Golden Gate

The development of macOS has always followed a tick-tock pattern, more or less like Intel processors: the tick versions are more exciting and introduce new and spectacular features, while the tock versions are relaxed and focus on integrating these features into the operating system, fixing bugs and optimizing the overall behavior of the system to make it faster and more responsive.

In short, the tick moments innovate the operating system, but it’s the tock moments that make it great and memorable, as happened with Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion, El Capitan, Mojave, or Monterey.

– The Golden Gate Bridge under construction. Source: SFGate.

Golden Gate, also known as macOS 27, already seems to be on its way to becoming a tock. After the disasters of Tahoe, a version of macOS that addressed the many shortcomings (to put it politely) of Tahoe was just what was needed.

Isn’t it a bit early to make that claim? After all, I’ve only been using Golden Gate for a couple of weeks, and the developers’ beta is just on its first (since a couple of days second) version?

I’d say definitely not, and for a very simple reason: ever since updating to Golden Gate, I no longer pay attention to the user interface. I no longer notice the Finder toolbar, the myriad icons in the menus, or the many other graphic inconsistencies of Liquid Glass. I just focus on using my Mac for work.

After all, that’s how it should be. An operating system is not a showcase item, it is not a high-fashion dress that looks great but is impossible to wear. An operating system is the foundation on which a computer operates, and the more transparent it is, the better. If we don’t even notice the existence of operating system’s existence, as happened with the great macOSes mentioned above, this means it is fast and stable and does everything we ask of it without getting in the way or complicating our lives.

There will be time to examine the differences between Tahoe and Golden Gate in detail, but until then, kudos to the Apple developers for their excellent work. It wasn’t easy to fix Liquid Glass without discarding it entirely, but it seems they are on the right track.