I greatly appreciate the Jobs-era Mac OS X, with its Unix and NeXT heritage; in fact I personally think the high water mark of the Mac from both a software and hardware perspective was the Mac OS X Snow Leopard era. Nowadays I use FreeBSD and Windows, but I would be glad to use a variant of Snow Leopard with HiDPI support, updated browsers, and security patches if such existed.
With that being said, there is something warm-feeling and even whimsical about the classic Mac OS and classic beige Macs. I truly think the Apple Human Interface Guidelines of the 1990s were well written and are timeless recommendations for making great, usable software. I believe designers of today's user-facing software tools should acquaint themselves with a classic Mac running contemporary programs like Microsoft Word 5.1 and the ClarisWorks suite to see great examples of well-designed software. I also like both the System 7 and Platinum themes, with a slight preference toward Platinum. I'm really curious about A/UX, which married the classic Mac OS and Unix, and I'm also curious about Rhapsody, a predecessor to Mac OS X that was based on NeXTSTEP but featured the Platinum theme from Mac OS 8.
To be honest, my switch to FreeBSD and Windows had more to do with hardware (notably the lack of upgradeability in many Macs since Tim Cook took over) and less to do with software. macOS is still a good OS; I use Monterey on my work-issued MacBook Pro. However, my biggest gripes are:
1. The increased iOS-ification of the user interface. I believe a desktop operating system should support desktop workflows and not import at wholesale UI elements that don't make sense outside of touchscreen environments; I have a similar complaint about modern Windows and GNOME.
2. The introduction of notarization.
3. Over the years I've noticed that macOS has gotten more annoying when it comes to notifications. Back in the Leopard era there was a classic commercial mocking Windows Vista's "Cancel or Allow" dialogs. Yet it seems I have to wade through many notifications whenever I'm using Macs these days.
In my opinion, it seems that the old guard from the days of the classic Mac, NeXTSTEP, and early Mac OS X with their deep knowledge of the UI guidelines of those eras has less and less influence at Apple these days, while younger software developers with little-to-no experience with these operating systems but who have extensive experience with the Web and newer operating systems are having more influence on the Mac's UI/UX. Unfortunately the Mac is becoming more like iOS and less like an operating system completely tailored to the desktop computing experience. Don't get me wrong, modern macOS is still a good OS, but I prefer the Snow Leopard era of Mac OS X.
>What’s also ironic was how, at that time, Apple gave Microsoft flack for having so many different versions of Windows, while Apple only had one version of OSX. Now it seems best that Apple makes a consumer and professional version of MacOS, the consumer version with all the pay services and toy stuff, and a minimal professional version that provides a commercially supported version of a UNIX system without all the cruft.
Couldn't agree more, modern macOS is just kind of... annoying. I also don't feel like it really does much if anything better than e.g. Snow Leopard, while simultaneously performing a lot of mostly invisible magic behind the scenes that I wish had some feedback and gave some control over - like all the photo analysis stuff.
With that being said, there is something warm-feeling and even whimsical about the classic Mac OS and classic beige Macs. I truly think the Apple Human Interface Guidelines of the 1990s were well written and are timeless recommendations for making great, usable software. I believe designers of today's user-facing software tools should acquaint themselves with a classic Mac running contemporary programs like Microsoft Word 5.1 and the ClarisWorks suite to see great examples of well-designed software. I also like both the System 7 and Platinum themes, with a slight preference toward Platinum. I'm really curious about A/UX, which married the classic Mac OS and Unix, and I'm also curious about Rhapsody, a predecessor to Mac OS X that was based on NeXTSTEP but featured the Platinum theme from Mac OS 8.