Yosemite is Beautiful

[Sirious]

I am absolutely in love with Yosemite.
It's clean, modern and simple - Yet, it's still Mac.

It doesn't look too amazing on my non-retina iMac though, but at least it functions as intended. Looks great on my rMBP

 

[TRT1968]

Yeah, I'm not that keen at all.

It looks flat and dated (OK, retro maybe at a pinch). And it also behaves like it's never been through Beta testing. I mean, go to General preference and change to "graphite". The coloured buttons go grey. Turn it back to "blue" and you get red and yellow blobs back. I mean WTF? Blue gives you red and yellow and green, but not blue?

And then you can scale the display to so small that you can't actually use it.

And then there's the green maximise which takes over the whole screen, but there's no way to retain windowed mode and just maximise the window screen. You need to use the almost invisible bottom right control... who thought of that?
The one thing I do like about Windows 7 was the half-and-half window drag - genius! Apple hasn't implemented any version of that at all, and it's such a productivity booster.
Overall, after my first 20 minutes of Yosemite... Thumbs down.

 

[F1Mac]

And then there's the green maximise which takes over the whole screen, but there's no way to retain windowed mode and just maximise the window screen. You need to use the almost invisible bottom right control... who thought of that?

option-click the green button will only maximize the window without going full-screen.

----------

Yeah, I'm not that keen at all.

It looks flat and dated (OK, retro maybe at a pinch). And it also behaves like it's never been through Beta testing. I mean, go to General preference and change to "graphite". The coloured buttons go grey. Turn it back to "blue" and you get red and yellow blobs back. I mean WTF? Blue gives you red and yellow and green, but not blue?

Appearance does say "For Buttons, Menus, and Windows" though... The close/minimize/fullscreen-maximize grey buttons are just an extra for those who prefer the more sober look of the graphite theme. It's always been like that since the first version of OS X. Default appearance is blue with the 3 colored buttons.

 

[n-evo]

Appearance does say "For Buttons, Menus, and Windows" though... The close/minimize/fullscreen-maximize grey buttons are just an extra for those who prefer the more sober look of the graphite theme. It's always been like that since the first version of OS X. Default appearance is blue with the 3 colored buttons.

The level of complaining has reached the point of becoming unreasonable. That much is clear.

 

[Partron22]

The level of complaining has reached the point of becoming unreasonable. That much is clear.

Much of it is aesthetic issues. Why would you expect reason to dominate?

 

[n-evo]

Much of it is aesthetic issues. Why would you expect reason to dominate?

We've reached the point where someone's upset about System Preferences > General saying "Blue" instead of "Blue with red, yellow, green window control buttons". Mind that's been the case since Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah and nothing new to OS X Yosemite. Call me naive, but I do expect a minimal amount of reason in that regard. I mean, come on. Those stoplight buttons are pretty much OS X' signature. On top of that "Blue" does give you blue buttons, progress bars and highlight colors. Hence "Blue".

 

[thedeejay]

I'm honestly so happy with Yosemite performance. Love the UI, and I really think Apple nailed it with the Public Beta testing. It was a solid release so far (including Safari).

 

[TRT1968]

option-click the green button will only maximize the window without going full-screen.

----------



Appearance does say "For Buttons, Menus, and Windows" though... The close/minimize/fullscreen-maximize grey buttons are just an extra for those who prefer the more sober look of the graphite theme. It's always been like that since the first version of OS X. Default appearance is blue with the 3 colored buttons.

It was a very first impression. Didn't like the flat cartoony look of it, went to see what options were available and it was like WTF? Graphite = grey, I get that, blue=colours - that makes no sense! And Apple has always made sense. Then the option-clicking thing... not immediately obvious. A change to the way things have worked for ages, and the old way shoved onto a modifier key - no option to reverse that logic. You see, I complain bitterly about Windows 8 requiring some magical pre-requisite knowledge that swiping from the left off the trackpad, onto the trackpad brings up the settings and options screen is just so bizarrely unintuitive that it's a massive FAIL. RTFM, I hear you say, well that's just the point. Apple has always been just so intuitive that you don't NEED to RTFM - Apple's always been OOBE, wow, then three hours later when you finally put shiny down and think about clearing up the packaging mess, you come across a tiny, tiny printed micro-manual and toss it to one side with a sneary "I wonder why they bothered to put that in? Probably some lawyer insisted on covering their ass against dumbo letigites."

