Apple to Continue Offering Public Beta Versions of OS X Software

[brianvictor7]

So they outsourced the rigorous testing to it's intended user-base...?

This is the mother of all "this is not my job" commentary....

Trolling today?
Those of us who wanted to sign up did with full knowledge of what we were getting into.

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frankly, they didn't need to send out an email just for that

what's annoying with Apple is that once they own your email address, they just don't know when to stop harassing us

They sent you a thank you and you complain. Weird.

 

[naughtycalvin]

Sorry, dumb question. If I had the final public beta on my MAC, do I need to still download the "release version" (huge 5.3GB) and install it again?

 

[brianvictor7]

Quite the contrary. It's not possible for any software company to fully test software of this complexity against the thousands of configuration variations. Look what happened to iOS 8. It wasn't fully tested until a wide variety of users were able to put it into action, and then a relatively small percentage experienced problems.

This is a very wise decision on Apple's part. Let those that don't mind finding bugs for them get involved and do it. This will help ensure the bugs are addressed before release to those of us that want quality products and don't want to experience early adopter problems.

Agreed. Oddly enough, Microsoft did this with Windows 7 and that is the most popular version on the market currently.

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Sorry, dumb question. If I had the final public beta on my MAC, do I need to still download the "release version" (huge 5.3GB) and install it again?

I'm asking the same question. Will find out tonight when I get home.

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A disconnect from fellow Public Beta testers (the absence of an Apple-provided forum?) might help to explain the ****ing ugly first impression that 10.10 gives to some people …

I admit it took me a few days to warm up to the flat look of Yosemite, but I have grown to like it.

 

[grjj]

With the release of Yosemite, Apple introduced a public beta test for the first time,...

So I must have hallucinated the pre-release beta version of OS X 10.0? Kodak I think was the code name

 

[dz-015]

Given that Apple didn't take any apparent notice of a single one of the issues I reported during the course of the beta, I'm not really sure what it is they're thanking me for; but anyway.

 

[brianvictor7]

With the release of Yosemite, Apple introduced a public beta test for the first time,...

So I must have hallucinated the pre-release beta version of OS X 10.0? Kodak I think was the code name

Maybe the person who wrote that joined the club after 10.0. He uses a Mac, so I suppose he can be cut some slack right?

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Given that Apple didn't take any apparent notice of a single one of the issues I reported during the course of the beta, I'm not really sure what it is they're thanking me for; but anyway.

Intested to know which issues. All the glitches I ran into seem to have been resolved. I did make some design change suggestions, but I don't expect them to act on all or even any of those.

 

[MacHiavelli]

I like the $50 iTunes voucher thank-you gift. Wasn't expecting that.

 

[lparsons21]

I like the $50 iTunes voucher thank-you gift. Wasn't expecting that.

I haven't seen that. Did it just show up in your iTunes account??

 

[RMo]

Sorry, dumb question. If I had the final public beta on my MAC, do I need to still download the "release version" (huge 5.3GB) and install it again?

I'm asking the same question. Will find out tonight when I get home.

Did you read the e-mail? It says, "Please install the release version of OS X Yosemite."

No need to ask. The answer is "yes."

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With the release of Yosemite, Apple introduced a public beta test for the first time,...

So I must have hallucinated the pre-release beta version of OS X 10.0? Kodak I think was the code name

Kodiak, actually--not sure if it was named after the bear (a bit different from their cat scheme) or not, but it doesn't really matter since nobody called it that. They resisted using the cat names publicly for the first couple versions of OS X, as well. There was also at least one Developer Preview before this, though I can't remember much about that.

That being said, the Mac OS X ("10.0") Public Beta was a bit different from the OS X Yosemite (10.10) Public Beta. You had to pay for the original Mac OS X Public Beta, though you got a more or less equivalent discount on the purchase price of the final product afterwards. (Of course, 10.0 was also different from 10.10 in that you had to pay for the operating system upgrade, so maybe this particular difference with the beta isn't all that notable. But as an interesting side-note, 10.1 was free to 10.0 users, though in that case I seem to remember it being more about bugs, missing features, and the fact that probably not a lot of people used it as their main OS yet.)

 

[comics addict]

I like the $50 iTunes voucher thank-you gift. Wasn't expecting that.

They give beta testers a $50 voucher? I didn't read nothing about it.

 

[lparsons21]

They give beta testers a $50 voucher? I didn't read nothing about it.

Me too.

Just did a search and the only place I've seen it mentioned was in that single post. Checked my iTunes account and it isn't $50 richer and no voucher in any email.

 

[ttss6]

Here's to hoping they expand the public beta to iOS next year! They can get much better feedback and my old iPhone 5 can be useful again besides being demoted as my iPod!

