It’s release day for all of Apple’s operating systems, so if you’re fully or only partway into the ecosystem, you’ve got some upgrades ahead of you. Version 26 for macOS, iOS and iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, visionOS, and HomePod Software have all been released today, so if you own any device running any of these operating system, it’s time to head on over to the update section of the settings application and wait for that glass to slowly and sensually liquefy all over your screens.
Do put a sock on the doorknob.
Sticking to 15.7 sequoia and keeping clear of this “liquid abomination”
see, that’s the issue with commercial OSes. If they impose something stupid, you’re fckd and you can’t really do anything. In free and open source world you can literally recompile something without offending feature, hire someone to do fork for you, do it yourself, switch to other GUI, etc, etc. Your possibilities are so broad. I’m so glad for my now 25 year long journey with free and open source.
or you can go to Accessibility and switch the Reduce transparency checkbox on.
I upgraded for curiosity’s sake.
Everything seems really good except for how the OS actually looks. It’s not -as bad- on the iPhone as on the desktop, but the desktop look is just outrageously terrible.
Just to get an idea: remember KDE 4.x with the Oxygen theme? There’s a _lot_ of border gradients and border shadowing, which makes everything look busy but also often doesn’t adequately separate UI elements.
Icons are also just weird — again, just like on KDE 4. There are presented with a lot of reflective surfaces, but are also are a lower-contrast experience and (generally speaking) disproportionately small. Icons on the Dock, for instance, are about half the dock’s height, with considerable padding to the top, bottom, and side. And everything is more rounded, which is fine _except_ when it introduces extra padding or is, say, your cursor. Nobody ever asked for a rounder cursor.
And — again to evoke KDE 4 — the whole UI design feels unfinished. Sometimes buttons are circles with gradient borders. Sometimes they’re pseudo-circles with no border but that cast shadows. Sometimes test is dark and high contrast (good), while at other times — and for no clear reason — it is medium-gray and low contrast. The design principle that widgets which do similar things ought be presented in a visually similar way has not been followed. It’s not as bad as any version of Windows, but not as good as e.g. Gnome or KDE.
And — again — what’s wild is that the OS overall is generally _better_. Application loading times are basically instantaneous — I mean I’m seeing a difference on my M4 where they were already fast. Search is more easily discoverable at the application level, and generally better and faster. Even the UI is more responsive, which is almost an anti-feature considering how much I need a break from it.
I’ve got nothing to complain about except look and feel, which — again– is everything you ever hated about KDE 4.
It’s the Apple take on KDE using the Windows development philosophy? LOL
Ha-ha, the same old KDE vibes. I think we see a difference in loading times, partly because of faster display refresh rates in the new version.
I have iStat menus installed and it looks like the FPS value is higher. Maybe it’s just my imagination.
Just as an update: both UIs (MacOS, iOS) improve a whole bunch if you either reduce transparency and/or increase contrast, both of which are accessibility options.
At least on my setup (which is a Mac Mini using a good-but-definitely-not-Apple-quality monitor, i.e. one that needs calibration) this makes some of the translucency effects a lot more sensible (like, areas which were formerly differentiated from one another by slight changes in color are now differentiated by different translucency levels). I’ll see if I can dial that in with proper monitor calibration.
That doesn’t forgive icon weirdness or border gradients, but at least I’ve got a better sense of what the UI/UX people were trying to accomplish.
Brainworm,
At least you can adjust the effect. Looking at the screenshots makes me wonder why someone thought it was a good idea, but then most of the platforms I use seem to go off the UI deep end from time to time. Gnome 3 turned me off of gnome when I was previously a big fan. Win7 was ok, but windows 8: yuck! A lot of people didn’t like KDE’s changes either.
Xfce thinks outside the box by NOT trying so hard to make a trendy UI. It’s one of their endearing characteristics 🙂
My mini is still supported with macOS 26. 😀
My iPhone is not. RIP iPhone OS upgrades. 🙁
Is it though? I’m still seeing OS/security updates for older phones even if not big digit versions.
I’m only here saying “I like it” because bad news travels fastest. TBH the iPhone rinse is pretty good. Email nice, photos nice, camera – spoke. Liquid GUI – yeah – s’alright – not really sure what problem it solves but it looks swish! Seems like a solid update.