Given that I had almost 14 GB in my monthly internet allotment remaining, I decided to try to download the latest operating system and install it on a laptop computer that I've had since around the first of 2013.
In November 2014, I had Apple install 10.9.5 on my machine because I didn't have enough data available to download the operating system. I also remember all the pain of downloading 10.8 and the fixes and having to jump through hoops to get it to work, and then, I changed to an SSD and I couldn't just copy the operating system as in the old days. Gnashing of teeth was part of the installation process.
The time for the download was not horrible, although my Verizon mobile hotspot has some very variable service lately. Once downloaded, there were a couple of items to confirm and then, it restarted to actually perform the installation.
At some point, it asked me about iCloud--and took a very long time to complete. It also did this for a secondary user on the machine, but didn't seem to take nearly as long.
That was the big deal.
Performance is much better, although the interface is so flat (with sharp edges) that I suspect that the next major version will have concave features. It feels a bit as though children were tasked with the re-design.
Maybe, it's just that 10.9.5 was really awful--10.7.x was, and 10.8.x was also. In fact, the last time I really felt good about performance was 10.4.10 on the PowerBook G4. However, 10.11.3 seems a strong improvement.
I haven't seen a problem, other than having to update all of my iWork applications. Why they are so close to the operating system, I don't know but it feels like when Microsoft was using hidden APIs to "enhance" Microsoft Office since the compiler couldn't fix the code execution to be faster. Oh, and my 14 GB remainder is suddenly about 3GB.
Update 2016.04.05: There is a huge drawback that most people won't likely see. When I try to transfer over 500 photo files from SD cards using my USB 3.0 enabled reader, the Finder seems confused.
It seems to create ghostly icons of the files in the folder but never seems to actually copy the files. It doesn't report any progress. I end up having to re-launch Finder, delete the files' icons--or whatever it takes, depending on my level of frustration.
There is also a problem while transferring around 400 photo files, but this has been lessened by 10.11.4. Progress stalled quite a lot with 10.11.3 and shaking the Copy dialog box seemed to help. It's smoother now but once it's stuck, nothing helps. I could try using the inbuilt SD Card slot but it didn't seem to work in previous releases, so that's not a good idea.
Why is Apple having USB problems after all this time? I've thinking that the all-in-one iMac from the 1990s had severe USB problems but that was so long ago. Then again, every major release (including iOS) seems to have WiFi problems.
Why isn't Windows 10 such a problem? I'm surprised that things work so smoothly. I suppose Apple's problems could be related to their lack of procedures.
Update 2016.07.20: Up to 10.11.6 now. Finder has not been updated but seems somewhat more reliable, perhaps because of background processes. I've lost faith in Apple, but then, my faith in them has been diminishing since 10.4.10. 10.5.x for PowerPC was terribly broken and several applications stopped working. 10.6.x for Intel was acceptable finally, with the white 2.13 GHz MacBook. My Mid-2012 MacBook Pro is the only one I still have that can be updated. It was awful on 10.7.x and 10.8.x but 10.9.x was reliable.
The good thing with 10.11.x is that the App Store works reliably.
Showing posts with label Yosemite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yosemite. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
OS X Mavericks now, Yosemite later
I've had OS X Mavericks for a week or so. Since Mac OS X, I've taken it a bit more slowly with my updates, upgrades.
When I went from 10.2.x to 10.3.0, things went awry. It took until 10.3.4 until most everything worked again. It seemed with every release, it took until 10.x.4 until it was stable enough for all that I did, so I waited, even though I had used the beta test versions for testing and programming purposes.
When Avie Tevanian left Apple, Mac OS X seemed to become even more sloppy. I still have a PowerBook G4 on 10.5.8 and it really could have used some bug fixes. Thankfully, they produced a number of security updates since then, and some of those helped stability.
Since 10.6.8, Apple provided (Mac) OS X on less and less media until it was only available for installation over a network connection. When I got my mid-2012 MacBook Pro, it got 10.8.0, which required updates while connected to the internet.
So, I bought a new version of Phase One's Capture One version 8. The only problem was that the software didn't work on 10.8.x and I didn't see anything about the system requirements ahead of the purchase, which seemed odd for them. Obviously, I wanted the new version of the raw development software so much that I was not thinking as well as I should have.
