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Comments (205)

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  mrbuttons454
  I have been a Mac user since the classic mac days. I waited in line for the first iPhone.macOS/iOS 26 are bad enough that I've begun switching to Linux. I preordered a Clicks Communicator and Pebble Round 2. Switching from a Macbook Pro M4 to an Asus ROG Flow Z13 with Debian.macOS 26.3 updated clang and broke my emscripten workflow.I tried to unrar a file but the version of unrar provided in homebrew is deprecated because it's no longer signed/blessed. I ended up SFTPing the file to a Linux box, extracting, and bringing it back.My son wanted to try a Java minecraft app on his iPhone, but it required insane workarounds to enable JIT to get acceptable performance. This isn't a technical limitation, it's put in place specifically to protect Apple's walled garden, and their precious services revenue.Despite the thousands of dollars spent on these devices, I don't feel like we own them. We can't run code without the platform owner's permission. We are at the mercy of the platform owner, that has been making increasingly worse decisions.I'm really enjoying trying the available alternatives. My hope is that enough of us get fed up, and develop a thriving ecosystem in the open source world. I'll certainly be contributing back the things I build.
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  ordinaryradical
  This is going to be remembered as a comical fumble, in my view.I was fully locked-in to the ecosystem, the phone, the services, the TV, and I am looking for the exits.I’m starting to parallelize to software which will play well on Linux, and when I’m feeling ready (or miserable enough) I will not be looking back.The macOS exodus will be like Hemingway’s line about bankruptcy: very slowly and then all at once.
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  LeoPanthera
  I've been running Tahoe since 26.2, after cowardly skipping 0 and 1.And... it's fine? Am I only using the happy path? Or are people just particularly confident about complaining about Tahoe after seeing everyone else do it.For sure it has glitches, but as far as I can tell, they're the same glitches that were in Sequoia. (If anyone at Apple is reading this, can you take a glance at your NFS client code? It does like to just hang up occasionally.)The only major complaint I have is the window resize target, which seems not to line up properly with the actual window corner, since they gave them Very Rounded Corners.It's also a bit weird that the radius of the VRCs seems to change app to app.But these are nits. I work on Tahoe every day and it seems fine.
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  freetonik
  My partner’s iMac recently died (seemingly the Radeon graphics card had failed, which is not uncommon on 2017 model). It was frustrating to find out that Time Machine was not operational for 8 last months. It was always connected. There were zero indications of any issues. It just stopped backing up at some point. The disk had enough space.In the past I had problems with network attached Time Machine destinations, but now I have zero trust even in the “native” USB-based method.
• rcarmo
  I have been feeling the same way _for years now_, and am writing this on this machine: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2025/11/05/2200 - an Intel MacBook Air running Fedora Silverblue.I have been writing on/about and using Macs for 25 years, have had a bunch of semi-catastrophic failures with Tahoe (https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2026/02/18/1230) and Time Machine (https://taoofmac.com/space/til/2026/02/01/1630), and I have also been running Fedora daily for four or five years.Were it not for Apple Silicon, I would probably be running Linux only today. But after Tahoe, I am very, _very_ motivated to accelerate my transition. And, ironically, I can make GNOME look and feel more like what a Mac should feel like than what Tahoe does.But like I wrote the other day (https://taoofmac.com/space/links/2026/02/26/0806):> The most likely [outcome] is that they will simply carry on without acknowledging any of it publicly and discreetly patch the most critical issues, because they are still making tons of cash on hardware and services and software quality really hasn’t been a priority in half a decade.
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  freetonik
  Coincidentally, I had to leave macOS for a Windows 11 pc about a month ago and it’s… fine. There are absurd bugs and ux decisions, but I honestly think there are different but equally bad aspects of macOS. On the other hand, some of the things in windows land are just nicer.For one, my network samba shares stay connected and mounted through restarts. I could never make this work reliably on macOS.File explorer is good. Finder always felt clunky and awkward to use. In addition, certain class of software exists for windows and not for macOS. Like FilePilot, Anything, MusicBee, Foobar2000 (Mac version of the latter is not the same as the windows version).The biggest issue so far for me is keyboard shortcuts for text editing. Cmd-based movements are great and I have very deep muscle memory by now. I could not find a reliable way to recreate this on windows (I can make the cursor movement work, but some selections don’t work the same).
