
OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review - Braasch
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/os-x-10-10/
======
smutticus
None of these reiews answer the one question I always want answered; will this
cause my MBP to crash more often than 10.8.5? I have all the features I need,
I want fewer GPU panics.

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.

~~~
pbreit
Doubt you're going to see much about crashing since I presume that most MBP
owners, like myself, never experience crashes.

~~~
gcao
Mine crashes a lot. Usually after I send it to sleep when I go home. Next time
when I wake it up, it starts up from crashed state. It might have something to
do with some app I installed but I didn't spend time to figure that out yet.

~~~
r00fus
VMWare 6 seems to be the cause of some of mine. I resolved it by making sure
it's suspended prior to system sleep.

I wonder if the most recent VMWare version would help.

~~~
geekam
It helped a little but still crashes for me. I have the same issues with
VMWare latest version.

~~~
r00fus
Does suspending the VM help you?

~~~
r00fus
Sorry to reply to my own message, but I just found this [1] where the
recommendation is:

"I managed to fix this by going to the Virtual Machine Settings, clicking
Advanced, and then checking the "Pass power status to VM" checkbox."

Haven't tested extensively, but I haven't had a crash in the past day.

[1]
[https://communities.vmware.com/thread/467919](https://communities.vmware.com/thread/467919)

~~~
geekam
Thanks! I will try this and let you know.

------
sxates
What's missing here for me is some kind of performance evaluation. If I
upgrade my 2011 MBA from Mavericks to Yosemite, should I expect any change in
performance, for better or worse? Did the power management change in any
significant way?

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.

~~~
comex
I've had serious performance issues with Yosemite. For one, dragging around
windows became extremely janky; this appears to be caused by the transparency
(and the limitations of my first-generation Retina MBP), as the option to
disable it fixes the jank. For another, opening a new tab in Safari started
lagging about a full second before I could start typing in the address bar,
which is a ridiculous amount of time compared to the previous version or
competition. I was able to fix this by disabling Top Sites, but while I don't
actually use Top Sites much, I never had to disable it before, and most users
won't know to do that, making it a serious regression. (Chrome actually takes
quite a while to load its equivalent - I don't know whether it's for the same
reason or not - but it does it asynchronously, so I can start typing in the
address bar almost immediately.)

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?)

~~~
bdash
I'd love to try and get to the bottom of the Safari performance issues you're
seeing. My email address is in my profile, please drop me a line if you
wouldn't mind.

~~~
comex
Okay.

------
Osmium
Somebody asked in another thread about Yosemite's new Hypervisor:

"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...](https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/mac/releasenotes/MacOSX/WhatsNewInOSX/Articles/MacOSX10_10.html)

~~~
jsz0
Not many details on this yet but there shouldn't be any major drawbacks since
third party kexts can still be used to support legacy / multi-platform VMs or
supplement Hypervisor.kext in other ways. I doubt Apple would have bothered
doing this unless they had a mountain of OSX crash logs / power consumption
data that suggested they could do better. It's clearly in their best interest
to sell stable computers that get great battery life so I expect they will do
a good job here. Users don't switch between VM platforms often enough to know
which one offers the best stability / power efficiency so there's less of an
incentive for companies like VMWare or Parallels to make them a top priority.

------
wiremine
Off topic from the review but handy since people were talking about crashing:

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.

~~~
tillinghast
I ran across the cmd-l tip earlier this afternoon in this article: "Faster Mac
OS X 10.10 Yosemite Upgrades for Developers"
([https://jimlindley.com/blog/yosemite-upgrade-homebrew-
tips/](https://jimlindley.com/blog/yosemite-upgrade-homebrew-tips/)).

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.

~~~
wtallis
So I guess this is a coincidental validation of MacPorts' decision to install
under /opt and leave /usr/local for manually-compiled stuff.

------
dutchbrit
I really don't like the new design. The dock bar looks weird to name one
thing, also the new buttons, bars and the window design is just ugly and plain
(it feels like a Linux flavour trying to look like OS X designed by someone's
neighbour's kid) - don't let me even mention the folder icons. Photoshop
stalled once but that's the only quirck I've had in the past 2 weeks of using
the beta so that's not too bad. Design wise however, I don't feel like this is
a good replacement. Have to admit that iOS 7 did grow on me and I felt the
same about that back then but I don't think the same will happen in this case.

