There was an entire episode of Star Trek TOS about this kind of irrational prejudice.

Let Tahoe be your last battlefield.
posted by BrashTech at 11:03 AM on June 24 [17 favorites]

This has been fixed already as per the article itself... In terms of new Tahoe features, I wonder how good the new live translation is given that Siri can't even understand my English.
posted by piyushnz at 11:05 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]

They should flip it back when you turn transparency off.
posted by Artw at 11:10 AM on June 24

I'd just love it if I could find files again, or connect to a VPN and not have my settings trashed at random intervals. Or not get hassled about enabling Siri or subscribing to their music service when I just want my old iPod functionality back.

There was a time in the Jobs era when they even took a breather on updates one year, putting out a major version just to fix problems from the previous major release. Wish they would go back to those days where quality mattered a bit more.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:12 AM on June 24 [17 favorites]

So they’re not doing “It Just Works” any more, sounds like.
posted by Lemkin at 11:13 AM on June 24 [4 favorites]

Sounds like they've moved on to "It Just Sucks". ;)
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:17 AM on June 24 [3 favorites]

I’m not having any problems at the same level as They sucked his brains out! but the number of (still, for now, quite minor) bugs I’ve encountered over the past few years has noticeably increased.
posted by yaj at 11:37 AM on June 24

now make it easier in Finder to just go up one directory level
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:38 AM on June 24 [5 favorites]

"now make it easier in Finder to just go up one directory level"

CMD+Up doesn't do it for you?
posted by techSupp0rt at 11:40 AM on June 24 [4 favorites]

now make it easier in Finder to just go up one directory level


I use CMD+up arrow for that. edit: beaten to it.
posted by piyushnz at 11:40 AM on June 24

One of the things that made me leave The Apple Environment (aka The Walled Garden) was that they seemed to be demoting the Finder away from being a real filesystem. Image files were hidden inside iPhoto, music files in iTunes, the actual files squirreled away in weird places and not really meant to be fiddled with. When I had an iPhone you couldn't really get to the filesystem at all, you could only interact with data within apps. I like my old-fashioned computer metaphors for what a file is, what a folder is, and how to navigate between them.
posted by rikschell at 12:15 PM on June 24 [13 favorites]

First time in 30 years they foreground the darker face and somebody complains so they change it back.

We doing symbolism here? I think we should.
posted by mhoye at 12:29 PM on June 24 [8 favorites]

CMD+Up doesn't do it for you?

WHAT

Learn something new every day!

Still not happy Finder doesn't make the fileystem structure easier to see/visualize tho.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:37 PM on June 24 [5 favorites]

I still miss the rainbow Apple logo.
posted by TedW at 12:44 PM on June 24 [13 favorites]

The fixed Finder icon is fine. But all the rest...well, this is why I pay for Path Finder .
posted by lhauser at 12:46 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]

The way I’ve heard it, it’s an open secret that apple’s major areas - the iPhone and the Mac - are super boring for programmers and they can’t keep people. Also they’re trying to shoehorn in a bunch of iOS-style changes to the operating system, in order to make more money (usually via services like Apple Music), which is incredibly unpopular with Mac power users
posted by The River Ivel at 12:53 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]

make the fileystem structure easier to see/visualize tho.

Finder > View > Show Path Bar ?

Finder > View > Columns ?
posted by zamboni at 12:57 PM on June 24 [14 favorites]

Hot take: this is all jony ive's fault. Jony Ive is an incredible physical product designer, worthy of all the praise. He is a lousy software designer. His shit is visually great, but visual design is a small part of good software design. Ive had physical constraints for his ipod/iphone/macbook designs. There aren't really physical constraints with the software. I mean, there is supposed to be: there's so much functionality where you have to make compromises with the visual design to make it usable. But compromises are always affected by political power. It's not easy to force Sir Jony to adjust his expectations.

And so Apple hires a whole host of designers who worship at the feet of Ives, even the UX designers, and they build stuff that looks fucking amazing, but maybe isn't as nice to use. So now you see things like apple's liquid glass interface, which looks just exactly like what you would imagine apple's interface should, but is a super-hot mess when it comes to usability.

Constraints. Constraints are what make really talented, smart people find amazing solutions to tough problems. When you replace constraints with cults of personality, you usually end up with crap.
posted by nushustu at 1:06 PM on June 24 [9 favorites]

Also they’re trying to shoehorn in a bunch of iOS-style changes to the operating system, in order to make more money (usually via services like Apple Music), which is incredibly unpopular with Mac power users

I get that they are not a non-profit, but once I say no several times, I wish Apple would just get the fucking hint. I love your hardware and UI, guys: you really do not need to nickel and dime me on software I do not want.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:14 PM on June 24

Learn something new every day!

In the hopefully helpful spirit of the other options listed, I'll also point out that you can command-click the folder's name in the Finder's title bar to reveal the folder structure above it. This works in many document based apps too.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 1:33 PM on June 24 [5 favorites]

The content of Photos ("Photos Library.photoslibrary") and Music ("Music Library.musiclibrary") are not stored in files but specially-named folders. You can just right-click (Ctrl-click) on them and choose "Show Package Contents" and navigate them like a regular folder.