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  projektfu
  I was a big Mac user. I had a IIcx and an LC, and I evangelized it even when apple stock was $0.95 and the wolves were at the door. I couldn't afford a PowerMac at the time, but I generally used them at the university when I could. I had a desk lamp iMac, then bought the first big screen iMac, which lasted me quite a while. I really liked everything up to Snow Leopard, probably a little beyond that, too.But in a long time I haven't really enjoyed using the mac and I use other systems instead. They got rid of subpixel rendering and now text is blurry on my monitors. The interactions are much more of a chore. Features were removed from Preview and other apps that were better before. I quit using XCode for a few years and couldn't recognize it when I came back. So I use it maybe every 3-4 weeks now. I have no interest in buying another one.I just don't know why they seem to be going out of their way to make the system unfriendly to existing users.
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  giobox
  I genuinely view Time Machine as abandonware at this stage, Apple haven't really invested in it for many years and I would recommend a lot of other third party backup solutions first.
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  benoau
  > Even ignoring bugs and design changes, in which way does it serve users to phase out Rosetta 2, which in a container-heavy world is more or less required for developers due to the ecosystem of ARM64 Linux containers being nowhere near as widespread as for AMD x86-64 ones, and which keeps many applications runnable that otherwise wouldn't be?This is what tells me I'm completely misaligned with Apple's vision of the future.Why would I want an OS that aspires to prevent me from running perfectly good software that runs very well??? And at a time when even smartphones are starting to run x86 software well!That's literally the opposite of what I want from a computer. If I have to choose between losing Mac software vs losing x86 software it is much easier to leave Mac software behind.
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  DrawTR
  Every time I see a comment on the state of Tahoe I look wearily at my current install of Sequoia. I'll have to update at some point. But I'll hold out as long as I can...
• electriclove
  Apple needs a 50% purge in headcount. Yes, they have so much money they don't need to but the organizational bloat there is on another level. The issues brought up in the article have been going on for decades and the right people are needed to address these things.
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  harikb
  Apart from the mess it caused for iPhone and Mac, my watch upgraded last night to 26 flavor. I am not kidding - I can't see anything on the screen now before coffee. Watch has become completely useless for my early morning eyes.What they did to Watch is much worse than what they did to iPhone and Mac
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  subterrane
  Tahoe has this really cool clipboard history feature that just does not work on my work laptop. Maybe some corporate keep-me-safe-ware is preventing it from working but my third-party app, Maccy, has no problem at all, so I guess it's just Apple being Apple these days.I also held out for as long as possible using Safari, but I had to switch to Firefox. Every once in a while I forget the reason I switched and try to switch back and then get reminded. I'm currently in a "I can't remember the reason, but I'm too lazy to go find out" phase. I'm also one of those weirdos that liked the Safari compact tabs and I'm sad they removed it.
• rezmason
  Since Apple turns 50 this year, I went looking for a graphic that symbolizes what I always liked about Apple and the Mac, without implying I condone anything I dislike about them.Here's my vector reproduction of the logo for MacAddict's and Guy Kawasaki's "EvangeList", circa 1997 :https://rezmason.net/evangelist.svg
• 800xl
  I (reluctantly) gave up on the Mac several years ago. Being on a PC might initially seem clunky and unrefined but it is actually very freeing to be able to choose my manufacturer, the OS, components, have tons of ports available, compatibility with older hardware (especially low res monitors). Standards and modularity are a beautiful thing.
