I kind of hate macOS Tahoe and Liquid Glass

When I started running the macOS 26 (Tahoe) betas, I didn’t have strong feelings about Liquid Glass one way or the other.

I’ve been running Linux for a while now as daily driver, but since I was thinking that I may have to use macOS on the desktop, I’ve spent a lot of time using both Linux and macOS. Now I kind of hate Tahoe and Liquid Glass.

While getting my Mac Mini (M2 Pro) updated and configured, I was reminded how many times macOS pops up a dialog telling me something needs permissions for something. It feels like I’m constantly clicking “Allow”. It happens so often that I no longer bother even reading the messages. I just click “Allow” and move on. Kind of defeats the purpose of the warnings, no?

Then I tried installing some apps that I’ve been enjoying on Linux, but macOS would deny me because they might be malware. Bite me, Apple. They’re not malware and you know it. I can still force the issue and install the apps, but for how long?

I swore I wasn’t going to weigh in on Liquid Glass because that would make me about the only person who hasn’t. Except that the more I use it, the more it bugs me. Even with the 26.1 “Tinted” setting, it’s awful. I’ll list three things that bug me about Tahoe.

First, those Playskool-inspired rounded windows. Seriously, windows should be square on desktop computers. This isn’t an iPad.

Second, side panels aren’t really panels. They’re like a separate element hovering over the side of my app window. Feels disjointed and I hate it.

Third, the whole Liquid Glass tansparency thing is wrong. The idea of “respecting my content” or whatever is fine, but don’t do it by making parts of my content blurry and unusable while at the same time rendering important UI controls unreadable. If parts of “my content” are going to be illegible, then just hide those parts.

Anyway, many people have written about this in greater detail and more clearly than I, but I wanted to vent a little.

Using macOS was always about the software, hardware, and OS. Apple still makes great hardware, and app developers still make great software, but macOS no longer feels all that much better than alternatives. If I decide to stay with a Mac on the desktop, it’ll be for the apps, in spite of macOS.