Ars Technica Yosemite Review

[azpc]

Excellent Review!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/os-x-10-10/1/

I concur with:

- Finder Folder Colors

- Non existent Title Bars (Makes teaching new users more difficult)

- Transparency overdone.

(It would be nice to select which screen elements should use transparency.)

 

[grahamperrin]

Siracusa on fonts in Yosemite

Excellent Review!

It's good, but peculiarly omissive in at least one area: fonts.

… only five sentences … does not properly explain why many people find #Yosemite less legible, less accessible. … Yosemite appears to give lowest-class treatment to a first-class Mac​

 

[ZVH]

Only time will tell with Yosemite. The adoption rate will be everything. Here's a link that can provide the Yosemite adoption rate, and that will tell the real story about whether people like it or not:

https://www.gosquared.com/global/mac/yosemite/#beta

Maybe they'll put up a non-beta link. I don't know.

 

[leman]

An excellent review, as often with Ars Technica! Very calm , reasonable and constructive discussion about the new design choices and possible ramifications. I think they have been reading these subforms a lot

 

[Mildredop]

I can't imagine reading a 25 page review on an operating system. I skipped to the conclusion which didn't really conclude anything.

 

[grahamperrin]

Excessive transparency in OS X 10.10; GoSquared in an earlier topic

- Transparency overdone.

Yes, Apple's default is excessive. I will never install Yosemite for a friend or colleague without drawing attention to the Accessibility pane of System Preferences.

… adoption rate will be everything. …

No, not everything.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=20108468#post20108468 and nearby for more about the figures presented by GoSquared. I have more to add; it'll be in that earlier topic.

 

[leman]

Only time will tell with Yosemite. The adoption rate will be everything. Here's a link that can provide the Yosemite adoption rate, and that will tell the real story about whether people like it or not:

https://www.gosquared.com/global/mac/yosemite/#beta

Maybe they'll put up a non-beta link. I don't know.

Thanks for the link! It seems that Yosemite adoption has increased to 14% from 4% following the release. That is an absolute increase of 10% (of all mac installation) or a relative increase of 250%. Such spike in adoption rate pretty much non-precedented in the history of desktop operating systems so far

P.S. Of course, numbers just few days after release don't mean much — I wonder how it will look in a month or two.

 

[revanmj]

- Finder Folder Colors

Yeah, I also think that folder color should be more subtle.

- Non existent Title Bars (Makes teaching new users more difficult)

I like this one actually - on a 13" screen titlebar only waste space for me so I'm glad those few pixels can be used more efficiently.

- Transparency overdone.

(It would be nice to select which screen elements should use transparency.)

Yep, I for instance would like to leave transparent menubar and dock, but disable transparency on windows.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

Only time will tell with Yosemite. The adoption rate will be everything. Here's a link that can provide the Yosemite adoption rate, and that will tell the real story about whether people like it or not:

https://www.gosquared.com/global/mac/yosemite/#beta

Maybe they'll put up a non-beta link. I don't know.

It's gone from 13% to 15% in the last hour or so, so maybe it's tracking all Yosemite traffic anyway Beta or not?

edit: weird. Just went back to 13% after I typed this. Strange.

 

[nobodyjustwalks]

Was just reading the Ars review earlier today. Very thorough.

 

[grahamperrin]

… weird … Strange.

It's neither weird nor strange please see the earlier topic (linked from my earlier post).

… adoption …

In response: The most popular is not necessarily the best (with reference to comments by Tim Cook).

… calm , reasonable and constructive discussion about the new design choices and possible ramifications. I think they have been reading these subforms a lot

I hope that his review was not excessively biased by reading MacRumors.

Some of his negative criticisms appear to be politely veiled. The politeness is welcome, but I wonder whether the veils are thin enough for people to see through, for people to realise the less pleasing aspects of Yosemite. More on this later …

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

It's neither weird nor strange please see the earlier topic (linked from my earlier post).



In response: The most popular is not necessarily the best (with reference to comments by Tim Cook).



I hope that his review was not excessively biased by reading MacRumors.

Some of his negative criticisms appear to be politely veiled. The politeness is welcome, but I wonder whether the veils are thin enough for people to see through, for people to realise the less pleasing aspects of Yosemite. More on this later …

I guess I meant the fact that it keeps changing at that rate is weird, so probably not reliable or important.

As for less pleasing aspects of Yosemite.....I'm not 100% sold on the slightly cartoony appearance, but maybe that's just because it's so different. I'll give it time, see if I adjust to that.

But as for excessive translucency, mentioned by a few people, I'm not really finding it so. There's so little of it I'm actually surprised because I thought there'd be more. Generally I'm liking the upgrade with really only the bright folder icons being a massive thorn in the side.

 

[leman]

It think it makes sense to merge the adoption rate discussion with this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=20130956#post20130956

Because now we are all over the place...

 

[stewacide]

I can't imagine reading a 25 page review on an operating system. I skipped to the conclusion which didn't really conclude anything.

