macOS Tahoe

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Liquid Glass UI and Overall Aesthetic

  • Dominant reaction is negative: many call the design “Fisher Price,” “Vista/Aero” or “cheap Linux theme,” citing oversized rounded corners, heavy padding, and floating “glass” panels that reduce information density and look unfinished.
  • Transparency and tinting are criticized for hurting legibility (text on moving/white backgrounds, dark-on-dark issues) and creating visual clutter; several people report literal eye strain.
  • Multiple, inconsistent corner radii, misaligned controls, clipped scrollbars, and icons loading late are frequently cited as signs of poor polish and QA.
  • Some like the fresher, more “playful” look, especially on iOS, and a few say they adjusted quickly or find visibility between overlapping windows slightly improved.
  • Many immediately enable “Reduce transparency” / “Increase contrast,” but note side effects (ugly menu bar, overly high contrast in web content).

Usability, Accessibility, and Information Density

  • Accessibility advocates argue Liquid Glass effectively “disables” users, forcing them into accessibility settings just to make the OS legible; people report dark text on dark backgrounds in macOS, iOS, and CarPlay.
  • UI is widely seen as less information-dense and less “desktop-like” (larger hit targets, more white space, floating panels), worrying users who work with many windows or smaller screens.
  • Launchpad is gone as a distinct grid launcher; many are surprised because they relied on it for visual app discovery. Others are happy that Spotlight has effectively absorbed that role.

Spotlight and Power-User Enhancements

  • Spotlight is much faster for many, gains actions/Shortcuts integration, app-specific search (e.g., search inside Mail from Spotlight), and a built-in clipboard history (Command+4).
  • Some hope this lets them drop Raycast; others say it still lags Alfred/Raycast in flexibility and relevance ranking (long‑standing complaints about not prioritizing most-used apps).
  • A few dislike the new lower-density Spotlight layout and still see indexing bugs or CPU spikes.

Developer / Under-the-Hood Changes

  • Native Linux container support (Apple’s container runtime, based on virtualization.framework and kata-containers) is widely seen as the most genuinely “new” technical feature; several hope to finally drop Docker Desktop.
  • Terminal gains 24‑bit color, Powerline glyphs, and new themes; some may switch back from third‑party terminals.
  • Other nerd notes: Apple Sparse Image Format, Notes gaining Markdown import/export, TextEdit’s new styling toolbar.
  • Some report serious regressions: Emacs and other apps slowing due to NSAutofillHeuristicController (with a defaults flag workaround), Settings still janky and in some cases worse.

Performance, Stability, and Upgrade Strategy

  • Experiences are mixed: some M‑series users report better battery life and “solid” performance; others see sluggish UIs, beachballs, hot devices, and broken Spotlight indexing.
  • Longstanding advice is repeated: don’t install .0 on production machines; wait for 26.1–26.3 or even a year. Several people are explicitly skipping Tahoe entirely and staying on Sonoma/Sequoia.
  • Developers note app breakages and behavioral changes that require significant updates, reinforcing the practice of lagging one major macOS version behind.

Hardware Support, Longevity, and Lockdown

  • Tahoe is expected to be the last macOS with Intel support; some owners of late‑Intel Macs are frustrated by rapid obsolescence and consider OpenCore Legacy Patcher or Linux.
  • Comparisons are made to Windows’ much longer app compatibility window; others point out the cost in technical debt.
  • Gatekeeper tightening and the removal of “allow apps from anywhere” are interpreted by some as slow movement toward a Mac App Store–only future, though others see no concrete proof yet.

Comparisons, Alternatives, and Direction of macOS

  • Many long‑time Mac users feel Apple no longer targets power users; they see Macs as a lifestyle/consumer brand and are actively testing or switching to Linux (KDE, GNOME, Fedora Silverblue, Framework/ThinkPad laptops).
  • Several argue modern KDE/GNOME desktops now feel more coherent and productive than macOS and Windows 11, especially for keyboard‑driven workflows and dense UIs.
  • Others remain happy with macOS overall and view the backlash as overblown or cyclical; they expect Apple to refine Liquid Glass over subsequent point releases.