First thing I thought of. "Look at how the background beautifully interacts with the translucent menu bar." Didn't we all turn that feature off back in 2007?!

Though in fairness that was partly because it was such a hog on Vista. I've left translucency on in Win 7, though it sure isn't a productivity boost and it ain't 'beautiful' either.

Apple people like to mock Aero's translucency, but I... always liked it. Anyone else? Anyone?

The first release of OS X had translucent title bars for inactive windows[0] as well as a lot of transparency in sheets, menus and other UI elements. A lot off this was to show off the compositing available in the window manager.

I was disappointed when more and more became opaque over time and am glad to see the return of translucency.

0 - http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/dec00/images/appleosx.l.gi...

A lot of it still is translucent, just not a lot. The menus, in-app sheets (save dialog, go-to-path in Finder, etc), Spotlight results panel, the Dock…

Yes, I agree. I'm a professional visual designer, FWIW.

After 22 years on Macintosh, I've completely transitioned to Crunchbang on a MacBook Pro and a Windows 7/Crunchbang dual-boot workstation. I really like the translucency and general look of Win7. I had started to feel like OS X was visually dated, but more importantly, harming my workflow.

For development and design, I am working nearly twice as fast in the OS using Crunchbang, and I've made it look and behave just the way I want it to. OS X is completely non-configurable! Since the only thing I need a consumer OS for at this point is for digital audio, I moved to Win7 as I wasn't about to lay out the $$ for the new, unfathomable, Mac Pro. What is that thing anyway? I worked with a guy in a metal shop to customize a case for my new workstation, tricked it out with an internal pro audio interface with exposed preamps and 1/4" jacks, and made it a 3U rack-mount. That versus a garbage can?

That being said, my 2007 Mac Pro is still ticking and I've been able to upgrade it considerably, though changing the processor was a PITA. It's still on 10.6.8- what I consider the high-water mark of OS X- but I would need Mavericks now, and that needs a 64-bit bootloader. (Couldn't use the hack for this since I have a flashed PC GPU in it and that precludes the hack.) Like I said, I can't fathom buying a new Mac Pro.

The way I see it, Apple is just for consumer devices now, and I love 'em. My iPad is critical to my workflow. OS X? Considered harmful. And visually dated!

I'm really curious what you use for your design process. Are GIMP and Inkscape solid enough now that you can spend all day in them without tearing your hair out?

Luckily I don't have to spend all day in any apps, since I have a lot of varied responsibilities. GIMP is sufficient for me for most bitmap/photo editing work and there's certain parts of it I like better than PS. Inkscape is underpowered; okay, but not my favorite. Then again, neither is Illustrator. In a pinch, I can use Adobe products either on my old Mac or the Win7 box, but that's usually for using old files or opening files from others. (I have a KVM.) It can be inconvenient using non-Adobe tools, but I figure now is a good time to break vendor lock-in. Five years ago I still found GIMP insufficient but that's no longer the case.

Believe it or not, two iPad apps have become really important design tools for me- iDraw, a vector graphics app, and ProCreate, a painting app. They cover most straightforward duties. I was very surprised at their power, and not having to whip out the graphics tablet is nice. Working anywhere from an iPad mini retina is pretty liberating. Obviously the laptop is still needed for on-the-move coding, but again, that's Linux, despite the (good) Mac hardware.

He says he uses Windows 7 as well, FWIW.

Can you post a screenshot? Really love to see what a designer can do with Openbox.

I liked Aero ... but I also liked Vista better than XP, not sure what that means :p

I loved the effect of 'working on glass plates' in Aero. Currently on KDE, I've found a nice windowing theme that does the glass effect nicely.

Yep! I loved it, always have. But I'm a weirdo who really liked Vista too :(

If I haven't experienced the translucent effect on iOS 7 I would be as skeptical as you are. But despite all the amateurish things Apple did with iOS (Oh the icons),the translucency is actually very tasteful and providing a satisfactory sense of depth.

The translucency on Vista is just over the top besides a heavy system resource toll.

I'll have to wait to see how the see-through side panel works in reality to give thumbs up to Yosemite though.

I think this is a great example of control and execution. Aero's excessive borders and ornamentation drove me nuts. Yosemite is very subtle in its approach.

The only difference is that Apple has done it in a tasteful and understood way. Aero looks gaudy af.

A lot of people would probably have a different view on this.

The reason why the supplied link looks gaudy is because of the gaudy desktop image coming through the 'glass', not the actual glass effect itself.