Having spent the money, I needed the update to OS X 10.9.x. The nearest Apple Store was okay with installing the update for me. If there was physical media, I would have installed it myself. Actually, I was expecting to occupy a corner of the Genius Bar with their internal network connected to my computer and I would install the update myself. They had a local installation image of the update and they used that.
They managed to e-mail me when they finished the update, but they didn't use the phone number they confirmed three times. Since they had my computer and I expected a phone call, I didn't check my e-mail. I returned to the store about 45 minutes before the store would close, just hoping that they had finished.
Long story, long, I've updated and my computer is still working. Mavericks is slightly better than Mountain Lion, so I feel okay about the changes. I'm not finding any interesting or odd behavior. I'm glad I did the update when I did, so that I wasn't forced to Yosemite. The only Yosemite I want close right now is the national park.
Update 2014.10.30: Some Yosemite users are reporting WiFi connectivity problems. That's a surprise! (Did your sarcasm detector max out there?) Every new release of Mac OS X in recent memory has had WiFi connectivity problems, and many iOS releases have also. Do you wonder why I wait to update?
When I went from 10.2.x to 10.3.0, things went awry. It took until 10.3.4 until most everything worked again. It seemed with every release, it took until 10.x.4 until it was stable enough for all that I did, so I waited, even though I had used the beta test versions for testing and programming purposes.
When Avie Tevanian left Apple, Mac OS X seemed to become even more sloppy. I still have a PowerBook G4 on 10.5.8 and it really could have used some bug fixes. Thankfully, they produced a number of security updates since then, and some of those helped stability.
Since 10.6.8, Apple provided (Mac) OS X on less and less media until it was only available for installation over a network connection. When I got my mid-2012 MacBook Pro, it got 10.8.0, which required updates while connected to the internet.
So, I bought a new version of Phase One's Capture One version 8. The only problem was that the software didn't work on 10.8.x and I didn't see anything about the system requirements ahead of the purchase, which seemed odd for them. Obviously, I wanted the new version of the raw development software so much that I was not thinking as well as I should have.
Having spent the money, I needed the update to OS X 10.9.x. The nearest Apple Store was okay with installing the update for me. If there was physical media, I would have installed it myself. Actually, I was expecting to occupy a corner of the Genius Bar with their internal network connected to my computer and I would install the update myself. They had a local installation image of the update and they used that.
They managed to e-mail me when they finished the update, but they didn't use the phone number they confirmed three times. Since they had my computer and I expected a phone call, I didn't check my e-mail. I returned to the store about 45 minutes before the store would close, just hoping that they had finished.
Long story, long, I've updated and my computer is still working. Mavericks is slightly better than Mountain Lion, so I feel okay about the changes. I'm not finding any interesting or odd behavior. I'm glad I did the update when I did, so that I wasn't forced to Yosemite. The only Yosemite I want close right now is the national park.
Update 2014.10.30: Some Yosemite users are reporting WiFi connectivity problems. That's a surprise! (Did your sarcasm detector max out there?) Every new release of Mac OS X in recent memory has had WiFi connectivity problems, and many iOS releases have also. Do you wonder why I wait to update?
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Apple gets "it" again?
I'm skeptical.
I've seen bits and pieces of the announcements this week, in-between packing, loading, and cleaning and getting ready to move.
My trouble with Apple is that they never seem to finish anything any longer. I understand that they're big and important now, but the bugs are bigger and more frequent now. Pleasing the whole population by adding feature-after-feature, while ignoring the bug list just screams Adobe.
Apple does seem to test, when they feel like it, which is better than Google. Google only seem to test while they're creating their software. I have a 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet with Android version 4.4.2 on it, and it seems to have all sorts of little issues which make the tablet unlikeable. Those little issues of course, are exacerbated by little issues in third party software.
I'm still having silly issues with (Mac) OS X 10.8.5, and 10.9.4 isn't ready yet, so I'm not moving. Equally, iOS 7.x seems buggy but Apple leaves mobile users hanging in the breeze quite often, security issues and all.
