Mac OS X Yosemite Beta

[slip84]

So, anyone else taking the plunge on this? So far my experience has been great. My i5 Macbook Pro takes a dump about five minutes into install and claims that "The OS X installation could not be completed," and offers up some pretty useless log information. Nothing really seems to exist on the internet regarding this issue... yet.

You running it? Thoughts? Opinions? Likes and dislikes?

[Doyniish]

Personally I think it's great. Been running it since Beta 1 and it's been nice seeing the changes throughout the beta. I like the change to the UI, I think it's for the better. I'm sorry to hear you are having issues. It's running fine on my late 2012 iMac and 2010 MacBook Pro. I'm running Beta 4 on both machines, not the public beta (not sure if there is any difference).

[jwaz]

Been running it since the day after the public beta started (the downloads failed the first day)

I haven't spent a ton of time with it yet but my initial impression is it's gorgeous and pretty fast.

Only problem (other than download issues) I've had was installing Steam which xattr -rc /Applications/Steam.app/ fixed.

[mashby]

Planning on waiting for the full-release. Don't want to gamble with my production machine just yet and seem to never be at home, so I'll just wait. 

[slip84]

Planning on waiting for the full-release. Don't want to gamble with my production machine just yet and seem to never be at home, so I'll just wait. 

FWIW, I just restarted the install on my 2010 MBP and it ran. And to my surprise, did an inplace upgrade. I figured it would default to wiping. I'm now going to be that guy. My poor MBP has gone from Snow Leopard to Lion to Mountain Lion to Mavericks to Yosemite without a clean install, unless I'm misremembering. I'm surprised nothing has exploded so far... apart from four logic boards, one screen, a fan assembly, and a microphone assembly. I have the worst luck with MBP builds.

[atlas3686]

Planning on waiting for the full-release. Don't want to gamble with my production machine just yet and seem to never be at home, so I'll just wait. 

Same here, glad to hear it's looking good though.

[Doyniish]

I'm a huge fan of the dark mode. It's nice they incorporate something like this into the OS instead of having to modify it through the terminal and third party software.

[pr0ximity]

Just installed the public beta on my '11 Air and it seems to be working nicely so far, no compatibility issues yet.

[Doyniish]

Just installed the public beta on my '11 Air and it seems to be working nicely so far, no compatibility issues yet.

That's good to hear. Did you by any chance install the new firmware update for the 2011 MBA yesterday? It seems to fix installation issues.

[nameistaken1]

Any beta testers using it for development? Are any library paths different? Does brew work? XCode stability?

[Doyniish]

Any beta testers using it for development? Are any library paths different? Does brew work? XCode stability?

XCode has been working fine for me. Swift is actually pretty fun with the real-time compiling. In regards to brew, I'm not sure.

[okwchin]

Does preview have the "Pan" tool as a specific tool that you can select? Very sick of the lack of pan tool in Mav (its available by holding down two modifiers in mav, but was missing from SL onwards. Have been on ML using a Leopard version of preview. Unfortunately Mav kills the ability to use the older preview.

Some people will not even miss it, but for a mouse user, panning large PDF documents (think technical drawings rather than text) is a serious workflow issue. I have also bound the selection of the pan tool to my mouse button (press down scroll wheel).

[pcandkbguy]

will be eager to try it out soon, that's for sure

[vyshane]

Any beta testers using it for development? Are any library paths different? Does brew work? XCode stability?

Homebrew works fine. Upgraded from Mavericks without a hitch.

[slip84]

Does preview have the "Pan" tool as a specific tool that you can select? Very sick of the lack of pan tool in Mav (its available by holding down two modifiers in mav, but was missing from SL onwards. Have been on ML using a Leopard version of preview. Unfortunately Mav kills the ability to use the older preview.

Some people will not even miss it, but for a mouse user, panning large PDF documents (think technical drawings rather than text) is a serious workflow issue. I have also bound the selection of the pan tool to my mouse button (press down scroll wheel).

