Mac OS X Lion to tone down the Aqua
The Aqua interface has been a staple of Mac OS X since version 10.0, but now it appears that Apple is toning down the Aqua appearance of its operating system in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. As you can see from the screen shot above, Apple has removed a lot of the Aqua trimmings from drop-down menus; it has also taken the pill-shaped Aqua buttons and given them a more flat, rectangular appearance.
In addition to the changes above, Lion has also stripped out OS X's Aqua scroll bars and replaced them with iOS-like scroll bars that fade away when not in use. The white pill button found in the upper-right corner of a Finder or app's window, which shows or hides a window's toolbar, has also now been replaced with a full-screen button.
I'm a fan of the new look myself. I'm glad Apple hasn't totally abandoned the Aqua interface, but it's nice that it's been toned down. If you want to see more of the subtle changes listed above, click on over to AppleInsider, which posted the above images.
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The Aqua interface has been a staple of Mac OS X since version 10.0, but now it appears that Apple is toning down the Aqua appearance...
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aww more and more we r getting closer to windows design.
idiots.
Personally I miss brushed windows in mac os. :(
Hello KDE... bye lovely OSX
April 13 2011 at 2:54 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyGod I love aqua style in Snow Leo. If that's what they do with interface in Lion, I'll refrain from upgrading as long as I can (given I'm still not interested in its features).
April 12 2011 at 9:44 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyI hope they add an indicator to let you know you can scroll down in windows once they hide the scrollbar. Notice in the images after the click-through that you can not tell you need to scroll to see all available choices in the font size list. A small indicator to let you know you can/need to scroll is important.
Agree with losing the 'candy' look, but not the 3D look. What's better about flat? Hope there's a way to customize to the detail level.
April 12 2011 at 5:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe square buttons look like Windows. Horrible. Every other OS has square buttons: Linux, Windows, Android. The rounded buttons are a distinction of Mac OS!
I prefer the cool rounded buttons.
Note that these interface changes are not necessarily final - and I'd guess that they are not final.
In the past, when Apple has made major UI changes like these - for example, in Leopard, Tiger, and Panther, the initial developer previews for the OS have never featured the final UI. I think that this is the case here too, but we'll see.
I can't find screenshots, but I'm pretty sure that the last developer preview of Tiger before Apple released the gold master had a completely different menu bar style than the one they went with in the final release.
Lion is really looking great. My only complaint is with iCal. I prefer the initial version of iCal in the developer preview. The leather trimmed version just looks over the top. I love beautiful software, but only when the extra visual features add functionality.
April 12 2011 at 4:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAgree. It looks neat in the images I have seen here on TUAW, but not as a default.
April 12 2011 at 5:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis is good, I don't like the lollipop Aqua interface elements much. I use a control panel called iLeopard to remove them and make things look more like iTunes with the grey blue.
April 12 2011 at 4:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt's amazing to me how tastes can be so wildly different. I have a violently negative aesthetic reaction to the new iTunes sidebar icons. I simply can't use it. Without the iTunes 109 hack, I'd be using an older version of iTunes. I feel that it's a losing battle, though. Seems like iTunes is often the leading edge of what's coming in Apple's OS design. I really, really, really hate that flat, gray look. Seems I'm in the minority, but I prefer my OS "lickable."
April 12 2011 at 7:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI agree with DJR.
I had never hacked a Mac program before. But I also do not run iTunes without iTunes 109 applied.
The grey interface is quite bland.
Also, the lack of color on the menus shown in this article could reduce recognition.
The lack of color in some of the new UI offerings remind me of running on a Mac Classic where the only option was black and white.
I like the IOS interface on my iPhone but I feel it does not work on a Mac.
Man I hope they lose the spinning beachball as part of this!!
April 12 2011 at 4:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySo far they haven't. It's still in the latest preview.
April 12 2011 at 5:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe spinning beachball has a semantic meaning that is fairly easy to grasp. This application has stopped responding. Hover your mouse over another application (or your desktop) and still a beachball? Your computer has stopped responding. One indicates a need to "force quit" (kill -9) a specific application, the other infers moving your hand to the power button.
I, for one, like the beachball. As a tech support agent, it's actually fairly easy to describe in a luddite-friendly way, and does help as a diagnostic tool. (Followed by a trip to Console.)
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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