One thing that struck me that Apple gets it again is the mobile hotspot functionality that you can start from your Mac running Yosemite. When I use my iPhone 5c as a mobile hotspot, they have the cheesy little links icon to show that Apple products are happy together--at least, when they work together. (Do I seem more bitchy than usual? I'm not sure the lack of sleep is helping.)
For developers, the Swift language seems to be quite useful. The one thing that will cause resistance is that it's not one of the already-established languages. Microsoft copied a lot of Java to create C# but they had developers stuck in their development platform. Google has been grooming developers with their summer coding programs. Apple has often been knocking heads with developers, rather than courting them.
Mind you, Objective-C is a fine language, and it's been around since the mid-1980s. Apple extended it to work with C++ somewhat in Objective-C 2.0. Naturally, in the mid-1980s, C++ wasn't much. People were still coding in Pascal and making the switch to C.
However, all of those iOS game developers will like where Swift is going because of its interactivity, if it doesn't slow down performance or throughput in development. Remember CASE tools? Magic has its price.
I look forward to updating quite a lot and getting my hands dirty. I haven't done much independent development for a while, and if Swift can re-kindle my interest, all the better.
What if Apple was in your car, your house, and on everything mobile you had? Would it be a nightmare or a dream or both? My history with the company says that it would be both. "Two steps forward, one step back." always seems to apply.
On the other hand, I don't see Google being much different, just in a different form. However, they have to deal with everyone who wants to create something from their open source code and still call it Android. By the way, have you seen anyone using a Chrome OS computer? I have not, though I expect my near future proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area may change that. (It's odd to see the new Maps for OS X practically pointing to my new home.) It's just that a lot of the country is still not connected so well. Google doesn't get that. Apple doesn't get that.
I've seen bits and pieces of the announcements this week, in-between packing, loading, and cleaning and getting ready to move.
My trouble with Apple is that they never seem to finish anything any longer. I understand that they're big and important now, but the bugs are bigger and more frequent now. Pleasing the whole population by adding feature-after-feature, while ignoring the bug list just screams Adobe.
Apple does seem to test, when they feel like it, which is better than Google. Google only seem to test while they're creating their software. I have a 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet with Android version 4.4.2 on it, and it seems to have all sorts of little issues which make the tablet unlikeable. Those little issues of course, are exacerbated by little issues in third party software.
I'm still having silly issues with (Mac) OS X 10.8.5, and 10.9.4 isn't ready yet, so I'm not moving. Equally, iOS 7.x seems buggy but Apple leaves mobile users hanging in the breeze quite often, security issues and all.
One thing that struck me that Apple gets it again is the mobile hotspot functionality that you can start from your Mac running Yosemite. When I use my iPhone 5c as a mobile hotspot, they have the cheesy little links icon to show that Apple products are happy together--at least, when they work together. (Do I seem more bitchy than usual? I'm not sure the lack of sleep is helping.)
For developers, the Swift language seems to be quite useful. The one thing that will cause resistance is that it's not one of the already-established languages. Microsoft copied a lot of Java to create C# but they had developers stuck in their development platform. Google has been grooming developers with their summer coding programs. Apple has often been knocking heads with developers, rather than courting them.
Mind you, Objective-C is a fine language, and it's been around since the mid-1980s. Apple extended it to work with C++ somewhat in Objective-C 2.0. Naturally, in the mid-1980s, C++ wasn't much. People were still coding in Pascal and making the switch to C.
However, all of those iOS game developers will like where Swift is going because of its interactivity, if it doesn't slow down performance or throughput in development. Remember CASE tools? Magic has its price.
I look forward to updating quite a lot and getting my hands dirty. I haven't done much independent development for a while, and if Swift can re-kindle my interest, all the better.
What if Apple was in your car, your house, and on everything mobile you had? Would it be a nightmare or a dream or both? My history with the company says that it would be both. "Two steps forward, one step back." always seems to apply.
On the other hand, I don't see Google being much different, just in a different form. However, they have to deal with everyone who wants to create something from their open source code and still call it Android. By the way, have you seen anyone using a Chrome OS computer? I have not, though I expect my near future proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area may change that. (It's odd to see the new Maps for OS X practically pointing to my new home.) It's just that a lot of the country is still not connected so well. Google doesn't get that. Apple doesn't get that.
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