
OS X 10.11 El Capitan: Review - danso
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-the-ars-technica-review/
======
carlosrg
I stopped caring about OS reviews after virtually every Yosemite (10.10.0)
review failed to mention the drop in performance and battery life and the
discoveryd and Wifi problems last year. These were not isolated issues and a
lot of people suffered them, I'd say in a much higher proportion than any
first release of OS X since 10.0. At least the Ars Technica people are smart
and recommend people to wait until 10.11.1 if they can (although last year
Yosemite 10.10.1 didn't solve anything).

I have to chuckle when I see some reviews saying "UPDATE _RIGHT NOW_! THIS IS
THE BEST OS EVER!". They said the same last year, what a coincidence.
Personally, I feel that Yosemite 10.10.5 is very stable now, and I'll wait _at
least_ until 10.11.2 to upgrade, no matter how many times people tell me how
wonderful El Capitan is.

~~~
spike021
The thing is, I've had 3 different Macbooks, young and old (2011 MBP, retina
MBP, macbook air), all on Yosemite, and had none of those issues.

It's not unreasonable to think the reviewers just didn't experience those
issues.

~~~
maxxxxx
I have a 2014 MacBook Pro and had the Yosemite Wifi issues. And looking at the
Apple forums a ton of other people had them too. It has become better (from
totally unusable) but Wifi still cuts out from time to time.

I wonder if these problems were already apparent during the test phase.

~~~
tolle
I have no issues. Until I enable my Bluetooth mouse. Easily solved by using
the 5ghz band but really. An apple mouse fucks up my connection from my apple
laptop to my apple access point. That's really unacceptable.

~~~
ianlevesque
Yeah, physics sucks.

~~~
makomk
Modern WiFi and Bluetooth hardware is meant to have coexistence support so
that the two don't trample all over each other.

------
untog
Here's hoping my Macbook will successfully reconnect to Wifi when waking up.
I'm not optimistic, though.

~~~
fogleman
Just do what I did. `brew install sleepwatcher` and then make a script at
`~/.wakeup` to turn wifi off and back on again:

    
    
        networksetup -setairportpower en0 off
        networksetup -setairportpower en0 on
    

I finally did this after the El Capitan GM didn't fix my issue.

~~~
oostevo
I made a quick little zsh alias for the wifi commands:

    
    
      wifi () {
      	local opt=$1
      	case "$opt" in
      		(on) networksetup -setairportpower en0 on ;;
      		(off) networksetup -setairportpower en0 off ;;
      		(toggle) networksetup -setairportpower en0 off
      			networksetup -setairportpower en0 on ;;
      		(scan) /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport en0 scan ;;
      		("" | -h | --help) echo "Usage: wifi <option>"
      			echo "option:"
      			echo "\ton\tSet Airport adapter on"
      			echo "\toff\tSetAirport adapter off"
      			echo "\ttoggle\tTurns wifi off and then on again"
      			echo "\tscan\tList available wifi networks"
      			return 0 ;;
      	esac
      }
      

Note that this is only tested on my computer, ymmv, etc.

~~~
shanemhansen
I'm so glad I use linux so I don't have to mess around with shell scripts to
get my laptop working.

~~~
pravka
I remember using Linux on a laptop; <sarcasm>everything worked _so well_
without _any_ tweaking whatsoever.</sarcasm>

------
lispm
I fear that this is one of the worse OSX updates. I've seen a lot of issues in
the GM. For example my USB audio device (an amplifier) is no longer working.
The Wifi connectivity issues are not fixed. The Airdrop connection between my
MacBook and the iPad Air does not work. A Lisp system did not start because
Apple removed some font protocol.

Stuff like Screen split between two apps are non-intuitive.

There is lots of good stuff, but Apple created also new problems or failed to
fix really annoying old problems (like Wifi connectivity issues, the buggy and
unreliable Finder, the annoying slowness of iTunes with larger music
libraries, ...).

~~~
Artemis2
> my USB audio device (an amplifier) is no longer working

I have the same issue with my two USB amplifiers! I couldn't find anything
about it online though.

~~~
lispm
There is a discussion group at Apple where lots of people seem to have the
same problem with various different USB audio devices.

------
mwcampbell
I think the review overstates the problems that developers might have with
System Integrity Protection. It seems to me that if an application developer
has to disable SIP, then that app developer is probably doing something wrong.
Better to accept SIP as good for everyone, like app sandboxing.

~~~
outworlder
Except that app sandboxing excludes a lot of otherwise useful apps.

~~~
simonh
On the bright side, at least none of Apple's pro apps on the App Store have
been excluded due to breaking sandbox restrictions.

~~~
mh-
Because app developers can request specific sandbox exemptions (so-called
"temporary exceptions") when they submit to the app store.

