Mavericks: State of the nation David Empson President, Wellington Macintosh Society, Inc. April 2014 If you want to contact me with any questions, please e-mail [email protected]. Page 1 of 25 Timeline Recent Timeline • September 2013: final security update and Safari update for 10.6.8. • October 2013: OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) released. • December 2013: 10.9.1 update. • February 2014: 10.9.2 update. Future Timeline • April or May: estimated release of 10.9.3 update. • June 2: developer conference, which should announce and preview the next major version. • October: estimated release of next major version (10.10?) Page 2 of 25 General stability • Overall, 10.9.2 seems pretty stable. It is better than 10.9.1 or 10.9. • Inevitably there will be a 10.9.3 update which is likely to fix more of the early problems with 10.9. Issues I’m aware of with 10.9.2 • Still some glitches with Mail. • Rules sometimes not working. • Odd behaviour with GMail. • In one case, I’ve seen Mail lose track of folders in a complex hierarchy. • Importing from another copy of Mail leaves an untidy hierarchy. • USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt drives ejecting unexpectedly when idle. • Only affects recent Macs with USB 3 or Thunderbolt support. • Doesn’t affect older Macs or hard drives using USB 2. • Time Machine backup to a USB 3 drive is risky. • Reduce or eliminate the problem by going into System Preferences, Energy Saver, turning off “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”. • Reconnecting to known Wi-Fi networks sometimes takes a while. • Some people don’t appreciate the loss of direct contact/calendar sync with iOS devices via iTunes. New iWork applications • The latest versions of Pages (5.x), Keynote (6.x) and Numbers (3.x) require OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). • At present they are limited in features compared to the previous (iWork ’09) versions. • If you are using advanced features of the existing iWork applications, you should ignore the new versions for now. • The new versions are required to sync documents with the latest iWork apps on iOS and with iCloud. • If you have iWork ’09 (Pages 4.x, Keynote 5.x and/or Numbers 2.x) installed, App Store in Mavericks will offer to download the new versions for free. • If you accept the new versions, the old ones will still be on the hard drive, in the “iWork ’09” folder under Applications. • If you have both versions installed, the new ones will be launched by default when double-clicking a document. • You can manually launch the old versions to keep using them. Page 3 of 25 Apple is pushing Mavericks • There was a recent Mac App Store update for Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. • After installing that update, App Store periodically shows a notification if your computer is able to upgrade to Mavericks. • Clicking the notification takes you to the Mavericks page in App Store. • Don’t proceed with the “Free Upgrade” until you are ready. • No easy way to stop the notification appearing regularly. Recommendations • If you have been intending to upgrade to Mavericks and wanted to avoid the worst early problems, then 10.9.2 is a good point to upgrade. • For a few more improvements, you might want to wait a month or two for the probable 10.9.3 update. • If you are backing up to a USB 3.0 drive on a 2012 or later Mac, wait. Recommendations: if you are running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) • 10.6 users are more likely to have application compatibility issues to deal with before upgrading. • If you need to stay on 10.6 in the meantime: • Make sure all security updates are installed. • Stop using Safari, due to increasing security risks. Switch to Firefox or Chrome, since they are still being updated. • Consider anti-virus software. Recommendations: if you are running OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard) or earlier • Lack of security fixes and software support for at least two years makes Internet access even riskier. • Intel Macs on 10.5.8 or earlier should be upgraded at least to 10.6.8. • PowerPC Macs have no upgrade path, short of buying a newer computer. • PowerPC Macs might be safer due to obscurity. I still recommend getting a newer Mac for Internet access. Page 4 of 25 Upgrading to a later version of OS X Basic compatibility rules for OS X upgrades • Most applications are fine when upgrading to a new OS X version, as long as the application is reasonably up to date. • Sometimes there might be minor compatibility issues which require a free update to fix. • Sometimes the application won’t support a new OS X version unless you pay for an upgrade to a new version of the application. • Utilities are often dependent on a specific version