I've not handled it enough to comment on performance yet.

 

[tkermit]

blue=colours - that makes no sense!

They really are mostly blue though...

 

[Michal Grycki]

Yosemite is really charming.Look's best!

 

[n-evo]

It was a very first impression. Didn't like the flat cartoony look of it, went to see what options were available and it was like WTF? Graphite = grey, I get that, blue=colours - that makes no sense! And Apple has always made sense.

Dude, nothing has changed. The Blue appearance ALWAYS came with those stoplight buttons. It's been that way since Mac OS X' initial release in 2001. The general appearance of the buttons, highlights and progress bars are in fact blue. Hence the name "Blue"

 

[slowman]

Well finally decided to update. First impression, looks great!

 

[petsounds]

I really like the look of the new Time Machine drive icon; very slick:

 

[saoir]

I can't say I can find anything about it that I don't love - it is truly gorgeous !

 

[Asclepio]

IT'S ME, YOSEMITE!

 

[SmOgER]

Yeah, I'm not that keen at all.

It looks flat and dated (OK, retro maybe at a pinch). And it also behaves like it's never been through Beta testing. I mean, go to General preference and change to "graphite". The coloured buttons go grey. Turn it back to "blue" and you get red and yellow blobs back. I mean WTF? Blue gives you red and yellow and green, but not blue?

English is probably not your native language, but that doesn't make it a bug. The 'blue' setting and it's explanation is spot on exactly how it supposed to be. And as for the 'it looks dated', the definition of 'dated' is far far away from the design of Yosemite or the context in which you are using it.

And then you can scale the display to so small that you can't actually use it.

I assume you are talking about retina scaling. Custom scaling is essential for many people with retina displays when working with certain programs, but if you don't need that then why not simply forget that such function exists? Is that such a big problem?

And then there's the green maximise which takes over the whole screen, but there's no way to retain windowed mode and just maximise the window screen. You need to use the almost invisible bottom right control... who thought of that?

Now we are finally getting to some at least remotely valid points. This change may be a little inconvenient at first, but like someone already said, you can use 'option' key or set up double window tap in preferences

The one thing I do like about Windows 7 was the half-and-half window drag - genius! Apple hasn't implemented any version of that at all, and it's such a productivity booster.
Overall, after my first 20 minutes of Yosemite... Thumbs down.

Frankly I sometimes miss this as well, but there is a good reason why it hasn't been implemented (yet). In OS X, when you drag a window to the very left/right side of the screen, it simply moves that window to the next desktop, whilst in win OS there were no multiple desktops at all up until windows 10, and even now in the latest test release that functionality is very sketchy and barely useful at all in it's current state. It's not so easy to have snapping windows AND multiple desktops without compromising one thing or another and I think most will agree that multiple desktops is way more important from these 2. At the moment the only potential implementation of snapping windows on OS X I see are the keyboard shortcuts.

 

[grahamperrin]

Things of beauty and appeal

Today's question from deviant is primarily about things that I find beautiful and/or pleasing (near-perfect), so this 'beautiful' topic seems an appropriate place to respond.

Posted on 2014-07-26:

An exemplary browser: Web

To me, this is close to perfect:

…

My first encounter with Web (previously known as Epiphany) was around a week ago, with PC-BSD. Just one criticism of the essence of the app: unless I'm missing a trick, there's no support for bookmarklets.

In response to my July post, today's question from deviant:

if that's close to perfection why are you not using Linux already?

My July post was about Web in PC-BSD.

