macOS Big Sur Preview • Hacker News Board

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#191

Post by _bxg1 » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:54 PM UTC

SenHeng wrote: 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.

Yeah, the UI refresh they did a few years ago (Yosemite I think?) always felt like a halfway-done, superficial coat of paint to try and eke out some brand unity. Big Sur (I'll never be able to say that with a straight face) seems to be a genuine re-think. It says to me, "Apple isn't just doing the minimum effort to drag the Mac along, they actually care about it long-term". And while lots of things were clearly taken straight from iOS, I didn't see anything that felt like a real downgrade in terms of power user features or information density. I'm actually kind of excited about the control panel drop-down.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#192

Post by achairapart » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:55 PM UTC

beckler wrote: post #163

achairapart wrote: post #149

Requirements: Mac Mini 2014 and later. So, no upgrade for my Mac Mini late 2012. F*ck you, Apple. Why on earth I need a less powerful machine to run your latest OS?

I'm on an early 2011 MBP. I've been stuck on High Sierra. There's a patch for Mojave ( http://dosdude1.com/mojave/ ), but honestly I have no reason to really upgrade to it. The only blocker I've run across so far is that I can't compile Flutter apps for iOS unless I downgrade Flutter. Since I mostly use it to learn and not really leverage, it's not really an issue yet. I was planning on upgrading to a new MBP next mo…

I feel you. I also upgraded both desktop (Mac Mini) and laptop (MB Pro) in the last months and now I'm unsure on what to do with them.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#193

Post by adambware » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:56 PM UTC

They've added padding to the design nearly everywhere - "menu bar is now taller", "Dock is lifted from the bottom", and the extra padding on the Sidebars is obvious.

As a power user of a Macbook Pro, this is cutting into my screen real estate and not very appealing to me.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#194

Post by jakebellacera » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:56 PM UTC

thesquib wrote: post #168

cytzol wrote: 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…

I'm still afraid to run Catalina. I have to use it on one laptop (me hardware) an it is slow and problematic. I've had actual system crashes. I can't remember the last time that happened pre Catalina

I can't remember the last time I've had a crash on Catalina. That being said, I did do a clean install when I upgraded out of fear of issues. Not sure if that had something to do with it.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#195

Post by _bxg1 » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:57 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #141

I made the switch to Linux as my main OS for software development in the last month (archlinux with AMD Ryzen on a custom built box) and I'm not regretting it. For a comparison, here is the Press Release for Snow Leopard ( https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2009/06/08Apple-Unveils-Ma... here is an excerpt from the text > For the first time, system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bi…

> Simple, useful information.

For you and people like you. Those people make up a minority of Apple's audience. It would be stupid for them to alienate everyone else in their marketing materials. But that doesn't mean there isn't real work being done under the hood.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#196

Post by throwaway894345 » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

protonimitate wrote: post #134

cytzol wrote: 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…

The Touch Bar is honestly by least favorite aspect of anything Apple has done in recent memory. My touch bar had dead pixels (twice), effectively wiping out half the function keys. And when it did work, it was hard to use. I've been using my MBP as a desktop for the past 8+ months, and while it's slightly better experience, it still sucks that I'm stuck having to buy 3 USB adapters just to make it usable.

I will say I really like the lock button and the touch ID integration. I hate the lack of physical escape key (especially for vim); however, they are fixing that on many (most? all?) new models. Mostly I'm pretty meh about the touch bar. Not sure how much cost it's adding, but I'd probably rather they reduce the cost.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#197

Post by read_if_gay_ » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #171

arduinomancer wrote: post #57

I'm getting the impression that Apple wants to merge the desktop/iOS/iPad platforms long term if you look at all the recent updates together.

They've said in the past couple years in interviews that this is a bad idea - a bad direction to follow - and they don't intend to do it.

Then why are they doing:

* ARM macbooks

* iOS Apps on macOS

* iOS look-and-feel on macOS

* iOS features like Control Center, Widgets on macOS

Each one of these might be justifiable in isolation, but viewed as a whole it paints another picture.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#198

Post by sandstrom » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

I wonder if they have added support for Display Port MST? (daisy chaining two monitors over one USB-C/thunderbolt cable)

Windows via Boot Camp support it, so it’s only a software limit.

It was my single biggest wish for this years macOS update.

https://medium.com/@sebvance/everything-you-need-to-know-abo...

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#199

Post by modzu » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

AnonC wrote: 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…

windows 8 anyone?

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#200

Post by psychometry » Mon, Jun 22, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

achairapart wrote: post #188

psychometry wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, your computer was designed EIGHT years ago. Upgrade if you care about getting all of the new toys.

Wait, are you telling me that is ok that a capable machine (much more capable than a 2014 Mac Mini, anyway) expires by date? I have more recent Apple hardware (Mac Mini 2018, TB Macbook Pro) and I can tell you this: this Mac Mini is my favorite device, fast, user-upgradable, never had a single problem. It's a pity I have to replace it just because it's expired. By date.

Clearly I never said your machine expires. You can continue using the most recent OS supported by your hardware. Your Mac Mini will not cease to function just because Apple releases an OS it doesn't support.