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Every default macOS wallpaper

hcarvalhoalves
20 replies
1d
Sunspark
8 replies
22h2m

Debatable. They're visually too busy and noisy to see all the time.

nomel
3 replies
13h44m

I agree completely. The best wallpaper is pure black. I haven't used anything other than black in ~20 years.

jacurtis
1 replies
10h35m

black wallpaper will be awesome for battery life once OLED laptop screens come out

hbn
0 replies
4h5m

I mean I guess if your primary use of your laptop is sitting on the desktop with no windows open, just staring at it?

tambourine_man
0 replies
5h21m

50% gray is the way to go. I've been doing it since we had to simulate gray by dithering black and white pixels.

Someone
3 replies
21h37m

I think laptop users rarely see much of their wallpaper, and that’s a significant fraction of users.

You could even argue that, if you see your wallpaper close to “all the time”, your monitors are larger than you need most of the time.

MSFT_Edging
2 replies
19h34m

Jokes on you, I give my terminals a slight opacity so I can see the wallpaper all the time.

Sometimes I'll keep an empty workspace up just to declutter and focus on something on the other monitor.

StefanBatory
1 replies
9h21m

Same - I always keep some opacity on my windows and I use gaps on i3

It's not necessary, I could as well set black wallpaper and no gaps, but I like it so it's good enough excuse ;)

MSFT_Edging
0 replies
4h58m

It just feels good, like soft, indirect, amber lighting.

post_break
4 replies
23h18m

The fish one on my 2006 white plastic macbook takes me back.

yreg
1 replies
19h15m

It was also used in many marketing materials for the original iPhone. (Although the default wallpaper was the Earth one, I believe.)

xattt
0 replies
16h4m

9:42

data-ottawa
0 replies
17h0m

For me it's the grass one, and creating Adium themes to complement it!

alltrue1
0 replies
22h16m

Still have mine and that is definitely my wallpaper

xanderlewis
1 replies
22h12m

The second one. Yes!

xattt
0 replies
20h43m

The lore behind the second one was that it was taken by Steve Jobs.

I remember seeing it on the Leopard keynote. It was glorious with the translucent menubar that ditched the rounded corners.

marpstar
0 replies
20h5m

I worked at Best Buy circa 2005 and we had a single Mac Mini on the floor that had the fish wallpaper and it always drew me in. I had no interest in Macs at the time, but there was something alluring behind that wallpaper.

lldb
0 replies
14h30m

I noticed they recently brought back the clownfish as a built in option on iPhone!

justworkout
0 replies
12h38m

These were the exact two I had in mind. I never used default wallpapers aside from these two.

jrmg
0 replies
14h38m

I love the grass backdrop, but that folded over tip near the center-top always jumps out at me.

ChrisMarshallNY
17 replies
1d1h

The one that mystifies me, is why Apple pulled their original Dubai At Night screensaver[0].

[0] https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=766810966790684 (This seems to be the only place to find it online).

rgovostes
6 replies
1d

I was in a room of Apple TV engineers when the screensaver of I-110 in LA came on. Everyone agreed that it caused mild anxiety. I'm glad I don't see it in the rotation anymore.

https://bzamayo.com/watch-all-the-apple-tv-aerial-video-scre...

pimlottc
2 replies
23h42m

The videos on this page don't work for me (tried Chrome and Firefox)

zbirkenbuel
0 replies
23h19m

It links off to `https://sylvan.apple.com/` which has a name mismatch cert error. If you follow the url in the console (and ignore the cert error) you can download it. Not super convenient but there you are.

rvnx
0 replies
23h4m
ravetcofx
0 replies
1d

I don't know why anyone would want to look at gross car dependent hell. Not something to be in awe of

Gigachad
0 replies
19h51m

It's a beautiful recording of a dystopic society.

Affric
0 replies
21h9m

Weirdly I that always happened to me and I thought I was the only one.

mig39
6 replies
1d1h

I'd take a guess and say that Dubai is one of those places that's a bit paranoid of aerial imagery?

Was this filmed with a drone or helicopter? Is it possible the right "permits" weren't obtained before flying over the rush hour traffic?

madeofpalk
3 replies
1d1h

There's still a daytime top-down Dubai screensaver video on Apple TV I believe.

randgoog
2 replies
1d1h

My Apple TV shows downtown LA.

madeofpalk
1 replies
1d
randgoog
0 replies
18h41m

Thank you for these! I think I'll have to enable a setting on mine to get the other screensavers.

