I just upgraded to macOS 26. It's 26.2 now, so they've had two point releases to fix the worst things. I assumed there was a degree of hyperbole to the criticism of Liquid Glass. But it's shockingly bad. It reminds me of the worst excesses of the early 2000s, when teenagers with no understanding of usability created 'cool' desktop themes and showed them off. None of the changes have any basis in psychology, they're all just 'some failed artist somewhere in Apple thought they looked cool'.
Enlightenment is frequently a combination of genius and insanity.
The first time you use their terminal emulator, Terminology, it presents a slider up front and center and asks you to adjust it until the text is a readable size.
The internals were terrifying. There’s a Daily WTF about it and it barely scratches the surface.
I remember attending a talk at FOSDEM by one of the Enlightenment folks who was proud of the layer they’d built to do FFI. I really struggled to explain to him that void* and char*is actually not sufficient type information on an argument to be able to do useful bridging from higher-level languages. I need to know the difference between a string and a data buffer, between an input and output parameter, between a pointer where the callee takes ownership or doesn’t, and so on.
At least we can be vaguely confident that the Apple window manager’s approach to passing data around isn’t just “Pass a void*, God will know his own”. Never quite recovered from trying to read that code.
For decades already, we've been living under the yoke and tyranny of "designers" who haven't even studied introductory human-computer interface material. It is shocking to see the incompetence that is promoted to dictatorial power within companies.
It used to be that they were easy to spot: they were the ones who talked about UX instead of HCI. But then some people who knew what they were talking about started saying UX.
That's been the case for a long time now. I ran Big Sur with high contrast, reduced transparency and whatever the low-animation setting was called. I mean, unlike Tahoe, it was kind of usable without high contrast and reduced transparency, it just looked like crap. Low-animations made transitions between spaces less nauseating but that was the only animation that was actually annoying.
Tahoe is something else though. I am speechless, it's like someone ported all of it to GTK and stuck the biggest, brightest, flattest, rounded corner-est theme they could find on xfce-look.org on it, and then installed the blandest icon theme they could find there, too. It's so bad it makes Adwaita look good. If there's any setting that's going to mitigate this disaster, it's not going to be under Accessibility, it's going to be under Self-Destruct and Disposal.
Well-put. I was so put off by it, that it made me leave MacOS altogether, and switched over to Linux. Then my iPhone didn't make as much sense without the Mac, so I switched to Android too.
So Liquid Glass was bad enough to get me to leave all things Apple.
With all it's limitations, Skeuomorphism was so much better that I'd have switched back to iOS 6 looks in a tick if given a chance. The ways of water is not good for universal UI; for a game maybe, but not everyday use.
I find it mildly insulting that Apple offered an 18.7.3 security update to old iPhones (like the iPhone XS), but only offered the same security patch to newer iPhones, like the iPhone 13 mini, as iOS 26.2
They did the work to create the patch release for 18.7.3, 18.7.2 ran fine on iPhone 13 devices, so surely it's not that much work to make 18.7.3 available for iPhone 13s, not just ones that can't run iOS 26, right?
They also surely know that the performance of iOS 26 on old iPhones is notably worse, and liquid glass has mixed reception, so it seems weird to withhold a security patch from the many people that are holding out on 18.x.
Liquid Glass makes sense if you assume that Apple designers thought VisionOS and AR/MR would be the big push of the future, instead of the flop it turned out to be (so far at least). A Liquid Glass UI would be desirable in an AR context where you want to mostly focus on the 'content' and have the UI pull up unobtrusively when you need it.
It still doesn't make sense. They didn't have to make the one platform look like the other, and they always avoided falling prey to that impulse before.
There's no soul in major OSes these days - Windows is a big bloatware and macOS's aesthetics is the result of design for the sake of the design instead of any practical use. No wonder we're seeing this sentiment for an alternative growing.
While I agree, it bothers me that the nicest, most intuitive and usable alternative to this year's macOS continues to be last year's macOS. The best thing is still the best, it's just not as good as it used to be. That should cost them dearly, but I'll still their customer if I buy a computer today. I wish other OSes would compete on that same core competency. I think it would be easier to get users now than ever.
I’m gonna be contrarian here and say that I like quite a bit about Liquid Glass, but I don’t think it’s so revolutionary as to build an OS around it, and my god it’s full of bugs. But perhaps I’m being overly charitable, maybe what I think of as bugs is actually intentional behaviour?!
I do think this is the worst MacOS release I’ve ever encountered (and I still have the public beta CDs for MacOS X), and my iPhone still seems to need a midday charge.
david_chisnall | 15 hours ago
I just upgraded to macOS 26. It's 26.2 now, so they've had two point releases to fix the worst things. I assumed there was a degree of hyperbole to the criticism of Liquid Glass. But it's shockingly bad. It reminds me of the worst excesses of the early 2000s, when teenagers with no understanding of usability created 'cool' desktop themes and showed them off. None of the changes have any basis in psychology, they're all just 'some failed artist somewhere in Apple thought they looked cool'.
gerikson | 15 hours ago
You're giving me Enlightenment desktop flashbacks. I'll postpone updating for now.
skade | 15 hours ago
This must be the most brutal take on Apple Glass I've seen to date.
david_chisnall | 15 hours ago
Yup, it's very like Enlightenment, except that the graphics technology in Enlightenment was impressive for its time.
dsr | 9 hours ago
Enlightenment is frequently a combination of genius and insanity.
The first time you use their terminal emulator, Terminology, it presents a slider up front and center and asks you to adjust it until the text is a readable size.