When you say "pan tool" do you mean the hand to "grab" and move the canvas?

[microsoft windows]

DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT.

Using Mac OS X Yosemite has been determined by leading climate scientists to increase your risk of bladder cancer. Use Windows instead as a healthy alternative.

[cruzin]

DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT.

Using Mac OS X Yosemite has been determined by leading climate scientists to increase your risk of bladder cancer. Use Windows instead as a healthy alternative.

Looks legit.

[slip84]

DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT.

Using Mac OS X Yosemite has been determined by leading climate scientists to increase your risk of bladder cancer. Use Windows instead as a healthy alternative.

My ophthalmologist recently diagnosed me with eye cancer. During my visit, he asked me if I use a Windows PC and I said I did. He asked if I had ever used Windows Vista and I said I did. He said, although not conclusive, that Windows Vista is believed to cause eye cancer. I told him I had also used Windows 98 (not SE), Windows ME, and Windows CE. He referred me to a lawyer to get my final will and testament sorted.

[microsoft windows]

That's because you're a CRAPPLE Macintrash fan. Any fan of Macintrash OS X-tra Crap has a higher risk of cancer to begin with.

[mashby]

Has anyone on the BETA use Messages to send SMS messages? That's one of the features I'm looking forward to.

I like how I can send messages to people with iPhones now, but having that ability with SMS is going to be really cool.

Anyone using it, how do you like it?

[okwchin]

Does preview have the "Pan" tool as a specific tool that you can select? Very sick of the lack of pan tool in Mav (its available by holding down two modifiers in mav, but was missing from SL onwards. Have been on ML using a Leopard version of preview. Unfortunately Mav kills the ability to use the older preview.

Some people will not even miss it, but for a mouse user, panning large PDF documents (think technical drawings rather than text) is a serious workflow issue. I have also bound the selection of the pan tool to my mouse button (press down scroll wheel).

When you say "pan tool" do you mean the hand to "grab" and move the canvas?

Yes, the hand grabby tool    Should be available some time soon ! Except for me, its still going to be a while before I can get it to work on my hackintosh build.

[atlas3686]

One of the new features which annoys me no end is the new "maximise" button which now fullscreens, I dunno about you guys but I find fullscreen to be almost entirely useless since I am pretty much always multitasking to some degree so having that replace maximise is killing my soul. As a matter of interest if you can hold command I think to makes it function as "normal" but still quite an irritation.

[rowdy]

One of the new features which annoys me no end is the new "maximise" button which now fullscreens, I dunno about you guys but I find fullscreen to be almost entirely useless since I am pretty much always multitasking to some degree so having that replace maximise is killing my soul. As a matter of interest if you can hold command I think to makes it function as "normal" but still quite an irritation.

I don't really use the "full screen" or "pseudo full screen" on Mac for two reasons (this is talking about older versions, btw, and the opinion is unlikely to be changed by Yosemite).

1. pseudo full screen actually tries to resize the window as large as possible to suit the content.  This is almost always not what I want.

2. OS X very well remembers where you left a window, in pretty much all apps, and will put the window in exactly the same place at the same size as last time.  This works perfectly for me.

Windows is another matter - it changes the size and placement of windows every time I open an app, so I tend to have everything maximised on Windows.

[daerid]

Been running it on my work laptop since DP1. Had a problem with DP4 where the keyboard/mouse wouldn't work after waking from sleep.

But other than that, been totally happy with it. I really like the visual direction.

[Altis]

One of the new features which annoys me no end is the new "maximise" button which now fullscreens, I dunno about you guys but I find fullscreen to be almost entirely useless since I am pretty much always multitasking to some degree so having that replace maximise is killing my soul. As a matter of interest if you can hold command I think to makes it function as "normal" but still quite an irritation.

I don't really use the "full screen" or "pseudo full screen" on Mac for two reasons (this is talking about older versions, btw, and the opinion is unlikely to be changed by Yosemite).

1. pseudo full screen actually tries to resize the window as large as possible to suit the content.  This is almost always not what I want.

