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macOS Big Sur Preview

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121–130 of 391 posts

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#121
Are there any screenshots with reduced transparency? I've always disabled that on all of my systems since I don't want to see stuff that's behind my current window.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#123

One of my favorite small things about OS X has been the dock icons and their variety in shapes. Like how TextEdit has the pencil sticking out or Logic looks like a DJ turntable. It feels like that’s gone now.

The XCode icon seems to have the hammer sticking out a bit. So maybe there is still room for custom shapes.

They address that in the new macOS 11 HIG [1], indicating that protrusions from the square look "to combine depictions of the physical objects that best convey the app’s core purpose" are acceptable. TextEdit, Preview and Xcode all have elements sticking out a bit.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

That said, I still think overall it's a loss in terms of usability. (I find that without shape to distinguish icons on iOS, I often confuse icons that are broadly similar in color when I'm not paying attention, even though the images inside the roundrects are different. I can't be the only one.)

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#124
post #34

The UI and UX seem to be getting worse on macOS with the “iOSification” of the OS. I thought Jony Ive’s exit would stop that trend. It’ll be interesting to read perspectives from John Gruber, M J Tsai, Marco Arment, etc. I still haven’t upgraded from Mojave to Catalina because of serious bugs reported by other people (including data loss issues in Mail). I’ll see if Big Sur shows improvements (reported by others) and…

I think it's the transparency that's looking a bit weird, especially if you disable this stuff yourself.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#125
post #34

The UI and UX seem to be getting worse on macOS with the “iOSification” of the OS. I thought Jony Ive’s exit would stop that trend. It’ll be interesting to read perspectives from John Gruber, M J Tsai, Marco Arment, etc. I still haven’t upgraded from Mojave to Catalina because of serious bugs reported by other people (including data loss issues in Mail). I’ll see if Big Sur shows improvements (reported by others) and…

Catalina is the one and only macOS upgrade I regret doing. It has mostly been bug-free, but I was surprised how much software no longer works due to the 64-bit change.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#126
post #84

I’m surprised at all the negative takes. I thought it was refreshing, they’re reintroducing colours and icons, cleaning up and using a consistent design language across platforms, and introducing new, well tested convenience features.

> cleaning up and using a consistent design language across platforms This is not a positive. A laptop is not a big iPhone and shouldn't use the same design language. One of the worst thing about Windows 10 is its use of huge, touch-friendly interfaces in an OS most commonly used with a keyboard and mouse. MacOS appears to be headed the same way (and it doesn't even support touch screens).

Maybe I missed it, but did they say they're requiring Mac apps to start standardizing design?

If not, then I see no reason why the default OS apps that come pre-installed shouldn't look and feel the same.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#127
post #84

I’m surprised at all the negative takes. I thought it was refreshing, they’re reintroducing colours and icons, cleaning up and using a consistent design language across platforms, and introducing new, well tested convenience features.

I especially liked the extension of complications in Apple Watch. The ability for developers to define the 'home screen' appearance of the watch is an important advancement that enables users to control their own technological identity. The Watch is the most important place for consumers to define their own 'GUI brand'.

Sadly the only major change there is the ability to use SwiftUI for complications.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#128
post #52

I was really hoping they'd take some time to address Catalina's glaring issues — its slowness, bugginess, just general sloppiness — and instead they did the opposite. Honestly, every time Apple has done anything with the Mac the past couple of years, they've screwed it up. The infamous keyboards that they doubled-down and then tripled-down upon (I have personally had five keyboard replacements). The way Catalina send…

It’s possible they will do both. Fixing bugs isn’t really keynote worthy, so hopefully there’s a ton of stability fixes behind the scenes.

I've also seen it reacted to very negatively when announced.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#129

I'm mixed on the design. I really, really dislike the way macOS has looked since Yosemite, and compared to that, I think this one is an improvement overall. The icons have more depth, and there's far more use of color across the UI. But, it also looks extremely mobile-inspired—I suspect Apple's primary goal was to make iOS ports and apps look less out of place. That's a fine objective, but it also means they weren't…

I’ve had that mental block the whole time I’ve used Macs (10yrs+). The “answer” is easier to work with than you’d think: most of the toolbar drags the window around, not just the title bar.

Yes—but the title-bar/toolbar combination used to look visually unified—a deeper gray distinct from the content for the window. That seems to be gone in Big Sur.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#130
post #109

I'm not sure why I continue to look forward to new Mac OS announcements every year when Apple continues to focus on consumer apps/features and not pro/developer features. Literally nothing in that preview page excites me as someone that uses Mac OS mainly for developing software. I wish they would use WWDC to announce developer and pro features and not consumer OS features. I don't really care for the UI changes, but…

I think developers should always start on this page instead of the keynote: https://developer.apple.com/macos/ EDIT: Also meant to point out that every year they have a theme - this year is apparently all interface (as they've probably spent all there time getting ARM working smoothly, and want to minimize the plumbing issues).

Thanks for the link.
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