The Talk Show With John Gruber 439: ‘A Mitigated Disaster’, With Daniel Jalkut
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Jan 27, 2026 Daniel Jalkut, independent Mac developer and Red Sweater Software founder, returns to vent about macOS 26 Tahoe. They rail on small UI inconsistencies, misused menu icons, and uneven adoption across Apple apps. They debate whether Tahoe is a mitigated disaster, recall Apple’s lost pixel-perfect culture, and discuss how leadership and community fixes might steer a course correction.
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Leadership Change Enables Course Correction
- Leadership change (Alan Dye leaving) is a pragmatic chance to correct design direction without public blame.
- New leadership can reframe changes as a different take rather than an admission of error.
Choose Cohesion Over Novelty
- Apple should prioritize cohesive design rollouts that choose a single direction and commit to it.
- Unifying choices reduces visual incoherence across system and first-party apps.
Control Strip Came From PowerBooks
- Daniel recounts Control Strip history: PowerBook team shipped a bottom-left control strip before desktops got it.
- That early fragmentary rollout frustrated users who wanted the feature on desktops too.