{"slug": "macos-sequoia", "name": "macOS Sequoia", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "macOS 15, Apple's desktop operating system for Mac computers, released in 2024.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 3.752, "rising": 1.02, "first": "2025-11-26", "latest": "2026-10-18", "why": "HN commenters like Sequoia as a stable, less annoying alternative to Tahoe and macOS 27, and several prefer its UI to the newer design.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Preferred UI", "Stability"], "caveat": "Multitasking", "short_quote": "So far I've kept to Sequoia as the least annoying version", "icon": true, "domain": "mrmacintosh.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://mrmacintosh.com", "pricing": "free", "aliases": ["macOS Sequoia"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Sequoia as a stable, less annoying alternative to Tahoe and macOS 27,", "cites": [{"id": 795741392, "item_id": 49733837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733837", "by": "lambda_foo", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So far I've kept to Sequoia as the least annoying version", "excerpt": "Early on with OSX I would update early because the new features in the OS were truely interesting (AFP, Dtrace, Spotlight, Early Siri, Messages sync with iPhone). Yes all very developer oriented, but I am a developer and that's primarily what I use my machines for. Releases like Snow Leopard and Tiger were full of novel features. Now I find most of the copy is dedicated to things I couldn't care less about like gener", "context": "developer", "use_case": "developer desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 759615072, "item_id": 47475942, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475942", "by": "alifeinbinary", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "OS 15 is rock solid and it looks great", "excerpt": "I use my Mac for film scoring and music production, so I have a long-standing practice of keeping my operating system one major version behind for stability reasons. If you want to do the same and at the same time avoid those annoying Tahoe update notifications then simply enable beta updates for OS 15 in settings. I don\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll ever update to Tahoe because I dislike the UI so much but honestly OS 15 is rock s", "context": "film scoring and music production on Mac", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hide macOS Tahoe's Menu Icons"}, {"id": 755209729, "item_id": 47200608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200608", "by": "DavidPiper", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me", "excerpt": "I accidentally hit the wrong button a few weeks ago and upgraded to Tahoe. I didn't think it was that big a deal at the time, I'd just been putting it off. But having used it for a few weeks now I can confirm it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me. I use none of the new features it has introduced, and the changes to existing features are just worse. Some UI animations are slow and jittery - and this is on an M4", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Block the \u201cUpgrade to Tahoe\u201d alerts"}, {"id": 802313904, "item_id": 50144619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144619", "by": "Audiophilip", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "excerpt": "Because Liquid Glass is an abomination. I use both 27 and 15 on different computers and Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "context": "runs both macOS 27 and 15 on different computers", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL"}]}, {"text": " and several prefer its UI to the newer design.", "cites": [{"id": 802313904, "item_id": 50144619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144619", "by": "Audiophilip", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "excerpt": "Because Liquid Glass is an abomination. I use both 27 and 15 on different computers and Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "context": "runs both macOS 27 and 15 on different computers", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL"}, {"id": 759615072, "item_id": 47475942, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475942", "by": "alifeinbinary", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "OS 15 is rock solid and it looks great", "excerpt": "I use my Mac for film scoring and music production, so I have a long-standing practice of keeping my operating system one major version behind for stability reasons. If you want to do the same and at the same time avoid those annoying Tahoe update notifications then simply enable beta updates for OS 15 in settings. I don\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll ever update to Tahoe because I dislike the UI so much but honestly OS 15 is rock s", "context": "film scoring and music production on Mac", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hide macOS Tahoe's Menu Icons"}, {"id": 755209729, "item_id": 47200608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200608", "by": "DavidPiper", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me", "excerpt": "I accidentally hit the wrong button a few weeks ago and upgraded to Tahoe. I didn't think it was that big a deal at the time, I'd just been putting it off. But having used it for a few weeks now I can confirm it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me. I use none of the new features it has introduced, and the changes to existing features are just worse. Some UI animations are slow and jittery - and this is on an M4", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Block the \u201cUpgrade to Tahoe\u201d alerts"}]}, {"text": " The only complaint is one user's sense that multitasking feels worse on Sequoia.", "cites": [{"id": 736895824, "item_id": 46055989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46055989", "by": "slurpyb", "date": "2025-11-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Multi tasking seems worse on sequoia", "excerpt": "You can only look at one thing at a time so its a single 34 ultrawide Multi tasking seems worse on sequoia\u2026 i cant fully articulate it yet", "context": "", "use_case": "multitasking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your monitor setup?"