The PC-BSD operating system – not to be confused with a Linux distribution – was mentioned in the post quoted by deviant.

One of the main reasons for me not already using Gnome Web in PC-BSD (instead of Safari 7.1 (9537.85.10.17.1) in Mavericks) was also mentioned in the post quoted by deviant:

• an apparent absence of support for bookmarklets.

The quotes below include further information on:

• consideration of both PC-BSD and Linux
• reasons for my ongoing use of OS X (for not yet using either PC-BSD or Linux).

tl;dr – for people with not enough time, or no inclination, to read a review:

• it's a gradual abandonment of, or departure from, OS X (that word appears a few times below); "2019/2020", https://alpha.app.net/grahamperrin/post/35418268 and so on.

----

… Without focusing on Linux …

… since Apple is openly experimenting with controversial themes that appear to represent some departure from the Mac experience, I should welcome a proper Apple-provided method of allowing third party themes.

I recently tested a variety of desktop environments with PC-BSD. Not for long, but long enough to observe some things that were far more appealing and practical than the constraints of the Yosemite environment.

… Tim Cook reportedly said, in 2012: "The only thing we'll never do is make a crappy product …".

If any minority can demonstrably prove that aspects of a product are significantly crappy, at release time, then such demonstrations will undermine Apple's claims of producing the best.

A slow, gradual undermining should be no more acceptable than a sudden undermining (such as the public response to the introduction of Maps).

If the one million beta testers are gained soon enough, then from amongst that number, I hope that there will be just enough logical feedback, to Apple, for the company to realise that some things must not be forced upon all users of an OS.

Aim for good quality feedback, people. And reproducibility.

… make clear to the viewer/listener why your emotions are naturally high …

PC-BSD is a very smart idea but for me, there's a showstopper. https://alpha.app.net/grahamperrin/post/35418268 if you'd like to continue this conversation with me.

Linux, I could use quite happily – with both ZFS and encryption of my home directory, if those things are easily combined. I'm familiar with Ubuntu but the overall range of distributions is mind-numbing. Next week I'll plan to attend a local LUG meeting; hands-on demonstrations should help me to choose. Any follow-up from me is likely to be in a Linux forum, not in MacRumors.

… I enjoyed the simplicity and sanity of Gnome Web in PC-BSD, here's epiphany on Mavericks viewing pre-release Safari 8 in a MacRumors topic about screenshots of Yosemite:

… Is a document in Safari not a document?

Please consider three of these four windows:



Is what's in front not a window-based view of edition of a document?

… I do not expect all people to understand that titles, at tops of windows, can have value. I ask only that people accept use of titles as one way of working with windows.

Trends are natural, some are good, some not so good. No trend can be perfect for every user of an operating system. I have used Macs for more than a quarter of a decade – long enough to observe and enjoy trends whilst recognising and accepting things that are, to me, imperfect. A quarter of a decade of open mindedness by me and of improvements by Apple. It is extremely rare for something trendy to be forced in a way that makes an app more difficult for me to use.

Yosemite … some exquisite touches alone are not enough … some loss of functionality, the result is alienation of a customer.

… The fervour around Yosemite, I can understand and accept. But beneath the recent fervour, there is a rationale that is demonstrably incomplete. If Apple imagines that all users will fail to notice the flaws in the logic – the incompleteness – Apple is wrong.

Trends that do not make complete sense, bulldozed through … this is not Apple producing the best. It's popularity, at a cost, but it's not the best.

Differences. Responses. Realisations. Yes, yes, yes.

Differences. Options. Appreciation. Yes, yes, yes.

… I suspended judgement. I gave it time. Maybe it would be love at …

… things that will make most sense for a gradual departure from OS X.

… I'll treat that question as
What makes you prefer Mac or Linux?

… Since the appearance of Yosemite has not met my expectations, my vote – too late now – would have been for Linux.

(I also spent a week or so recently testing FreeBSD and PC-BSD on Apple hardware and other hardware … but as Windows is off-topic, so I also treat the other BSDs (and iOS and so on) as OT.)

