I only "follow" because whatever Apple does gets broadcast by every media outlet in existence. Also Google started blindly following Apple design since they killed my beloved blob emojis.

The blob emojis were one of their best features, that's so true! I kid you not, every single time I've used Slack for work, for every single company which used it, someone had already uploaded the blobs! I really didn't understand that move, the current Smile emoji looks psychotic.

It's not a matter of biggest number, it's a matter of consistency.

They have five operating systems, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS.

So currently we have macOS 15, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11 & visionOS 2. That's absolute confusion. Do I have the latest version? Dropping support for an older version, how many years ago was that?

A version number should convey useful information, and the year it was released is useful information. Especially when major updates come every year.

Edit: I forgot tvOS, also version 18. So six operating systems.

Vista called and wants it’s ugly back

reading text isn’t the easiest with all the colors and blurs everywhere

Agreed - I like the look of these things in an abstract sense, but it makes the text really hard to read. I assume hope there's a way to disable it in accessibility settings.

Yes, but Samsung went from S10 to S20 -> 21 -> 22, etc. That move made sense. And even skipping the Note 6 for the (ill-fated) Note 7 made sense as that was just a single number skipped.

iOS 18 -> iOS 26 makes absolutely no sense. Maybe wait until iOS 20, then release iOS 30? IDK, but this is Apple we're talking about. Sense was never in the cards.

It’s not a matter of biggest number, it’s a matter of consistency.

They have five operating systems, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS.

So currently we have macOS 15, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11 & visionOS 2. That’s absolute confusion. Do I have the latest version? Dropping support for an older version, how many years ago was that?

I don't disagree with you on principle, but I still think the implementation is fucking bonkers.

A version number should convey useful information, and the year it was released is useful information. Especially when major updates come every year.

Major updates should come when they're needed, not on a set schedule. CVEs don't wait. Yes, I know patches and security updates are a thing. I still think it's ridiculous. And I absolutely blame Apple for setting the "new thing every year" trend in motion.

I suppose it makes sense for Apple, seeing as a significant chunk of their userbase are complete fucking morons.

I was just discussing this with a friend, I have no clue these days what iOS or macOS version is the latest. I guess this does help but it feels like a Windows 8 to 10 jump in steroids

Apple is crashing down slowly, but surely

This is such a step back to 2005 and those glassy Winamp skins. It looks absolutely terrible. I wonder how Apple users put up with that

what would you have them do? anything else would be just as arbitrary.

jfc relax. it's a number.

i mean yes, but this is a more dynamic transperency that reacts more to backgrounds, merging/separating with other elements, etc.

How would you prefer they handle it?

Just to look at macOS version history,

The first public release was "Mac OS X 10.0", this continued until "Mac OS X 10.7 Lion". The "big cat" became part of the marketing name because the OS & version were a mouthful and throwing numbers around wasn't helpful.

We drop the "Mac" next year, then switch to mountains, but it's not long before we reach, "OS X 10.10" aka "OS ten ten ten".

Well it wasn't long before we simplified further and just said "macOS", but then took a while before we dropped the "10". Now we just get "macOS 15 Sequoia".

For nearly 18 years the Mac operating system had an unnecessary "10" that conveyed zero information.

Though naming it by the following year instead of the release year is clearly a marketing move.

Just to look at macOS version history,

Yeah, I remember when Mac OS X came out. It was a pretty significant improvement from Mac OS 9 (I grew up on System 7/Mac OS 8, dicked around a bit with 9). Unfortunately, they beat that horse until it lost all meaning, and then dragged the corpse until there was nothing left. It was ridiculous 10 years in (looking at you, Microsoft), and was borderline meme status when they finally dropped the OSX branding altogether.

How would you prefer they handle it?

They were doing fine once they dropped "10". Major version updates have a major version number. It was fixed. Done. Why fix what isn't broken? Just because the version numbers of your various operating systems don't match, doesn't mean it's "broken". They're different operating systems. Versioning has lost all meaning at this point. Shit, even Windows 11 still uses NT kernel 10. And before NT Kernel 10? It was 6.3.

What the fuck even is proper versioning anymore.

I'm just ranting into the void now.

I stand by what I said. Versioning exists for a reason. This shit is what happens when marketing and sales retards are given complete and total authority over people doing real work.

iOS 18 > 26 doesn't make sense, but from 26 onwards it's not a problem.

Can't wait for the release of CUPS 26...