~~~
senorgusto
I feel the exact same way about iOS 7 growing on me but Yosemite not. This is
the first Apple upgrade for a while that I'm going to hold off on...

~~~
yaeger
I recently found this: # snow leopard theme for 10.9 Mavericks
[http://rhubarb-leaf.deviantart.com/art/SnowLeopard-
theme-v2-...](http://rhubarb-leaf.deviantart.com/art/SnowLeopard-
theme-v2-462739866)

I hope something like this is possible on Yosemite at some point in the
future.

------
tlo
If you want to do a fresh install, you can create a USB install drive:
[http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/how-to-make-your-own-
bo...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/how-to-make-your-own-bootable-
os-x-10-10-yosemite-usb-install-drive/)

------
mlex
"...If Retina desktop Macs still haven’t been announced by the time you read
this, Apple had better hurry up."

Near the bottom of page 3, just thought it was funny considering today's 5K
iMac announcement.

------
locomoco
Anyone know how to turn off the Macbook pro screen with the lid open while
using external monitors? On Mavericks this worked just fine:

[http://gizmodo.com/5938452/a-trick-to-make-using-an-
external...](http://gizmodo.com/5938452/a-trick-to-make-using-an-external-
monitor-with-your-macbook-way-better)

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.

~~~
wodenokoto
Can't you just turn the brightness down to zero?

~~~
locomoco
Yes, but it's not the same as turning the display off. The GPU is still
outputting signal to the Macbook Pro screen.

~~~
nkurz
Wow, I hadn't considered that. It might explain why I get terrible battery
life when playing movies on a TV over HDMI with the screen "turned off" by
dimming it down to zero. Thanks for the hint.

~~~
locomoco
Along with the battery suck, it also generates more heat as the GPU has to
output 2 signals.

------
dopamean
The upgrade to Mavericks totally borked my Displaylink adapter that I use to
plug an extra monitor in. After some updates its finally stable but still not
great. I'm afraid to upgrade again because who knows what will happen.

~~~
mmastrac
Was it the Displaylink<->Dual-DVI adapter? Ugh, that was broken for quite a
few versions for 2011ish-era devices as soon as Mavericks came out. It took
them a few versions to actually fix that up, almost as if they hadn't noticed
it was broken.

I'm tempted to try a test install separate from my regular install after
getting burned on that last time.

~~~
dopamean
I recently bought a DVI to USB adapter so that I could plug a second monitor
into my 2012 MBA. It wasnt until I actually set it up that I learned of all
the trouble. I wouldnt say the set up I have now is perfect but it is
workable.

I'd hate to upgrade to Yosemite and have everything go to hell though. Is it
possible to downgrade if I have problems?

~~~
acomjean
If your on Maverics you should be Ok not upgrading for a while. I used one of
those adapter with snow leopard on a mac book up to this spring (upgrading
compatability being questionable). It finally became clear that enough
software needed a new OS that I got a newer machine.

Mavericks beachballs on a way faster machine more often than it ever did on
snow leopard. I miss that os.

------
cdbattags
I actually read this all the way through... Quality writing.

~~~
toggle
I'll check it out, but in his past reviews, I've had the impression that the
author really likes showing off his background knowledge of all things Apple.
A lot of the text is irrelevant to the review, and therefore shouldn't be
there. Also, the endless, endless links. He really needs to learn when
something should be linked and when it shouldn't -- it really affects the
reading experience on the web. You're constantly alternating between black and
orange text, and being tempted to hover over them to see "what does this one
go to?"

His attention to detail is great, though, no doubt about that.

~~~
lessnonymous
You comment made me laugh and 'ahhhhh!' at the same time. It now makes sense.
He's totally into Apple and hasn't been elsewhere.

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.

~~~
vor_
John Siracusa is certainly aware of Windows, at least visually. The only
reason for you to suggest pointing out any little thing that's not "Apple-
original" is out of some sort of pointless OS defensiveness. Aero Glass was a
simple blurred translucency, while the translucency in Yosemite is a more
complex filter and has two content modes, behind-window and within-window. But
I don't see what comparing the two accomplishes, honestly.

------
tehabe
I tried it yesterday and for the first time I downgraded my Mac back to the
previous version. I think Yosemite wasn't made for my 2009 MacBook Pro. It
works w/o a problem but the font is really hard to read, in the sense it is an
exhausting experience.

What is funny about Yosemite, many dialog boxes remind me of KDE.

------
72deluxe
Very informative review, particularly the part regarding Swift towards the
end, although I did feel like he was going over the changes in a perfunctory
manner as opposed to the Mavericks review.

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.

------
l33tfr4gg3r
I'm on a 2013 MBP and I upgraded to Yosemite yesterday. It was a textbook
upgrade for me - zero hassle and everything works just as it should (so far
anyway). A couple of quirks I've noticed vs. Mavericks is that a) the
animations seem to stutter sometimes - I almost never had that with Mavericks.
Perhaps since this is 10.10.0 that's to be expected but hope they fix that to
buttery smooth in the performance update down the road. The other thing is RAM
usage seems to have gone up significantly. I used to average around 2-3 GB
used out of 8GB and now I find 5GB used - I haven't installed any additional
software or tweaked any configuration settings - this is purely a Mavericks
--> Yosemite in-place upgrade. Its still early hours so I've yet to explore
the system fully, but apart from these 2 things it seems fairly solid so far.
Contrary to the other comments, I don't quite seem to mind the full screen
mechanics, although I would not have minded a '+' button and more discernible
buttons in general.

