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I have been running the beta from the beginning and they have improved quite a bit, but I am actually shocked they didn't delay Mac OS 26, because the design is

I have been running the beta from the beginning and they have improved quite a bit, but I am actually shocked they didn't delay Mac OS 26, because the design is so rough around the edges. Some of the larger aesthetic changes, such as the menu bar and the dock look good, but there is so much more that looks objectively awful. 1. the way window UI elements float in bubbles on the top over a white background is horrible. It looks amateurish. 2. Icons look low detail and blurry. At first I thought they were using low resolution placeholder icons, but no, the layered diffused glass effect just kind of translates to blurriness on many app icons. 3. The side bar, such as on Finder, just kind of floats there. That is fine and looks kind of neat on the Maps app as you can see some of the maps behind it, but on the Finder it is just a white bubble over top of a white background, which... is a choice. 4. The app launcher is gone, and replaced by Spotlight, which is worse. I could go on. The point is it is bad and Apple should be embarrassed. I say that as someone who likes Apple products alot.

dsego 1y ago
Looking at the Slack icon right now, and it just looks blurry and low resolution, same for Calendar and some others, it's awful.
- etempleton 1y ago
  The maps icon is the most egregious. It makes my head hurt.
  - crossroadsguy 1y ago
    So people do use Apple maps and that too on a mac.
FabHK 1y ago
> 4. The app launcher is gone, and replaced by Spotlight, which is worse. Do you mean the Launchpad? (I've never used it; but always use Spotlight to launch apps.)
- basisword 1y ago
  The biggest surprise to me from this whole beta period is that a significant number of people used Launchpad. I have absolutely zero idea why when Spotlight has existed for more than 20 years. Why would you ever want to click and page through a giant iPhone screen on a desktop/laptop computer?
  - sgerenser 1y ago
    I always forget that Launchpad even exists. I guess it doesn't now. I suppose it might be helpful if you just know "I need that app that looks like X" and don't actually recall the first two letters of the app's name.
    - okhobb 1y ago
      Lol same. Wasn't there something like it in System 7 that also got deprecated. I think back then it was called "Launcher" ... https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Launcher https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Launcher Launching seems easy enough from Finder but you never know about innovation.
  - bombcar 1y ago
    If you have multiple ways to do something on a computer/phone, some relatively large percentage of people will fumble around until they figure out a way to do it - and then do it that way forever. So if someone accidentally triggered Launchpad and realized they could see their apps, they might use that forever (not knowing you can put your Applications folder in your Dock and use it as a start menu lol).
    - caycep 1y ago
      they've had a launch-pad-ey thing forever, I remember when our school lab had Mac IIs and Performas, and there was some simplified UI on top of finder which basically was all your apps in giant rectangular icons. I forget what it was called though.
thepryz 1y ago
The original, updated version of the Finder icon alone should have been enough of a warning that the UX designers at Apple have lost their minds and any aesthetic sense, let alone an ability to design interfaces that are functional, efficient, and well thought-out. https://512pixels.net/2025/06/wwdc25-macos-tahoe-breaks-decades-of-finder-history/ https://512pixels.net/2025/06/wwdc25-macos-tahoe-breaks-deca...
- larholm 1y ago
  Apple changed this in Tahoe Beta 2 https://512pixels.net/2025/06/finder-icon-fixed/ https://512pixels.net/2025/06/finder-icon-fixed/
  - mitchell209 1y ago
    They know that. They’re saying the fact that it ever shipped in the first place should’ve been a warning sign.
    - thepryz 1y ago
      Exactly.
- josteink 1y ago
  I don't get it either. I open the Finder app, and the sidebar is randomly turquoise, over a white background. It looks ugly, and I have no reason why that sidebar (unlike all other sidebars) is that specific colour. It just makes no sense. Edit: Oh My God. I just tested installing my own app on Tahoe, and the DMG looks absolutely broken with what used to be solid edges confined inside a window, now being stretched to the window-edges, blurred by the glass-effect making the header on top unreadable. THANKS APPLE. Jeez.
TomaszZielinski 1y ago
Usually I just go with the flow, because what else I could do :)? But somehow the missing App Laucher made me bit sad (well, to the extent software can make one sad :)) - even though I can always switch to Finder to browse apps, App Launcher has some nice visual quality to it that makes it more pleasant to use for me..
dangus 1y ago
I agree with a lot of what you said but the app launcher was dumb. It was just the iPhone’s Home Screen ported to Mac. Spotlight is way faster than that when you’re at a keyboard. I barely even use the dock, just command space and type in the first few letters of the program I want. Clicking is for people with too much time on their hands.
- etempleton 1y ago
  It is for finding a program or quickly browsing what apps are installed when I don’t know the name. I find it useful in an unfamiliar machine. Yes, like most people, I launch apps primarily with Spotlight.
  - dangus 1y ago
    I could never understand why anyone would use it instead of just Finder > Applications, especially since Finder an give you a nice alphabetical list
oneeyedpigeon 1y ago
My big issue with the icons-in-menus is that they don't align properly. Each 'row' in a menu is an optional icon with some text to the right of it. But when an icon isn't displayed, the text shifts left into its position, meaning that menu text no longer aligns nicely on the left.
gizajob 1y ago
I cannot believe the current state of affairs where me doing a Spotlight search for "drivers license" when I'm looking for a photograph of my drivers license to upload, that instead of finding it I'm now presented with a list of links to listen to, watch, or find out about the song Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo. Why? Why!? Who is this helping? I'm fine with telling my computer that I am 42 years old and male and curmudgeonly and have been using a Mac for a good 25 years now and know how to find songs by Olivia Rodrigo online if I really need them. And okay spotlight can help fill in the blanks on dictionary searches and wikipedia info I GET IT... but my time and my mind are precious to me – if you're forcing me to use Spotlight or making it the way of searching my computer, please PLEASE do not fill my eyes and head with this time-wasting garbage. And I have a MacBook Pro M3 – it has a camera notch hidden in the black menu bar, the text of which now disappears if my mouse isn't up there, thus giving the appearance that my screen shrinks rather than giving me extra viewing real estate. The text is not some kind of distraction when it's above a tab bar filled with a multitude of jumbled icons and an address bar with text on it. But OH! sweeping left now reveals the camera notch in the middle of a WHITE menu bar. Just... Apple... for f*cks sake. I'm paying you. Please employ some people with aesthetic taste and judgement rather than the current cohort of yes-people and logistics wizards. Time for Tim Cook to go. The problem is at the top.
- quesera 1y ago
  You just spent far more time ranting about what Spotlight can index, than it would have taken to open the configuration and turn off the sources you do not want. Cue "discovery" rant. Defaults are chosen carefully, but they cannot meet every user's preferences. So, periodically spend a few minutes exploring the enormous software package that is your OS, and be happier for it. I find this vastly more rewarding than complaining on the Interwebs. YMMV.
  - spiderice 1y ago
    Oh very cool! If you hit CMD+, with Spotlight open it even opens you right to the checklist of sources. Thanks for the tip.
  - 1y ago
sjs382 1y ago
> The side bar, such as on Finder, just kind of floats there. That is fine and looks kind of neat on the Maps app as you can see some of the maps behind it, but on the Finder it is just a white bubble over top of a white background, which... is a choice. Agreed. All of the transparency and liquid glass effects look terrible when they're displayed over a solid color, especially white. That said, they look good over top of something colorful and really AMAZING when displayed over something that's moving (video, whatever). I imagine that the effect REALLY takes off on a display where EVERYTHING is moving, like on top of the real world on a VisionOS display. It's just out of place on MacOS when uses as a dev workstation.

