How would you rate macOS Sierra GM?

[typicaluser]

The ratings for recent two version of os x, namely Yosemite and El Capitan, are so low, especially for current minor update of El Capitan where 1-star ratings are more than 5-stars ones, that I have left my mac on Mavericks, which got a 4-star rating as I remember.

Now with Sierra GM out and assuming there would be no major modification for it until future 10.12.x updates, I am wholeheartedly wanting to know how you guys who have GM installed feel about Sierra as rating is a major factor for me to decide whether to update my macbook pro for daily use, let me know your opinion by taking the poll. Thanks a lot

Update: current average rating is 4.13 with 109 casts. Since Macrumors is not as a wild environment as Mac App Store, I am guessing Sierra would score no more than 3.5-star in its host country, US, based on current rating

9/20 update: hey guys, Sierra has officially been public. Let's see how it fares.

 

[Lunder89]

I have been running it half a day so far. It seems it tampers a little with the scroll sensitivity on my mouse. Other than that, it seems to work just fine.
I will cast my vote in a couple of days.

 

[tywebb13]

I think if we are going to base this voting on the mac app store rating system, we should be clear about what that means

So here it is:

✭ hate it
✭✭ don’t like it
✭✭✭ it’s ok
✭✭✭✭ it’s good
✭✭✭✭✭ it’s great

I think it is fine too to stick with mavericks for the reasons typicaluser said. There may be other reasons too why one would want to stay with mavericks.

However going into the future one should also consider security issues when apple drops support for mavericks. Recently yosemite and el capitan got a security update and mavericks didn't. I was expecting that to happen after sierra was released, not before.

Anyway I too was using mavericks for a long time as my main system until that happened (even though I have also been testing betas for yosemite, el capitan and sierra as well). So I made my last mavericks backup, installed yosemite and did another backup. Then the next day I installed el capitan and did a third backup.

Some say I was mad for installing yosemite for just 1 day. Why not just jump straight to el capitan? The reason I did this was in case there were issues with el capitan requiring a downgrade to yosemite. This would have been much more difficult without such a backup. And yosemite would have lasted about another year before similar security issues arose. So it was going to be either 1 day or 1 year for yosemite. With no incentive to downgrade I chose 1 day and now use el capitan as my main system. Nevertheless I needed the opportunity to determine whether I needed the downgrade or not. Hence the one day with yosemite.

Many have complained that a 1 year cycle is bad because it is rushing out new systems far too quick. That may be so and I'm not disagreeing or making a case for or against that. BUT that is what we have and to make the most of what we have if you prefer a slower cycle (unless there is a new feature you want from a new system) then effectively what I have described above is a 2-year cycle with an intermediary system as a backup in case you need to downgrade, but still be able to get security updates for an extra year.

So even if you think apple are too quick with their cycle, I hope I have explained well enough how you can turn it around to your advantage despite the fact you disagree with it.

 

[grahamperrin]

One star.

I'll happily increase the rating if someone can prove that silent loss of data is no longer a problem.

 

[redheeler]

It seems like people are more inclined to leave a review if they have a negative experience with the OS or even a hardware issue they misinterpret as a software-caused one. Otherwise, why even bother? I don't think I've ever submitted a review either.

Sierra gets 4 stars from me. I'd knock that down to 3 if there weren't methods of running it on unsupported Penryn-based Macs and 2008/2009 Mac Pros.

I'll happily increase the rating if someone can prove that silent loss of data is no longer a problem.

What do you mean by silent loss of data?

 

[Phil A.]

I've had no issues at all with macOS Sierra and it's been a really solid GM for me: All my apps work fine on it and all the features that should work do so flawlessly (including iCloud Documents and Desktops which synced perfectly across 2 macs)

The new features, while not groundbreaking, are welcome (such as memories in Photos, unlock with watch, Picture in Picture, etc) and performance seems great.

I'd give it 5 stars, but there is always room for improvement, so I gave it 4

 

[grahamperrin]

What do you mean by silent loss of data?

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/23391371 an invitation to anyone who has two or more Macs and uses iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents Folders.

 

[flowrider]

I've been running Sierra as my main OS since PB4. Nothing much has changed with the GM. Still fast and full featured.

Lou

 

[Venderious]

It's pretty much operating the same as the last release. There are just some additional features. However, the icon for Siri is very unattractive and not like Apple would design an icon.

 

[DaDalle]

I'd rate it 5* if they fix the 1440p HDMI Monitor issue. But as long as my Monitor is detected as 1080p I am not willing to upgrade.

 

[fisherking]

It's pretty much operating the same as the last release. There are just some additional features. However, the icon for Siri is very unattractive and not like Apple would design an icon.

guess this is what makes life interesting (and no OS perfect for everyone); i actually think it's a great icon, and leave it in the menubar, solely for that reason...