~~~
dan1234
I find that Spotlight tends to do a complete reindex after an OS update, so
that may be the cause of your increased resource usage.

~~~
saturdaysaint
I saw a lot of glitches immediately after updating, but am getting buttery
smooth performance now, so this is worth keeping in mind.

------
jimeuxx
I hope developers make good use of the changes to the title bar. It completely
breaks the flow of the design of a lot of apps, and kills precious vertical
space on my 13-inch MBP. A keyboard shortcut to toggle the menu bar would've
been nice too. Neither of those would be big issues if it weren't for the
slow, eye-melting, completely superfluous fullscreen animations though.

------
deepforg
I can accept almost all of the UI changes but these horrible blue folders.

~~~
TillE
As someone else suggested, they seriously look like something out of an old
version of KDE.

~~~
switch007
Ouch, that's an insult. That blue is vile. But ooh, straighter lines and
softer shadows - very noticable (!)

------
matt-attack
I find the new Spotlight to be quite painful. Apple again, makes design
choices not based on improving the quality but just because they feel they
need to keep changing things.

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](http://i.imgur.com/Szj3Yag.png)

------
vacri
I can't wait for the 'flat' fad to be over.

~~~
jackmoore
Even though it feels very fad-ish because it's been used as a
buzzword/bandwagon, I don't feel like it's actually a fad.

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.

~~~
vacri
As ericd says, a lot of those little flourishes actually aid human perception
and cognition. Yes, we don't need giant flashy effects or lots of animation,
but that doesn't mean that the most functional design is the most minimal.

Also, it's kind've ironic that you can now have a 5k display to show off your
flat, monochrome circles...

~~~
ak217
This. Shadows (fake 3D), textures, colors, and other elements may seem like a
gimmick, but they are fundamentally crucial in visual cognition of the UI.
What's sad is that so much UI design is driven by meaningless trends instead
of more precise research data on how well UI elements work.

~~~
glhaynes
Are they actually crucial, though? There was a _ton_ of gnashing of teeth
about iOS 7 (and other "flat" designs) but one rarely hears those anymore… and
it's not at all clear to me that less-savvy users are having more trouble
operating their devices than they did a couple of years ago. In fact, it seems
just the opposite, that these devices have steadily continued to integrate
themselves into people's lives more than ever before. Come to think of it, it
seems that the gnashing of teeth has shifted to that (these screens that we
spend our lives staring at!) over the last year or two.

I'm sure there have been at least some regressions in some aspects of some
user performance measurements, but it seems really clear at this point that it
hasn't been a catastrophe… or even a significant problem.

~~~
ericd
It takes me significantly longer to identify control elements under the new
design bible, especially the un-bordered text "buttons". Smart phones are
taking off _despite_ this, not because of it - it's because of the massive new
capabilities they afford people.

~~~
lostlogin
>It takes me significantly longer to identify control elements under the new
design bible.< xCode buttons are a problem for me.

------
blisterpeanuts
Upgrading now: 5.16 gigs. Hah! This is going to take all night. Looks like
everyone's downloading it at the same time.

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.

~~~
bjz_
Took around half an hour to download for me a couple of hours ago. (I'm in
Australia, and one of the few blessed with a 'decent' internet connection)

------
Shivetya
Just a personal note.

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

------
hsshah
Does anyone know if Mail app now supports "cloud" search for Gmail? i.e. you
don't need to download ALL your Gmail to local machine to be able to search.
My SSD is quickly getting filled up and this is becoming one huge pain point.

------
ksk
Have they improved the Mac App Store updates yet? It shocks the mind to think
that forcing users to re-download entire apps rather than just the stuff
that's changed is apparently a hard problem to solve for Apple.

------
dman
On my 2013 Macbook pro the wifi seems to be exceptionally slow after upgrading
to Yosemite. Seeing speeds < 600K after the upgrade. Usually see ~6 MBps.

------
k_bx
I really hope it has dark theme as I imagined it to be, since current light-
grey really distracts me when programming in dark theme editor/terminal.

------
blackkettle
Mavericks is not an obscure surfing destination.

~~~
orbitur
Anyone who isn't a surfer and lives outside of CA likely hasn't heard of it.
It's obscure.

------
super_mario
Absolutely ugly and tasteless design. Default theme is hideous black bold font
on white background, large swaths of white everywhere. Dark theme is just
inconsistent. Window titlebars are pale whitish, with black menu bar with
white font on it.

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.

------
goeric
My camera on my 2013 Retina Macbook Pro doesn't work post-upgrade, FYI.

------
mohamedattahri
Just installed it. It freed 7GB on my Macbook Air's flash drive. Nice!

