macOS Big Sur Preview
apple.com
apple.com
Honestly, every time Apple has done anything with the Mac the past couple of years, they've screwed it up. The infamous keyboards that they doubled-down and then tripled-down upon (I have personally had five keyboard replacements). The way Catalina sends the hash of every binary you run to Apple. The built-in Catalyst apps that look ugly and feel out-of-place. The Touch Bar which I still, years later, inadvertently activate several times a day (I've had to remove all the buttons on the right), which they addressed by making mandatory. The recurring bugs and kernel panics that have been lying around for years, unfixed.
I have the least confidence in Apple I've ever had. I'm afraid to run Big Sur, not because it changes things, but because it's Apple who are behind it.
But I have to ask myself: why this release? Why fix bugs in Big Sur, but not Catalina or Mojave? For example, the annoying bug where Mail randomly becomes the active application[1] has been floating around for years and still isn't fixed, and there are only two reasons for this: Apple is stretched too thin and can't spare the developers to work on bug fixes, or Apple doesn't care, and is simply willing to let the Mac languish, taking the reputation hit in favour of increased iPhone sales. The fact that they've overhauled the entire interface means it's not the first one — they do have enough resources to make large, sweeping changes to the OS. So I will be absolutely unsurprised if, ten months from now, I decide to upgrade to Big Sur on a whim, and a couple of minutes in, Mail pops up once more.
Unlikely, given their recent track record. They'll just ignore the bugs in this release until the next big release like they've been doing for the past few versions.
My touch bar had dead pixels (twice), effectively wiping out half the function keys. And when it did work, it was hard to use.
I've been using my MBP as a desktop for the past 8+ months, and while it's slightly better experience, it still sucks that I'm stuck having to buy 3 USB adapters just to make it usable.
lit: `CTRL+[`
I know habits die hard, and "you're holding it wrong" is not a valid excuse- and I know that I also dislike massively not having an escape key.
But for vim specifically; there is an escape sequence and the escape key is an alternative method for that. (similar to how the arrows "work" but hjkl is the "real" way of moving).
I got a USB-C monitor last time I upgraded (LG 27" 4K) and having a single cable to plug in, which not only carries the display signal, but also charges my MBP, AND carries the USB signal so that I can plug wired keyboard and anything else into the hub in the monitor still feels ridiculously futuristic to me.
Dell and HP have higher powered docks, but there are many conflicting reports on if it can deliver 96W to non-dell/hp laptops.
TB3/USB-C is a giant mess that is too confusing for even techies to reliably navigate.
[0] - https://www.caldigit.com/using-the-16-macbook-pro-with-the-c...
If you're sharing a screen via video conference, you can easily hit 90c, with the CPU throttling hard the whole time.
Wait, what?! What are you referring to here? I just updated to Catalina and I wasn't aware of this.
Compared to what OS?
The latest Windows 10 update buggers up Storage Spaces and printing, hard on the heels of another Windows 10 Update that deleted the user's files.
However, a few years ago a Steam update had potential to erase a bunch of data[1].
Is there a Linux option similar to Time Machine or Windows Backup (backing to a local network drive)? I've used things like rsync and restic. They work great for jobby-job like needs, but isn't something I could show a point-and-click user to manage themselves.
How soon did you install Linux on your Macbook Pro 2015? Which distro did you go with? When I get a new Mac I usually test out a few Linux distros and it can take years (if ever) to get decent support. Things like; wifi, palm rejection of trackpad, power management (decent battery optimizations or sleep/wake).
[1] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2871653/scary-steam-for-linu...
My oldest daughter is 16 years old and has always used Linux at home, and she had no problem when Windows was found in some classes in the High School. I think it is possible, as long as you have someone to turn to if there are problems (I am that someone in my family).
Still have an ASUS Netbook with Ubuntu LTS, which allows me to validate the "progress" of Desktop Linux on laptops.
Naturally I occasionally get to deal with it via VMs and server deployments, however for my choice of languages the OS hardly matters anyway.
Serious question? Otherwise I have to respond with LOL. Only people inside the tech bubble would think a Linux desktop was normal, and even inside the tech bubble you truly have to have a reason.