2. OS X very well remembers where you left a window, in pretty much all apps, and will put the window in exactly the same place at the same size as last time.  This works perfectly for me.

Windows is another matter - it changes the size and placement of windows every time I open an app, so I tend to have everything maximised on Windows.

Honestly, the way in which OS X deals with "maximizing" was enough to drive me mad. I ended up installing BetterSnapTool (although I'm sure there are others)... now I can do full screen or split screen by snapping the window to the top or sides, like in Windows. That and Finder are two of my main beefs with OS X.

Having it maximize based on the current content is pretty much useless to me. The content generally fills the window, so make it full size and fill it.

[rowdy]

One of the new features which annoys me no end is the new "maximise" button which now fullscreens, I dunno about you guys but I find fullscreen to be almost entirely useless since I am pretty much always multitasking to some degree so having that replace maximise is killing my soul. As a matter of interest if you can hold command I think to makes it function as "normal" but still quite an irritation.

I don't really use the "full screen" or "pseudo full screen" on Mac for two reasons (this is talking about older versions, btw, and the opinion is unlikely to be changed by Yosemite).

1. pseudo full screen actually tries to resize the window as large as possible to suit the content.  This is almost always not what I want.

2. OS X very well remembers where you left a window, in pretty much all apps, and will put the window in exactly the same place at the same size as last time.  This works perfectly for me.

Windows is another matter - it changes the size and placement of windows every time I open an app, so I tend to have everything maximised on Windows.

Honestly, the way in which OS X deals with "maximizing" was enough to drive me mad. I ended up installing BetterSnapTool (although I'm sure there are others)... now I can do full screen or split screen by snapping the window to the top or sides, like in Windows. That and Finder are two of my main beefs with OS X.

Having it maximize based on the current content is pretty much useless to me. The content generally fills the window, so make it full size and fill it.

Finder sucks, yes.  But then Windows Explorer sucks too.

On both operating systems I tend to use third party file managers.

[Altis]

Honestly, the way in which OS X deals with "maximizing" was enough to drive me mad. I ended up installing BetterSnapTool (although I'm sure there are others)... now I can do full screen or split screen by snapping the window to the top or sides, like in Windows. That and Finder are two of my main beefs with OS X.

Having it maximize based on the current content is pretty much useless to me. The content generally fills the window, so make it full size and fill it.

Finder sucks, yes.  But then Windows Explorer sucks too.

On both operating systems I tend to use third party file managers.

That may be so, but at least with Windows Explorer, it puts all folders at the top when I sort by name, allows a button for up-one-level, and allows me to cut files rather than copy (and not having to use drag-and-drop into a second window).

I have yet to have any issue with WE, although I haven't tried it in W8.1 yet, so perhaps they've made it worse (as they have with the rest of the OS, IMO).

I'm hoping Yosemite brings some additional function to Finder, but have yet to see anything to indicate that will be the case.

[rowdy]

That may be so, but at least with Windows Explorer, it puts all folders at the top when I sort by name, allows a button for up-one-level, and allows me to cut files rather than copy (and not having to use drag-and-drop into a second window).

I have yet to have any issue with WE, although I haven't tried it in W8.1 yet, so perhaps they've made it worse (as they have with the rest of the OS, IMO).

I'm hoping Yosemite brings some additional function to Finder, but have yet to see anything to indicate that will be the case.

Some good points

You are not using Vista or 7 then?  Microsoft removed the "up" button from Explorer.  They only brought it back in 8 because people complained (but took away the start menu instead).

Do you like the popup security menu that appears each time you right-click on a file on a network share in Explorer?  I don't.  An extra click because Microsoft can't handle their security properly.

Dragging and dropping is something I do on both operating systems.  I use cut sometimes on Windows, but on Mac that is the default, unless you are dragging a file from one drive or network share to another.  Meh just delete the file from the original directory after it has copied.

I will probably still continue to use third party file managers - I kinda like the two pane interface.