• talkingtab
  Apple has created a social system - the company which causes this. Perhaps it could be called "The Next Big Thing" syndrome. In the past this worked for Apple. Unfortunately creating the "Next Big Thing" requires a creative process they collectively do not understand and are not able to instantiate. They could adopt another strategy, but doing so would be an admission that they do not have a clue. So instead they follow a cargo-cult system of enacting the side trappings without understanding the functionality.Personally my guess is the core of the problem is their contempt for the users. The willingness to act directly against the best interest of the users, as this article points out so well, is bewildering. You just have to wonder that a company so large, with so much money and so many resources can be so utterly dysfunctional.The iPhone, the iPod, the early Macs all demonstrated a profound understanding and care for users. And now? Contempt.Oh well.
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  dgxyz
  Yeah this resonates with me. Every single point.Every time they fuck something I move the workload over to Linux, not out of enthusiasm or any ideological purity but because I need to do some damn work. Add in the current geopolitical shit show, rising surveillance culture and the constant push for MRR and the whole "ecosystem" idea of computing and cloud becomes quite distasteful and risky.A monumental moment recently was Reminders which has a horrible bug in it since Tahoe where you are entering several tasks in the scheduled view and you hit enter and carry on typing and it doesn't register the enter until several keypresses later, splitting the last word you typed between two tasks. This is a very very minor but utterly annoying thing which has broken my workflow. I was so fucked off with this happening every day I pulled a sheet of paper out of my printer and just wrote everything on that. And I've been doing that for 4 months now. Reminders is dead. I forget things like I did before, but I get over that.One day I'll wake up and not use the Mac. The iPad and Apple Watch are already gone.
• bluedino
  Each version has had its share of quirks.Other than the dumbing down of the UI and that kind of stuff, Tahoe seems to run fine. Safari seems to have more bugs than usual, though.
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  JackuB
  I’m in a camp where Tahoe is just ugly, but worked fine on my mac and with my usage and devices. On the other hand, iOS 26 is so incredibly bad. Anything from anti-user choices, UI glitches, to keyboard… it’s tiring. It might be the one where I’m pushed to a different OS for the first time. I doubt Apple can fix itself in the near future, with the leadership they have.
• esskay
  macOS is in desperate need of another snow leopard. Theres a very good reason they did a zero feature OS cycle that year. It was unsustainable pumping out so many changes year after year.We're in a way worse position now as they rushed out all the comically poor UI updates (Why do I still have 6 different border radiuses, and about 40 different icon packs being used on the default damn applications?) and the half baked AI crap that I've yet to see anyone use.
• iamdamian
  This has been the first year in a very long time that I’ve thought about leaving macOS. They seem to have lost the plot on software and documentation.It might be nice for someone to crowd source a reasonable list of features they need to improve or document. Could get traction.
• NegativeLatency
  I still have my childhood/family's Macintosh II, been a lifelong fan of Apple (warranted or not doesn't really matter), Tahoe and the rest of the version 26 updates have left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm considering swtiching to Linux. Not sure what I'll do for a phone, but I'm actively replacing Apple, apps, workflows etc with stuff that will work on Linux to switch if it doesn't get fixed soon.
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  p0w3n3d
  TBH I plan downgrade i.e. recovery. I wanted Tahoe because apparently it contains Rosetta with x86-64-v3 support but more I need it in my work, so home computer will be reinstated.Btw isn't Rosetta going to be left but only for gaming and containerisation?
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  sylens
  Part of my focus to begin this year has been identifying cross platform replacements for any Apple native apps I still use, with a preference for open source and self hosted (where possible). The one I can't seem to fully kick is Apple Reminders, but I've been able to replace pretty much everything else.
• chillpenguin
  I'm glad I'm not the only one. What keeps me on mac, however, is the hardware seems so much better than the alternatives. I'd love a macbook quality linux laptop.
• throwaway762423
  “For at least 10 years, every Time Machine set up I have been in charge of, or tasked with maintaining for someone else, has eventually run into an issue where it stops backing up successfully.”Is this with or without feedback that backing up wasn’t successful?
• curvaturearth
  Spotlight has been broken for me for sometime. Nothing seems to fix it
• Sym3tri
  But the glass is so liquid and shiny.