The largest install of Linux as a desktop for a company I've seen has been at a post house where all of the software ran on Linux. The users only used it to launch the specific app they needed. They had TDs (technical directors) to do all of the Linuxy type of stuff.
relevant video: https://youtu.be/bC6tngl0PTI (Tom Scott: Why you can't use CON as filename in windows)
type CON > "\\?\C:\CON"
I'm not sure that was ever true but certainly hasn't been true for over a decade. Neither OS is fully stable (how ever you might define that) and neither OS is a terrible unstable mess either.
It isn't the Mac is so good, it is the alternative is downright awful. From Design, UX, to even technical.
Mail still has a message loss bug. 5 point releases later...
<irony> They truly care about privacy... </irony>
I still haven’t upgraded from Mojave to Catalina because of serious bugs reported by other people (including data loss issues in Mail). I’ll see if Big Sur shows improvements (reported by others) and decide when to upgrade. I don’t even run beta versions of macOS point updates, which is in stark contrast to iOS betas, which have been of better quality (comparatively).
Edit: Apple seems to be ignoring long term Mac users (even the vocal ones) for quite sometime. It was poorer hardware quality and lack of hardware updates for several years. Now it’s software, where it’s been going about removing what makes native macOS experiences great. The Catalyst apps are not “native Mac apps” by any stretch of imagination.
[0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/constant-kernel-panics-...
[1] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/strange-chrome-browser-...
At this new role, the 2019 13inch retina MBP I was given seems to have one or two kernel panics a week on Catalina.
Also, I haven't noticed this other issue lately, but for a couple of months my laptop screen would flicker/distort and times for a moment or two; have not noticed that issue since setting up a home office with external monitor for obvious, current reasons.
https://talk.tidbits.com/t/psa-catalina-spotlight-is-broken-...
It's one of the most recent reasons I have yet to update to Catalina.
Currently have my work desktop (linux + windows for gaming :D) at home for lockdown and a file share/media server (linux) hooked up to the tele. All seems to work. Even my firewire audio interface is more stable on my linux work desktop (it's not supported on Windows 10 > 1903 / OSX > 10.13).
The one thing that is keeping me switching is Apple Music w/ the iCloud Music Library syncing. Legit the only reason I haven't ditched my 10 year old macbook pro yet.
1. playdoh os
2. (more seriously) its pretty obvious they are making it look like ios so that catalyst and pure ios/ipad apps dont look too out of place
personaliy, i think its a bit sad, because it makes the desktop feel less professional and notice the larger fonts, spacing etc... seems like the ui could be used for touchscreens almost, instead of optimized for mouse/keyboard....
Performance was horrible in Firefox on a MacBook Air (mid-2012), which has been dropped from support for this latest macOS.
Apple could do virtualization and run all the way back to macwrite or macdraw. Apple just doesn't get virtualization.
Otherwise, it actually looks okay to me.
However, it looks like this functionality is back, albeit in a different form. You have to do a bit more work to build it in Swift vs Javascript but I don't think that's too bad. Plus it might actually work on iOS as well.
Those square icons really got on my nerve for some strange reason. The previous design at least I know I am using a Mac.
Now I felt like I am using a glorified iOS. It feels more like iPadOS being ported to Mac.
Apple announces something you don't want? They are ignoring the vital issues and focusing only on dumb superficial things which just proves they are going down hill.
Apple announces something you do want? Should have happened years ago, and the fact that they've only gotten to it now just proves they are going down hill.
As they say, "Apple: Going out of business since 1984."
Changes for changes sake are negative for users. The last thing you want to do is change something that was working for users without giving them anything for it.
However a lot of actively developed software today changes because they want it to be "fresh and exciting". Basically because of desire to use changes to market it. But changing anything for that reason hurts usability.
Any change means the user will have to adapt to that change. You want to minimize the user having to adapt to anything. When you do make them adapt you need to give them clear value for that adapting.
Macs usually have large screens, and are driven by a pixel perfect input mechanism. Yet they will now be required to live with a design scheme that is largely designed for devices that would fit in a MacBook touchpad and the primary input for which is a fat finger.