You can view these exceptions by dumping the Container.plist inside a
sandboxed app's container, e.g. for Calendar:

    
    
      /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "print SandboxProfileDataValidationInfo" $HOME/Library/Containers/com.apple.iCal/Container.plist
    

Look at the keys beginning with `com.apple.security.temporary-exception`.

(Also note that some Apple apps don't _have_ containers, like iTunes.)

~~~
mdaniel
Whoa, thank you so much for bringing PlistBuddy to my attention. I feel as
much joy as when I learned about `/usr/libexec/java_home`. Maybe I should just
start poking around in /usr/libexec and see what other awesome toys are hiding
in there.

------
pjmlp
As expected, being on the Khronos board doesn't mean anything.

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el-
capitan-t...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-the-
ars-technica-review/7/#h2)

~~~
FraKtus
OpenGL is not improving in El Capitan and it's a problem for cross-platform
developers.

~~~
pjmlp
Kind of, it is a problem for the developers that write their own engines,
instead of using middleware.

For the middleware companies, it isn't a problem to write multiple backends,
as it is the reason why they exist in first place.

Also OpenGL never had much use in the consoles, for example.

However, it just goes to show that company X will do Y, because they sit in
some Y organization isn't given.

------
newman314
For those that use ssh frequently on OS X, El Capitan finally supports ed25519
keys.

It was nice and responsive even over a slow connection over the weekend while
having to RDP to a remote server.

------
fuzzywalrus
I'm curious how much Metal matters but it seems like they went from GPU to CPU
in Yosemite and then back to the GPU.

The review sorta skimmed on Metal but reported that it only worked on a Mac
Pro 2013, which lead me to wonder why my 2008 Mac Pro couldn't run it with a
GeForce 680 GTX, turns out it can.
[http://netkas.org/?p=1405](http://netkas.org/?p=1405)

------
jasonjei
What's the recommendation if you're using command/shell utilities on upgrading
vs. clean install from Yosemite to El Capitan? I usually do a clean install,
but would an upgrade be advisable?

~~~
acdha
I've done upgrades since 10.1 was released without issues. If you've followed
Apple's filesystem layout and haven't altered system files or rely on some
exotic kernel extensions, you'll be fine.

The one annoyance I've encountered is that the installer will move everything
in /usr/local out of the way before doing the upgrade and moving it back. If
you have a large Homebrew install, it will be much faster to move the
directory first and restore it later rather than waiting for the file-by-file
copy to complete, even on when using SSDs.

~~~
eslaught
> The one annoyance I've encountered is that the installer will move
> everything in /usr/local out of the way before doing the upgrade and moving
> it back.

This can be a significant point. I thought my computer was bricked when I did
one of the previous upgrades (maybe Mavericks?) and the upgrade took something
like 14 hours (with no change in the progress bar).

~~~
acdha
It's definitely mind-boggling just how inefficient it is – feels like 1-byte
writes followed by a full fsync based on how it can keep an SSD capable of 10K
ios busy for a period measured in hours.

------
chmars
Is Apple Mail in El Capitan playing friendly with Gmail?

In Yosemite, it's OK except for drafts. And that's of course a big 'except' …

~~~
dchuk
For drafts, you can turn off synchronization of drafts to gmail's servers and
it will fix your issues: [http://www.ivanexpert.com/blog/2013/04/gmail-dont-
save-os-x-...](http://www.ivanexpert.com/blog/2013/04/gmail-dont-save-os-x-
mail-drafts-to-server/)

------
on_
Is there any way I can get this today without being a "certified apple
developer" or whatever the language is. I have to reformat anyway and really
don't want to reinstall yosemite and then have my settings ovcerrun on the
upgrade in 2 days.

~~~
guywithabike
Yep, Apple has a public beta channel now:
[https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/](https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/)

~~~
on_
While that took minimal effort on your part, I want you to know that it was
really really helpful. Thanks a lot. Is this new or something? I couldn't find
it a few weeks ago when the GM was released?

~~~
Tehnix
It has been out for quite a while, pretty sure it also was for Yosemite. There
is also a public beta for iOS9.

~~~
csixty4
Yep. Started with Yosemite and iOS 8.

------
carlob
No Siracusa?

~~~
cowsandmilk
retired from writing the reviews: [http://hypercritical.co/2015/04/15/os-x-
reviewed](http://hypercritical.co/2015/04/15/os-x-reviewed)

------
xpect0
Did any one on Yosemite had that random AirPlay icon poping on the bar. issue,
even without any apple TV in the network ??

~~~
rhodysurf
Yup I got it all the time and I still get it with El Capitan

~~~
xpect0
have you paired any iphone over bluetooth., try to remove it and turn off the
bluetooth. check if you still getting that issue., I created a local account
and turned off bluetooth., havent seen it for a while now.