of OS X, and need to be updated every time you move to a new OS X version. • Examples: Onyx, Cocktail, TinkerTool. • Virtual Machine software (Parallels, VMware Fusion, VirtualBox) often needs to be upgraded when moving to a new OS X version. • Some applications are only documented as supporting a limited range of OS X versions. • Operation on later OS X versions is untested and may have problems. • If there are problems, you may need to upgrade to a new version of the application. • Example: FileMaker Pro. • Minor OS X updates (e.g. 10.6.8 vs 10.6.7) rarely cause compatibility problems, and usually have important bug fixes and security fixes. • Some new major OS X versions (e.g. 10.7 vs 10.6) drop support for features which are used by a lot of older applications. • 10.5 in 2007 (and 10.4 on Intel Macs in 2006) dropped the Classic environment, which allowed running Mac OS 9 and older applications (circa 1984-2001) inside Mac OS X. • 10.7 in 2011 dropped the Rosetta feature which allowed running PowerPC applications (circa 2001-2007) on Intel Macs. • Some new major OS X versions (e.g. 10.9 vs 10.8) drop features which are only used by some applications, older versions of applications, or applications which are no longer being developed. • Example: 10.9 dropped an old networking mechanism called Open Transport, which prevents a small number of applications from working, such as a USENET reader called MT-Newswatcher. Page 5 of 25 Major Changes in each version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) • Touted as being a stability release with “no new features”. • Unified printer driver distribution via Apple’s Software Update. • Image Capture adds built-in support for many scanners. • Some changes to the Spaces and Exposé features. • Mac App Store introduced in 10.6.6. • Few software compatibility problems upgrading from 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard), apart from utilities. • Slightly more chance of compatibility problems if migrating from a PowerPC Mac. • Drops support for AppleTalk printers. • File sharing with Mac OS 9 only works over TCP/IP, with Mac OS 9 computer as the server. • File sharing with Mac OS 8.6 or earlier not supported. • “Creator codes” are no longer recognised when opening a document, making it harder to open documents with a common filename extension in a specific application. • Mac file system dating back to late 1980s (HFS) is read-only. 10.7 (Lion) • Significant changes to aspects of the user interface. • Default scrolling direction is reversed, to match the iPhone and iPad. • Scroll bars no longer have arrows to step up/down one line. • If you have a trackpad, scroll bars are hidden by default. • Address Book looks like a spiral bound book, groups are harder to use because they are hidden behind a mode toggle. • iCal tries to look more like a desk calendar, multiple calendars are harder to use because they are hidden behind a button. • Auto-save mechanism. • Only used in some applications, notably TextEdit, Preview, Pages, Numbers and Keynote. • Changes are saved automatically as you work. • You can browse through and revert to old versions, and copy selected portions from old versions. • “Save As” command is replaced with “Duplicate”. • New gestures for multi-touch trackpads. • iCloud support, with basic feature set including sync of Address Book and iCal. • Mission Control replaces Spaces. Page 6 of 25 • AirDrop (copy files directly between Macs via Wi-Fi) is supported for Macs from about 2009 or 2010 and later. • FileVault now offers full disk encryption, more reliable than old method. • Full screen mode, doesn’t work well with multiple monitors. • Launchpad. • Mail default layout is changed (classic layout is available via preferences), adds support for tracking conversations. • Recovery Partition allows disk repair and reinstalling OS X. • Macs from about 2010 onward can reinstall OS X via the Internet if the hard drive dies and is replaced. (Firmware updates required for some models to enable this.) • Drops Rosetta, which means no PowerPC applications can be used, only Intel or Universal applications. • Flash and Java are not installed by default, but you can install them yourself. • Drops iSync, which may rule out syncing to some third party mobile devices. • Drops Front Row. • Apple’s USB dial-up modem is not compatible with Lion (or later). • File sharing with Mac OS 9 and earlier not supported. 10.8 (Mountain Lion) • Eased back a little from the less popular changes in 10.7. • Auto-hidden scroll bars appear as soon as you start scrolling with the mouse or trackpad, rather than having to point to the scroll bar. • Auto-save mechanism restores a Save As command (via the Option key) and has several improvements to allow more familiar workflow.