Also, the icons seem to be completely stripped off colors, so I’m not sure where the reintroduction of colors is coming from. Unless you’re talking about the Vista Aero translucent sidebars that are only gonna make things harder to see.
Good thing nothing about that is changing. macOS apps continue to be macOS apps.
> Also, the icons seem to be completely stripped off colors, so I'm not sure where the reintroduction of colors is coming from
Sidebar icons in macOS Catalina and a few releases prior don't have any colours. At all. Those got stripped out a long time ago, maybe as far back as Yosemite but don't quote me.
Now, sidebar icons can inherit an app's accent colour with edge cases designated by the developer or use the system-wide accent colour if the user has selected one.
There is a lot I liked the look of and a few things I didn't like so much but might look better on a real system. Just have to wait and see what it is like to actually use.
From what we saw I don't hate it though. I think it looks quite clean, good spacing (possible touch Macs in the pipeline?), consistent, new icons look good, etc.
I think this really was a historic day as Tim said. After almost twenty years OS X is over. I do kind of wish they had jumped to macOS 14 to align version numbers with iOS and its children.
Yikes.
Apple harps on every year about how their Apple Watch is the most personal device they sell. Personal. Intimate. Love. Magical.
Yet, we still buy the things because we find our own sense of value in it.
Clearly, we don't pay much attention to buzzwords in the marketing. I don't know why you'd start now with some random comment on HN.
Which means that design conventions that happened to be well-optimized for the platform on which they arose are going to suffer.
But don't worry! All the lost productivity will surely be worth the sacrifice if it only provides the one thing that matters above everything when it comes to product and UX decisions: whether it can be used as a positive bullet point on resumes while they're managing up.
This is not a positive. A laptop is not a big iPhone and shouldn't use the same design language. One of the worst thing about Windows 10 is its use of huge, touch-friendly interfaces in an OS most commonly used with a keyboard and mouse. MacOS appears to be headed the same way (and it doesn't even support touch screens).
If not, then I see no reason why the default OS apps that come pre-installed shouldn't look and feel the same.
The same as each other, or the same as their mobile touchscreen counterparts?
Nothing about macOS is being made touch-friendly. Nothing about macOS is being made into an iPhone.
If anything, this release makes it easier for iPad apps to become non-touch-friendly by making it easier to bring iPad apps to Catalyst without having to do complete restylings to match other macOS apps.
That's the benefit of consistent design language. iPad apps become better macOS apps, not the other way around.
The Mac is still a Mac. Desktops are desktops. Laptops are laptops. Separately, in iPad land, tablets are tablets. Nothing about the new design language changes that.
That's only true to an extent. It stops being true when the low-density UI re-design forces the user to take more actions to accomplish the same task. If I have to dig through a deeper menu structure, or flip back an forth between pages instead of having the information all on-screen at once, that change is touch-friendly but hostile to desktop and many laptop users.
In a business setting, sure, but I think you underestimate how much consumers are using touchscreens nowadays, even on their laptops.
The less I think about my keyboard layout or system UI widgets the better. I can see why someone might like the novelty of those changing but for me they are just a means to an end. Any time I spend hunting around menus that have changed or fiddling with a novel keyboard means less time for things that I actually care about.
The reason Windows 8 was a disaster was because Microsoft suffered from the same misconception.
That's exactly what Catalyst is for — to take iPad apps and make them good macOS citizens. Is that not exactly what you want?
A consistent design language makes it easier for iPadOS apps to come to macOS via Catalyst without having to be almost completely restyled whilst also preserving everything makes the Mac a Mac.
Your laptop remains a laptop. Your desktop remains a desktop. Ported apps respect the form factor, not force it to become a tablet.
> "using a consistent design language across platforms"
Apple famously refrained from doing this at first, because for platforms with fundamentally different form factors, use cases and input methods it doesn't make much sense.
I do appreciate some parts of the redesign, but others like reducing the information density make things look nicer but make them less functional. We get it, whitespace is good to let things "breathe". Nontheless:
- I use those buttons that seem to be MIA in the screenshots of the new Finder though (to switch between views, the sort menu, the cog icon with extra actions). Will I have to change my workflow?