Why OS X? It took me a few weeks to get close to the cores of my passion for Apple's operating system. I now realise that those core values include a pleasing blend of coherence, consistency, constancy and innovation.

Why Linux? Amongst other things: the option of reasonable support for a storage system/file system that is far superior.

Long-term dissatisfaction with the side-effects of the HFS Plus file system – effects, often hidden, on Mac users in general – became an origin of my long-term preparation for possible abandonment of OS X. February 2014. The tipping point, a decision to gradually abandon OS X, came in July after weeks of growing frustration by the appearance of Yosemite – Apple not blending the four core values in a way that could please me.

Back then, the primary reason for my abandonment of Apple's operating system was described as Apple's abandonment of title bars.

… Will Linux be my 2019/2020 operating system of choice on a summer 2014 Mac? I can't guess …

This is not the most recent topic about Ubuntu, but the opening post is closest to what I'd like to discuss …

To KALLT, or to anyone else with similar viewpoints of both operating systems:

• please, can you steer me to maybe two good summary lists of the tinkering involved?

I guess: one summary of tinkering that's necessary, or close to necessary, for Ubuntu to please someone who enjoys Mavericks and will switch from OS X.

Plus one summary of tinkering that might be desirable (but not absolutely necessary).

If it helps to tailor the steering:

• I'm confident with Terminal and so on
• I currently use a 2009 MacBookPro5,2 with 8 GB memory (the maximum) and an upgraded internal drive (hybrid – SSHD)
• I plan to obtain a new Apple notebook, probably another MacBook Pro with the maximum amount of memory, before Yosemite is released
• I'm already familiar with Ubuntu out-of-the-box (OOTB)
• I plan to use both ZFS on Linux and encryption for my home directory; I'm more than familiar with ZFS on OS X (ZEVO) so I don't expect to need help with this point.

Thanks

(There's no rush for this. I expect my abandonment of OS X to be gradual.)

… nothing in Apple's past had such a ghastly effect on me.

Gobsmacked, puzzled, flabbergasted and ultimately: exasperated. WTF…

I was flabbergasted by Apple's apparent lack of forethought, and occasionally genuinely enraged by the insanity of Yosemite but I gave it time, I gave feedback for maybe six weeks before making the decisions to gradually abandon OS X …

… For me the likeliest approach will be a new MacBook Pro before Yosemite is released, then run Mavericks for as long as is necessary whilst following (and sometimes contributing to) the improvement of non-Apple operating systems.

Initial tinkering with Ubuntu to satisfy a person who will switch from OS X – awaiting answers/discussion.

For its ZFS out-of-the-box, I'm more interested in PC-BSD.

A gentle hint, for newcomers to the 'beautiful' and 'looks terrible!' Yosemite topics: please don't misinterpret any of the above as an excuse to associate me with Microsoft Windows. Any such suggestion will receive a less than gentle response; I use Mavericks

Thanks

 

[n-evo]

Compared to Gnome 3's Web app, Safari looks pretty much the same only transparent. And you can turn the latter off.

 

[grahamperrin]

Compared to Gnome 3's Web app, Safari looks pretty much the same …

It's far from the same. At least: something critical/fundamental is missing from Safari 8.0 in (and probably still missing from WebKit.app on) OS X 10.10 …

HIG

Incidentally, no trace of Human Interface Guidelines in the Apple Developer Retired Documents Library. I don't expect the pre-Yosemite guidelines to reappear any time soon; I'm glad I saved them in PDF before 10.10 was released.

 

[n-evo]

Such as? The interface layout is pretty much identical. Web is only different in the sense of having extremely large interface elements compared to Safari. Claiming otherwise is just nonsense as demonstrated by the screen shot below.

 

[Lachhh]

UI changes (..) not because the changes represent best practice, but (...) for the sake of novelty and some 'wow' factor.

