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El Capitan Update - Questions

L

Labhras

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 17, 2014
166
1
Hi all - I have a '14 MBA 13" running Mavericks.
Since I recently bought an iPhone 6, I was thinking about updating to the latest software - to enjoy the seamless - as they tell me, at least - cooperation between OSX and iOS.
I have a few questions though - first of all, considering my MBA is 1.5yr old, how's the battery life with the Capitan update? There's a significant drain compared to Mavericks or would you say overall you get the same battery life?
Second - I'm not a fan of the "flat" look they adopted for the dock and the "traffic light" buttons - I might get used to it but I won't be sure until I try it. I've heard that there were third-party apps on Yosemite that could change the dock back to a 3D style - do they work on Capitan as well?
And how does the upgrade look with a non-retina screen? Considering the font changes they adopted.
As for split view I'm curious - is it only for two apps or three as well?

Lastly - if I upgrade and find myself having problems, is still possible to go back to Mavericks, right?

Thank you all for your help
 
I am only able to answer one of your questions: yes, cDock will make your dock 3D again, but you have to disable System Integrity Protection for that to work.

From what I know you will be able to go back to Mavericks or any version of OS X that is either the one delivered with your Macbook or newer. I'd like to test Mavericks with my Air 2015, but, well.
 
Labhras said:
I have a few questions though - (1) first of all, considering my MBA is 1.5yr old, how's the battery life with the Capitan update? There's a significant drain compared to Mavericks or would you say overall you get the same battery life?
Second - I'm not a fan of the "flat" look they adopted for the dock and the "traffic light" buttons - I might get used to it but I won't be sure until I try it. I've heard that there were third-party apps on Yosemite that could change the dock back to a 3D style - do they work on Capitan as well?
(2) And how does the upgrade look with a non-retina screen? Considering the font changes they adopted.
(3) As for split view I'm curious - is it only for two apps or three as well?

(4) Lastly - if I upgrade and find myself having problems, is still possible to go back to Mavericks, right?
Click to expand...

(1) Same or better.
(2) Perfectly fine.
(3) Just two. Thanks for reminding me, by the way. Hadn't tried it yet.
(4) Yes.

navaira said:
I am only able to answer one of your questions: yes, cDock will make your dock 3D again, but you have to disable System Integrity Protection for that to work.
Click to expand...
- And, incidentally, here's a guide for that.
 
Sorry for the delay, thank you for your answers.
Since it's my first OSX upgrade forgive the ignorance, but as far as I know once I download the installer it automatically starts the installation process, right?
As for going back to Mavericks, is there something I should do for that occasion or is simply a matter of "restoring the original software" when the time comes? And if so, will there be possible data loss?

I've read reviews and the general consensus seems to be that El Capitan is presenting way less problem or glitches compared to Yosemite, especially at this stage... do you agree?
 
Labhras said:
Sorry for the delay, thank you for your answers.
(1) Since it's my first OSX upgrade forgive the ignorance, but as far as I know once I download the installer it automatically starts the installation process, right?
(2) As for going back to Mavericks, is there something I should do for that occasion or is simply a matter of "restoring the original software" when the time comes? And if so, will there be possible data loss?

(3) I've read reviews and the general consensus seems to be that El Capitan is presenting way less problem or glitches compared to Yosemite, especially at this stage... do you agree?
Click to expand...
(1) Correct, though you do just need to click "Continue" after the download completes before it starts.
(2) You would restore from your Mavericks backup, or else use OS X Internet Recovery which will install the version your machine shipped with (which is Mavericks, of course). In both cases, you need to have your backup straight.
(3) I do agree. Especially graphics performance in the UI is superior. But I never really had any significant issues with Yosemite anyway.
 
JTToft said:
(1) Correct, though you do just need to click "Continue" after the download completes before it starts.
(2) You would restore from your Mavericks backup, or else use OS X Internet Recovery which will install the version your machine shipped with (which is Mavericks, of course). In both cases, you need to have your backup straight.
(3) I do agree. Especially graphics performance in the UI is superior. But I never really had any significant issues with Yosemite anyway.
Click to expand...

1) Can I just download the installer and then proceed with the upgrade on another time?
2) About that, I have some folders not included in my TM backup - mainly movies that I add or remove based on what I'm watching, and that I don't want taking space on the drive. Will I have to back them up before the upgrade to 10.11 or restore to Mavericks because they get deleted, or are they usually safe?
3) Thanks :) Any problem you have encountered with the software so far?
 
