Live data from Hacker News

macOS Big Sur Preview

apple.com

81–90 of 391 posts

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#81
post #25

I'm wondering if this is the release where OpenGL goes from deprecated to fully removed. Presumably Apple didn't want to write OpenGL drivers (full, not ES) for their in-house GPUs.

Anyone know How this would impact webgl content running in safari? Presumably it's translated to metal calls from within Safari?

Probably. WebGL is only a small subset of OpenGL, so I think it wouldn't be that hard to create a Metal translation layer for it. MoltenGL was already doing this (https://moltengl.com/moltengl/)

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#82
post #25

I'm wondering if this is the release where OpenGL goes from deprecated to fully removed. Presumably Apple didn't want to write OpenGL drivers (full, not ES) for their in-house GPUs.

Anyone know How this would impact webgl content running in safari? Presumably it's translated to metal calls from within Safari?

It's been known for a while that Safari/WebKit are integrating the same ANGLE abstraction layer that Chrome uses. That will bring WebGL 2.0 support also. But the progress on that getting anywhere near shipping has been extremely slow. Several years have passed.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#83

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 think the lack of title bars is an issue now. I've found it annoys me most on my web browser, when I have lots of tabs open there is one small section between the 3 dots to minimize/close and the first tab that I can use to move the window.

My guess is that they expect most people to use the application full screen and not to be moving it around. I've got a large monitor and I don't keep my windows full screened so this annoys me.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#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.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#85
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…

Personally I’ve had zero issues upgrading to Catalina, it seems to perform better than Mojave for me, and more stable too.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#86
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.

No! You’re supposed to grumble about how bad everything is and how Apple is losing it’s touch. Don’t you know the WWDC spiel?

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#87
post #11

Oh god that new Mail app looks disgusting. Reminds me of a shitty Electron app, that kind of design.

Catalina's Mail is terrible too. No more column view with clickable headers, plus data loss issues. I don't care much for Thunderbird but it seems like the only halfway-decent IMAP client for MacOS any more.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#89
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…

It’s a little too early to see the effects of Jony Ive’s departure. He left less than a year ago. He probably had a decent role in designing Big Sur. Plus all the remaining designers were probably hired by Jony. I doubt we’ll see big change until a few years out.

Re: macOS Big Sur Preview

#90

Its clear the design direction is making mac a touch screen experience. they are totally taking the path microsoft took a decade ago. copycat designing

I don't want a touchscreen desktop. Touchscreen is fine for my phone/tablet but I want a keyboard and mouse for my desktop.
Post reply on HN