- I use a lot of items in the macOS sidebar. In the current Finder, my sidebar can show 12.5 items without scrolling. In the screenshots, it's showing 9. Am I going to have alter my workflow here too?
All of these seem like minor things, but they add up. There's a reason some people still download and learn Vim— the 5 seconds it can save you from each time you reach out to a mouse adds up. It might just be 5 seconds, but you do it _all the time_.
Like vim, this doesn't matter for many people, but for people who use an OS mostly for work, not for excitement or leisure, it can be worrying and annoying.
> "introducing new, well tested convenience features."
My worry here is that they might be popular in iOS, but that doesn't mean they are well-tested per se. Launchpad was a "well-tested" iOS feature (the home screen), but when it first arrived in Lion, it was terrible:
1. It was very buggy, as new software tends to be.
2. It was poorly thought out for the Mac.
- It didn't have a search bar, which makes sense in iOS but not in macOS.
- The only way to edit it was with click and hold, which makes sense on touch devices but is unseen in pointer devices.
- It uses the whole screen, which makes sense in single-app environments but not really on large screens with multiple apps are used. Coincidentally, Apple has realized full-screen experiences are dreadful when attempting to multi-task and changed some of these (Siri, calls on iPad) on the latest iOS.
3. It was in general unnecessary. macOS already has a bunch of ways to open apps: the Finder, Spotlight, the Dock, for some users, the Desktop. This is subjective though.
There's a lot of power-user tidbits on the way some of macOS feature's are implemented right now. You can option-click the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Sound task bar items to bring up extra options or information. People like me who constantly need to read the IP address or access the Bluetooth debug menu rely on these little power features for our workflows. I sure hope Apple hasn't gotten rid of these with the introduction of the Control Center.
[1]: https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/36343-67506-000-lea...
No, because those icons are all still there. The cog button has become a … button, but it's the same menu.
> - I use a lot of items in the macOS sidebar. In the current Finder, my sidebar can show 12.5 items without scrolling. In the screenshots, it's showing 9. Am I going to have to alter my workflow here too?
No, just use smaller sidebar icons. System Preferences -> General.
> 3. It was in general unnecessary.
Depends what you consider necessary. I really think Apple wants to start pushing SwiftUI and Catalyst apps.
One issue with both of these is that apps written in either make completely different looking apps for Catalina and iOS 13.
In Big Sur and iOS 14, they'll look less different, which may help adoption. A Catalyst app with no specific changes made to be a good macOS citizen looks naff on Catalina but looks acceptable on Big Sur — so this helps lower the barrier for iPadOS developers to adopt proper macOS design language.
> I sure hope Apple hasn't gotten rid of these with the introduction of the Control Center
The Control Center demo showed dragging those items out to the menu bar so that they could work just like they did before.
No one can explain why the icons, fonts, and toolbars from 3 years ago aren't good enough anymore. No one can explain why we need constant "refreshers".
Let's say you have a new microwave. Every microwave's controls are a little different, but you know generally the conventions of their limited interfaces. There are presets; separate non-microwave functions like timers; maybe a light and a fan control.
The first few times you use it, it's a little weird. But you use the same one for like 5-10 years at a time. It becomes effortless, second nature. Food in, door shoot, beep-boop-beep by muscle-memory. Your food is ready.
Imagine someone snuck into your home and rearranged the buttons, and changed some underlying functions. Now, when the timer is done, you don't hit the timer button to clear the display--you hold the cancel/stop button that also turns off the microwave. They think it's more logical that way.
It doesn't matter, but it's frustrating. "Why was that necessary?", you might ask yourself. Neither way is fundamentally more or less logical. It's just different.
It's not that changes are bad, but semi-annual changes for utilitarian things seem excessive. You accept a certain amount of change when you replace your microwave, or your car, or your computer. But not when you take your car to be tuned up. They don't replace the break pads, and then change the location of the stereo's volume knob.