 

[hyperskier96]

thats nice

 

[befrank4444]

It was cool and all and I appreciate the thank you email, but NEVER AGAIN! Way too buggy for me and too much feedback to send. Felt like I was working for Apple without the salary to be honest...

 

[thefourthpope]

I thought it was very cool to get to test it out and give feedback. A little frustrating at times when certain software or plugins didn't work, but that was something I knew could happen.

The oddest part has been the App Store trying to update my beta software. Yesterday it was beta version 4, today it was beta version 5. My specs--and the App Store--confirm that I'm running 10.10. Can't figure out a way to get it to stop trying to get me back on the beta!

 

[temhawk]

Apple found Yosemite's public beta testing to be successful

That's odd.

I have to say Yosemite is quite stable. Zero issues. Runs fast and smooth.

I think I'm detecting a lot of sarcasm here.

Yes, it seems to perform better on 2011 hardware than Mavericks. Here's hoping it proves to be the new Snow Leopard - polished and stable.

I'm afraid it would appear that's not the case.

Given that Apple didn't take any apparent notice of a single one of the issues I reported during the course of the beta, I'm not really sure what it is they're thanking me for; but anyway.

Exactly this has been my experience with submitting feedback to Apple.

I haven't used Yosemite, but based on all the issues that people are complaining about, it seems like Yosemite is in an ‘extended beta testing phase’.

It's a shame what has happened to quality assurance since Snow Leopard. It's a real tragedy.

 

[HenryDJP]

That's odd.



I think I'm detecting a lot of sarcasm here.

Why would you think that? Not even. I have a 2011 iMac. I created a bootable SD card of Yosemite. Did a clean install (erase and install each app individually) and it's running very well. The beta had bugs but the street release is great. Everything is working including phone calls through my iPhone and texting.

 

[macs4nw]

It's time to lay down Apple, take this next year off and do another Snow Leopard. We don't necessarily need crazy new features, we want full reliable stability.

That would be sooo nice, the next release after Yosemite, mostly devoted to 'under the hood' refinements,
à la 10.6…...

 

[whtrbt7]

With the public Beta, I would have thought that more bugs would have gotten fixed before releasing the GM. There really needs to be more polish on the OS by the time it hits GM. This level of quality control is IMO pretty low compared to the standards a few years ago.

 

[tripmusic]

Too bad Apple didn't address my Feedback issues I sent them... yet. Overall it was a good experience. Getting a taste of the new UI was nice. Not too many hiccups overall. Some third party software like Carbon Copy Cloner wasn't compatible, they let people Beta test their CCC Yosemite release as well. Also, my Focusrite FW audio interface driver wasn't compatible early on, but they were fairly quick to release a Beta driver as well and has worked since. I wouldn't mind testing again, but my aging Macs might not be up to the task

 

[grahamperrin]

… cut some slack right? …

+1

I did make some design change suggestions, but I don't expect them to act on all or even any of those.

Keep 'em coming. Apple might need 'em …

They give beta testers a $50 voucher? I didn't read nothing about it.

That post might have been humorous. I don't doubt that Apple has $50,000,000 spare to reward its (up to) one million Public Beta testers, but that money might be on hold for redirection to an environmental restoration project of some sort.

Deforestation may be a real concern. Ugly stick trees are much more costly to grow than plain ugly trees. Hint: stick users appear to use far less foul language.

 

[0007776]

It's a shame what has happened to quality assurance since Snow Leopard. It's a real tragedy.

Go back and look at old posts from when Snow Leopard first came out, it was very buggy. Yosemite isn't bad, it's just if people are having a problem they come and post about it online, while most of the people that are using it with no problems have no reason to post about it.

 

[dmccombs]

Did you read the e-mail? It says, "Please install the release version of OS X Yosemite."

No need to ask. The answer is "yes."

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When I went to the link in the email, to download the release version, I got the message below. Did everyone else get this message and proceeded to get the full installer?


OS X v10.10 is already installed on this computer. Use the Updates page to install the 10.10 update or if you would like to download the full OS X installer click Continue.

I found more info here: http://bgr.com/2014/10/17/os-x-yosemite-download/ It looks like there is no need to do the update in the email.

 

[RMo]

When I went to the link in the email, to download the release version, I got the message below. Did everyone else get this message and proceeded to get the full installer?


OS X v10.10 is already installed on this computer. Use the Updates page to install the 10.10 update or if you would like to download the full OS X installer click Continue.

I found more info here: http://bgr.com/2014/10/17/os-x-yosemite-download/ It looks like there is no need to do the update in the email.

I didn't get that message because I am a sane person and did not install a beta on top of my regular OS. It is on a separate partition.

I did upgrade 10.10 over my existing 10.9 install when the the final version was released, however, but I used the full installer in any case. I normally do clean installs but wanted to see how Yosemite worked as an upgrade, and I think it's pretty good.

 

[NY Guitarist]

You're Welcome