Yeah Tahoe has been mostly fine. I have all the liquid glass stuff turned off (via reduced transparency). The grab handles for window corner is annoying, but it doesn't mean the rest of the OS is not good.

There's bugs in the OS, like pretty much every OS, but I rarely interact with them should they manifest.

I don't know. I generally like the UX. The way full screen windows work is a bit unique but I ended up liking it once getting used to it and the related shortcuts. I don't like the lack of window tiling, though.

That said, I still prefer Linux. I think my biggest papercut there has been suspend/power management being broken in some way or another on both laptop and desktop for the last 8 years.

It’s selection bias; the people who complain are the most visible online. Especially HN.

I'm with you, pre Tahoe I've never had an issue with iOS aesthetically, other than lack of customisation.

Then again I never understood the trend to remember fondly windows 98 and those kind of interfaces, maybe it's generational.

There’s no “Tahoe mess”. I’ve used it since 26.0 and it’s good. Different indeed, but good. People love complaining.

It's incredibly bloated. I don't want AI engine in my OS. I don't want Spotlight in my OS. I don't want my OS to load CPU for 10 minutes after boot for who knows what. I don't want my OS to ship with Chess app and lots of other irrelevant software. I don't want my OS to ship with Music app and bother me with subscription offers. I don't want my OS to ship with iCloud app.

They also do strange choices regarding shipped software. For example they ship ancient bash 3, apparently because they hate GPLv3 or something like that. I like GPLv3 and this choice makes macos user-hostile.