Apple Seeds Seventh OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers

[azpc]

"Some people never stop demanding, demanding, demanding."

Ah, the relentless pursuit of perfection, or as Steve Jobs put it "making a dent in the universe."

I like the improvements with 10.11.4 so far. Hopefully Mail will stop asking me for my password every few minutes. In addition, I am so tired of frequently seeing a beach ball when the finder is opened or used.

Feature Requests:

Regarding window management this is personally what I would like to see.

Green button = Maximize window to largest possible size with Dock and Menu Bar visible

Separate Full Screen Button

Double click on Title Bar to maximize to content.

Window Snapping like Windows 10 (Aero Snap)

An option to ask Apps to Remember Window position and size.

HyperDock functionality would also be nice.

http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/23/how-to-display-window-previews-apps-mac-os-x-dock/

 

[DesignerOnMac]

Reported 2... One on iMessage, another on Safari...

And they still haven't fix a lot more from previous maintenance releases...

They still haven't fixed outgoing mail server either!

 

[0004838]

Alternatively I might accept fast speed if Apple simultaneously provides a "OS X Pro" version that is on slow speed and focuses on stability and speed instead on features.

You mean, OS X LTS and OS X "Cutting Edge"? There will be scoffers but this seems a wise path. Many Linux distros have been doing this for years now, such as Ubuntu & Mint. Apple's marketing team would just have to figure out the best way to label each type. App developers would probably be hopping mad, they'd have to maintain at least two versions, though the LTS would probably require only a very light touch.

 

[star-affinity]

Hopefully Mail will stop asking me for my password every few minutes. In addition, I am so tired of frequently seeing a beach ball when the finder is opened or used.

I recognize none of those things and I've been using El Capitan since day one on three different Macs. Are we living in parallel universes?

 

[azpc]

I recognize none of those things and I've been using El Capitan since day one on three different Macs. Are we living in parallel universes?

I'd like to join your universe! Everyone I know with a Cox pop email account has this issue. Interestingly, the issue doesn't seem to exist in iOS 9.21 Although earlier editions of iOS had the same issue. So maybe I should hope the issue will be resolved shortly.

 

[Osty]

OSX has been pretty solid for me already but I can't say the same about iOS but yeah, the more testing the better.

It has gone better of late I agree, probably thanks to a lot of vocal critics out there like Walt Mossberg. In fairness, I think from memory a .7 release is the highest Apple's gone since Snow Leopard so hopefully we're seeing a focus on stability at long last.

What annoys me though is that, going by the current trend, once 10.12 is announced/released Apple will put El Capitan out to pasture and won't develop/fix it anymore beyond the occasional security patch.

Meanwhile, we'll be encouraged to move on to the next version and battle all the regressions it will introduce.

That's fine for consumers wanting new and shiny - maybe - but I'd love to see Apple put out a Long-Term Support release like Ubuntu that gives you a stable base for production purposes.


That said, Christ I wish they would ditch HFS+ in favour of ZFS; now that's a feature I would gladly upgrade for on a production system.

 

[nt5672]

That maybe true but the bugs that are found should be rare corner case scenarios rather than wide spread glaringly obvious bugs that impact large numbers of the user base. . . . .

But that will never happen, Apple is a marketing company, not a software development company, and therefore they release software on the exact day marketing said to, ready or not.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Probably in 10.12, if we're lucky.

Well get 70% of the features back and then never hear about it again.
[doublepost=1458084060][/doublepost]

Only works in Safari (and other browsers) for me, neither the "roll" or "swipe" settings works for me in finder. Maybe something that was introduced with the "glass trackpad" and newer? I tested on my old non unibody 2008 MBP and 2009 iMac with first gen magick trackpad. Kinda weird limitation if that is the case.

When i had ML i installed Total Finder to get that feature if i remember correctly but have only used vanilla OS X features since then.