Sort of like Compiz*?
(*except it failed at the "wow" factor too, due to being so seizure-inducingly screentear-iffic)

Unity is mildly pleasing. Distros not using it (Kubuntu etc) look like relics from the 90's IMO. So does PC BSD. If Apple go *that* way, it's back to skinning the OS to make it stomachable, the way I did with Mavs. (And thanks to the likes of Flavors and simple dock hacks, doing so is less of a pain in the butt, too.)

Not sure about the GNOME file manager. Nautilus crashed on me more times in a week of using it than I ever have kernel panics on Macs and bluescreens on Windows combined. (Both these numbers would be 0.) And no, it wasn't a bad install. Maybe it was mad at me for not using a durdenstation. Screen tearing on both AMD and NVIDIA cards, too, switching drivers did nothing to alleviate it. Basically it's a "live with it" scenario. Ubuntu's video player still sleeps the machine during playback and kicks you to the lock screen. But woot, there's a plugin to fix that. (lol) Eh. More bugs encountered on my first day using pretty much every distro I've ever tried than I have in my entire time using OS X. User friendly my ass. And if I felt like fixing all this crap myself I'd have studied computer science, not the social sciences. Running stuff in Wine is a lottery and not something I'd depend on if I need the software to perform to its fullest potential.
Nah, not for me.

As for the bookmarklets thing, you should do something about that yourself then, if it bothers you. The source code is open. Shame if you let one issue put you off such a flawless OS. :3

I agree when you said that Apple need to open their OS up to UI mods. They really do.

 

[grahamperrin]

Sort of like Compiz*?

I recognise the word but don't know what it was/is. (I'm not in a rush to know more, but if you like: aim for one of the less Mac-oriented topics linked from above. Quote a few words then I'll receive notification that you're there.)

… look like relics from the 90's IMO. So does PC BSD. …

I installed all available desktop environments for PC-BSD, not sure whether I delved into all of them. Certainly some of them were intentionally extremely minimalist, those were too geeky for me. A little of what I saw had more wow factor than any version of OS X.

Broadly speaking, I like a GUI to be finely-honed throughout.

As for the bookmarklets thing, you should do something about that yourself …

Chat with developers about presence of the title in the Web browser – not mentioned there, but I chatted about more than just the title and header bar of Web. Bookmarklets were mentioned only briefly, I didn't feel the need to say more. A heads up about extensions in 3.8 (2012) was suitably informative.

I agree when you said that Apple need to open their OS up to UI mods. They really do.

I might not use those exact words, but it's certain that one size did not fit all for Yosemite.

I want everyone who uses a Mac to be as happy as this person is in this photograph:

THE HOUSE FINALLY HAS INTERNET AND ME AND MY BABY MAC ARE TOGETHER ONCE AGAIN XOXOXO

 

[Lachhh]

I recognise the word but don't know what it was/is. (I'm not in a rush to know more, but if you like: aim for one of the less Mac-oriented topics linked from above. Quote a few words then I'll receive notification that you're there.)

The beauty of Compiz has escaped you? Let's correct this right now. BEHOLD THE BEAUTY!

I installed all available desktop environments for PC-BSD, not sure whether I delved into all of them. Certainly some of them were intentionally extremely minimalist, those were too geeky for me. A little of what I saw had more wow factor than any version of OS X.

Broadly speaking, I like a GUI to be finely-honed throughout.

I like geeky. Which is why I'm usually unhappy with the way something looks. Perfection means I won't need to tinker, and this makes my heart bleed.

I might not use those exact words, but it's certain that one size did not fit all for Yosemite.

I think I can safely say this applies to everything ever... evered?

 

[grahamperrin]

… happy …

VERY happy! To paraphrase (her own words were quoted below the image) –

her Mac is her baby​

– and as a courtesy, I let her know that her moment of Mac happiness has been featured in a semi-technical topic, so – respecting the 'Yosemite is beautiful' subject line – I'll keep this focused on the Mac happiness

 

[Cassady]

The longer I spend with Yosemite, the more I like it.