail app window can be made very narrow and the search field would still stay in place.

 

[roland.g]

Per

App

Dark

Mode

Preference

 

[Token]

If anything, fix the garbage Safari first.
Same website, works flawlessly on Chrome, has all kinds of issues on Safari. I don't care how "advanced" they are under the hood, but Monterey Safari is an absolute **** show and utter disaster.
I have never seen a single web browser could be THIS bad compared to other browsers. There's a reason why Chrome is the most popular browser even on iOS devices.

While I agree that the Safari renderer has strayed to far from Chrome (or rather, that web developers often optimize and test web pages only for Chrome which then makes Safari unusable), the statement about Chrome on iOS makes no sense: The iOS version of Chrome uses the Safari/webkit renderer under the hood, which means it generates pages equally as bad or good as Safari. I think the more likely explanation for the popularity of Chrome on iOS is that people like to sync their Chrome bookmarks & passwords, or that they are just creatures of habit.