ChrisMarshallNY
1 replies
1d1h

I have no idea. It’s an awesome video.

I have a couple of friends that used to work for Apple, and neither one has any idea why.

10729287
0 replies
1d

Could something be copyrighted here ? Eiffel Tower isn't, but lights are : https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/business/use-image-of-eiffel...

viraptor
0 replies
11h49m

That's weird, it immediately made me think of the Genshin impact loading screen. https://youtu.be/rBnfA4pXw6U

cwizou
0 replies
21h26m

The files are still available in both 4K and 4K HDR versions, I still have them by default in Aerial if you miss them.

ace2358
0 replies
22h27m

I thought you could pick that categories in the settings, I swear I turned off the city ones cause I hate the city and I don’t live i. A city.

vanilla_nut
16 replies
1d

I wish more OSes would work with independent photographers to compile a set of beautiful wallpapers. It used to feel easy to find good wallpaper online, but nowadays, especially with macOS's hiDPI settings and my personal desire for #000 true black wallpapers to hide notches and camera holes, it can feel very difficult. Search engines don't yield good results for 4k or 5k images, and a lot of the hi-res wallpaper subreddits have disappeared since their API debacle.

I source solid wallpapers from a couple of OSes for use in macOS:

* https://stories.gregannandale.com/raspberry-pi-desktop-image...

* Ubuntu has some default hits (and misses): https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/every-ubuntu-default-wallpaper

* Ubuntu hosts a wallpaper competition (most years) for photographers all over the world: https://ubuntu.com/blog/winners-of-the-21-10-wallpaper-compe...

* and here's a somewhat-outdated repo of wallpapers from a bunch of Linux distros: https://github.com/LinuxKits/Distro-wallpapers -- I'm especially fond of the Elementary OS images.

bbrks
4 replies
22h18m

Try searching at somewhere like wallhaven.cc[1], which aggregates wallpapers with good tagging, colour, size and ratio-based searches.

A lot of the wallpapers there come from other sources like Flickr, interfacelift, Reddit, 4chan (for better or for worse, /wg/ isn't too bad), or just direct uploads.

I wouldn't say credit is preserved particularly well at all times, which is a shame, but it is just a reverse image search away usually to find the original.

[1] https://wallhaven.cc/

xanderlewis
1 replies
20h52m

I get all of mine from https://unsplash.com.

edu
0 replies
20h13m

+1 to unsplash

xattt
0 replies
15h50m

A lot of amateur wallpapers have this weird cliché aesthetic. It’s the same two-thirds framing, and (at least to me) some intangible form of unresolved tension or a general feeling of the photographer trying too hard (vs an impromptu shot).

jwells89
0 replies
20h38m

Another vote for wallhaven, have found several high quality 5k and 6k+ desktop pictures there, as well as some for odd aspect ratios (e.g. 5k portrait). Its predecessor Wallbase was also great.

One thing I appreciate is that its users do a decent job of tagging images so it’s easy to find all the work of a particular artist or location.

AlexAndScripts
2 replies
19h52m

It's infuriating finding an excellent wallpaper, only to find that it's 900 pixels wide or "4k" with so much compression it looks worse than uncompressed 720p. That and the grotesque photoshops that fill the results when looking for space wallpapers.

On the plus side, Tineye can be quite helpful for finding things in their original size.

And I only use 1080p!

gaetgu
0 replies
17h9m

Re: space wallpapers

My favorite source for all space-related pictures are the Apollo flight journal photography archives[1].

I’m not sure if there’s a better resource, as-is you have to click through to see a higher resolution version to check if the picture is even in focus, but honestly that adds to the fun of it :)

[1]: https://www.nasa.gov/history/afj/ap08fj/a08-photoindex.html

delta_p_delta_x
0 replies
7h0m

That and the grotesque photoshops that fill the results when looking for space wallpapers

Use the HST and JWST pages for space wallpaper sources[1][2]. Make sure to check only the 'observation' checkbox; this filters out all the infographics, 'artist's impressions', simulations, etc.

I suggest downloading the TIFF, opening this in some photo post-processing program (Lightroom, Darktable, RawTherapee, etc), and applying mild tone and colour adjustments, and then cropping to the exact resolution of your display.