------
muddi900
Finally implemented my favorite Windows feature, window snapping.

------
duaneb
And another version release updating apps I don't use, ushering in new
interfaces nobody wants, while leaving core infrastructure (e.g.
containerization, a better launchd interface for an amazing init system, an
ancient filesystem, allowing things like rendering contexts across process
bounderies, etc) leave me scratching my head. I feel like they're trying to
convince me to abandon my tools because they have been messing with them for
next to no reason since snow leopard. (exception: I love the app store and
sandboxing.)

~~~
msbarnett
While it's true that this release doesn't touch your pet issues, I'm left
scratching my head as to why you expect that Apple will _ever_ address some of
those issues.

Containerization is unlikely to ever get a big push from Apple -- whatever
half-hearted designs they had on the server space are long-since abandoned,
and it's clear they favor far less heavyweight security measures for end-user
apps.

"Rendering Contexts across process boundaries" doesn't even sound like it has
a good use-case for any direction Apple's been working on.

~~~
duaneb
> "Rendering Contexts across process boundaries" doesn't even sound like it
> has a good use-case for any direction Apple's been working on.

Well web sandboxing for one, and running opengl through your terminal for
another.

Containerization seems like a no-brainer to me since a) sandboxing naturally
follows, b) it's a developer's heaven in terms of deployment, development, and
testing, c) mac os x is now the only major OS in existence without any
containerization capabilities controlable by anyone but apple.

And these aren't just pet issues, no developer I know (except perhaps iOS
developers, for obvious reasons) welcome them. Even the non-technical users I
know see them as "pretty" PITAes.

And it's not that I don't get _why_ they do it, I just wonder about how they
view the *nix-ey developers who use the platform. I'm sure there must be
plenty at the company itself.

~~~
msbarnett
> Well web sandboxing for one, and running opengl through your terminal for
> another.

Sharing OpenGL contexts is about the opposite of sandboxing. It's unsafe.

And you can run OpenGL apps from your terminal just fine?

> Containerization seems like a no-brainer to me since a) sandboxing naturally
> follows,

But it's a sandboxing that isn't useful on a Desktop machine. A mail app which
sees a completely different container filesystem than my word processor does
not improve my life.

> b) it's a developer's heaven in terms of deployment, development, and
> testing

 _Except it 's not_, because OS X on servers is dead and gone, so what I'd
really need is a container that works on my server, aka a Linux server aka I
need a VM locally because it's not like OS X is ever going to be LXC
compatible.

A container I can only use on my dev box isn't worth beans.

> c) mac os x is now the only major OS in existence without any
> containerization capabilities controlable by anyone but apple.

I get that Docker has grabbed a lot of hype by reinventing jails to be venture
capital compatible, but honestly, for OS X it makes absolutely no sense
whatsoever.

------
jlarocco
<rant> Ugh. Apple software quality has been going downhill so fast lately I
loathe seeing the "Software Update Available" notification.

If I'm lucky everything will still work, and it will merely scramble the
interface and hide a bunch of stuff.

Unfortunately, my expectation is that on top of the interface scrambling, a
bunch of stuff that's worked fine for ages will be broken in some stupid way I
can't even imagine how it could happen, like it will start duplicating
playlists on my phone again. Oh, and I'm guessing it will try to shove at
least one unwanted, half-assed Apple service down my throat, integrate it with
everything, and force me to search online for 20 minutes looking for how to
turn it off, only to find out there's either no way to opt out, or the option
is hidden in some obscure, unexpected location in System Preferences, or via
some command line BS.

Every new release from Apple I get one step closer to switching back to Linux.
Love their hardware, but their software people need to get their shit
together. </rant>

~~~
adrianN
So, don't update? I'm still running 10.8 on my 2008 Macbook and I only install
security updates. If the new version doesn't have any features that you must
have, why update?

~~~
lisper
Because Apple uses a version ratchet to force you to upgrade.

I essentially use only one app on my iPhone. It's a mobile banking app. On a
regular basis, my mobile banking app stops working and requires me to upgrade.
Sooner or later, to upgrade the banking app, I have to upgrade my iOS, which
eventually forces me to upgrade iTunes, which eventually forces me to upgrade
OS X.

Western civilization has been in decline ever since Snow Leopard was
deprecated. I hung to that as long as I possibly could, but even I eventually
had to upgrade to Mavericks. Mavericks is tolerable, but the writing on the
wall is clear: to use Apple products, you will eventually have to surrender to
the software update.

~~~
jeromegv
You don't really need to sync your iPhone with iTunes if you don't need to.
Everything is supported as a standalone device.

~~~
lisper
I do if I want to update my contacts from my Mac.