dsego 1y ago

Looking at the Slack icon right now, and it just looks blurry and low resolution, same for Calendar and some others, it's awful.

etempleton 1y ago
The maps icon is the most egregious. It makes my head hurt.
- crossroadsguy 1y ago
  So people do use Apple maps and that too on a mac.

FabHK 1y ago

> 4. The app launcher is gone, and replaced by Spotlight, which is worse. Do you mean the Launchpad? (I've never used it; but always use Spotlight to launch apps.)

basisword 1y ago
The biggest surprise to me from this whole beta period is that a significant number of people used Launchpad. I have absolutely zero idea why when Spotlight has existed for more than 20 years. Why would you ever want to click and page through a giant iPhone screen on a desktop/laptop computer?
- sgerenser 1y ago
  I always forget that Launchpad even exists. I guess it doesn't now. I suppose it might be helpful if you just know "I need that app that looks like X" and don't actually recall the first two letters of the app's name.
  - okhobb 1y ago
    Lol same. Wasn't there something like it in System 7 that also got deprecated. I think back then it was called "Launcher" ... https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Launcher https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Launcher Launching seems easy enough from Finder but you never know about innovation.
- bombcar 1y ago
  If you have multiple ways to do something on a computer/phone, some relatively large percentage of people will fumble around until they figure out a way to do it - and then do it that way forever. So if someone accidentally triggered Launchpad and realized they could see their apps, they might use that forever (not knowing you can put your Applications folder in your Dock and use it as a start menu lol).
  - caycep 1y ago
    they've had a launch-pad-ey thing forever, I remember when our school lab had Mac IIs and Performas, and there was some simplified UI on top of finder which basically was all your apps in giant rectangular icons. I forget what it was called though.