I get much better results this way.

[1]: https://esahubble.org/images/search/

[2]: https://esawebb.org/images/search/

mattlondon
1 replies
17h36m

FWIW my windows 11 laptop I use has a new high quality wallpaper every day. I don't know where it gets the images from, but many are pretty cool even if they are a bit "too HDRy" at times.

ambigious7777
0 replies
17h20m

Might it be Microsoft Bing's wallpaper[0] app?

[0]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/bing-wallpaper

mmsc
0 replies
11h43m
luuurker
0 replies
22h26m

To "hide" the notch, try Top Notch: https://topnotch.app/

keane
0 replies
8h57m

Your comment took me back. 20 years ago the best place for this was InterfaceLIFT. I'm amazed to find they're still online today: https://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/date/any/

dylan604
0 replies
23h29m

I wish more OSes would work with independent photographers to compile a set of beautiful wallpapers.

Why though? Why should someone be subjected to all of this extra cruft when you can just find the images from websites? As long as Google image search exists, people will find whatever images they want to use. If you're thinking an OS vendor would do proper licensing, that's a nice thought, but the vast majority of people using custom wallpapers don't care about it.

Kwpolska
0 replies
22h39m

If you need to hide the dumb notch, I’d take my nice wallpaper, scale it down to the exact resolution, and just add a black bar as high as the menu bar is. This can be a bit ugly when the wallpaper appears without the menu bar, but it’s a fine solution nonetheless. (I had to do this in Big Sur, since the OS thought my wallpaper works best with a black text on the menu bar, which wasn’t actually too readable.)

KuzMenachem
0 replies
3h24m

One thing I found annoying about the MBP mini LED screen is that macOS will not make the menu bar truly black, no matter how hard I've tried. Even using a #000000 picture as background, with 'Digital Color Meter' claiming that the screen is showing 000 everywhere, in dark environments it's obvious that the menu bar is a different color from the rest of the background.

yrro
9 replies
1d1h
jandrese
3 replies
1d1h

Even more fun was the fact the wallpaper widget had a little pixel editor built in that let you make your own tiling pattern. I seem to recall that it updated the desktop in realtime as you changed the pixels so you always knew exactly what your pattern looked like tiled.

101008
2 replies
1d

Oh, memory unblocked! Didn't Windows 98 had something similar? It could be Win95 but I think it would be too much for that time, and for XP we already had background images in "good quality".

jandrese
1 replies
1d

I don't think Windows ever included anything like it with the OS. Windows 95 switched to having a giant JPEG background for the wow factor. Certainly there could have been a third party program that implemented that functionality, but I don't think Microsoft ever shipped it with the OS. Maybe as one of those optional fun pack things they used to offer?

fourteenfour
0 replies
23h7m

Windows 3.1 and 2000 definitely had a pattern editor. I think it was removed in XP.

mattl
2 replies
1d1h

System 7... it didn't become Mac OS until 7.6 or something, and then Mac OS 8 came out very soon after that.

MenhirMike
1 replies
22h30m

Also conveniently made sure that clone manufacturers (who only had a license for System 7) didn't have a modern Mac OS anymore.

mattl
0 replies
17h36m

Right except that one clone maker they bought IIRC?

Waterluvian
1 replies
1d1h

Repeating bears in overalls is all I can see when I think System 7 desktop pattern.

jwells89
0 replies
1d1h

For me it’s the grass, stones, and star patterns. They look way too busy on modern displays but at 640x480 or 800x600 they weren’t too bad.

ruined
8 replies
1d1h

(admirable) these images did incredible psychic damage to kde designers

i used the catalina bg until late last year, when they started shipping the former appletv video backgrounds as the default, because it was just so good. seriously, after that on a 5k display, i thought i would never enjoy another desktop background

_benj
5 replies
1d

(admirable) these images did incredible psychic damage to kde designers

made me chuckle :-)

But for real, there is something about a good wallpaper, at least for me, the wallpaper being the first thing I set on a new linux install.

I fully believe that a solid default wallpaper can help with desktop manager adoption (i.e. kde, gnome, xfce4), at least for the bohemians types like me!

Affric
2 replies
21h12m

Do you have a recommendation for a good place to source wallpapers?