I think he philosophy of heavy handed redesign was useful in bringing computer interfaces to up to new hardware specs early on in tech, but we're reaching a point where they should be slowed down in favor of utility. The claim that it is design in the name of usability is no longer true. Call it what it is. It is merely seasonal fashion and nothing more. Some fashions are timeless. We should find them and stick with them as defaults that we are very hesitant to change.
Consistency can facilitate clean design, allowing you to conceal and expose complexity by strongly established conventions, helping to achieve balance on the beauty-utility continuum.
They're also slowing experimenting and merging macOS and iOS UI tooling, which necessitates a change on both parts.
Personally, I also wish they would slow down or stop UI changes.
No one makes a computer that Just Works any more. It's a real problem.
Good point. It’s like post-Jobs Apple has forgotten that design is not how it looks, but how it works.
“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, “Make it look good!” That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” - Steve Jobs
The Mac App Store is probably a fairer comparison.
I wonder how much of the world's coal and gas has been consumed by browsers struggling under the load of Jira.
I really, really dislike the way macOS has looked since Yosemite, and compared to that, I think this one is an improvement overall. The icons have more depth, and there's far more use of color across the UI.
But, it also looks extremely mobile-inspired—I suspect Apple's primary goal was to make iOS ports and apps look less out of place. That's a fine objective, but it also means they weren't designing for desktop and laptops specifically, and it shows. For instance, most of the apps lack title bars, and I'm not sure where I'd click to drag windows as a result.
My guess is that they expect most people to use the application full screen and not to be moving it around. I've got a large monitor and I don't keep my windows full screened so this annoys me.
If done poorly, then it will look horrible because they got the contrast wrong.
High contrast should be used where you want someone to pay attention (like an "exit only" market on a US freeway exit). Low contrast where you want something to fade into the background (like a mile marker).
The problem with "flat" designs is that it seems hard to get it done well. Just think how long it took the industry to get the "ok" & "cancel" buttons to highlight in a consistent way for users.
Just-in-time UI combined with a complete lack of borders and affordances is the stupidest trend and it needs to end.
Apple took off with the .com boom and became a staple of every startup. But since the iPhone they've shifted to being a consumer focused company, and I don't see any reason why they would dedicate too much resources to improving their products for developers/designers.
It's pretty sad because they are still the best option. But people are not happy with them, and it's been getting worse over time. I really think Microsoft has an opportunity to cater to power users and release a really beautiful OS. But not Windows - would have to be something new
I don't really care for the UI changes, but I spend such little time in the UI that I guess it doesn't matter much. The iOS-ification of Mac OS is an unfortunate change. I don't use any of the built-in apps with the exception of terminal.app and finder. Meh.
Most interesting: This appears to be the end of "OS X" as version was listed as "11.0" in the keynote.
Will Big Sur and Mac OS (beyond OS X) continue to be certified UNIX?
The only session the press cares about is the keynote, so geeky stuff hasn't been keynote fodder for several years. Everything but the WWDC keynote will be for a developer audience.
"Mac OS X" was dropped for macOS in 2016.
EDIT: Also meant to point out that every year they have a theme - this year is apparently all interface (as they've probably spent all there time getting ARM working smoothly, and want to minimize the plumbing issues).
I personally think the Platforms State of the Union should be quite interesting today (starts in about 20 minutes) and will be much more insightful.
Sigh, here comes a trove of white-background icons to macOS. Relevant: https://medium.com/swlh/let-s-talk-about-white-app-icons-ce2...
[1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
That said, I still think overall it's a loss in terms of usability. (I find that without shape to distinguish icons on iOS, I often confuse icons that are broadly similar in color when I'm not paying attention, even though the images inside the roundrects are different. I can't be the only one.)
A significant piece of character that's just... gone. I think this is what bothers me more than any iOS-ification of the OS, on a UI/UX level at least.
For a comparison, here is the Press Release for Snow Leopard (https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2009/06/08Apple-Unveils-Ma... here is an excerpt from the text
> For the first time, system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance, and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications. Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a revolutionary new way for software to take advantage of multicore processors. GCD is integrated throughout Snow Leopard, from new system-wide APIs to high-level frameworks and programming language extensions, improving responsiveness across the system. OpenCL, a C-based open standard, allows developers to tap the incredible power of the graphics processing unit for tasks that go beyond graphics.
