macOS Mavericks
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 37 of 87 operating systems by recommenders
Many people recommend it as the best-looking macOS, with less skeuomorphism, Aqua-era polish and useful performance fixes. Few critics; one says design got worse for professionals.
Many people recommend it as the best-looking macOS, with less skeuomorphism, Aqua-era polish and useful performance fixes. Few critics; one says design got worse for professionals.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Praised for its aesthetic design
“Those OS X versions you mentioned for Tiger, Snow Leopard, and Mavericks were some of the best releases of OS X ever.”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source” “Aesthetically I think the dock peaked with 10.9 (Mavericks).”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “The Dock on Mac, from OS 10 to macOS 27” “Not enough to be annoying but just enough to be aesthetic.”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” - Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “It's hard to justify Tahoe icons”
- Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “The Dock on Mac, from OS 10 to macOS 27”
- Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Light Mode InFFFFFFlation”
Preferred over later macOS versions
“They're just so much more pleasant than what we have now.”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “27-year-old Apple iBooks can connect to Wi-Fi and download official updates” “the last Mac OS we actually like and use”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Xcode 27.1 Beta Release Notes” “The good part of history ended in 10.9”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “The Dock on Mac, from OS 10 to macOS 27” - Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “macOS Needs Its Grid Back”
Less skeuomorphism than earlier releases
“it felt like nearly every criticism I had with macOS at the time had been addressed”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” “I thought Maverick reduced the skeuomorphism, I was glad to see it removed.”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” Performance fixes and polish
“It has most of what made the Aqua era releases good with some QoL/polish improvements.”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “The Myth of Snow Leopard” “simply did fixes and perf improvements (memory compression, ...)”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Rank the 50 best Apple products”
Other operating systems people recommend
The four most recommended other operating systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 87 operating systems, rankedWhat people said
19 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“sound would just stop working every now and then”
“Not enough to be annoying but just enough to be aesthetic.”
“I thought Maverick reduced the skeuomorphism, I was glad to see it removed.”
“it felt like nearly every criticism I had with macOS at the time had been addressed”
“The good part of history ended in 10.9”
“Aesthetically I think the dock peaked with 10.9 (Mavericks).”
“the last Mac OS we actually like and use”
“My ideal would probably be Mavericks 10.9.5”
“Those OS X versions you mentioned for Tiger, Snow Leopard, and Mavericks were some of the best releases of OS X ever.”
“It has most of what made the Aqua era releases good with some QoL/polish improvements.”
“If I could have OS X 10.9 Mavericks (last Aqua release) with 10.6 Spaces and modern macOS integration features”
“simply did fixes and perf improvements (memory compression, ...)”
“bring Mountain Lion or Mavericks to the working state”
“The Yosemite app icons in particular looked even more refined than Mavericks”
“They're just so much more pleasant than what we have now.”
“10.9 and before are the best”
“we reached peak design in 2013 with Mavericks”
“Mavericks traffic light buttons”
“Design got worse since Maverick for professional users.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.