With the photography it’s one of the things Apple get so right about UX.

_thisdot
0 replies
3h25m

Always loved the default wallpapers on Ubuntu too. I still have some old Ubuntu default wallpapers on my Mac!

SSLy
0 replies
20h0m

unsplash perhaps?

dylan604
0 replies
23h36m

the wallpaper being the first thing I set on a new linux install

For me, that would be the last time I ever see it. I have so many windows open providing me quick access to whatever I need without flipping spaces or whatever, that I just never see the desktop.

It's just one of those things that over time of using computers, I just don't care about it any more. I don't begrudge anyone that does, but it is just one of those funny things one realizes how time changes one's outlook

archargelod
0 replies
14h42m

the wallpaper being the first thing I set on a new linux install

That's something I also always do. Even though I use i3 with 100% opaque windows (transparency is ugly and distracting IMO). I could only see wallpaper after startup and maybe 2-3 times during the day if I'm switching from my usual workflow. But for some reason I always set the background. Perhaps an old habit from Windows XP days (Autumn is the best XP wallpaper, fight me).

pkaye
0 replies
1d

I don't use KDE but recently came upon some wallpapers on store.kde.org that I really liked. Particularly the Ketsa Color ones.

https://store.kde.org/browse?cat=299&ord=latest

neoberg
0 replies
9h11m

Years ago in one of my previous jobs, we started to have issues with the internet connection multiple times a day. After a couple of days someone noticed that the issues happen whenever I go out for smoking.

When they first introduced those aerial videos for Apple tv, someone made a screensaver out of them for MacOS and I was using that. It turns out whenever I went to smoke, my screensaver would activate and choke the network with 4k (5k?) glory.

danans
8 replies
23h58m

Tangentially, I find wallpaper to be fascinating as it's one of the few aspects of desktop UX that is basically still 100% open to self-expression.

For functional reasons, every other desktop UI surface has converged with only a few minor variations. But the static desktop OS background - perhaps because it has no inherent functional purpose and remains covered most of the time - remains as a canvas.

nullhole
6 replies
23h53m

the static desktop OS background

Eons ago, there was a (paid) 3rd-party program for MacOS Classic that would give you a slideshow desktop background. The images were of the Golden Gate bridge, and were a timelapse over the course of a day. The changes were (afair) synced to your local solar time, so 'sunset' in the desktop background would line up with your local sunset.

I'd have to search to find the name of the program, but I kind of wish I had it back.

lgl
1 replies
23h35m

Well, it's not for MacOS, but software to run animated wallpapers exist for Windows.

One example is the very popular WallpaperEngine [0]. Another cool one (and open source) is Lively Wallpaper [1].

Selfless plug: I've also developed and released LumoTray [2] which is a wallpaper/screensaver manager for windows with some other extra features but without any animated wallpapers except slideshows as I still find it a bit of a resource waste for something that I rarely see.

[0] https://www.wallpaperengine.io

[1] https://www.rocksdanister.com/lively/

[2] https://lumotray.com/

p_l
0 replies
19h41m

I think ActiveDesktop still works, too

squiffsquiff
0 replies
20h1m

Current versions of MacOS allow you to have a slideshow for your wallpaper

jwells89
0 replies
20h43m

There was one of these apps for early versions of OS X too.

I’ve searched for it several times, but as far as the web is concerned it never existed. Would really like to find it because its default desktop picture was pleasant (during the day, a blue sky over a field of flowers if I recall correctly) and it would be nice to see it again.

Sadly a lot of early-mid-00s Mac shareware like that has seemingly vanished.

dylan604
0 replies
23h39m

In classic Apple fashion, that's built in to the OS now.

cwizou
0 replies
21h28m

To be fair, most built in wallpapers in macOS do have a day/night version (for example Sonoma), or multiple versions with sunrise/day/sunset/night (Ventura, Monterey, Big sur). Apple does call them Dynamic backgrounds and they will switch automatically during the day.

