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Inside OS X Mavericks
rjmarvin writes "Apple's era of naming OSs after big cats is over. The Mavericks wave is rolling in, and the first four developer previews have given an inside look at the cutting-edge OS. Users and developers have almost entirely positive things to say about Mavericks, from faster speed and improved stability to new features like iBooks and iCloud keychains. While some installation concerns and errors have arisen, developer preview have improved version by version, and Mavericks is looking good."
I'm still on Lion. I have a 2011 MBP and I'm thinking I might stay on Lion. I'll be handing it down to my wife and would consider the big version upgrade, but my recent experience with iOS upgrades was that the new OS was way more resource-intensive than the old, even though people told me it'd be so great and Apple doesn't do upgrades that slow your machine down, etc. Thoughts? Should I think about an upgrade to Mavericks?
I'll wait for the Ars Technica review.
That's why I'm still on Snow Leopard. Sigh.
Look, it can simply be interesting from a tech point of view, without resorting to hate or fanboyism.
So it would only be valid news if it put Apple in a negative light then? Or are we not allowed to hear about Apple at all?
There are less conspiracies going on in the world than you think.
I'd bet they paid the same amount that Google pays for new Android releases, Microsoft pays for new Windows releases, and Linus Torvalds pays each time a kernel version comes out. All of which get plenty of coverage and exposure on /., and always have.
Yup. Apple is following Microsoft for a change. Not only in tabletifying their OS but also in their naming of it.
I don't think that's at all true.
Microsoft decided the tablet and the PC were exactly identical, and made one the other at the cost of both.
Apple however, has said a number of times that PC and tablet/mobile OS's are different things, with different needs (and that desktops do not need touch screens, just gestures). While OSX may borrow at times from iOS, and also share frameworks in some cases, the way you use them and the abilities they have remain pretty different.
Just the aspect of Mavericks adding on a lot of welcome additions to multiple screen use including multiple menu bars (something very un-tablet like indeed) indicates a strong separation - for the better.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Same here.
After being thoroughly conditioned to be used to think of scrolling as something you do by dragging the thumb of a scrollbar for many years, I decided to give this a chance nevertheless, knowing the brain can be pretty quick in 'rewiring' itself to changes like this. It's even possible to get used to seeing the world upside down within a few days: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/12/improbable-research-seeing-upside-down - or maybe right side up, as the image on the retina is normally inverted.
I now think of scrolling like: finger drags content up or down. Simple. No inbetween stuff like screens, mouses, trackpads, scrollbars - just my finger moving around content.
"Money is a sign of poverty." - Iain Banks
"The scrolling, which is a vast improvement for many, ... Autohide scrollbars, again a godsend for many users,..."
Ridiculous hyperbole and utterly false. Things worked the way they did for a reason. The changes suit an agenda, they aren't a "vast improvement" or a "godsend" to any user. They couldn't be regardless of merit.
I remember Jobs way back in the cat era poking fun at Vista's pre production name "Longhorn" and now they name their own OS "Mavericks" which as every QI watcher knows was originally a term describing unbranded cattle.
They had no choice; if they'd kept up the feline naming scheme, the only one left was "OS X Domestic Cat".
Which still would have been better than "Mavericks".
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Why is that hyperbole? I used to work on HP machines a long time ago (when they were running some HP-owned BASIC) and I loved the natural scrolling. It took some time get used to used, but I preferred it over the "non-natural" on all other machines.
Autohide scrollbars is also nice to have, though I'm not religious about that one - scrollbars just use up precious screen estate. Especially when using two-finger scrolling on touch pads, I don't really need to see the scrollbars all the time.
No, not an Apple fanboy - there is enough to criticize and I usually criticize Apple a lot - but not for these features, that you can actually turn OFF.