Have a 2015 model here. Definitely doesn't work in finder

 

[jezbd1997]

One can hope... It better be. I have been a apple fan for a long time, but I'm really getting tired of their lack of quality control as of late. I can't use any of their devices for any period of time without having some problems or encountering some very annoying bugs. Its pretty embarrassing at times when I have advocated their products for years. I'm at the point again where I'm looking at alternatives, just like I was when they released Lion (*shudders thinking about it*)

100% on the same page, after El Capitan and iOS 9 bugs I've been trying to look for some alternatives if they aren't fixed soon... ahh Apple

 

[Norbs12]

That said, Christ I wish they would ditch HFS+ in favour of ZFS; now that's a feature I would gladly upgrade for on a production system.

ZFS would be neat but not sure what big benefits it would have on a desktop. I think it also has some issues the closer it is to being full and not to mention high ram consumption. Maybe I'm wrong, I do use it on freenas but that's it.

 

[northernmunky]

Ditto. Even after replacing all related hardware ( cables, modem, router, cable jacks, you name it ) with new, my iMac's ethernet connection drops about once a day, so the probability this is an OS issue increases. Thanks for mentioning this.

Yeah, I figured out that the <key>Active</key><true/> tags were being removed from NetworkInterfaces.plist every time I reboot, so I have to delete the plist and reboot again so Mac OS recreates it with the tag in. ....and then on the next reboot it deletes the tag again disabling the Eth port! So definitely a bug somewhere.

 

[Osty]

ZFS would be neat but not sure what big benefits it would have on a desktop. I think it also has some issues the closer it is to being full and not to mention high ram consumption. Maybe I'm wrong, I do use it on freenas but that's it.

True, it's server oriented, even something like EXT4 would be an improvement over HFS+.

My problem is that HFS+ is god awful; HFS+ can only read/write one file at a time so Apple gets around this limitation with caching. It's one of the reasons OS X needs so much more RAM than other OSs. Run Linux - even with something as full featured like Gnome 3.18 - and you'll notice you'll use a third of the RAM and disk I/O will be dramatically improved.

Reality is though that Apple is making money of HFS+ because the only thing that makes it bearable is more RAM and SSDs (when you run out of RAM). HFS dates to the 80s and Apple's turned it into a Frankenstein to force it to work with modern hardware.

 

[6836838]

Did they finally fix the green button being maximize instead of fullscreen? Are 3rd party apps like TotalFinder and XtraFinder now compatible?

If not, then this update is useless.

Try holding the Alt key first.
[doublepost=1458097069][/doublepost]

Every beta a front page article?


Im missing this too, but i hve a different scenario. At some point my ability to use multi gestures to move windows and files around the finder has been removed. 2009 Macbook Pro. OSX 10.11.3 regular release.

It Used to be a preference, but can no longer find it. Intentionally removed id say.

WFFM
[doublepost=1458097115][/doublepost]

Well the green button is not exactly a bug that needs fixing so much as a design decision. But I'm with you in the sense I'd rather have it maximize as opposed to enable fullscreen. I'd very much like a checkbox somewhere to toggle between the two which would make everyone happy.

Just hold the Alt key

 

[szw-mapple fan]

It surprises me that we still have no swipe gesture in Finder, would be so nice to have swipe left and right for navigating forward and back in the folder hierarchy/history, the same way we do in webbrowers etc.

I added this function with better touch tool, but immediately deleted it. There are many places in the finder that requires horizontal scrolling.

 

[jameslmoser]

I think the fixed release schedule has a whole lot to do with the iPhone/iOS cycle. The tighter the integration between OS X, iOS, and iCloud, the more important it is to have all features available on all platforms simultaneously. The new iPhone needs new features, those features require iOS support, those features may require parity with OS X and iCloud... It's an ecosystem!

The thing with that is that it does not have to be that way... almost everything they add to both that needs to be released at the same time can be done without an OS upgrade. They are choosing to tie them all together to make it seem like the OS upgrade is worth it, when most of the changes are not really OS level changes. They need to unbundle their Apps from the OS and develop and release them separately.

