Mastodawn

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

I’m still very sceptical, but I’ve decided to risk it. Some of it, like the floaty sidebars that waste space, I’ll probably dislike, but other things, I’m really looking forward to. I hope I won’t regret this, but made sure my backups are up to date, and I know how to roll back.

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

First impression after installing, the “Get Started” button looked disabled. It wasn’t its just poorly designed and clicking it did the job. This (see screenshot) is shown after the wizard that informs you about the changes in this upgrade finishes.

Oh, btw: The wizard uses “Continue” buttons that look like Apple meant for you to hunt around to find them, but then decided only to hide them half heartedly.

cc @wendythedruid — the updates you asked for shall be appearing in this thread… 🫡

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

I immediately ran into a new gripe: The sidebar icons in Finder and in System Settings now use the same size, and you can change them, but because Finder uses way too large leading, it works better with small icons, while System Setting works better with medium icons. No way to change these separately (anymore? I think I it was possible in Sequoia).

Also: I set Finder to always show the tab bar some OS versions ago, the preference stuck (good) and it looks like Tahoe (= ugly).

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

Does anybody know what that “On My Mac” folder is? I’m guessing its the “No iCloud Drive” folder, but Apple gives no hint as to where it is on the hard drive. I don’t like the opaqueness of hiding the true location of folders like this one and iCloud Drive!

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

macOS did not respect my my selected voice for the text to speech features. It also did not forget.

The setting is hidden more or less poorly in System Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak > System voice > info-i-icon.

To restore the voice settings, I had to navigate there, and select the voice that was already selected, again.

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

The label of the volume-info (which is now in the top-right corner of the screen) is really difficult to read. And that is with the tinted look of Liquid Glass, not the clear look…

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

These free floating bubbles with buttons in them look very messy/cluttered. I’m not a fan… the compact layout of Safari is ok, if you always show bookmarks (which you have to, because the bookmarks in the sidebar are _HORRIBLE_).

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

Actually, its not OK. Compact also looks tahoe (yes, I’m using that word to mean “ugly” at this point).

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

Latest accomplishment: macOS #Tahoe thinks my Time Machine Drive is empty. It is most certainly not.

OK, that didn’t take long. Every time I open an app that has opted out of Liquid Glass, I feel myself relax. It's like exhaling after you’ve held your breath without noticing. macOS #Tahoe is extremely poorly designed. Its full of visual noise, the UI is cluttered and ugly. Things are very hard to read, very often. This is actually worse than Vista! Ugh!

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

If you like music and use #AppleMusic on Mac, make sure to disable the Auto Mix feature. It uses AI to somehow transition seamlessly between songs, and its yet another attack by Apple on music.

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

By combining the tinted look with reduced transparency, I effectively turned off #LiquidGlass in macOS Tahoe (and on my iPad as well).

Its still not pretty, but hey… #WWDC26 is in 67 days (according to Apple Intelligence).

Wenzel Massag 1d ago

Jup, that is better. I might keep using Tahoe with those two settings…

Wenzel Massag 15h ago

With reduce transparency turned off and liquid glass set to transparent, the floaty sidebars in all apps on #Tahoe pick up on color several layers behind the currently active window. It looks very odd… here you can see the yellow glow in the Feedback Assistant app’s sidebar.

Behind Feedback Assistant is a Finder window, and behind Finder is the source of the yellow glow: Steam.

Wenzel Massag 15h ago

Nothing to see here, move along… #Tahoe

Wenzel Massag 15h ago

Do I regret risking the Upgrade yet? Yes. Is it bad enough to invest the afternoon into rolling the upgrade back and returning to Sequoia? Almost… maybe soon.

Wenzel Massag 10h ago

Reduced transparency makes Light Mode better and Dark Mode worse. So I turned it off again… but with Reduced Transparency the menu bar got a background, which is missing in normal mode. This setting fixes that:

Wenzel Massag 10h ago

This is fine… each orange bubble is a click. Eventually, I am permitted to edit the settings. #Tahoe

@stairjoke This all makes me delighted to be on Sequoia still.

Wenzel Massag 10h ago

@buck you’re welcome…?

What I don’t understand is how *this* made it out the door—half a year ago in a much worse state! Its 26.4, not 26, or 26.1, and that is astonishing.

@stairjoke haha.. Sorry, didn't mean to rub it in. I've been testing newer Macbooks at the Apple Stores lately and no combo of settings makes me enjoy Tahoe. It just ... **sucks**.

Wenzel Massag 9h ago

@buck no worries, meant it more as a joke. And I agree, but its not just ugly, its also very buggy. The ugliness distracts from the bugs, I guess?

Honestly, if Apple doesn’t make 27 a Snow Leopard release, I really don’t know where this might end up. MacOS 26 is shoddy quality, ugly design (visually and from a usability perspective), and Apple looks like they’re in over their heads and have lost control of the situation. Its worse than Vista, and it will take serious work to fix.

Tuomas Hämäläinen 🇺🇦22h ago

@stairjoke The tinted/clear choice has no effect when reduced transparency is enabled. That’s how I’m using mine as well. I hate how it looks but I hate all the transparent toolbars and shit even more…

Wenzel Massag 22h ago

@tuomas_h let’s see if it annoys me sufficiently to make me restore 15.