Also a Mac user for nearly 2 decades. I don't care too much about most of the things mentioned in the article but I absolutely agree with you about the new System Prefs.
Another thing terrible about the Settings app is you cannot navigate it with the keyboard only (at least I have not figured out how). So if your Bluetooth mouse fails (which happens at least once a week for me) you can’t use a keyboard alone to correct it. Nope you have to fish out a wired mouse, plug it in, and then reset Bluetooth or whatever it takes to get the BT mouse working again. Madness.
I can't even get padded date formatting in MacOS these days (leading 0s) in GB/NZ locales without manually running command line things to update defaults, which means the recently-added support for fixed-width fonts in the Size and Date columns in Finder is somewhat pointless...
The new MacOS "list" System Preferences has been a total downgrade in both use-ability and functionality IMO...
Oh that iPadOS System Preferences is garbage. They also need to stop burying stuff in nested modals in there, good god.
Also, while on the topic of their desire to merge iPadOS with macOS, Stage Manager fits neither on the iPad (I own a Pro) nor on a desktop. Give it up, Apple.
I actually like Stage Manager for certain workflows (on both my Mac and my iPad Pro). I don't leave it on most days, but it is actually something I'd miss if Apple removed it.
Apple's PMs removed a feature that was very useful on my MBP: system font size adjustment. Now I must wear my glasses all the time I use the computer. This is not comfortable or fun. I could increase the display pixel size, but then everything looks like garbage when I do wear my glasses.
Apple has lost its user-focus. Its products will only get worse and worse. Fortunately, this creates opportunity for new companies.
Coming from Linux with X11, I really can’t get used to fractional scaling for the same reasons you mention.
Sadly, the Linux world decided to go with Wayland, which explicitly copies this brain damage from MacOS.
MacOS implemented it for backwards compatibility reasons, not because it makes any technical sense. Linux + X11 started where MacOS wished it could be, but then they somehow forgot the history.
Anyway, I’m hoping one of the *BSD’s gives me another 10 years of being able to set the font size without blurring/fisher pricing everything else.
> Sadly, the Linux world decided to go with Wayland, which explicitly copies this brain damage from MacOS.
Linux being what it is X11 will stay around for a long time. There is no Wayland on my systems (nearly all Debian) and I have yet to find a reason for wanting to change that. We are legion, X11 will persevere.
You know, as a new Mac convert I've been looking for this, and could never find it (I guess I expected it to be in Displays, not Accessibility). Thanks!
> Apple has lost its user-focus. Its products will only get worse and worse. Fortunately, this creates opportunity for new companies.
Apple has never focused on the users, it was always their interpretation of what the user wanted.
For the most notorious example of this:
> You're holding it wrong
Using Apple means you adjust to what Apple decides the UX should be like. And if you do, you enjoy a mostly uniform interface with good vertical integration across devices.
If you can't or don't want to, then you shouldn't use Apple products. It's as simple as that
One they missed that I got burned by and am still bitter about: a few years ago (I believe macOS Big Sur) they just up and removed support for 1080i displays. No hardware change, one day 1080i works, you “upgrade”, and then 1080i is suddenly gone. No explanation, just because fuck you, user, I guess.
Thank you, whoever you are on the Graphics & Displays team, for your excellent contribution to the code.
I do find my Macs increasingly difficulty to use, but like many things, Apple would consider quite a few of these features 'lost' as upgrades or part of the natural evolution of platforms. For example, getting rid of kexts is probably a good thing while the Settings app is straight garbage.
On the internet, and especially on Hacker News, any change to anything is automatically bad. There was a lot of complaining about the new settings app, and in the betas it was genuinely buggy.
But then, if you don’t choose to get hung up on it, it’s fine. Layout and location of things might be a bit different than before, sure, but it’s fine.
Because it is considered to be blasphemous by the true believers. This is only half in jest and all the more remarkable for the frequency with which the apostles of Apple need to defend user-hostile changes.
