One Size Does Not Fit All

In a previous essay, I briefly expressed some thoughts about why Liquid Glass is inappropriate for the Mac:

I’m having a much harder time seeing how Liquid Glass will benefit other platforms like the Mac or Apple TV (where Apple doesn’t even make the screen). Forcing tactility where it’s not needed or wanted feels like a misstep.

I’ll now go into depth regarding these thoughts.

In 2010, John Gruber wrote The Future of the Mac in an iOS World for the Macworld back page. He explained why the Mac was still so important in the new world dominated by the iPhone:

It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light.

…

When I say that iOS has no baggage, that’s not because there is no baggage. It’s because the Mac is there to carry it. Long term — say, ten years out — well, all good things must come to an end. But in the short term, Mac OS X has an essential role in an iOS world: serving as the platform for complex, resource-intensive tasks.

It’s been fifteen years since he wrote that — have we reached the point where the Mac can come to an end?

I’d say not.

Apps like Final Cut Pro on iPad are an impressive achievement, but they lack the features, file management, and expansive screen real estate of the Mac. It’s a great tool for casual editing on the go, but I can’t imagine Apple saying that the Mac app is end-of-life without there being a huge uproar.

Another example is Xcode: even though the hardware on iPad and Mac shares the same processor, there is still no port of the user interface. And even if you can whittle the complexity of an IDE down to fit on a smaller screen, you’d still have problems with locking down the app. On the Mac, Xcode doesn’t run in an app sandbox and does not use the hardening that prevents certain security exploits. iOS mandates the use of both these things: it’s not even an option for app developers.

Xcode also sports 54 entitlements that let it do things other apps can’t. Things like authorization, device pairing, and inspecting the memory of other processes. A port of Xcode to iPad would immediately make it an attack surface for hackers.

So while iPadOS has obviously gotten more capable, I don’t see it displacing the Mac desktop as the place where the heavy lifting gets done.

Now let’s talk about that heavy lifting.

It’s done by professionals who have highly tuned desktop spaces and workflows. Windows and controls are in just the right place so focus can be wholly devoted to the task at hand. Everyone’s workspace is different and as unique as the person who created it.

If you’re someone who’s only using email, a web browser, and some messaging apps to get stuff done, changes to your desktop appearance aren’t going to be disruptive. It’s also likely that you’ll appreciate changes that make it look like your phone.

If you’re doing anything more complex than that, your response to change will be much different.

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a semi-truck looks like? Watch this short tour!

Professionals on the Mac are like truck drivers. Drivers have a cockpit filled with specialized dials, knobs, switches, microwave ovens, refrigerators, and pillows that are absolutely necessary for hauling goods across country. Those of us who are making movies, producing hit songs, building apps, or doing scientific research have our own highly specialized cockpits.

And along comes Alan Dye with his standard cockpit, that is beautiful to look at and fun to use on curvy roads. But also completely wrong for the jobs we’re doing. There’s no air ride seat, microwave oven, or air brake release. His response will be to hide these things that we use all the time behind a hidden menu.

A beautiful Porsche 911 cockpit that’s perfect for high performance driving. But be sure to compare the angle of the steering wheel with the previous photo.

It’s no wonder our reaction is somewhere along the lines of “fuck off”. Or maybe something a little more polite and eloquent. The bottom line is that one size does not fit all: we don’t want a Mac that looks or works like a phone, tablet, watch, or TV.

Worse, this situation is going to be like notifications on the Mac: a minimal design that mimics other platforms, and completely annoying in day-to-day use.

Liquid Glass is currently in a barely presentable state on iOS. It’s going to be like iOS 7 and take another year to sand down the rough edges. And then several more years to tone down the design, as with Aqua.

With the Mac typically lagging other platforms, I don’t expect to see any design improvements on my desktop for several years. It’s going to be an unpleasant and lengthy slog with various accessibility workarounds in place until the standard design looks decent. Or maybe, like with notifications, that will never happen because Alan Dye knows best.

My Mac has been a truck since the beginning of this century. When my desktop computer got Unix and Aqua it was the perfect platform to craft my cockpit. It’s going to be really hard to abandon that and create a new one, but the way things are heading, it feels likely.