 

[mooretuba]

I downloaded it because of having such a good experience with IOS 10 beta, which for me now is rock solid on my iPad Air 2. I wish I could say the same for Sierra. The new features are fabulous, esp. Siri and the today/notifications tab. Everything else seems incremental, although pretty great.
But I couldn't give it but 3 starts since the Photos app is NOT ready. When it is, I think Sierra will be a 5 star system. But beware with this latest gold master version. My machine gets so hot it quits because of a bug in Photos, and there are missing elements. Obviously, most people don't seem to suffer from the same bug. Personally, I'm going to wait until a .1 or .2 version comes out after what I've been through.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

A bit flaky and mouse cursor is currently too fast and unable to control the acceleration

 

[Ritsuka]

I downloaded it because of having such a good experience with IOS 10 beta, which for me now is rock solid on my iPad Air 2. I wish I could say the same for Sierra. The new features are fabulous, esp. Siri and the today/notifications tab. Everything else seems incremental, although pretty great.
But I couldn't give it but 3 starts since the Photos app is NOT ready. When it is, I think Sierra will be a 5 star system. But beware with this latest gold master version. My machine gets so hot it quits because of a bug in Photos, and there are missing elements. Obviously, most people don't seem to suffer from the same bug. Personally, I'm going to wait until a .1 or .2 version comes out after what I've been through.

You should check your Mac hardware, probably the thermal paste on the cpu has to be changed or there is too much dust inside.

 

[typicaluser]

It seems like people are more inclined to leave a review if they have a negative experience with the OS or even a hardware issue they misinterpret as a software-caused one. Otherwise, why even bother? I don't think I've ever submitted a review either.

You are right. But because human nature stays relatively stable across several versions of software update, ratings count when one makes a comparison between them.

 

[dogslobber]

One star.

I'll happily increase the rating if someone can prove that silent loss of data is no longer a problem.

Why haven't I heard of this before?

 

[Jasonstevens]

AppStore ratings aren't a good indication of how well the OS runs.

People are more prone to vote on something they're unhappy with, no one usually rates an app they're happy with.

 

[typicaluser]

AppStore ratings aren't a good indication of how well the OS runs.

People are more prone to vote on something they're unhappy with, no one usually rates an app they're happy with.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-would-you-rate-macos-sierra-gm.1994325/#post-23401366

 

[soulreaver99]

why doesn't sierra have the updated version of Messages, Siri with Home Kit capabilities, and improvement on the Mail app? How is this a new version of Mac OS again? Because Siri can tell you the weather outside?

 

[MacFillip]

5 Star

Downloaded the Sierra Beta GM to an external SSD disk connected to my Mac mini late 2012 running Yosemite. Launching is slow, takes about 6 minutes to load things up. To me, that's to be expected. I got rid of as many login items as I could. And once loaded, "WOW!", what an amazing experience. I'm not running any heavy apps. I love writing, watching Videos and surfing.

There are some glitches with some Apps. It's just a simple matter of sending feedback to the developer about the problem.

 

[leman]

How does one even rate an OS? What are the rating criteria? If I look at it in context of the previous OS X releases, its a clear 5 star rating from me. Everything works and the incremental improvements in 10.12 are welcome.

 

[h9826790]

A bit flaky and mouse cursor is currently too fast and unable to control the acceleration

My magic mouse is not working good either until I install MacgicPrefs.

 

[redheeler]

You are right. But because human nature stays relatively stable across several versions of software update, ratings count when one makes a comparison between them.

Not really when you factor in discoverability. More and more people are discovering the App Store review option as a way to complain about their issues. It could be those users with issues on the earlier versions didn't know about it or went elsewhere to complain as they had to before the reviews were an option.

My point remains that there are a lot of positive experiences. Simply put, people's specific combination of hardware, software, and how it's used, sometimes even failing hardware, leads to most of the negative reviews. Apple can't anticipate and make OS X work flawlessly with all that.

 

[Matt Leaf]

I had to come somewhere to vent my frustration.

I have three Mac's, and installed the GM on my Air which I'm not so worried about, just to test it out.

Current review: 2 stars, don't like it.

Main reasons - Siri doesn't work. Clicking the icon does nothing.

2 - Clipboard copy between devices does not work.

3 - Storage is very confusing - I'm watcing my hard drives storage space jump up and down, constant changing values.

4 - it seems the photos app has a helper that creates the 'memories' feature in the background, running the cpu hot and kicking the fan in.

All in the all - the features, the main features you would install the OS for, either don't work or are decreasing the useability of this particular Mac.

Only thing I can think is - this OS might be best off from a clean install rather than on a Mac thats driven through 3 or 4 OS upgrades.

Sierra won't be going on my workhouse Mac's for now. Since the key features don't function as expected, I have no reason to upgrade.

I might try and nuke the Air when I have some time in the future and see how a clean install fares.

 

[Matt Leaf]

Update: got Siri working with a terminal command. Seems its linked to an earlier notification centre kill I had in place.