1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
|
Document: WM-077 P. Webb
Category: Operating Systems 2025.11.14
macOS (2025)
Abstract
Trying to make the best of things
Body
Apple’s macOS is in its Windows Vista era.
You’d think that the people in charge of design at Apple would
remember the Vista era. After all, the point of the "I’m a Mac"
commercials[1] was to ridicule Microsoft and their shitty operating
system. Oh how the turns tabled.
I’ve observed widespread dissatisaction about the state of computing
in my circles and it appears as if the Year of Desktop Linux is upon
us. But I’d go so far as to redeclare it as the **Era** of Desktop
Linux. From my friend elle[2]’s explorations with Linux to Valve
announcing the Gabecube[3] (an open‑system from a major company btw),
and the prevalence of people empowered by 3D printing and increased
affordability of components to creating their own cyberdecks, it
seems like a great change is afoot.
I’m obsessed with the idea of user choice and customization so I’ve
been working on the technical feasability of such for systemSOFT[4].
Imagine if (nearly) every component of your operating system could
be swapped.
Take time, for instance; the default component would have your
standard AM/PM or 24 hour configurability. Maybe you could even
toggle adherence to Daylight Saving Time.
Maybe you’re sick of the status quo so you swap it with
Swatch/internet time. But then, what would the Date Modified column
look like in your directories? Or you could mix and match.
Components would be required to have a CLI and API endpoints.
GUI optional.
Anyhoo, more thinking is required to imagine what a "post‑desktop"
interface would look like. A personal data lake as the underlying
store with epheremal windows optimized for the content within, when
you need it, is what I’m trying to envision.
---
A few weeks ago I was trying to change icons on macOS via IconChamp
but it doesn’t work on macOS Tahoe. After doing some digging, I came
upon a CLI called fileicon[5] that allows for customizing file/folder
icons. I then created a script to recursively change all folder icons
in a directory:
```sh
#!/bin/bash
# brew install fileicon
# chmod +x icons-in-folder.sh
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 /path/to/folder [/path/to/icon.icns]"
exit 1
fi
TARGET_DIR="$1"
ICON_PATH="${2:-/Users/netopwibby/Icons/DESKTOP/Mantia/Forstall Folders/Plain — Folder.icns}"
find "$TARGET_DIR" -type d -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d "" folder; do
fileicon set "$folder" "$ICON_PATH"
done
```
You’ll have to change `ICON_PATH` to the **absolute** path of the
default icon you wish to use. I’m using the wonderful Forstall
Folders[6] by Louie Mantia. Also, this process is slow going but hey,
at least I can kinda get the functionality of IconChamp! That being
said, you could probably replicate its UI and easily wrap this script
in a GUI. Maybe I’ll do that, who knows.
Thanks to damien[7], I learned of an app called Mousecape[8] that
changes your cursors[9] on macOS Tahoe!! Never heard of this app
before. Unfortunately, the default cursor doesn’t change for me but
all the other ones do. YMMV
I would love if there was a way to replace Finder but that’s such an
integral part of macOS that it’s not possible. However, I’ve been
trying to spend more time inside of Marta[10], a native file manager
for macOS. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it only has
list view and I have to restart the app sometimes (because of Finder
operations not reflecting in Marta).
---
I’m not giving up on MacBook but my Mac Studio is gonna be replaced
with a Linux box after I get a NAS to transfer all my stuff off it.
The discomfort I feel about using products of tech companies is
offset by the work myself and others are doing to make things better,
a little bit at a time. I’m looking forward to getting comfortable
with Linux and dogfooding my computing hardware concepts. In the
meantime I’m just tryna make do with what I got. 🕸️
References
[1] <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i'm+a+mac+i'm+a+pc+vista>
[2] <https://ellesho.me/page/website/now/#serial-experiments>
[3] <https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware>
[4] <https://systemsoft.works>
[5] <https://github.com/mklement0/fileicon>
[6] <https://lmnt.me/blog/icons/forstall-folders.html>
[7] <https://social.erambert.me/@eramdam/115511297442666179>
[8] <https://github.com/AdamWawrzynkowskiGF/Mousecape-TahoeSupport/releases/tag/PreRelease-v01>
[9] <https://primmr.dev/projects/wii-pointer-cursors>
[10] <https://marta.sh>
|
