Apple’s macOS 26 “Tahoe” arrives with Liquid Glass, a system-wide redesign that makes the menu bar fully transparent, rounds window corners, and introduces floating sidebars and toolbars across core apps. It’s a bold swing meant to unify Apple’s platforms — but the rollout is exposing design seams that heavy Mac users can’t unsee.
The pain points users call out
On Reddit, the biggest flashpoint is Finder’s new floating sidebar, which creates a “double bezel” effect — a secondary border inside the window that some describe as un-modern and visually noisy. Others point to mismatched corner radiuses, uneven toolbar heights, and finicky padding that make adjacent windows feel like they come from different OS builds.
Even Apple’s own apps don’t always match perfectly. Compare a redesigned app with a compact, minimal title bar (like Terminal) against one with a fuller, button-rich header: the corners and top chrome can look different. The effect is magnified when a third-party app hasn’t yet adopted the new components.
Apple’s intent — and where it lands today
Apple’s documentation is explicit: windows are rounder, the menu bar is fully transparent, and sidebars/toolbars use Liquid Glass to “reflect and refract” content while drawing focus to what matters. Apple also allows tinted and even clear app icons, which changes how the Dock reads at a glance. The theory: more cohesion with iOS/iPadOS and a lighter, content-first feel. The practice: some users see clutter and lost hierarchy, especially on large monitors with many overlapping windows.
Why it looks inconsistent right now
Two simple reasons:
- Framework adoption lag. Until developers rebuild toolbars/sidebars with the new APIs, their apps retain the old chrome — so mixed setups clash.
- Radius-by-context. In the new system, the corner radius can vary with the window’s header elements (think: concentric curves), so not every app will share the same corner treatment.
What to expect next
Historically, Apple sands down rough edges in early point releases, while app makers gradually re-skin to the latest HIG. If that happens here, Tahoe should feel more consistent by default — without Apple having to freeze the design. Until then, the “double bezel” aesthetic and mixed chrome will remain the flashpoints to watch across the next few updates.
Apple has become completely unreliable, continuing to pull the wool over our eyes with self-promotion, boasting about changing the world but not focusing on how they’re changing it.
Empty promises: Tahoe is ugly. The liquid glass doesn’t work, and since the 26.1 update, it can no longer be disabled (up until 26.0.1, there were terminal commands).
They’re more interested in preserving their own obscenities, rather than addressing the real problems.
The user interface is absolutely unfriendly.
The clicks keep increasing for everything you need to do, like the contacts app, for example.
The Music app has become a real disaster. This forced use of the playlist view is an abomination of information, and it’s not customizable. The magnificent “Songs” view inherited from iTunes is underrated, and now, if you want to find a song with a simple CMD-L, you’re forced to go to the playlist view.
Apple is now worried about getting things done, since it’s behind and its research and development is a joke copied left and right, but it no longer cares about “how” things should be done.
That fantastic, magical intuitive way in which the machine understood you is gone. Tim Cook and his band of overpaid, illiterate managers are finally killing the myth.
My MAC has slowed considerably, the fingerprint log in button stopped working (I’ve set it up three times since upgrading), I truly dislike the Apps organization (I miss being able to organize my programs myself—now I have to search for them individually, Microsoft Office is a good example).
I find myself thinking seriously about going back to Windows.
This does seem like Apple’s Windows 8 moment.
I absolutely HATE the new operating system for the Mac. I think it is the most disjointed, inconsistent version I have ever seen. It’s as if Apple decided to make all these weird changes to the UI just to do something new. I hate the rounded corners. The changes to the Finder are just pointless and ugly. I cannot stand the changes they have made in the music app and there are so many other reasons to hate it. It’s not better. It’s as if they put eye candy above functionality. I really do not understand why they can’t just focus on fixing the bugs in each version of the operating system first and foremost, instead of focusing on stupid things like this which create even more bugs that the user has to deal with on a daily basis. And there are so many bugs in this version of the operating system. I really believe it’s the worst version I have ever used and I have been a Mac user since the early 90s.
I really miss STEVE JOBS!
I can’t agree with you more.
I totally agree. Steve Jobs would not have approved this pointless design clutter. I updated my work Mac, but having seen how awful things look, especially the rounded corners, I will leave my MacBook where it is until they backtrack and get things right.
I agree, 100% with everything you said. I cannot stand Tahoe. I was running macOS Sequoia on my MBP M4 Max and I dropped my laptop and cracked my screen. I had to bring it to Apple to have my screen replaced. They told me that to replace my screen they needed to use a tool, (I can’t remember what they said it was for), but they would have to upgrade me to Tahoe to be able to use this tool to replace my screen. When I got my laptop back. The screen was gorgeous like the day it came out of the box but they upgraded it to Tahoe.
I tried for about 20 minutes and didn’t really like anything about it. Basically everything you said. I don’t know why they are pushing the max so hard to look like an iPad. I want MacBook Pro M4 Max, not an iPad M4 Max. That was the fastest I ever read my USB installer to put on a clean install of Sequoia.
As bad as this is, I would never go back to Windows. I’m too invested in the Apple ecosystem. But if this is going to be the future of macos then I’ll run Sequoia for the next several years until it’s no longer supported. I’m kind of hoping maybe they’ll see all the negative criticism and make some changes.
I also long for the days of Steve Jobs. He would’ve never have stood for all this nonsense with macOS with them trying to constantly redesign it and make it look like a big iPad. I prefer the work style and feel of yesteryear your Mac operating systems, like Lion. That being says sequoia is still beautiful and I wish they would just build on Sequoia add new features and work the kinks out at that try to reinvent the wheel every year.
But I guess it’s really nothing else they can do. Without Steve Jobs they have no more creative vision and all they keep doing every year is just rinsing and repeating operating systems and every iPhone gets a better battery, a new camera and a little faster processor.
100% with you and your comments. I have had iOS 26 for less than a day and I already despise it. I am NOT putting it on my main machine!!
Not a fan. Wish I hadn’t updated. Very disappointed.
Safari with the sidebar enabled is nice 😉
Click on the website for the screenshot.
Which design genius thought it was a good idea to float MacOS 26 Music controls over five lines of track information at the bottom, thus obscuring them, while leaving an ocean of empty white space at the top?
Form over function.
I installed os26 and iOS26 and find that the cosmetics are just that, a bit annoying. Maybe under the hood the programming is more solid but the UI; rounded corners, moving search windows in itunes and other apps, just look more cluttered. I’m like WTF. Could have done less and still won.
I don’t really understand why radical OS UI tweaks like this are done. Think Windows 7 to Windows 8, or 10 to 11. There’s no good practical reason for it. I can see slight tweaking here and there. Add some “glass” but leave the corners alone. This Tahoe mess looks like something designed for children. And don’t get me started on the Tabs in Safari! Almost enough to make me use Edge or Chrome instead.
Yeah, there were some tweaks needed but this is just dumb.
I agree. I’m so disappointed.
I had to move to Chrome instantly because of those tabs. Terrible. So disappointed.
You’re spot on: it looks like a kids’ edition OS. Very lame.