Labhras said:
1) Can I just download the installer and then proceed with the upgrade on another time?
2) About that, I have some folders not included in my TM backup - mainly movies that I add or remove based on what I'm watching, and that I don't want taking space on the drive. Will I have to back them up before the upgrade to 10.11 or restore to Mavericks because they get deleted, or are they usually safe?
3) Thanks :) Any problem you have encountered with the software so far?
Click to expand...
1) Easily, yes. Simply quit out of the installer window, and the installation file will sit in your Applications folder ready to use when you feel like it, under the name "Install OS X El Capitan" if I remember.
2) For the upgrade, no user data is modified or deleted. Backup is still recommended, though. For the move back to Mavericks, you will need to either restore the OS from your Time Machine backup or perform a new installation using Internet Recovery. In either case, any data on the system partition will be deleted.
3) Nothing significant. A few times a week, I get a "Safari Web Content has quit" crash report in Safari (it has no discernible impact, though, and Safari remains functional) that I didn't get on Yosemite. Can't be sure what the cause is, though. It's very solid otherwise.
 
JTToft said:
1) Easily, yes. Simply quit out of the installer window, and the installation file will sit in your Applications folder ready to use when you feel like it, under the name "Install OS X El Capitan" if I remember.
2) For the upgrade, no user data is modified or deleted. Backup is still recommended, though. For the move back to Mavericks, you will need to either restore the OS from your Time Machine backup or perform a new installation using Internet Recovery. In either case, any data on the system partition will be deleted.
3) Nothing significant. A few times a week, I get a "Safari Web Content has quit" crash report in Safari (it has no discernible impact, though, and Safari remains functional) that I didn't get on Yosemite. Can't be sure what the cause is, though. It's very solid otherwise.
Click to expand...

1) Great, thanks :)
2) So in the second case I'd have to backup those extra folders before reverting to Mavericks. I'm curious, since there've been updates between the last version of Mavericks and the one my MBA shipped with, will those updates be available again?
3) I got those as well a few times, I thought it was some conflict with Flash.
 
I always keep a separate back up drive whenever I install a new OS or updates, just in case things go wrong. Easy and simple to get back to exactly what I had before and hard drive prices keep going down. SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner and one of these make things simple.
 
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Labhras said:
1) Great, thanks :)
2) So in the second case I'd have to backup those extra folders before reverting to Mavericks. I'm curious, since there've been updates between the last version of Mavericks and the one my MBA shipped with, will those updates be available again?
3) I got those as well a few times, I thought it was some conflict with Flash.
Click to expand...
2) Correct on the backup. For the versions, you're speaking of 10.9.x updates incremental within Mavericks? They'll be available again, yes.
 
Yes, those were the updates I was referring to.
A question - I might need to use a windows program for a couple of weeks, since it's the only one I'll have to use it was suggested to me the VMware Fusion trial - which should last a month.
Now, would you suggest delaying the 10.11 update until after this time or it shouldn't change anything?
Also, for the VMware I suppose I'll need a Windows installation - I don't have a disk but I have a old Win7 laptop - could I make an image of the installation and use it on wmare? Or is it there an alternative way you would suggest?

Thanks for any help
 
Labhras said:
Yes, those were the updates I was referring to.
A question - I might need to use a windows program for a couple of weeks, since it's the only one I'll have to use it was suggested to me the VMware Fusion trial - which should last a month.
Now, would you suggest delaying the 10.11 update until after this time or it shouldn't change anything?
Also, for the VMware I suppose I'll need a Windows installation - I don't have a disk but I have a old Win7 laptop - could I make an image of the installation and use it on wmare? Or is it there an alternative way you would suggest?

Thanks for any help
Click to expand...
- It shouldn't really matter. But if anything, the latest VMware might not be compatible with Mavericks, so you might need to upgrade before installing it. And you will need a Windows installation disk. I know it's possible to use one's Bootcamp Windows installation when configuring VMware, but I don't know about a whole other machine's installation. I've never used Windows virtual machines in OS X, so I'd have to refer that question to someone else.
 
Thanks - I managed to solve the problem so I shouldn't need to use VMware after all.
A question though - I've read that with VMware I'd be able to use an disk image instead of a physical disk - and having a old laptop running Windows 7 I could do that. I've always seen disk images as replicas of the whole disk though - and I have almost less than 1TB of data I really don't need - do you know of any way to simply create a disk image of the Windows software without user data?

Also, I've read that Java 6 is either disabled or doesn't work with 10.11 - since I have Java 6 JDK on my MBA, will I have to update to 7 or 8 or to your knowledge are those limited cases?

Thanks for your help :)
 
I've MBA 2015 13" (i5 stock, 4GB ram) with Yosemite used for web browsing, mail etc...
in one word - do you recommend upgrading to El Capitan?
 
Bensal1992 said:
I've MBA 2015 13" (i5 stock, 4GB ram) with Yosemite used for web browsing, mail etc...
in one word - do you recommend upgrading to El Capitan?
Click to expand...

I updated from Mavericks while I suppose you had Yosemite as starting OSX.
I've heard that the 10.11 update is used as a fix to lots of Yosemite problems, not mentioning the new features.
Considering you don't seem to need very specific or particular software that might give you problems with compatibility I'd suggest you to update
 
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