The Ars reviews are the best part of a new OSX release. Well worth reading them all.

 

[grahamperrin]

Yosemite Safari versus teaching and learning: no title bar, and other problems

- Non existent Title Bars (Makes teaching new users more difficult)

Problems with Yosemite in educational environments in general – not classrooms alone – were predictable months ago. I should never choose to use Safari 8.0 in a demonstration, and so on.

It's not only the removal of the title bar; the initial response to Command-L is undesirable in a shared environment, and so on. Making your Mac experience different from anyone else’s by default can be a frustration in a group environment where there's a shared desire for consistency, focus, predictability and order.

In pessimistic mood, I wonder whether Apple allowed enough teachers to test, to repeatedly demonstrate the operating system and gain meaningful feedback, in teaching environments. Amongst answers to frequently asked questions:

"… don't discuss the pre-release Apple software with or demonstrate it to others who are not in the OS X Beta Program. …"​

– and from the OS X Beta Program Agreement (EA1172, 2014-06-02):

"6. … Except as expressly permitted in this Section 6, you agree that you will not disclose, publish, or otherwise disseminate any Confidential Information to anyone other than individuals who are enrolled in the same individual seed as you, or as otherwise expressly permitted or agreed to in writing by Apple. …"​

Happily, feedback-oriented clauses such as those did not prevent Apple from developing some outstandingly good software in the past.

Now there's a great deal to admire about Yosemite, but some of the regressions are almost excruciatingly discordant with Apple's stated desire to produce the best. I strongly suspect that for just a few things, changes were (to put it politely) internally bulldozed through against the wishes of some of the most astute designers and developers. Less politely: in the new human interface guidelines there's some inexcusable crap – at least, some of the wording there could easily apply to a hairspray or anti-wrinkle cream; at worst, Apple wilfully ignores the meaning of <title> in HTML … truly a shame.

I quietly hoped for WebKit.app to not display the same UI regressions as Safari, but it does. For me, that was amongst the last straws.

My best advice at this time is to use, if possible, in educational environments, a respectably designed alternative to Safari.

Test builds of OmniWeb are reliable and very presentable for me on OS X 10.9.5. In my occasional tests of Yosemite, the same test builds were no less reliable. The Omni Group has a long history of considerate design; I should recommend OmniWeb without hesitation.

Parallel to using something other than Safari: send feedback to Apple. Make some noise.

Related

The value of addresses/locations/paths/URLs in Safari, and of title bars in general

Visionary Apple approaches to Mac OS X: past, present and future

… I get the sense that Apple no longer has a single, clear, shared vision for OS X. …

 

[grahamperrin]

A few thoughts, and related discussion

ribald_eddie wrote:

"Wow, this "review" is too glowing in every aspect to be taken seriously. …

… If this is the pinnacle review on the internet of this new operating system, then I fear that no one is here to keep Apple on its toes. It reads like an apologist's love letter."​

Personally:

"It's a good guide – as usual, kudos to Siracusa – but I'm genuinely puzzled by the article barely mentioning what might have been the most widespread public complaint about the pre-release. In that area, at least, the review seems lacking. (Elsewhere I read that more than ninety-two percent of Mac users have/use non-Retina displays.)

Apple describes the design of Yosemite as 'completely new'. In fact it's not, but there were enough changes for me to wish for more from a definitive review. I'm not criticising Siracusa (I couldn't do better) but Ars Technica reviews of earlier versions of the operating were easy to treat as definitive points of reference for many things. For a variety of reasons, I simply don't find myself referencing the review of Yosemite. "​

I can't imagine reading a 25 page review on an operating system. I skipped to the conclusion which didn't really conclude anything.

To me the closing paragraphs of One will, one resolve, one cause (a.k.a. the conclusion) seem most relevant:

"… 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.

The Mac today is just one part of a conceptually, organizationally, and (increasingly) technologically unified platform that spans from wrist to workstation. The hardware-based platforms of the past remain relevant to developers, but Apple seems determined to make them much less important to its customers. With Yosemite, the Mac has taken its first step into a larger world."​

For the conclusion as a whole, I agree with ribald_eddie.

There's a recommendations section in the review; "neither should you" belongs there. Not amongst the conclusions.

There will always be a base of end users who – naturally – find zero relevance in 'wrist to workstation'. To completely lose sight of those users' perspectives – to never view the Mac in isolation – would be most unwelcome.

Related

OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review | Hacker News (highlights)

Postscript, 2016-09-21

Edited to restore ellipses … and other punctuation that was lost in the migration to XenForo of MacRumors Forums.

 

[grahamperrin]

One will, one resolve, one cause

… an ironic sub-heading … Was that merely an inside joke …

Above:

… Some of his negative criticisms appear to be politely veiled …

– but for the conclusion – 'One will, one resolve, one cause' – I doubt that irony was intended.

No joke, unfortunately, @Etan1000. I think that Siracusa was glowing.

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=28186613#p28186613 for more thoughts about the review.

Side note: some punctuation has disappeared from this topic.​