thepryz 1y ago

The original, updated version of the Finder icon alone should have been enough of a warning that the UX designers at Apple have lost their minds and any aesthetic sense, let alone an ability to design interfaces that are functional, efficient, and well thought-out. https://512pixels.net/2025/06/wwdc25-macos-tahoe-breaks-decades-of-finder-history/ https://512pixels.net/2025/06/wwdc25-macos-tahoe-breaks-deca...

larholm 1y ago
Apple changed this in Tahoe Beta 2 https://512pixels.net/2025/06/finder-icon-fixed/ https://512pixels.net/2025/06/finder-icon-fixed/
- mitchell209 1y ago
  They know that. They’re saying the fact that it ever shipped in the first place should’ve been a warning sign.
  - thepryz 1y ago
    Exactly.
josteink 1y ago
I don't get it either. I open the Finder app, and the sidebar is randomly turquoise, over a white background. It looks ugly, and I have no reason why that sidebar (unlike all other sidebars) is that specific colour. It just makes no sense. Edit: Oh My God. I just tested installing my own app on Tahoe, and the DMG looks absolutely broken with what used to be solid edges confined inside a window, now being stretched to the window-edges, blurred by the glass-effect making the header on top unreadable. THANKS APPLE. Jeez.

TomaszZielinski 1y ago

Usually I just go with the flow, because what else I could do :)? But somehow the missing App Laucher made me bit sad (well, to the extent software can make one sad :)) - even though I can always switch to Finder to browse apps, App Launcher has some nice visual quality to it that makes it more pleasant to use for me..

dangus 1y ago

I agree with a lot of what you said but the app launcher was dumb. It was just the iPhone’s Home Screen ported to Mac. Spotlight is way faster than that when you’re at a keyboard. I barely even use the dock, just command space and type in the first few letters of the program I want. Clicking is for people with too much time on their hands.

etempleton 1y ago
It is for finding a program or quickly browsing what apps are installed when I don’t know the name. I find it useful in an unfamiliar machine. Yes, like most people, I launch apps primarily with Spotlight.
- dangus 1y ago
  I could never understand why anyone would use it instead of just Finder > Applications, especially since Finder an give you a nice alphabetical list

oneeyedpigeon 1y ago

My big issue with the icons-in-menus is that they don't align properly. Each 'row' in a menu is an optional icon with some text to the right of it. But when an icon isn't displayed, the text shifts left into its position, meaning that menu text no longer aligns nicely on the left.

gizajob 1y ago

I cannot believe the current state of affairs where me doing a Spotlight search for "drivers license" when I'm looking for a photograph of my drivers license to upload, that instead of finding it I'm now presented with a list of links to listen to, watch, or find out about the song Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo. Why? Why!? Who is this helping? I'm fine with telling my computer that I am 42 years old and male and curmudgeonly and have been using a Mac for a good 25 years now and know how to find songs by Olivia Rodrigo online if I really need them. And okay spotlight can help fill in the blanks on dictionary searches and wikipedia info I GET IT... but my time and my mind are precious to me – if you're forcing me to use Spotlight or making it the way of searching my computer, please PLEASE do not fill my eyes and head with this time-wasting garbage. And I have a MacBook Pro M3 – it has a camera notch hidden in the black menu bar, the text of which now disappears if my mouse isn't up there, thus giving the appearance that my screen shrinks rather than giving me extra viewing real estate. The text is not some kind of distraction when it's above a tab bar filled with a multitude of jumbled icons and an address bar with text on it. But OH! sweeping left now reveals the camera notch in the middle of a WHITE menu bar. Just... Apple... for f*cks sake. I'm paying you. Please employ some people with aesthetic taste and judgement rather than the current cohort of yes-people and logistics wizards. Time for Tim Cook to go. The problem is at the top.

quesera 1y ago
You just spent far more time ranting about what Spotlight can index, than it would have taken to open the configuration and turn off the sources you do not want. Cue "discovery" rant. Defaults are chosen carefully, but they cannot meet every user's preferences. So, periodically spend a few minutes exploring the enormous software package that is your OS, and be happier for it. I find this vastly more rewarding than complaining on the Interwebs. YMMV.
- spiderice 1y ago
  Oh very cool! If you hit CMD+, with Spotlight open it even opens you right to the checklist of sources. Thanks for the tip.
- 1y ago

sjs382 1y ago

> The side bar, such as on Finder, just kind of floats there. That is fine and looks kind of neat on the Maps app as you can see some of the maps behind it, but on the Finder it is just a white bubble over top of a white background, which... is a choice. Agreed. All of the transparency and liquid glass effects look terrible when they're displayed over a solid color, especially white. That said, they look good over top of something colorful and really AMAZING when displayed over something that's moving (video, whatever). I imagine that the effect REALLY takes off on a display where EVERYTHING is moving, like on top of the real world on a VisionOS display. It's just out of place on MacOS when uses as a dev workstation.