It looks like a combination of Effort Justification [1], some form of Confirmation Bias [2] and some form of Learned Helplessness [3] to me: given the money, time and effort spent in buying into and learning the ways of the Apple world and also due to the way that world creates a visible distinction between those inside the walls and those outside - blue and green text bubbles etc - some users get caught in a vicious circle of gettin the latest Apple thing, finding out about a user hostile change - ports gone from laptop necessitating a herd of dongles, 'butterfly' keyboard breaking due to unavoidable common contaminants, drives and memory soldered to mainboards making user-upgrade impossible, spare parts serialised making user or third party repair impossible as well as the software devolution described here - and needing to decide to either go with the flow or jumping ship, again. They choose to go with the flow but feel the need to defend the change to suppress the feeling they are at the whim of the company.
The "Save As" feature isn't lost. And the modern document model (auto save etc) can be opted out. You can still let the system ask you whether you want to save a document. And the "Save As" menu item can be assigned a custom shortcut that's the same as what it was in Snow Leopard to protect your muscle memory. Instead I appreciate features like having unsaved documents be preserved across reboots.
Sure for the average user who doesn't customize their system, the feature is lost. But is a feature lost if it's really hidden?
Readit News
It's the absolute worst part of modern MacOS IMHO. As a Mac user measured in decades, it's the thing most likely to drive me back to Linux.
[edit: I am curious why this topic has been flagged]
Sadly, while many here on the Orange Website may miss this, the numbers would (probably) show an overwhelming number of iOS -> macOS users.
The new MacOS "list" System Preferences has been a total downgrade in both use-ability and functionality IMO...
Also, while on the topic of their desire to merge iPadOS with macOS, Stage Manager fits neither on the iPad (I own a Pro) nor on a desktop. Give it up, Apple.
OK, it’s objectively terrible compared to every other window manager I’ve used except one.
However, the one it beats is the default MacOS implementation of alt-tab and multiple desktops.
Apple has lost its user-focus. Its products will only get worse and worse. Fortunately, this creates opportunity for new companies.
Sadly, the Linux world decided to go with Wayland, which explicitly copies this brain damage from MacOS.
MacOS implemented it for backwards compatibility reasons, not because it makes any technical sense. Linux + X11 started where MacOS wished it could be, but then they somehow forgot the history.
Anyway, I’m hoping one of the *BSD’s gives me another 10 years of being able to set the font size without blurring/fisher pricing everything else.
Linux being what it is X11 will stay around for a long time. There is no Wayland on my systems (nearly all Debian) and I have yet to find a reason for wanting to change that. We are legion, X11 will persevere.
System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Text
Text Size and Menu Bar Size may allow you to do this adjustment?
I'm using macOS Ventura 13.6.3 on a 2018 Macbook Pro and there is no "Text" section under "Settings > Accessibility > Display".
That was a huge plus to me as an occasional reading glasses user. Which I only discovered after about five years of mac useage.
Apple has never focused on the users, it was always their interpretation of what the user wanted.
For the most notorious example of this:
> You're holding it wrong
Using Apple means you adjust to what Apple decides the UX should be like. And if you do, you enjoy a mostly uniform interface with good vertical integration across devices.
If you can't or don't want to, then you shouldn't use Apple products. It's as simple as that
Thank you, whoever you are on the Graphics & Displays team, for your excellent contribution to the code.
But then, if you don’t choose to get hung up on it, it’s fine. Layout and location of things might be a bit different than before, sure, but it’s fine.
It looks like a combination of Effort Justification [1], some form of Confirmation Bias [2] and some form of Learned Helplessness [3] to me: given the money, time and effort spent in buying into and learning the ways of the Apple world and also due to the way that world creates a visible distinction between those inside the walls and those outside - blue and green text bubbles etc - some users get caught in a vicious circle of gettin the latest Apple thing, finding out about a user hostile change - ports gone from laptop necessitating a herd of dongles, 'butterfly' keyboard breaking due to unavoidable common contaminants, drives and memory soldered to mainboards making user-upgrade impossible, spare parts serialised making user or third party repair impossible as well as the software devolution described here - and needing to decide to either go with the flow or jumping ship, again. They choose to go with the flow but feel the need to defend the change to suppress the feeling they are at the whim of the company.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effort_justification
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
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Sure for the average user who doesn't customize their system, the feature is lost. But is a feature lost if it's really hidden?