Why doesn't everyone do that?
david_chisnall | 7 hours ago
The internals were terrifying. There’s a Daily WTF about it and it barely scratches the surface.
I remember attending a talk at FOSDEM by one of the Enlightenment folks who was proud of the layer they’d built to do FFI. I really struggled to explain to him that
void*andchar*is actually not sufficient type information on an argument to be able to do useful bridging from higher-level languages. I need to know the difference between a string and a data buffer, between an input and output parameter, between a pointer where the callee takes ownership or doesn’t, and so on.pja | 11 hours ago
At least we can be vaguely confident that the Apple window manager’s approach to passing data around isn’t just “Pass a
void*, God will know his own”. Never quite recovered from trying to read that code.BenjaminRi | 8 hours ago
For decades already, we've been living under the yoke and tyranny of "designers" who haven't even studied introductory human-computer interface material. It is shocking to see the incompetence that is promoted to dictatorial power within companies.
david_chisnall | 7 hours ago
It used to be that they were easy to spot: they were the ones who talked about UX instead of HCI. But then some people who knew what they were talking about started saying UX.
rtfeldman | 13 hours ago
I found it's less bad if I go into Accessibility and tell it not to use transparency.
It's still very bad though.
x64k | 12 hours ago
That's been the case for a long time now. I ran Big Sur with high contrast, reduced transparency and whatever the low-animation setting was called. I mean, unlike Tahoe, it was kind of usable without high contrast and reduced transparency, it just looked like crap. Low-animations made transitions between spaces less nauseating but that was the only animation that was actually annoying.
Tahoe is something else though. I am speechless, it's like someone ported all of it to GTK and stuck the biggest, brightest, flattest, rounded corner-est theme they could find on xfce-look.org on it, and then installed the blandest icon theme they could find there, too. It's so bad it makes Adwaita look good. If there's any setting that's going to mitigate this disaster, it's not going to be under Accessibility, it's going to be under Self-Destruct and Disposal.
yogsototh | 13 hours ago
same, I had to use:
I didn't turned them back since I set these settings.
voutilad | 6 hours ago
On the bright side, doing this also seems to have made my phone snappier and I think the batter lasts longer (based on gut feel).
david_chisnall | 13 hours ago
I set that setting a few releases ago. I don't even want to try turning it off.
sivers | 7 hours ago
Well-put. I was so put off by it, that it made me leave MacOS altogether, and switched over to Linux. Then my iPhone didn't make as much sense without the Mac, so I switched to Android too.
So Liquid Glass was bad enough to get me to leave all things Apple.
peter-leonov | 14 hours ago
With all it's limitations, Skeuomorphism was so much better that I'd have switched back to iOS 6 looks in a tick if given a chance. The ways of water is not good for universal UI; for a game maybe, but not everyday use.
olliej | 10 hours ago
A friend of mine has realised that the G and L in glass are silent. English really is a weird language.
fanf | 8 hours ago
Apple’s positioning of the text under the YouTube play button was spectacular https://www.techaholic.gr/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/www.techaholic.gr-apple-liquid-glass-youtube.jpg
olliej | 3 hours ago
This is clearly more intuitive :D
ek | 13 hours ago
I find it mildly insulting that Apple offered an 18.7.3 security update to old iPhones (like the iPhone XS), but only offered the same security patch to newer iPhones, like the iPhone 13 mini, as iOS 26.2
They did the work to create the patch release for 18.7.3, 18.7.2 ran fine on iPhone 13 devices, so surely it's not that much work to make 18.7.3 available for iPhone 13s, not just ones that can't run iOS 26, right?
They also surely know that the performance of iOS 26 on old iPhones is notably worse, and liquid glass has mixed reception, so it seems weird to withhold a security patch from the many people that are holding out on 18.x.
kwas | 12 hours ago
that upgrade was even available on the 18 branch... if you had developer beta enabled.
yawaramin | 10 hours ago
Liquid Glass makes sense if you assume that Apple designers thought VisionOS and AR/MR would be the big push of the future, instead of the flop it turned out to be (so far at least). A Liquid Glass UI would be desirable in an AR context where you want to mostly focus on the 'content' and have the UI pull up unobtrusively when you need it.
pzel | 10 hours ago
YAGNI vindicated yet again. They reinvented everyone's experience for the worse in the name of a future that never arrived.
kevinc | 5 hours ago
It still doesn't make sense. They didn't have to make the one platform look like the other, and they always avoided falling prey to that impulse before.
rubymamis | 6 hours ago
There's no soul in major OSes these days - Windows is a big bloatware and macOS's aesthetics is the result of design for the sake of the design instead of any practical use. No wonder we're seeing this sentiment for an alternative growing.
kevinc | 5 hours ago
While I agree, it bothers me that the nicest, most intuitive and usable alternative to this year's macOS continues to be last year's macOS. The best thing is still the best, it's just not as good as it used to be. That should cost them dearly, but I'll still their customer if I buy a computer today. I wish other OSes would compete on that same core competency. I think it would be easier to get users now than ever.
doctor_eval | 6 hours ago
I’m gonna be contrarian here and say that I like quite a bit about Liquid Glass, but I don’t think it’s so revolutionary as to build an OS around it, and my god it’s full of bugs. But perhaps I’m being overly charitable, maybe what I think of as bugs is actually intentional behaviour?!
I do think this is the worst MacOS release I’ve ever encountered (and I still have the public beta CDs for MacOS X), and my iPhone still seems to need a midday charge.