• badgersnake
  Complaining about Finder being awful like it’s 1998.Yes, 28 years later and it’s still awful.
• monster_truck
  Writing has been on the wall for some time now. It's completely unsuitable for serious work, or serious play. I had a massive rant written but it isn't worth it. Fuck emThe M2 and M5 minis I have are the nicest drink coasters I've ever owned.I have unresolved radars old enough to drive, go to war, or even vote at this point. They used to blame Intel's TB controllers. Guess what? They make their own now and the same fucking issues persist! Enjoy the kernel panics
• lowbloodsugar
  Also have an M1 Pro Max. Still not on Tahoe. Ready to buy an M5. Have the cash. Won't until they fix the OS.
• broabprobe
  it's the year of the Linux desktop, again ;)
• chr15m
  Time to switch.
• iwontberude
  Smooth sailing on Tahoe for me. Sorry it’s not working so well for you.
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  jshaqaw
  Apple hasn't been able to ship software in decades.They got bored of computing. Writing was on the wall when they started producing movies because Hollywood people are cooler than nerds and hey why earn a giant cash pile if not for some execs to have fun with it.This is a company which hasn't done anything meaningful to innovate since Steve Jobs died.Yeah I have all Apple gear. It's fine. Whatever. Nicest commodity on the block. But they could have done so much more in the last 15 years.
• michaelbuckbee
  Tahoe introduced some changes to the windowing code that badly disrupted my DisplayPort device that was rock solid on Sequoia. I ended up switching to a new device as a workaround. Window memory use (I have a lot of virtual desktops and extra screens) is much higher and there's a peristent bug where taking a screenshot with CleanShot somehow resets the DisplayPort driver and everything flips out for a minute and it has to rediscover the external monitors. Infuriating.
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  freetonik
  Another issue I wanted to rant about is sleep. My last three desktop macs (Mac mini i7, iMac 5k, Mac Studio M2 Max) would with 50% probability wake up seconds after clicking “Sleep”. I have gotten used to having to do a “double sleep” routine.
• bitwize
  Absent the Satanists who run California and the nation conducting a dark ritual to summon Steve Jobs back from the abyss, the chances of him saving Apple from total enshittification collapse again the way he did the first time are slim to none. It's peak Apple fan to grouse about how rotten everything is in the Fruit Empire, and then conclude "Welp, nothing to be done for it except smoke hopium that Apple somehow gets better."Hint: This is what happens when you commit to joining any single company's ecosystem. No matter if it's Apple, Microsoft, Google, Commodore, or frickin' IBM. At some point, the beancounters are going to smother what drew you to them in the first place, and find ways to nickel-and-dime you whilst flipping the table on you UX-wise hoping to tap some rich vein of unconverted users to continue the illusion of quarterly growth.
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  trimethylpurine
  I've run IT at two different multi-hundred million dollar companies (IT director 15+ years and help desk before that). I want Mac users to know that using a Mac, if you aren't very tech savvy, can have a dramatically negative impact on your career.When yours is the only computer in the meeting that can't load the graphics network share, and you're the graphics expert, your boss will be calling IT and sternly asking why. He/she will learn that the MacOS has known issues with basic file sharing in business networks, among other annoying problems that you keep contacting about, and that Apple will never fix. Your boss will discover that IT recommended that you use a Windows machine, and provided you with viable workflows that meet or exceed all of the needs for your work responsibilities. And that other users don't have these issues when following their guidance. But, you opted for a Mac despite all of that.Your boss will sigh. They will carry that sigh into how they perceive you. They will bring up how annoying your situation is every time they talk with IT.I've heard this exact conversation or many other similar conversations 100s of times in my career. I've heard your boss sigh.Do yourself a favor. If you aren't very technical, don't damage your career over something stupid like which OS you're using. It's the wrong hill to die on.
• recursivedoubts
  "Tog... Now, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time... A long time."
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  whalesalad
  The first 6 paragraphs of this post start like this: For at least 10 years ... For several years, ... For a few months... For several years, ... For a year or so, ... For several years, ...