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Preferred UI", "summary": "Commenters find it nicer to use than Tahoe and macOS 27, whose UI changes they dislike.", "quotes": [{"id": 802313904, "item_id": 50144619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144619", "by": "Audiophilip", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "excerpt": "Because Liquid Glass is an abomination. I use both 27 and 15 on different computers and Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "context": "runs both macOS 27 and 15 on different computers", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL"}, {"id": 759615072, "item_id": 47475942, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475942", "by": "alifeinbinary", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "OS 15 is rock solid and it looks great", "excerpt": "I use my Mac for film scoring and music production, so I have a long-standing practice of keeping my operating system one major version behind for stability reasons. If you want to do the same and at the same time avoid those annoying Tahoe update notifications then simply enable beta updates for OS 15 in settings. I don\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll ever update to Tahoe because I dislike the UI so much but honestly OS 15 is rock s", "context": "film scoring and music production on Mac", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hide macOS Tahoe's Menu Icons"}, {"id": 755209729, "item_id": 47200608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200608", "by": "DavidPiper", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me", "excerpt": "I accidentally hit the wrong button a few weeks ago and upgraded to Tahoe. I didn't think it was that big a deal at the time, I'd just been putting it off. But having used it for a few weeks now I can confirm it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me. I use none of the new features it has introduced, and the changes to existing features are just worse. Some UI animations are slow and jittery - and this is on an M4", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Block the \u201cUpgrade to Tahoe\u201d alerts"}]}, {"label": "Stability", "summary": "Described as rock solid and the least annoying recent version.", "quotes": [{"id": 759615072, "item_id": 47475942, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475942", "by": "alifeinbinary", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "OS 15 is rock solid and it looks great", "excerpt": "I use my Mac for film scoring and music production, so I have a long-standing practice of keeping my operating system one major version behind for stability reasons. If you want to do the same and at the same time avoid those annoying Tahoe update notifications then simply enable beta updates for OS 15 in settings. I don\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll ever update to Tahoe because I dislike the UI so much but honestly OS 15 is rock s", "context": "film scoring and music production on Mac", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hide macOS Tahoe's Menu Icons"}, {"id": 795741392, "item_id": 49733837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733837", "by": "lambda_foo", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So far I've kept to Sequoia as the least annoying version", "excerpt": "Early on with OSX I would update early because the new features in the OS were truely interesting (AFP, Dtrace, Spotlight, Early Siri, Messages sync with iPhone). Yes all very developer oriented, but I am a developer and that's primarily what I use my machines for. Releases like Snow Leopard and Tiger were full of novel features. Now I find most of the copy is dedicated to things I couldn't care less about like gener", "context": "developer", "use_case": "developer desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}]}, {"label": "Downgrade target", "summary": "Recommended as the version to downgrade to from Tahoe.", "quotes": [{"id": 760523105, "item_id": 47532694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47532694", "by": "ProllyInfamous", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend the latest Sequoia installer", "excerpt": "I have used and owned Apple products since 1992. Absolutely agreed about the gatekeeping \u2014 just as example, you cannot even update your MacOS without being online unless you create a full USB Installer. For your particular situation, presuming your hardware supports it, you can use MrMacintosh guides [0] to downgrade your OS from Tahoe \u2014 I recommend the latest Sequoia installer \u2014 all officially downloaded via Apple l", "context": "Apple user since 1992", "use_case": "downgrading from Tahoe", "switched_from": "macOS Tahoe", "story": "Apple Just Lost Me"}, {"id": 755209729, "item_id": 47200608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200608", "by": "DavidPiper", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me", "excerpt": "I accidentally hit the wrong button a few weeks ago and upgraded to Tahoe. I didn't think it was that big a deal at the time, I'd just been putting it off. But having used it for a few weeks now I can confirm it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me. I use none of the new features it has introduced, and the changes to existing features are just worse. Some UI animations are slow and jittery - and this is on an M4", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Block the \u201cUpgrade to Tahoe\u201d alerts"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Multitasking", "summary": "One user feels multitasking is worse on Sequoia but can't say exactly why.", "quotes": [{"id": 736895824, "item_id": 46055989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46055989", "by": "slurpyb", "date": "2025-11-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Multi tasking seems worse on sequoia", "excerpt": "You can only look at one thing at a time so its a single 34 ultrawide Multi tasking seems worse on sequoia\u2026 i cant fully articulate it yet", "context": "", "use_case": "multitasking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your monitor setup?"