Simple, useful information. Information and features that matters to software developers.
Instead in this new macOS we got: Safari, Messages and Maps. Apps that are not that much relevant (since people are too hooked in Firefox/Chrome, Fb/Ig, and Google Maps). If Apple wants to gain marketshare in these areas, that's fine. But they are pushing them to their base as a macOS upgrade. Huh.
The only thing related to developers is XCode "improvements". I guess the message is pretty clear now: The macOS is now only good to develop iOS apps and maybe do graphics/audio/video. If you are a web/sys developer it might be a good idea to start looking for something else.
Anecdata: My family uses Safari, Messages, and Maps extensively (and Fb/Ig don't replace Messages, they're something else that gets used.) Don't confuse "tech people" with "real people", there's a world of difference.
The Xcode release is actually pretty big deal for developers. The tooling is updated for this brave new world of ARM cores.
For you and people like you. Those people make up a minority of Apple's audience. It would be stupid for them to alienate everyone else in their marketing materials. But that doesn't mean there isn't real work being done under the hood.
As a power user of a Macbook Pro, this is cutting into my screen real estate and not very appealing to me.
It's more about the compounding effect when other apps adopt this more spacious UI pattern for their title bar, sidebar, etc.
Presumably Apple didn't want to write OpenGL drivers (full, not ES) for their in-house GPUs.
OpenGL drivers still basically have to be there because of WebGL on Safari. And if it's a derivative of the GPU on iOS devices, then the GL driver is mostly already written.
The other question I would have is how this behaves with shaders, such as BSL?
Links:
- https://github.com/LWJGL/lwjgl3/blob/master/doc/notes/3.1.0.md
- https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfxFrom what I can tell, commercial game devs treat Mac gaming as an edge case and mostly only the large engine devs care about Metal support (with exceptions, of course).
If there's a better URL for discussing this, we can change it again.
Edit: it looks like https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline... is probably a better URL for discussing this, so we'll change to that from https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur-preview/.
Edit 2: since https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23606052 posted that and is now on the front page, maybe it's better to just let the discussion pick up there. This thread is pretty generic. Perhaps an article with more detailed information will lead to a more interesting discussion.
I would imagine the changes to Safari could've been made without having to upgrade the OS.
* ARM macbooks
* iOS Apps on macOS
* iOS look-and-feel on macOS
* iOS features like Control Center, Widgets on macOS
Each one of these might be justifiable in isolation, but viewed as a whole it paints another picture.
But I absolutely despise them for making iOS apps installable on macOS. That’s... just terrible.
This WWDC just felt like that Apple decided that macOS should get merged with iOS and converged them. The Mac doesn’t have a future...
Don't use them then? Seems like a useful feature to me for certain utility apps that don't require a proper Mac app/can't afford to develop one.
Can't shake the feeling that a not-insignificant number of people inside Apple now see the future of the Mac just being a place that can run 6 iPhone apps at once and that's it's only strength.
Just from some of the wording in today's keynote.
Does that mean I can ditch my phone and install whatsapp as a standalone desktop app?
Windows via Boot Camp support it, so it’s only a software limit.
It was my single biggest wish for this years macOS update.
https://medium.com/@sebvance/everything-you-need-to-know-abo...
Citing directly from this document:
> You agree to promptly return the Developer Transition Kit to the Apple address designated by Apple no later than thirty (30) days after the end of the Term, or as otherwise earlier requested by Apple (including via email or announcement by Apple on developer.apple.com).
> At the end of the Term, You agree to immediately cease all use of the Developer Transition Kit and the Universal App Quick Start Program.
> Failure to return the Developer Transition Kit may result in the suspension of Your Developer account or termination of Your Developer Agreement.
Admission to the program costs $500. What??? ...
Why did they not mention this anywhere but the terms of service?
[1] https://developer.apple.com/terms/universal-app-quick-start-...