Also, I hate to do this but if I'm allowed, tinniest plug, I do maintain a screensaver project for macOS that does video both screensaver and wallpaper integration with solar time adaptation : https://aerialscreensaver.github.io (the default download will give you the app that does the wallpaper integration).

jwells89
0 replies
20h26m

I leave at least a few pixels around the edges of windows to let my desktop picture show through, partially because that’s some of the little remaining customization but also because having my screens filled to the brim with windows negatively impacts my mood, as silly as that sounds. The desktops I choose usually carry a positive and/or calming vibe and that’s felt during my workday if some of it can show through.

mostlysimilar
6 replies
1d1h

They're beautiful, but a small tangent... the latest macOS has a bug that repeatedly reverts the wallpaper to the default whenever I unplug/plug my external monitor and it's driving me crazy.

cwizou
2 replies
21h23m

Sonoma did change the way wallpaper (and screensavers) get integrated (preferences have moved in an unusual place/preferences format too) which may be the root cause of this (although I admit I never hit that precise bug). Are you using classic images or some of the built in videos ?

mostlysimilar
1 replies
20h23m

It always defaults back to one of the new animated ones, and I always manually set it back to the solid black color option.

cwizou
0 replies
20h17m

If you are willing to try something, I would suggest an image (of your solid black color) instead.

Because of how the new system work, I wouldn't be surprised the bug is limited to those solid color backgrounds (which are handled quite differently for historic reasons, and it could very well be why you get the error).

The new wallpaper system is a bit of a mess, and solid colors have always been treated weirdly in their preferences.

jwells89
1 replies
1d

I think what’s actually happening here is that spaces have separate desktop picture settings between displays.

I noticed this a few days ago when moving a space from one monitor to the other and seeing its desktop picture change. Moving the space back to the original monitor restored the desktop picture.

Not sure why it’s this way, kind of an odd choice.

mostlysimilar
0 replies
23h55m

I think it's a deeper issue than that. I shouldn't have to set the wallpaper back both when I plug in and when I unplug.

pixelHD
0 replies
1d1h

Happens to me too. I use a display link'd dell dock from work, with 3 monitors. Every few times i plug it in, the wall papers revert, and the wallpapervideoextension process starts soaking up ram and cpu cycles (I dont use video wallpapers at all, just static images from my folder as wallpapers everywhere). I've made it a habit to check the activity manager everyday after I plug in the mac, and kill that process if its taking up too much resources.

johnbehnke
3 replies
1d1h

The macOS screenshot library from Stephen is also excellent: https://512pixels.net/projects/aqua-screenshot-library/

fumar
1 replies
1d1h

Intense nostalgia. I remember my updating my MacBook from Tiger to Leopard and being inthralled with the new OS welcome video. It was a powerful feeling like a genuine leap was made after rebooting and new powers unlocked. 10.3 used Rokysopp's Eple, and I still love that song and album.

xattt
0 replies
1d

The Welcome videos were technological showcases. Where else were you going to see 1080p videos in 2005-2008?

vvillena
0 replies
23h38m

Looking back at the 10.4-10.7 era, I really miss those app icons, they were so easy to tell apart from each other just from shape. The rest of the design language was also a marvel in usability, it was so clear what everything was and how to interact with it.

Erazal
3 replies
18h9m

I'm obsessed with having a clean desktop, and beautiful wallpapers. Until recently, I used a neat little app for MacOS called Artdiario [1] that would update my wallpaper every day with a beautiful piece of art and I LOVED it.

"Used to" because it looks it's not updated anymore since around 2 months :(

Was thinking of re-creating the same "open-source" version of it, that would pick and show art from museums around the world every day [2].

Would some of you be interested?

And if by chance you're reading me Jimmy - I love the app and would be happy to help maintain / curate it!

[1] https://www.artdiario.com/

[2] a ton of museums provide free access to their art, such as the National Gallery of Art - https://www.nga.gov/open-access-images.html

hisnameisjimmy
2 replies
17h21m

Yo I would love the help to maintain/curate. A combination of the holidays and a really aggressive start to the new year at work made me fall off the update wagon. Email me and we can setup a time to chat.

Edit: This was really nice to see/hear. Thank you for appreciating this publicly!

Erazal
1 replies
7h53m

I've sent out an e-mail :)

And yes I LOVE it! I've installed on at least ~4 different machines of friends as well!

Erazal
0 replies
4h31m

email sent from erazal (backwards).rossillon[at].gmail.com

scq
2 replies
16h53m

It's not mentioned on the page, but at least 10.0 to 10.8 are AI upscaled -- you can tell from the artifacts when looking at the image closely.

