A love letter to the loss of Launchpad on my Mac

Macworld

Dear Launchpad,

You know, when we first met in OS X Lion, I thought, Hey, you are nice. Handy, even. I’ll give you a try. And that I did. As it turned out, I not only grew attached to you over time, but I also grew to depend on you. Little did I know that you would become a key part of my Mac experience. You literally opened the world of my Mac to me.

But I upgraded to macOS Tahoe, and now you’re gone. I’m realizing how much you mean to me. I’m at a loss. To quote Matthew Sweet, “I’m out of my mind, out of my mind. Dreaming of you.”

I am a point-and-click guy, even if it’s not the most efficient way to use my Mac. I think I navigate via point-and-click fast enough to cancel out any advantage I might have as my fingers fumble over the keyboard. You, my dear Launchpad, were perfect for my way of doing things. I set up your first page with all the apps I used the most, and put the apps I used the least on the very last page. I could swipe between your pages with ease on my MacBook’s trackpad. And I liked how you filled the whole screen, maximizing the number of app icons you can display. We worked so well together.




Apps, you mean well, I know that. But you and I, we’re not a match.Foundry

Your replacement in macOS Tahoe, the App Library…well, I’m still in the midst of giving it a chance, but it’s not going well. The App Library won’t let me customize the software listing, and even though the App Library displays what it thinks are the apps I want at the top of its list, that’s followed by an alphabetical list. Sometimes that’s okay, sometimes it’s not; it’s proof that Apps just doesn’t understand me the way you do. Plus, Apps confines itself to an unadjustable window size that’s too small. You’ve got all this space, App Library, use it! Launchpad sure did. Sigh.

It’s pretty clear what the App Library wants me to do: use the keyboard. I’m supposed to type the software I want in its search field, but like I said, I’m a point-and-click guy. You get that, don’t you, Launchpad? Yeah, you get it.

I mean, I knew you were leaving. The Tahoe beta was supposed to give me time to get used to you being gone. But there was a way to bring you back. I suspect that was against your will, because you not only left for good during the Tahoe release candidacy, but the hack also breaks Spotlight altogether. You basically said, “I’m outta here, and you better get used to it. Or else.”

Well, I’m trying to get used to you being gone, Launchpad. I really need to change how I do things, and I’m not sure I can. Old habits are hard to break, if they can be broken at all.

We had a good run, Launchpad. Why did it have to end?

–Roman