}]}], "who": [{"by": "Audiophilip", "context": "runs both macOS 27 and 15 on different computers", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144619", "date": "2026-10-18"}, {"by": "lambda_foo", "context": "developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733837", "date": "2026-09-16"}, {"by": "ProllyInfamous", "context": "Apple user since 1992", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47532694", "date": "2026-03-26"}, {"by": "alifeinbinary", "context": "film scoring and music production on Mac", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475942", "date": "2026-03-22"}], "tags": ["for developers", "for music production", "for staying a version behind", "for downgrading from Tahoe"], "use_cases": ["daily desktop os", "developer desktop os", "downgrading from tahoe", "music production", "multitasking"], "compared": [{"slug": "macos-27", "name": "macOS 27", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50141909", "title": "macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49732036", "title": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517701", "title": "Apple Just Lost Me", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47469331", "title": "Hide macOS Tahoe's Menu Icons", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198977", "title": "Block the \u201cUpgrade to Tahoe\u201d alerts", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46049168", "title": "Ask HN: What is your monitor setup?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802313904, "item_id": 50144619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144619", "by": "Audiophilip", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "excerpt": "Because Liquid Glass is an abomination. I use both 27 and 15 on different computers and Sequoia is just so much nicer to work with.", "context": "runs both macOS 27 and 15 on different computers", "use_case": "daily desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL"}, {"id": 795741392, "item_id": 49733837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733837", "by": "lambda_foo", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So far I've kept to Sequoia as the least annoying version", "excerpt": "Early on with OSX I would update early because the new features in the OS were truely interesting (AFP, Dtrace, Spotlight, Early Siri, Messages sync with iPhone). Yes all very developer oriented, but I am a developer and that's primarily what I use my machines for. Releases like Snow Leopard and Tiger were full of novel features. Now I find most of the copy is dedicated to things I couldn't care less about like gener", "context": "developer", "use_case": "developer desktop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 760523105, "item_id": 47532694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47532694", "by": "ProllyInfamous", "date": "2026-03-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend the latest Sequoia installer", "excerpt": "I have used and owned Apple products since 1992. Absolutely agreed about the gatekeeping \u2014 just as example, you cannot even update your MacOS without being online unless you create a full USB Installer. For your particular situation, presuming your hardware supports it, you can use MrMacintosh guides [0] to downgrade your OS from Tahoe \u2014 I recommend the latest Sequoia installer \u2014 all officially downloaded via Apple l", "context": "Apple user since 1992", "use_case": "downgrading from Tahoe", "switched_from": "macOS Tahoe", "story": "Apple Just Lost Me"}, {"id": 759615072, "item_id": 47475942, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475942", "by": "alifeinbinary", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "OS 15 is rock solid and it looks great", "excerpt": "I use my Mac for film scoring and music production, so I have a long-standing practice of keeping my operating system one major version behind for stability reasons. If you want to do the same and at the same time avoid those annoying Tahoe update notifications then simply enable beta updates for OS 15 in settings. I don\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll ever update to Tahoe because I dislike the UI so much but honestly OS 15 is rock s", "context": "film scoring and music production on Mac", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hide macOS Tahoe's Menu Icons"}, {"id": 755209729, "item_id": 47200608, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47200608", "by": "DavidPiper", "date": "2026-02-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me", "excerpt": "I accidentally hit the wrong button a few weeks ago and upgraded to Tahoe. I didn't think it was that big a deal at the time, I'd just been putting it off. But having used it for a few weeks now I can confirm it is a strict downgrade over Sequoia for me. I use none of the new features it has introduced, and the changes to existing features are just worse. Some UI animations are slow and jittery - and this is on an M4", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Block the \u201cUpgrade to Tahoe\u201d alerts"}, {"id": 736895824, "item_id": 46055989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46055989", "by": "slurpyb", "date": "2025-11-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Multi tasking seems worse on sequoia", "excerpt": "You can only look at one thing at a time so its a single 34 ultrawide Multi tasking seems worse on sequoia\u2026 i cant fully articulate it yet", "context": "", "use_case": "multitasking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your monitor setup?"}]}