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One thing I'm not seeing much of in the comments, that I think is worthwhile to highlight: Every single one of these icons should be available to choose by the

One thing I'm not seeing much of in the comments, that I think is worthwhile to highlight: Every single one of these icons should be available to choose by the user. Some folks make good icons; others do not. Taste is highly subjective, and this applies to user interfaces moreso than user experience. Interfaces should always be customizable; experiences should always be consistent.

dudus 9mo ago
Ghostty is an example of a program that gives you a bunch of different icons to choose from and an easy way to customize it even further. I don't know any other
- stego-tech 9mo ago
  Plex does - if you give them money. A lot of app packages offer customizable icons provided you give them money for the privilege. I disagree with this approach, and vendors that lock such changes down. If a user wants to replace every single app icon with a PNG or SVG of their choosing, that should be permissible at the OS-level. Users should always have the final say over their interface choices, and corporate or software-maker changes regarding aesthetics/interfaces should never override what the user has chosen for themselves. Right now there's strong overlap in interfaces and experiences that make this difficult, if not impossible to execute on. Separating the two again is critical for computing to be accessible to all, as is maintaining a consistent experience throughout interface changes.
- jicea 9mo ago
  GitHub official app icon on iOS is also configurable with ~40 variants.
crazygringo 9mo ago
> Every single one of these icons should be available to choose by the user. They are. You can replace the icon of any app straight in Finder, in the Get Info window. Copy the icon from somewhere else, click the icon in Get Into to select it, and Cmd+V to paste. I mean, you'll need to get the original icon, but that's not too much work. I don't think Apple themselves should be shipping every high-resolution icon they've ever used for every app. OS's are already large enough.
- 1bpp 9mo ago
  Wow, I had no idea you could do that
- eviks 9mo ago
  Will it survive an update/reinstall?
  - hoherd 9mo ago
    No, unfortunately it doesn't. I've also looked for a way to script this and came up empty handed. If somebody knows how to programmatically set a custom icon for an app or arbitrary file in macOS, please speak up.
- svantana 9mo ago
  I've attempted this for the brave browser, which has a horrible icon in my opinion. It works but the original one self-restores after some time, even without updating the app.
pornel 9mo ago
Apple was never keen on customization, and instead they wanted to offer a good experience out of the box as a package (take it or leave it). The problem is that Apple has lost good taste and judgement. And their App Store obsession turned "we've made it so simple you don't need to customize it" into "you're not allowed to touch our precious OS, you additional-service-revenue-dodging bastards".

dudus 9mo ago

Ghostty is an example of a program that gives you a bunch of different icons to choose from and an easy way to customize it even further. I don't know any other

stego-tech 9mo ago
Plex does - if you give them money. A lot of app packages offer customizable icons provided you give them money for the privilege. I disagree with this approach, and vendors that lock such changes down. If a user wants to replace every single app icon with a PNG or SVG of their choosing, that should be permissible at the OS-level. Users should always have the final say over their interface choices, and corporate or software-maker changes regarding aesthetics/interfaces should never override what the user has chosen for themselves. Right now there's strong overlap in interfaces and experiences that make this difficult, if not impossible to execute on. Separating the two again is critical for computing to be accessible to all, as is maintaining a consistent experience throughout interface changes.
jicea 9mo ago
GitHub official app icon on iOS is also configurable with ~40 variants.

crazygringo 9mo ago

> Every single one of these icons should be available to choose by the user. They are. You can replace the icon of any app straight in Finder, in the Get Info window. Copy the icon from somewhere else, click the icon in Get Into to select it, and Cmd+V to paste. I mean, you'll need to get the original icon, but that's not too much work. I don't think Apple themselves should be shipping every high-resolution icon they've ever used for every app. OS's are already large enough.

1bpp 9mo ago
Wow, I had no idea you could do that
eviks 9mo ago
Will it survive an update/reinstall?
- hoherd 9mo ago
  No, unfortunately it doesn't. I've also looked for a way to script this and came up empty handed. If somebody knows how to programmatically set a custom icon for an app or arbitrary file in macOS, please speak up.
svantana 9mo ago
I've attempted this for the brave browser, which has a horrible icon in my opinion. It works but the original one self-restores after some time, even without updating the app.

pornel 9mo ago

Apple was never keen on customization, and instead they wanted to offer a good experience out of the box as a package (take it or leave it). The problem is that Apple has lost good taste and judgement. And their App Store obsession turned "we've made it so simple you don't need to customize it" into "you're not allowed to touch our precious OS, you additional-service-revenue-dodging bastards".