It's also mentioned on the website: https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/
> As part of the program, you’ll have limited access to a Developer Transition Kit (DTK), which will be shipped to you, for developing and testing your Universal apps. The DTK is owned by Apple and must be returned.
It's also the only way to do that, other browser engines are deemed too impure to run on Apple hardware.
> improves on industry-leading performance
According to these benchmarks[1], the only performance category where has a large "lead" is using about 50% more memory than the next competitor.
Why do Apple even bother writing fiction about Safari. It's not like Apple users have any other choice.
[1]: https://www.pcmag.com/news/chrome-edge-firefox-opera-or-safa...
I don't like the new dock design. Maybe they'll change it back to the old dock if the feedback is vocal?
Around the time ruby on rails was becoming super-popular I noticed a lot of developers getting MacBooks through their workplace and that kind of caught on as it was easy to install all the cool new dev tools that came out after that like Node etc. Apple built up a nice cache with developers and from 2007-2018 the circles I ran in you would be hard pressed to find a developer using Windows.
All this time Microsoft were in the background diligently putting together a grand strategy for getting back developer mind-share, and they have done a spectacular job. VSCode + Visual Studio Community Edition, WSL & WSL2, The new terminal experience, supporting Docker, buying GitHub, open sourcing .NET, improving Azure and just constantly tightening up Windows 10.
They've put their best foot forward going into the future and I am so glad because during the time all the cache Apple have built up has eroded. The keyboards, the kernel panics in Catalina, the MacBooks have been unspectacular, they just won't fix bugs, Swift is unused outside of iOS dev, Catalinas false promise of "just click a button to make your iOS app work on macOS", iOS has stagnated feature wise, Xcode is a malignant tumour that rears its ugly face when you try and use git for the first time, and they keep railroading down this road towards iOS-ification of all their platforms.
Developers wanted the iPad to become more like macOS - and with Big Sur it looks like they've pulled a reverse Uno card.
It seems daft to me that you still can't move windows around using keyboard shortcuts without third party software.
Notifications are a huge part of any OS, they need to be treated as a first-class experience, not tucked away into a hidden section you never see unless you click on it.
Because they know their chickens - or rather their frogs.
Mac users are their loudest and most conservative customer sector, and have feared for years that OSX was going to be effectively taken over by iOS. Any big move would have had to face a wave of negative comments and would risk going down in flames. So instead they take things one step at a time - tweak here, tweak there, common icons, common services, Catalyst, we drop an X this year and major rev next year...
The jump you mention will inevitably happen, because in practice it has already happened internally with the yearly matched-release cycle. I predict sometime in the next few years you will have iOS NN + ipadOS NN + macOS NN released at the same time. It makes sense. It just couldn't be done right now because the priority is to keep existing Mac users on board. Frogs must be boiled slowly.
These days, they talk about tiny features in one of the apps (eg. Messages) as if it’s a giant new feature of the OS. Application software is not system software!
This is actually an interesting change of priority. Last time there was a major redesign, iOS got it first and Mac OS X got it later. This time, MacOS gets it first and iOS gets it next year in 2021.
OSX has been through two transition. The NeXT team must be very proud of their foundation they built 2x years ago.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/apple-announces-maco...
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/22/macos-big-sur-is-versio...
So, no upgrade for my Mac Mini late 2012.
F*ck you, Apple. Why on earth I need a less powerful machine to run your latest OS?
The only blocker I've run across so far is that I can't compile Flutter apps for iOS unless I downgrade Flutter. Since I mostly use it to learn and not really leverage, it's not really an issue yet.
I was planning on upgrading to a new MBP next month, but now I'll just wait and see what the ARM machines look like before pulling the trigger on anything.
https://github.com/rmc-team/macos-downloader/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/VirtualBox/Setting_up_a_Virtua...
I’ve been using Safari for a long time because of its relative resource efficiency and nicer design. But lack of good ad blocking and this annoying glitch in Youtube are the two problems that really make me consider switching to Chromium.
I do think the Safari updates look great, though. Webkit may have its governance issues and so forth, but Safari is really a wonderful app to use imo.