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OS X 10.10 Yosemite Review
An anonymous reader writes: With the release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Ars Technica has posted one of their extremely thorough reviews of the OS's new features and design changes. John Siracusa writes that Yosemite is particularly notable because it's the biggest step yet in Apple's efforts to bring OS X and iOS together — new technologies are now being added to Apple's two operating systems simultaneously. "The political and technical battles inherent in the former two-track development strategy for OS X and iOS left both products with uncomfortable feature disparities. Apple now correctly views this as damage and has set forth to repair it." Yosemite's look and feel has undergone significant changes as well, generally moving toward the flat and compact design present in iOS 7 & 8. Spotlight and the Notifications Center have gotten some needed improvements, as did many tab and toolbar interfaces.
Siracusa also takes a look a Swift, Apple's new programming language: "Swift is an attempt to create a low-level language with high-level syntax and semantics. It tackles the myth of the Sufficiently Smart Compiler by signing up to create that compiler as part of the language design process." He concludes: "Viewed in isolation, Yosemite provides a graphical refresh accompanied by a few interesting features and several new technologies whose benefits are mostly speculative, depending heavily on how eagerly they're adopted by third-party developers. But Apple no longer views the Mac in isolation, and neither should you. OS X is finally a full-fledged peer to iOS; all aspects of sibling rivalry have been banished."
Siracusa also takes a look a Swift, Apple's new programming language: "Swift is an attempt to create a low-level language with high-level syntax and semantics. It tackles the myth of the Sufficiently Smart Compiler by signing up to create that compiler as part of the language design process." He concludes: "Viewed in isolation, Yosemite provides a graphical refresh accompanied by a few interesting features and several new technologies whose benefits are mostly speculative, depending heavily on how eagerly they're adopted by third-party developers. But Apple no longer views the Mac in isolation, and neither should you. OS X is finally a full-fledged peer to iOS; all aspects of sibling rivalry have been banished."
I've been using Yosemite for a couple of months.
It's not turning into iOS. It's just working alongside iOS better. On the surface, de-glossification aside, it's more or less the same as Mavericks.
But of course, let's whip ourselves into a frenzy without even trying it out. This is Slashdot, of course.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
From what I can see of Yosemite, Apple is doing the same thing with Mac OS X.
Can you be more specific as to what you're referring to? The biggest difference in the UI is that they reskinned things and change the icons and whatnot. You might not like the changes, but it's hardly the same thing as Windows 8's problems. The only things I can think of that make it more like their mobile OS-- at least this is all I can think of off the top of my head:
1) They added "Launchpad", which was done a couple of versions ago and is completely optional. Remove it from the dock and you never have to see it again.
2) They expanded the functionality of the notification area, and I don't really see there being a lot of grounds for complaints
3) They have a controlled "App Store", which again, was added a few versions ago and is optional.
4) They added an application for Maps...? I guess this makes it more like a mobile device. Again, optional.
5) Their chat/messaging application has increased support for SMS messages, which is additional functionality, and at least sort of optional.
I'm not seeing the problem.
These Ars OSX reviews have always been really impressive things, full of technical examination and as you can see, very long to write...
It made more sense to me back when you had to pay for an upgrade though, so you could see if it was worth getting. Now that it's free, the need for long technical examination seems to diminish...
That said I hope they keep doing them because it is nice to have a deep technical examination of what is new.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you look at Apple's profit statements, the iOS App Store is break-even for them and they're not pushing profitability in that area.
So I really don't think that's why they don't let users break down the walled garden. I think it's because the nature of modern computing, breaking down the walled garden also means breaking down things about iOS that make it so nice. Thread safety, sandboxing, etc kind of break when you've got free reign to run whatever you want on the phone.
Also, who would really want a command line on their *phone*? Are you upset that iOS doesn't support CP/M apps too?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Again I say this is only right. People ragged on Windows 8 without using it too. There really isn't much difference between Windows 8 and Windows 7 (other than the flat look that I hate) once you install a Start Menu replacement (e.g. ClassicShell). It looks like Apple is doing the same thing Microsoft did but have the benefit of learning from Microsoft's mistakes. Apple is flattening the graphical elements of the OS but haven't included a touch style interface (Metro tiles) in their desktop OS (yet).
If people are ragging on Apples OS without even trying it I say that sounds about the same as happened with Microsoft and Windows 8.
Upgraded yesterday. I can't comment on the internal changes, but IMHO the new look is ugly. It even looks like the 'X' in the close button isn't centered. I want my old look back.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
The issue I have with Windows 8, and OS X.10 is the fact that they are trying to make the OS into the next tablet/mobile OS.
Yes the Table/Mobile market is eating up the Desktop share. But this hybrid doesn't make things better. The need for your desktop PC/Mac is for more serious work. And we need a more serious OS for the job.
The new OS needs to be less worried about grandma or the kid who wants to go online. It needs to become a serious Work Station solution. This includes better task switching, and viewing job status. Control of the performance in real time. Data retrieval and backup, and presenting the data in a clean uncluttered manner.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It's not a failed experiment.
'Success' does not need to mean, "Everyone universally enjoys this XXXX".
I'm a Windows Phone user as well as a Windows 8 user. I like both of them. I like that they've combined them. It works very well for me.
The interface needs to be refined in order to appeal to more people, but that does not mean it is a failure. It just means that Windows 8 was the first iteration of something that could/should/can be very, very good.
Taking the first steps toward a goal is not failure- it's building a foundation.
No reason to lie.
Yes.
But once upon a time Apple used to ship a specific server OS called, predictably, OSX Server.
Nowadays they don't create two seperate OS packages, they use only one, but they additionally sell a bunch of admin tools which you can install on top of the ordinary OSX. This package is called OSX Server and sells for $20.