I know these reviewers cannot answer this question, I just want to point out that it's the only relevant question for me. Given Apple's track record, this release will most likely cause my MBP to crash more often, but I want data on that. I want a review to actually explore this angle as opposed to simply talking about features that honestly mean nothing to me.
For example, open a lot of windows (20 terminal windows, 5-6 projects in Sublime, a bunch of browser windows used to test apps), turn on mission control and it just crashes every single time. I haven't done more test to figure the exact number of windows until it crashes but I know that it does for my workflow.
Admittedly, I tend to have more windows opened than most people, but then again that's what I have 16GB for.
I've also noticed that while expose was always smooth, mission control just doesn't work for me. If it doesn't crash it's dog slow, especially if it switches from integrated GPU to dedicated GPU just when I open it.
Stop presuming, get facts. OSX Mavericks is known for its crashing problems.
Example: http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/25/apples-new-os-x-mavericks-...
The only issue I have is with the trackpad going out from time to time but a quick reboot fixes the problem.
Would've happily avoided the beta but the only way to screen record directly from an iOS device and the Apple-recommended way to create preview videos for the app store involved Yosemite and iOS8.
> really long pauses anytime I try to save a simple document for the first time
Is that actually what's happening, or is it a really long pause when trying to show the open/save dialog? I have a couple of NAS volumes mounted, and if I run an app with a Recent Documents entry that lives on one of the volumes, and the NAS is asleep, then the app will often pause when trying to populate the Recent Documents list. This normally happens during open/save. Previous versions of OS X did it too, though I feel like Yosemite might trigger it a bit more often for some reason.
1) before plugging into display, open lid and wait for login screen to appear
2) before unplugging display, open lid and wait for laptop screen to turn on (normally I keep my laptop closed when connected to the display)
If I deviate from this the laptop crashes or goes into some odd state.
Is it risky to upgrade to Yosemite? When starting up cold, I sometimes have to force-shutdown the computer 30+ times before it will get past the Apple logo screen without going grey or black. I'm not sure if such a major software update is a good idea given the circumstances.
I had to take it in. And pay $550. Even though it's clearly a common problem, if not a design problem, something similar. Go check out the big apple support log on the problem.
I lost two weeks of productivity, because they failed to fix it the first time (it got worse).
If you have GPU panics, and you don't get your hardware fixed, you get what you deserve. Sorry for that. It's hard to get to a repair center or genius place? Sorry for that too.
Nothing to do with 10.10.
I've installed 10.10. It's running nicely.
What should you expect? Look through Ars' list. The changes are updates to the on-board apps - none of which I use (message center? no. Mail? no. etc). There are additional internal APIs for IOS tooling - good for the long term, nothing for now.
Mavericks was an important release. It treats multiple screens in a sensible way - finally addressing a weakness inherent in macs since '85. There has always been the Special Screen with real estate taken by the menu bar, no matter how many screens you have, you drag the cursor back to that screen over and over.
10.10 is not Mavericks.
In 10.10, you'll see some newer, cleaner fonts and icons, that's it.
For future reference, if they botched it the first time, you should call Apple corporate and yell. They messed something up in a repair for my work laptop once and it took one phone call to get a new one immediately. I had to make it clear that it was their fault and I had to have it for work and school, but they were super accommodating (and the new one worked like a charm).
FYI, there are OS distributions that do not crash. My sound card sometimes doesn't survive a hibernation but that's a known hardware fault. Not that a OS level crash would lead to any data loss.
Yes, I have heard that LepriconSoft's UnicornOS runs quite well on the Hypothetica-9000 processor but everything else has the same real-world problems with faulty hardware and drivers.
You might have a stable setup but that's also true of well over 99% of Mac users – they just also don't tend to go on forums and say “Yeap, everything's still fine here!”.
Its also weird because I have no media now. I have the discs it came with somewhere but that will also be Lion 10.7? Or possibly Snow Leopard. The re-install is going to be a bitch for me. UGH!
Some of the issues were resolved by removing Soundflower as it was conflicting with VLC. But they still do happen.
It crashes daily if I use Parallels and regularly when using Spotify.
edit: Mid 2012 Air, 2GHz i7, 8GB ram
Apple's mobile OSs have a way of obsoleting older hardware. I'm curious to know if their desktop OSs are trending that way as well, or if they're making performance gains instead.
On top of that, there are serious performance issues with the built-in Japanese IME, although I'm not completely sure how much of this is new, and I experienced a bug where WindowServer would randomly start hogging CPU, which may or may not be related to said IME.
Given all these problems, I'm surprised that the general consensus seems to be that the performance is good. But maybe I'm somehow a special case. (The Safari issue is the most egregious - is it that many OS X users don't use Safari in the first place?)
With Yosemite, even my 3 year old iMac is doing way better.
Safari has always been slow for me until this release.
The trade off is that I really hate the way Yosemite looks but I can live with the tradeoff.
Note: all my machines have 12 GB or 16GB of ram
Oh, and the .0 release will, if the pattern holds, have shit perf in some common situations. I presume because apple doesn't test for that.
"Hypervisor (Hypervisor.framework). The Hypervisor framework allows virtualization vendors to build virtualization solutions on top of OS X without needing to deploy third-party kernel extensions (KEXTs). Included is a lightweight hypervisor that enables virtualization of the host CPUs."