You can drag the little folder icon to a terminal (or another application) window and you'll get its path. (This is true for any application – you'll get to the file directly)

Any other Finder / macOS questions? I'll try to live up to my handle today.
posted by techSupp0rt at 1:43 PM on June 24 [14 favorites]

So now you see things like apple's liquid glass interface, which looks just exactly like what you would imagine apple's interface should, but is a super-hot mess when it comes to usability.

I loaded the developer preview on a couple of work devices I use for testing, and had to laugh when beta 2 hit yesterday and I saw they were already rolling back some of the transparency. The menu bar is back if you want it—and I'd bet money it'll be on by default again before they're done. Open folders in iOS look to be a bit more frosted too. It's like they're speed-running all the lessons they learned about see-through menus after Mac OS X was introduced 25 years ago. Each update chipped away at the translucency, at the pinstripes, until we were back to a readable interface.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 1:44 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

The problem with Macintosh® is that you have to memorise arcane commands like "CMD+up_arrow" just to get productive work done.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:13 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]

AzraelBrown: "now make it easier in Finder to just go up one directory level"

There's also Ctrl-click on the folder name in the window header, which lets you go up one or several levels easily.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:16 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

The problem with Macintosh® is that you have to memorise arcane commands like "CMD+up_arrow" just to get productive work done.

Ah yes, while everything else in computing is so intuitive. "Of course ctrl-V means 'paste'!" It's not arcane, it's arcane if you haven't learned it.

Please tell me you're an emacs or vi power user, that would be the peak of irony.
posted by supercres at 2:29 PM on June 24 [9 favorites]

First time in 30 years they foreground the darker face and somebody complains so they change it back.

Have to admit I had the exact same thought.
posted by straight at 2:59 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

Well, you know if Steve J. was still around he'd just say you're looking at it wrong!
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:05 PM on June 24

You do understand that the "darker face" represents the Mac screen, correct? The combined image is that of a smiling human face joined with a smiling computer "face".
posted by SPrintF at 4:05 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

Since Apple is so well-known for their design work, they must have put some thought into this. Right?

Well, I can think of two "symbolic" reasons for the logo redesign.

1. The left side is grey because, uh, Apple computers are usually grey/silver.
2. The left side envelops the right side because digital technology is now mediating most human experiences---communication with phones, vision with the Vision Pro, etc.

Or have I put more thought into it than they did?

I guess since they changed it, maybe so.
posted by heraplem at 4:27 PM on June 24

rum-soaked space hobo > The problem with Macintosh® is that you have to memorise arcane commands like "CMD+up_arrow" just to get productive work done.

Yes, clearly we are all born knowing that *duckduckgoes* alt-uparrow is the obvious way to go up a directory level, this is utterly unnatural. Or maybe sometimes backspace is the obvious and inborn way to do it despite that being the key you normally press to *delete* something, apparently it changes every now and then? I haven't used windows since like 2003 when I was in an animation shop that used it.

Personally I just work in column mode 90% of the time, up/down to navigate within the current directory, l/r to exit it or enter a folder if you're on one.

----

IMHO the better thing for Apple to be doing here if they want to refresh the Finder's icon would be to do something completely different from the icon drawn back in 1983 or so. It's forty-something years old.
posted by egypturnash at 5:17 PM on June 24

Nothing new here, Apple continues to disappoint.
posted by doctor_negative at 6:16 PM on June 24

egypturnash, the only version of windows I've ever used was the Win32S subsystem in a copy of OS/2 I bought in the 90s. Your column-based world sounds like something a chartered accountant could really get into! I would love to glue wallpaper to my desktop and then lay windowpanes atop it, but I'm afraid I must tidy my briefcases full of fonts.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:56 PM on June 24

The problem with Macintosh® is that you have to memorise arcane commands like…

Now see I would argue the opposite is true. macOS keyboard commands are the opposite of arcane. We as users have gotten so comfortable in our ways that we no longer really look at the GUI.   Apple flat out shows you the keys to use to go up a level—it's right there in the Go menu in Finder. But when was the last time you looked at the keyboard symbols in the menus, much less explored said menus? The days of poking around in every corner of the OS are long gone for most of us.