I don't think it's reasonable to call this an "archive", as the link does, when the images have undisclosed changes to them and are clearly not the original files :/

judge2020
0 replies
3h3m

Hmm, this forum post[0] is from 2012 and includes a high res photo from the OS, but it seems nearly visually identical to the photo on 512pixels.net. I don't see almost any artifacts that give me the impression of AI upscaling.

0: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/10-8-new-wallpaper-back...

Retr0id
0 replies
15h39m

Thank you for saying it, undisclosed "enhancements" like this just remind me of the botched Ecce Homo painting restoration. A request to the world: If you're going to post an "enhanced" version of something, at least share the original too.

rezmason
2 replies
22h54m

Don't forget the OS 9 wallpapers:

https://512pixels.net/projects/mac-os-9-5k-wallpapers

My favorites among these are the gradient-rich desktops that dropped in Mac OS 8.5 back in '98, like those UFO ones.

That's when the OS gained support for icons with 24-bit color and 8-bit masks, which are the direct ancestors to today's 1024x1024 32-bit app icons. Perhaps to commemorate this full leveling up of the classic Mac desktop to millions of colors, Apple hired a small team of designers to custom make the UFO, Capsule and Tub desktop pictures.

Screen sized gradients between two relatively close colors almost always land in the sandbar of banding or dithering in order to quantize all those subtle variations to the limited color depth. But these desktops do a beautiful job at avoiding that. I'm not sure, but I think they achieved it by color grading a zero-to-255 3D render with a high bits/channel ratio in Photoshop, tuning the grade and quantizing to 8 bits per pixel from time to time as a sort of gamut warning. Any problematic areas could then be "buffed out" with careful blend mode shenanigans on the boundaries.

djhn
0 replies
21h46m

Wow, I always thought there was something strange about those gradients, and you’re right! The distinct lack of banding despite the limited variation in hue!

bandergirl
0 replies
5h57m

Speaking as an outsider that has no emotional attachment to those wallpapers: wow, they’re really awful (except maybe the first one)

I mean one of them is bright green and red? The holy grail of what not to set as a background, as well as one of the most awful color combinations (unless it’s Christmas)

nrabulinski
2 replies
23h29m

To me leopard is the most iconic. In my head it’s the wallpaper of modern macOS. I still remember back in the day that was the first thing I downloaded when I tried to make my Vista PC look at least a little bit like a Mac :-)

nlunbeck
0 replies
22h35m

Agreed, it felt like such a major leap in modernity from the Aqua wallpapers. I still think of it as the definitive 2000s Mac OS X wallpaper, it really was everywhere in no way any of their wallpapers have been since. It was like the Bliss counterpart to Mac OS X

kccqzy
0 replies
23h26m

To me the default wallpaper on Tiger is the most iconic. I'm probably biased because Tiger is the first version I used (on a borrowed computer!).

mattl
2 replies
17h34m

Meanwhile I have the same generic blue background from Rhapsody still on all my devices.

runlevel1
1 replies
12h56m

As in Mac OS X before it was Mac OS X? That Rhapsody?

mattl
0 replies
3h38m

Yep. It was released as Mac OS X Server 1.0 briefly.

wk_end
1 replies
1d1h

Everything up through 10.6 makes me feel indescribably warm and fuzzy.

I don't like Steve Jobs very much as a person, and I don't quite buy the myth that he was as much of a unique genius as some people believe, but...is it a coincidence that 10.7 marked the end of the (second) Jobs-era at Apple?

...or maybe it's just nostalgia.

jwells89
0 replies
1d1h

Everything up through 10.6 makes me feel indescribably warm and fuzzy.

10.2/10.3/10.4 are the ones that do it for me. Spent way too much time on my Macs through those years, through which I frequently used the default desktop pictures because they were so smooth and nice to look at, and each OS X release was nicer to use than the last which made for positive associations with each.

10.5/10.6 were good too, but I found the default desktops on those too busy and usually used something else. I also typically used custom themes by way of Shapeshifter[0] because I found the gray metal look of those releases too dark and modded my dock with themes found on MacThemes. As a result the default 10.5/10.6 desktops aren’t emotionally evocative for me.

I do however miss the 10.5/10.6 implementation of virtual desktops, which gave you a 2D grid to place desktops on instead of just a line.

