OS X Yosemite Public Beta Launches Tomorrow, July 24

[r.harris1]

I can confirm the latest build has been pretty stable, enough so that it should be fine for those people wanting to try it on a primary machine. There are still some issues with iCloud that need to get resolved, but I'm pretty happy with how it's been running so far.

Confirmed here too. I think as long as people understand that it is absolutely beta software, have backed up stuff they care about and are willing to put up with the inevitable glitches (sometimes severe) that will occur across the variety of hardware / software configurations that will be participating in the beta, life should be good.

 

[st0k3d]

I have been running the Yosemite beta's on my daily MBP for a while now. For the most part it runs great, looks good, stable, even with VM-Ware and Visual Studio. No complaints, def worth using. You wouldn't even know it was a beta OS. Boots up and shuts down very fast.

iOS8 however is not ready for the public...

 

[DaveOlden]

You can indeed. Keep this ready to help you out: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911

Thanks, Nuttydev, and I've bookmarked that link

It's possible and easy to do. OS X will treat it as another hard drive. The only draw back is the speed. If you're using an external USB drive then it might be a little slow for an OS. Then you can press & hold "Option" to boot into what ever OS you want at start up.

Thanks for the "opt" at boot reminder, lincolntran.

I don't think you can run it from an external drive, but you can partition your main HDD and install it there.

... and thanks, macpro88, for the partitioning suggestion. I suspect it would be very very tricky since there's so little room to work with.

Thanks everyone!

 

[aaronvan]

Wow, I'm one of the first million, the teeming masses of early Yosemite adopters. Can't wait to check it out.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Yeah, I heard it has Siri, a refreshed iTunes app, and teleportation.

I'm really looking forward to the teleportation app.. How about a phaser for the iPhone?

 

[lunarworks]

That's probably intentional seeing as they're dropping Aperture for Photos.

"Photos" isn't out until 2015. Apple's promised updates for Aperture in the meantime.

 

[69Mustang]

There is no harm in installing a beta software as your main OS provided your computer isn't your source of income (meaning you can't afford for apps and features to not work) and you have a way of rolling back (performing a Time Machine back up before 'upgrading' to the beta). People don't need to be so doom and gloom about a beta OS. I'm sure the public beta is stable enough for it to be used as a main OS.

Look through this thread. You have people wanting to install this beta without any clue regarding the possible consequences. I don't think anyone is being doom and gloom when they say understand what you're doing before you do it. I'm not saying you're incorrect in your assertion. It just seems a little cavalier. Don't you think better advice would be something along the lines of what Chupa suggested?

From Chupa Chupa:
"For the beta nubies: if you plan on d/ling tomorrow do not install over the OS of your current stable OS. Either install on a separate drive or partition. I know this sounds obvious but people install betas all the time over stable versions and live to regret it. Also be aware you cannot roll back to 10.9.x once you install 10.10 so if you do install it over 10.9 there is no easy way to go back which is why you should install on a separate drive or partition.

10.10 DP4 is stable for a beta. It's still a beta though."

emphasis mine

 

[newdeal]

while I really would like to try it out my experience in the past with public releases of new versions has been terrible so I will be avoiding this. Lion was especially bad, Mountain Lion and Mavericks weren't quite as bad so at least things are improving

 

[zen]

Yes.

Nope - OS X 10.0 had a public beta in 2000. It was horrible. Then again, so was the actual .0 release!

 

[jbachandouris]

I'm excited. Lame, I know.

 

[mlovergaard]

Oh I am so going to install this on my main device and then when apps crash or simply don't work I am going to spam the hell out of every possible forum, asking everyone why on earth my Mac is acting all Wonky!

No but seriously though, if people don't understand that this is a beta, then I'm sorry but I don't feel any sympathy for them. It is like when someone asks about Jailbreaking their iDevice, without actually understanding what a Jailbreak is and that it isn't meant for everyone.

 

[bkends35]

Hoping for IOS 8 public beta also

Won't happen, and that's a good thing.

 

[DaveOlden]

Wow, I'm one of the first million, the teeming masses of early Yosemite adopters. Can't wait to check it out.

How were you able to verify that you were one of the 1st million?

I'd love to confirm me, too.

 

[aaronvan]

How were you able to verify that you were one of the 1st million?

I'd love to confirm me, too.

Well, like many I hit submit and saw this. However, I guess I won't really know until I receive the email...if I receive the email.

https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/confirm

 

[smartalic34]

I don't think you can run it from an external drive, but you can partition your main HDD and install it there.

You can indeed run it from an external drive. The only issue is speed. Firewire400 has been fast enough for me

 

[alexjohnson]

Is this Apple's first Public (non-developer) Beta for OS X?

Technically no. Mac OS X 10.0 was released as a paid-for ($29.99) public beta. It was interesting to see, but awful to use. It was not a pre-release: 10.0 (which effectively came free with Classic OS 9.2 IIRC, but that would have been $129 I think) was quite different, and 10.1 was a free "upgrade" that was in fact a complete reinstall too - and the first one usable as a daily driver; that's when I switched. They used to include proof of purchase cards in the box and you had to use one to get a CD; it's the only time I recall ever having had a use for one of those. 10.2 Jaguar was the first that Apple pushed as a consumer-ready release, with the regular beta and release cycles with which we've become familiar. This is the first free public beta: I'm struggling to think of other examples. Maybe iChat when it came out?

 

[goMac]

I'm assuming so is Yosemite, at least parts. You can program for iOS and OS X in Swift.

Nothing has been recoded in Swift so far.

 

[antonis]

Also be aware you cannot roll back to 10.9.x once you install 10.10 so if you do install it over 10.9 there is no easy way to go back which is why you should install on a separate drive or partition.

10.10 DP4 is stable for a beta. It's still a beta though.[/COLOR][/B]"

emphasis mine

Huh ? Who says that there is no rollback or it is not as easy as any other OS rollback till now ? I've already rolled back 10.10 DP3 to 10.9.4 using Time machine, in just a few minutes.

 

[69Mustang]

Huh ? Who says that there is no rollback or it is not as easy as any other OS rollback till now ? I've already rolled back 10.10 DP3 to 10.9.4 using Time machine, in just a few minutes.

Chupa

Need to edit this not to roll Chupa under the bus. Even if the roll back is as easy as you say it is, you kinda missed the point of his caution. Treat beta software as if it's beta software. Don't go in all willy nilly. Forrest & trees.

 

[arkmannj]

Awesome,
For those people in Utah July 24th is already celebrated as a holiday.. This be a nice small added perk.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Will it be safe to use in your main pc? Isn't it gonna be too buggy and cause problems?

No.
Yes.

 

[jhwalker]

Awesome,
For those people in Utah July 24th is already celebrated as a holiday.. This be a nice small added perk.

. . . AND it's my birthday, so there's that

 

[iDunc]

OK so what happens to my iPhoto Library when I upgrade my Fusion Drive?

 

[DiabBarca]

that seems like a very bad idea. I mean ios8 won't be a public beta so two separate iclouds will confuse and anger many people



i doubt that, the implementation is pretty much useless and half the icons in the taskbar will be impossible to read cuz they havent been updated by the devs to support dark mode

image

i will use it any way :d

 

[Jordan246]

What is the risk of installing osx Yosemite public beta over another OS that you have on the machine