Even niftier, and I'll stipulate this IS a bit arcane, if you have a menu open and press a modifier key like 'option,' the menu commands will update in real time with the new keyboard combos you can invoke. This is system-wide too, so you can teach yourself your favorite app's most obscure keyboard shortcuts just by opening a menu and pressing modifier keys.

macOS has wildly robust keyboard support built in. It's one of the things I miss when I'm working on my windows box at work.  But by its very nature, keyboard control is going to be a bit hidden and only reveal itself to those who go actively looking to use it. I don't know there's a way around that, and honestly it feels right.   It's not in the way of those who don't want to use anything but the mouse, but not so hidden that those who want to use keyboard commands won't be able to figure it out.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 7:01 PM on June 24 [7 favorites]

honestly while we're on the keyboard shortcut tangent, I love the fact that you can just arbitrarily map or remap keyboard shortcuts to any menu bar item you want, and the fact that the Control key is, by default, used almost exclusively by the Terminal means that you have a free custom keyboard shortcut key to use however you please

also I am glad that they fixed the Finder icon, in recognition of the scene implied by the graphic design
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:22 PM on June 24

The way I’ve heard it, it’s an open secret that apple’s major areas - the iPhone and the Mac - are super boring for programmers

i worked in apple software engineering for a decade and i did not observe this in myself or my peers
posted by secret about box at 7:50 PM on June 24 [4 favorites]

(Time Machine and Xcode)
posted by secret about box at 7:51 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]

As usual for Apple, there will be much flapping and clucking among commentators and those who have made disliking Apple a personality trait, and actual users will get used to it in about four days and never touch most of the most objectionable features.

- via comment on Ars Technica re: Apple's OS updates
posted by fairmettle at 10:05 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]

CMD+Up doesn't do it for you?

As a retired programmer/technician/sysadmin I probably count as a "power user", but I am not good with keyboard shortcuts that don't work consistently on every system. As a consequence, my mousing around is fast and accurate and costs me very little time or cognitive load. So I find it both darkly ironic and supremely irritating that the company whose name is practically synonymous with the entire idea of affordances has been systematically "tidying" visual affordances into oblivion since the first iPhone. Keyboard shortcuts are no substitute for obvious visual cues.

This is all of a piece with my instant response to being required to put my hands on any Apple device, even for tasks as simple as having being passed one to look at a photo, being an involuntary jaw clench and teeth grind. Little fuckers consistently manage to sense being handled in ways I would never have thought any designer would want to make a device able to sense, and responding with wholly inscrutable "helpful" behaviour that I have no idea how to back out of. So the Apple owner and I always end up in the same sad little dance:

"It's done this, can you just put it back to what you wanted me to look at?"
"Oh sure, let me just... wait, what even is that? I don't know how you made it do that."
"Me either, that's why I'm giving it back to you."
(a flurry of shaking, reorienting, poking, pinching, pressing ensues)
"OK, there you go."
"Maybe just hold it for me while I peer at it? I don't want to touch it again."

Samsung phones are very nearly as bad, but not quite. My own phone is a $100 Chinese generic thing that's as close to plain vanilla Android as I could find in a commercial offering, it has almost no bells and whistles, and it's just about tolerable. I use a PIN to unlock it because my beard and half-glasses put me beyond the competence of its face recognizer, which is just the way I like it.

I understand and accept that most people actually enjoy technology that's indistinguishable from magic, but I cannot trust such. I need at least some level of clue as to what's going on under the hood, and bitterly resent all attempts to remove any sign that there even is a hood. Among which attempts I certainly include Finder's dedication to obfuscating the existence of a directory hierarchy by default, and its insistence on cluttering the display with extra windows at the slightest provocation. I cannot think of any file browser I've ever used that has annoyed me more often than Finder.

So I find all this hoo-hah about some piddling little change made to its still completely recognizable icon entirely eyeroll-worthy. Honestly, if that's the Finder design decision you find the most objectionable, you need to broaden your outlook.
posted by flabdablet at 12:40 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

now make it easier in Finder to just go up one directory level

Chiming in very late to add that you can hover (until the folder icon appears) and right-click on the folder name in the Title bar of the Finder window, and select any one of the levels above. Depending if you're mouse-oriented or keyboard-oriented, of course.
posted by prismatic7 at 2:05 AM on June 25

Chiming in very late to add that you can hover (until the folder icon appears) and right-click on the folder name in the Title bar of the Finder window, and select any one of the levels above. Depending if you're mouse-oriented or keyboard-oriented, of course.
posted by prismatic7

That is how I do it (except on a trackpad).

I love your hardware and UI, guys: you really do not need to nickel and dime me on software I do not want.
posted by They sucked his brains out!

Don't know how practical it is, but sometimes I wish Apple would offer a stripped down, basics only, version of their OS, that does not change much over the iterations, especially the UI, and doesn't need as much RAM and CPU grunt.

Some of us place higher value on stability and minimalism, including the effort required to keep up with it all.
posted by Pouteria at 5:13 AM on June 25

Finder's dedication to obfuscating the existence of a directory hierarchy by default

As opposed to windows, where the file manager shows me that the C drive is a subdirectory of Desktop, which itself shows up 3 more times in the expanded folder tree? Where there’s 2 entirely different folder trees for programs? Where my settings are sometimes in the same folder as the programs, other times in a special hidden folder you can’t navigate to without arcane comands? Finder might hide a few folders by default but it doesn’t operate on a tangled mess of confusing symlinks. windows is a hot mess.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:58 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]

Y'all blew my little mind with some of these tips today. Thank you. I really need to get religion on keyboard shortcuts for my iMac.
posted by the sobsister at 8:58 AM on June 25

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