[0]: https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/ShapeShifter

watersb
1 replies
18h2m

You can run screen savers on your Mac desktop (wallpaper), buy running the "ScreenSaverEngine" with the "-background" option from the command line.

The executable is inside the screen saver application package.

    cd /System/Library/CoreServices/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS
    ./ScreenSaverEngine -background
(Earlier versions of macOS have the app under /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources )

xyzwave
0 replies
1h12m

Independent of location on disk: `open -b com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine`

chris_wot
1 replies
19h4m

The default wallpaper for Sonoma for me has been an interactive image of what looks like wine country in France?

stbtrax
0 replies
9h34m

Sonoma is wine country in Northern California

avereveard
1 replies
1d

The copyright claim from apple will be legendary

david422
0 replies
1d

I'm curious about this. Somebody pulls a bunch of images from Apple and hosts them on their site. Surely this runs afoul of something.

I have a small site that allows some user uploaded content, and I get random notices that threaten legal action unless I buy license (for users that have uploaded content from wherever). My response is just to take them down.

BizarreByte
1 replies
23h43m

10.3 and 10.4 were the best ones and I still use one of those two to this day.

felixding
0 replies
15h39m

Same!

zgs
0 replies
15h23m

I was far more used to the MacsBug screen of despair.

zamadatix
0 replies
1d

These seem to be upscaled, does anyone know where to find a collection of the original image files (not scaled or recompressed)?

uticus
0 replies
21h36m

What was the one with rotating windmill-like propeller geometric shapes? Or maybe that is a screensaver I'm thinking of...

sebastianconcpt
0 replies
1d

You can't unsee it once seen:

The last three releases as somehow vaginal canals.

rickreynoldssf
0 replies
1d

I still use a background tile from MacOS 7.5. I guess that makes me reallly old and a bit spectrumy

reify
0 replies
10h20m

Running out of ideas to promote the website

More boring and uninteresting Apple boringness

What is so interesting about wallpapers? Nothing!

The typical self promotion through HN.

Become a member of 512 Pixels. Support projects like these, receive exclusive content in the monthly newsletter and enjoy advanced screenings of my YouTube videos.

Fraidy not old boy

A fly in the ointment

pompino
0 replies
9h2m

The 10.4 wallpaper brings back some nostalgia for me. It was the first time I could afford to buy a new laptop and I splurged on the 06 core duo macbook pro.

mvexel
0 replies
1d

There is a link at the top for pre-OSX wallpapers. There was one in MacOS 7 or 8 that was called "platte pinda's" in Dutch meaning "flat(tened) peanuts)". That name mystified me at the time. Googling it now, there's only one result for that phrase, completely unrelated. Am I making this up?

marsissippi
0 replies
20h56m

So cool!

I made this thing that breaks down each image by fraction of each color used

https://www.julyp.com/shared/018dae67-9ec0-7191-bd9f-7fe9c85...

Looking at it like a source of color palettes, I really like Venture more...

lizardking
0 replies
21h5m

Strong nostalgia for this one

https://512pixels.net/downloads/macos-wallpapers-thumbs/10-2...

Takes me back to my dorm room on my 13-inch iBook.

justinzollars
0 replies
1d

The California thing is kinda played. We need a new theme.

jsz0
0 replies
20h23m

I'm not a big fan of any of the modern macOS or iOS wallpapers. They're so busy it's hard to even read text labels on top of them. My goto background for many years was Leopard Server but it was eventually replaced by the Linen tile texture that IIRC wasn't a default wallpaper choice but could be copied out of the system folder.

interludead
0 replies
9h16m

10.4 Tiger - my favorite

imwillofficial
0 replies
17h3m

Things brings back so many great memories.

I got into computing just as OS X launched. I installed every version with great anticipation. A ritual with my Mac geek friends every year.

I feel we have lost that excitement in todays world.

globular-toast
0 replies
9h45m

I remember when having a wallpaper was a big deal. I have a few screenshots of my desktops over the years and they do bring back memories. But I've used a tiling window manager for the past 5 years or so and there's no point having a wallpaper. I consider it a waste of screen space now.

geon
0 replies
22h34m

I kind of miss the original aqua white striped theme: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*Xwuj...

freitzkriesler2
0 replies
20h55m

I forgot how much I missed those blue cones.

