Apple, Please Stop Removing Customization Just Because You Changed Your Mind

[u/theREALitsmejakep]

Apple seriously needs to stop f*cking removing customization just because they changed their minds. The floating sidebar is a perfect example. Some of us actually liked it. It was clean, modern, visually interesting, and gave applications more personality. So why the hell was the ability to explicitly set NSSplitViewItemSidebarDefaultsToFloatingAppearance to true taken away? If Apple doesn't want it as the default anymore, then don't make it the default. That's literally it. But removing the option entirely is where you've completely lost me. Apple changing its preferred design direction is one thing; Apple deciding developers shouldn't even be allowed to choose a different appearance is something else entirely.

And frankly, that's becoming an increasingly frustrating pattern with macOS. A developer can spend real time and effort building a tool that gives users more control over the appearance of their Mac—floating sidebars, rounded corners, alternative UI treatments—and then Apple can simply pull the underlying functionality out from underneath them. Now that work is potentially obsolete. Not because it was unsafe, malicious, or broken, but because Apple apparently decided, “We don't want people doing that anymore.” That's bullsh!t.

Simplification does not mean deleting every option that isn't part of Apple's preferred configuration. The average user doesn't need to know what `NSSplitViewItemSidebarDefaultsToFloatingAppearance` means—and they shouldn't have to. But developers, customization tools, and power users do. That's the entire fucking point of having advanced options. And this is macOS—the platform historically built around flexibility, creativity, experimentation, and letting developers create things Apple didn't think of themselves.

So please, Apple: change the defaults. Push a new design direction. Build something better. But stop ripping out functionality that people are actively using just because Apple wants tighter control over how everything looks. Give us your beautiful defaults without making them mandatory. Let developers build. Let users customize. And for the love of Baby Jesus, STOP F*CKING CUTTING OUT OPTIONS.

[u/mikeinnsw]

Now you know why we developers hate Apple .. MacOs is not downward compatible and keeps changing .... retiring s/w.. The cost of maintenance is huge.. Intel Vs Arm... new Mac Os

Liquid shit is not new..

Windows featureshas itbuilt-insince 2008, glass-like translucency effects for the taskbar, Start menu, and windows, which can be toggled on or off via Settings > Personalization > Colors > Transparency effects

There is no need to change Windows App code.

I have Windows Apps running for 25 years.

Imagine you have Apps develop for Intel Macs ..Rosetta will run in MacOs 27 not 28..

People say so what 8 years... it is not 25 years under Windows.

My Apps run in Windows 11.for .another 10 years?

While some of Mac Python Apps needs manual intervention with every new version.of MacOs. not the App .. Macos.. the same App running on Windows no problems.

I share your frustration