 

[Sanlitun]

I have been hoping USB would be finally fixed, there is no way I am going to use OS that won't work reliably with my external devices. In addition I'm hoping fixes to Spotlight, Finder, Mail and Time Machine because of way too many bugs...

Nope, no changes.

And USB over Thunderbolt is still hit or miss.

 

[R3k]

WFFM

What does WFFM mean?

 

[-BigMac-]

That said, Christ I wish they would ditch HFS+ in favour of ZFS; now that's a feature I would gladly upgrade for on a production system.

I know nothing about format types.
Can you elaborate in laymans terms how this format type would benefit users? Power and non power users please

 

[katewes]

People ... never uninstalling or cleaning anything out when they are not needing said software and / or drivers anymore.

That's because OSX does not have an official way of uninstalling software, except for dragging the app icon from Applications folder into the Trash. As I understand it, that does not neatly uninstall all the crap from the Library folder but just leaves it there.

 

[Aletesz]

They still haven't fixed outgoing mail server either!

and AFP using names (ex. afp://Diskstation.local), it's broken since beta 2, I've reported it 3 times

 

[baryon]

I love Apple's recent strategy of not actually making things better, but first making them good, then breaking them, then fixing them again, and pretending it's all getting better when really it's just one step forward, two steps back.

Apple should get back to releasing a new OS X every 4 years rather than every year. This absolutely sucks and everything is always full of bugs because they never get a chance to fix anything. New features are a joke, like being able to put two full screen apps side by side: it's full of bugs, it's crap, and although a feature like that would be great, I find myself never using it because it doesn't work reliably. Windows did that right on the first try in Windows 7. The way it works on Windows is great, I use it all the time and I have no complaints about it. Why can't Apple just get it right after all these years? And don't get me started on the thumbnails in Mission Control being hidden until you mouse over. Seriously, why?

 

[navaira]

Then stop changing OS X.

I'm fascinated by the fact some people didn't understand I was joking.

 

[grahamperrin]

… occasional security patch.

November 2015, from correspondence requesting a CVE identifier for February 2012 AppleSeed reference 190357413:

>>> … If Apple is to fix the vulnerability in Mavericks, and
>>> in other affected versions of the operating system:
>>>
>>> * please do so at the time of, or before, the release of
>>> OS X 10.11.3.

January 2016, from Apple Product Security:

>> Hello Graham,
>>
>> Thank you for the additional information. After reviewing your
>> original report, we do not see any actual security implications.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> …

I replied:

> … For me to prepare for public discussion of the problem: is Apple
> Product Security certain that there's no security implication?
>
> Essentially, when the problem is reproduced:
>
> * (… redacted …)
>
> If you can not reproduce that symptom, please let me know.
>
> (A few months ago the problem was discussed, discreetly, with an expert
> from outside Apple. An explanation was suggested to me, it did seem as
> if there was a vulnerability.)
>
> Best regards
> Graham Perrin

Ahem. Occasionally, over a four-year period: ahem.

… wish they would ditch HFS+ in favour of ZFS…

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/22213647

 

[randomgeeza]

They still haven't fixed outgoing mail server either!

Fixes noted: follwupd is no longer in the Notifications list, within System preferences.

Issues still present: Message preference pane still moves downwards when opened, likewise FaceTime preference still moves. And also, availability panel in Calendars.

Finder still does not cascade multiple folders when opened with one click.

iCloud account preference pane, System preferences, was not functioning at all for me, when clicking on Account info... It hung System preferences and resulted in a crash.

All of the above have been repeatedly reported and ignored...

So frustrating!

 

[Soylent Yellow]

Give me that new iTunes I need, Apple.

Has anybody here noticed/reported any bugs in beta 6? I haven't found a single one.

Well, Pages crashes about twice an hour down here …