This and bliss put me in a wicked nostalgic mood.

dredmorbius
0 replies
15h48m

I'd stumbled across this site just recently after realising that the MacOS Monterey upgrade apparently deletes the Yosemite wallpapers. Which is quite unfortunate.

divbzero
0 replies
22h13m

This is the analogous website with every Apple TV aerial screensaver:

https://bzamayo.com/watch-all-the-apple-tv-aerial-video-scre...

dbtc
0 replies
23h26m

A change from abstract to space after 2005.

A change from space to earth after 2012.

And back to abstract in 2021.

davidhariri
0 replies
1d

Louie Mantia has colored, re-rendered versions of the 10.0 Cheetah Wallpaper that include Dark Mode versions. They are great: https://lmnt.me/blog/wallpapers/

concinds
0 replies
23h16m

Just got a MacBook Air from the store, latest Sonoma 14.3.1, and the default wallpaper was the photorealistic one (“Sonoma Horizon”), not the abstract one.

cmiller1
0 replies
1d1h

Here's an album containing all of the built in wallpapers in every version including for the classic Mac OS https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNNQyeVrqxBdNmBkq9ILswi...

chungy
0 replies
10h42m

Those 10.0-10.4 wallpapers remind me a lot of wallpapers I made with Fyre back when I ran Windows 95 as a primary.

bredren
0 replies
1d

Tangentially related, my pal had a photo similar to the Andromeda in macOS 10.7 Lion licensed via 500px->Getty Images and it was used on Colbert last night:

https://i.imgur.com/wtnLpt8.jpeg

binarymax
0 replies
1d

The Catalina wallpaper threw me off guard when I first saw it. It looks exactly like a Bryce landscape I made in the late 90s. I spent some time trying to find it in my data archives but alas it is likely lost.

alltrue1
0 replies
1d1h

Tiger is just so nostalgic

Yhippa
0 replies
22h30m

I can remember eras of my life gone by with these wallpapers.

Thrymr
0 replies
1d

Beyond the defaults, there were 7 different wallpapers available in 10.15 (Catalina): https://9to5mac.com/2019/09/29/macos-catalina-wallpapers/

Theodores
0 replies
1d

Even if you never use Apple Veblen Goods and have no idea how to use the funny keyboard, mouse and interface that defines Mac OSX, these desktop wallpapers are very familiar.

This is remarkable because Apple is supposed to be about individuality. Changing the wallpaper could be two clicks away yet most Apple users stay with the stock wallpaper. I think they are focused on work rather than tinkering, with everyone happy with the stock wallpaper.

Meanwhile, on Ubuntu, the first thing I change is the wallpaper. It goes. But then I have full screen apps and never see the wallpaper ever again.

Personally I want the desktop wallpaper to be a black and white terminal window with it showing console messages from syslog, representing the guts of the machine.

Sunspark
0 replies
21h58m

Not a critique of MacOS here, but generally stock OS bundled wallpapers for any device are always so generic. Probably a lot of effort goes into picking ones that offends the least amount of people, hence the trend in recent years of just colours and shapes. Only the colour-blind would be offended by those.

Lammy
0 replies
21h2m

See also, for the other (non-default) Mac OS X walls: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macos-desktop-pictures

Kehvarl
0 replies
23h17m

My last mac was a Powerbook g4 12 inch with OS 10.3 Panther, but for some reason I clearly recall the 10.0 wallpaper being the one it came with and the one I stared at for years. The proper 10.3 wallpaper doesn't look familiar at all.

JoshGlazebrook
0 replies
23h31m

Can we do this with iOS wallpapers too? I still have fond memories of those fish from the very first phone. They brought it back in iOS 16 thankfully.

Ezhik
0 replies
1d

I miss pre-Yosemite vibes and Aqua's skeuomorphic iteration.

An elegant design language, for a more civilized age.

Bondi_Blue
0 replies
1d1h

A few photographers recreated some of them:

https://petapixel.com/2019/09/16/this-photographer-trio-recr...

They also created one for Monterey since it didn’t ship with exclusive landscape photography:

https://www.techradar.com/news/photographers-make-their-own-...

BjoernKW
0 replies
23h13m

The Catalina one always used to remind me of a certain island somewhere deep in the Caribbean.

Seems like I'm not the only one: https://www.reddit.com/r/MonkeyIsland/comments/dgwm03/the_ne...