Any news on if anyone is actually using this yet? Stability matters a lot more to me than raw performance in VMs, so I'd be very keen to know if Parallels/Fusion/VirtualBox have adopted this--assuming that it would actually improve stability or, if not, what the pros/cons are for using Apple's own Hypervisor over a third party's.
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/mac/releaseno...
I would guess this is a way to allow a VM app to be distributed via the existing App Store rules
Learned a cool trick tonight: Yosemite was taking a while to install, so I did some googling and learned you can see the installer's log by typing CMD-L during the install process.
If any of you are thinking of upgrading and use Homebrew, it sounds like it would be in your best interest to have a look. I'm holding off on upgrading until I see some early-adopter reports, but I'll certainly be following these steps when I'm ready to take the plunge.
I hope something like this is possible on Yosemite at some point in the future.
Near the bottom of page 3, just thought it was funny considering today's 5K iMac announcement.
http://gizmodo.com/5938452/a-trick-to-make-using-an-external...
Now no dice... anyone know a way to keep the screen off with the lid open?
To execute in Terminal:
sudo nvram boot-args="iog=0x0"
To undo in Terminal:
sudo nvram -d boot-args
Once you type it into terminal I believe you need to enter your password. I then restart my machine. Now the TRICK is to either restart your machine with the lid already closed (hit restart then slam the lid!) OR turn the machine on for the first time (then quickly slam the lid!) once you are past the login screen you can open the lid.
I'm tempted to try a test install separate from my regular install after getting burned on that last time.
I'd hate to upgrade to Yosemite and have everything go to hell though. Is it possible to downgrade if I have problems?
Sometimes it won't detect the screen, so I have to unplug and plug it back again. If the screen is off the Macbook thinks there's still a second screen...
They really botched that thing.
His attention to detail is great, though, no doubt about that.
Also, there's other very good straight to the point reviews. John Siracusa's review is not supposed to be a TLDR laundry list of changes, there's no point in being trapped in the reviewed product and forget the things that led to it.
A few of the things he talks about regarding the UI changes are already on Windows, but he talks as if they're a new invention. While he might be talking to a 100% Apple audience, I think it makes him look silly that he doesn't mention they're not Apple-original features.
Eg. windows that are semi translucent with the background blurred came with either Vista or 7. That annoying animated focus circle is in Office 2013.
Not a Hypercritical or ATP listener, huh?
What is funny about Yosemite, many dialog boxes remind me of KDE.
Anyway, it did help me know what to expect in Yosemite so thanks John.
I also discovered the "purple" full screen button from yesteryear - I much prefer that to the fullscreen arrows in Mavericks, and dislike the new default "FULLSCREEN" behaviour of the zoom button. Fullscreen makes the menubar and all that sits in it (MenuMeters, clock etc) useless. On a laptop, the indicator about the battery is kind of important to me, and I don't find the clock distracting or require it to be removed in order to help me read text on other parts of the screen. I think it is a foolish move.
Apple seems to have given up on core upgrades addressing performance, the ancient filesystem, and needs of power users after 10.6. And there’s still stuff that I could do on a NeXT in the early ‘90s that OS X can’t do.
They've done two things wrong with Spotlight. By moving it down from the top of the screen, that immediately reduces the number of results that can be seen. Then if that wasn't enough they further limit the quantity of visible results by not allowing results to flow to the bottom of the screen. A double whammy if you will.
I can live with a slightly slower experience (yes, my indexing is done) but reducing the result count for absolutely no good reason is unacceptable.
And yes, I know I can scroll down.
Edit: Oh and while I'm complaining, please tell me which one is selected: http://i.imgur.com/Szj3Yag.png
My view is that that digital design has matured to the point where designers no longer feel they have to wow users with lots of effects and visual flourishes, allowing for a more purpose driven design. My hope/opinion is that is here to stay.
Also, it's kind've ironic that you can now have a 5k display to show off your flat, monochrome circles...
http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/time-m... | http://cdn.arstechnica.net/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.media/ti...
So moving on, cloud looks like a safer approach to backup because no friction. Yes, data security, etc. From a public service POV, though, for 99% people out there, I bet the trade off is hugely favorable to cloud stockage vs local disk failure.
So now - is iCloud drive sexy enough to want to use it? Actually that's more like the problem, it's definitely not.
One of the things that has always turned me off from OSX is how it looks. I must say Yosemite is the first mac OS that actually looks appealing to me.
I was quite impressed by 10.10 from the Keynote a few weeks ago, and I'm looking forward to experiencing some of that. No iPhone so can't enjoy that level of integration, but perhaps my iPad will be happier.
Meanwhile I have a Nexus 5 on order, and I'm debugging problems with my Linux PC's new motherboard. Certainly Linux on a roll-your-own hardware platform is a different world from the slick, smooth Apple experience. I like both for what they can do but the Apple is becoming my go-to front end while the Linux machine is becoming more of a server and back-end tool.
I really don't need the grays/white/blacks of past operating systems. The initial setting for my quick bar just looks horrid, little icons on a dark gray background.
Everything looks so 16bit. I understand it bleeds through the background color, I would just prefer to have no background on the dock and have the icons float
Dock, is 2d until you roll over it, then icons pop out of it and it looks like it is 3d.
This is it, Apple is the new Microsoft. Frankly, and I can't believe I would ever be saying something like this but Windows 7 now looks better and more consistent.