[Altis]

Some good points

You are not using Vista or 7 then?  Microsoft removed the "up" button from Explorer.  They only brought it back in 8 because people complained (but took away the start menu instead).

Do you like the popup security menu that appears each time you right-click on a file on a network share in Explorer?  I don't.  An extra click because Microsoft can't handle their security properly.

Dragging and dropping is something I do on both operating systems.  I use cut sometimes on Windows, but on Mac that is the default, unless you are dragging a file from one drive or network share to another.  Meh just delete the file from the original directory after it has copied.

I will probably still continue to use third party file managers - I kinda like the two pane interface.

I use Windows 7 primarily, and Elementary OS Linux. My dad has Windows 8 and I'm not very fond of it at all, to be honest. It's too touch-screen oriented for a desktop user, although it's great on something like the Surface Pro 3. The lack of a Start button was surprising as it really is a pretty useful implementation. I'm so lost doing things in Windows 8 now!

The security prompts are kind of annoying, and you can disable them, but it's something I can live with if it means better security. I'd rather live with that than the totally wacky (and non-defeatable) mouse scroll-wheel acceleration... I either scroll 2 pixels or 2 pages... it's hard to be precise with that.

As for copy-paste files (in lieu of cut), the only issue is that it writes it on the drive again leading to fragmentation. I know the OSX is supposed to be resistant to that, and it's irrelevant on an SSD, but it takes more time and could slow things down (especially on the 5400 RPM drives that are now standard on iMacs).

I can be a pretty particular person, so I find issues with things pretty easily. All the OS's that I've experienced have usability issues here and there... it's a matter of what you can solve, and what you can live with. 

I'm hoping Yosemite addresses some of the quirks that I dislike, but I'm not getting my hopes up as I've seen no evidence of it.

[Pliny]

Hey! I'm also using Yosemite on my main Mac (long story) and it's working well. Good 3rd party support for the beta so far (hint: Aurora is the best version of Firefox to use at this point).

In terms of annoyances, for awhile now I've used TotalFinder, which installs into the Finder, and solves 2 big issues: allows Cut/Copy/Paste of files (I'd be lost without this, coming originally from Windows), and groups folders at the top. It also has prettier tabs than the native Finder. 

I still have Windows upstairs on the "home server." I'm riding 7 into the sunset! Works fine, no need to change. I *do* miss the up button, but I've gotten used to it 

Cheers...

[Altis]

Hey! I'm also using Yosemite on my main Mac (long story) and it's working well. Good 3rd party support for the beta so far (hint: Aurora is the best version of Firefox to use at this point).

In terms of annoyances, for awhile now I've used TotalFinder, which installs into the Finder, and solves 2 big issues: allows Cut/Copy/Paste of files (I'd be lost without this, coming originally from Windows), and groups folders at the top. It also has prettier tabs than the native Finder. 

I still have Windows upstairs on the "home server." I'm riding 7 into the sunset! Works fine, no need to change. I *do* miss the up button, but I've gotten used to it 

Cheers...

I'm glad to hear it's working well! Some of the new changes look pretty good.

Thanks for sharing about TotalFinder. Is it working well in Yosemite as well?

I'm also riding Windows 7 out... I suppose that could change if 9 is any good.

[ADFX_Pixy]

I was worried a little bit but I recently got an external hard drive for my iMac. So I decided to try the beta, even though my iMac is a mission critical Mac. So far I'm very happy with the OS and surprised with its stability as a beta on my late-2011 iMac. Imo, Apple could have released Yosemite now and it would be a great OS.

Before Yosemite I used Snow Leopard that was already on my Mac until about June-July 2014 when I finally got an external drive so I can update with no worries. When I upgraded to Mavericks I felt my computer got faster somehow but within 3 weeks of installing Mavericks I learned about Yosemite, and I took the plunge. As I previously stated I'm very satisfied with the beta and I hope Apple does this with future OS's

[slip84]

Another update for developers and public beta people: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/30/os-x-yosemite-developer-preview-9/

Includes a fix for Shellshock. Woo.