Mastodawn

Niki Sep 19, 2025

There was a golden period of OS X roughly between 10.5 and 10.9.

Up to 10.4, windows were too textured: stripes, brushed metal.

In 10.5 till 10.9 we got to enjoy the beauty of Aqua paired with calm, tasteful gray window frames and controls that had visible depth.

From 10.10 till 10.15 was okay-ish: the flat took over, but we still had contrast and shapes.

Starting from 11, everything became rounded, low contrast and lost visual cohesiveness.

10.5 till 10.9. We didn’t know how good we had it

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Anthony Sorace

@nikitonsky @me_ I prefer the 10.10 era to 10.5, but I think that’s just an aesthetic preference. Both seem “correct” on actual functional grounds.

So much went wrong in 11. My personal “canary in the coal mine” about the UI now being done by people who didn’t understand what made the Mac good, was hiding the proxy icon.

I’ve been hearing about “the last good version” since at least 2011, and never jumped on that train, but this sure feels different.