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Is that all there is?

hakr100

hakr100

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 1, 2011
967
113
East Coast
So, I was fiddling around with a friend’s MacBook Pro yesterday. He’s running Mavericks on it. I must have missed the “big” stuff, because most of what I saw and played with didn’t impress me all that much.

iBooks…I’m afraid I’m still in the books printed on paper phase of my life. I really dislike eBooks.

Maps…doesn’t seem as useful as Google maps.

Calendar…no big deal.

Safari…still seems slower than Firefox.

iCloud Keychain…wasn’t my machine, so I didn’t mess with this app.

Multiple Displays…I only run one at a time.

Notifications…great, my desktop machine will channel my iPhone.

Finder Tabs…didn’t have time to figure this one out.

Tags…scary, gives me the impression Apple wants to turn its OSX into IOS.

So, this is it? An updated OSX with a few new apps and features? That’s all there is? I was hoping for some big stuff. :(
 
Safari seems just as fast if not faster than firefox to me (haswell MBA)

And a lot of the improvements in mavericks are under-the-hood performance improvements. Not immediately visible but still very important stuff. Not ever release needs a mass of new features.

They've significantly improved memory management by adding dynamic memory compression. This means it very rarely needs to resort paging out to swap which can signigicantly increase performance on lower ram machines.

On the energy saving side they've added things like app nap and timer coalescing, which allows inactive applications to use far less battery power.

And another good under the hood improvement is that they've added support for opengl 4.1 which can improve performance across the board for opengl applications.
 
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I have no idea what "Firefox also has absolutely horrific HTML5 canvas performance on OSX compared to safari or chrome" means. On the laptop I played with, Firefox opened and resolved the pages I usually visit a lot quicker.

I'll certainly take your word for the other improvements you mentioned.
 
hakr100 said:
iBooks…I’m afraid I’m still in the books printed on paper phase of my life. I really dislike eBooks.
iCloud Keychain…wasn’t my machine, so I didn’t mess with this app.
Multiple Displays…I only run one at a time.
Click to expand...
Some people use the things you don't.

hakr100 said:
Finder Tabs…didn’t have time to figure this one out.
Click to expand...
It's Tabs. Like in Safari. In the Finder.
People have been asking for this for YEARS.

hakr100 said:
Tags…scary, gives me the impression Apple wants to turn its OSX into IOS.
Click to expand...
There is nothing "iOS-y" about Tags. It's metadata. Like you use in iTunes.
It's the single most significant enhancement to file organisation since Subfolders were invented. It should blow your mind, not scare you that Apple is dumbing-down OS X to become a mobile OS.

As said, there are MANY improvements under the hood that make Mavx fast, efficient and powerful. Safari should be screaming fast, so I'm not sure what's going on there.
 
hakr100 said:
updated[/B] OSX with a few new apps and features? That’s all there is? I was hoping for some big stuff. :(
Click to expand...

Big Stuff? You mean like what? Glitzy glamour like Windows 8 Metro? I would rather have a great stable system that infuses with my iPhone and other Apple devices than a prettier face. Microsoft is learning that adding a glitzy glamour UI isn't all customers need. Sure, they may like to see something new upfront but shortly afterwards it fades if the system isn't intuitive or takes more steps to do the same function the older system could do without the glitzy glamour.
 
it's, as said, the under-the-hood stuff. speed, stability. light on it's feet (so to speak).

i much prefer that to new gimmicks, personally. i just want my mac running fast, and stable... :D
 
Hard to believe people still use Firefox, it's slower than Safari in almost every way on my machine
 
Finder Tabs are very useful here. Maps is also a handy tool for sending a route to the iPhone. I use this.

On my machine, the system feels a little faster in general. All the subtle changes are welcome. They are not big WOW things and they don't need to be IMO. OSX continues to evolve, which if good.

Still plenty of room for improvement. iTunes is still a mess & so is App Store.
 
I' already using Totalfinder so the tabs isn't new to me.

I just hope they didn't fk up the calendar and other somewhat useful apps.
 
hakr100 said:
So, I was fiddling around with a friend’s MacBook Pro yesterday. He’s running Mavericks on it. I must have missed the “big” stuff, because most of what I saw and played with didn’t impress me all that much.

iBooks…I’m afraid I’m still in the books printed on paper phase of my life. I really dislike eBooks.

Maps…doesn’t seem as useful as Google maps.

Calendar…no big deal.

Safari…still seems slower than Firefox.

iCloud Keychain…wasn’t my machine, so I didn’t mess with this app.

Multiple Displays…I only run one at a time.

Notifications…great, my desktop machine will channel my iPhone.

Finder Tabs…didn’t have time to figure this one out.

Tags…scary, gives me the impression Apple wants to turn its OSX into IOS.

So, this is it? An updated OSX with a few new apps and features? That’s all there is? I was hoping for some big stuff. :(
Click to expand...

This!!!!
 
hakr100 said:
I have no idea what "Firefox also has absolutely horrific HTML5 canvas performance on OSX compared to safari or chrome" means. On the laptop I played with, Firefox opened and resolved the pages I usually visit a lot quicker.

I'll certainly take your word for the other improvements you mentioned.
Click to expand...

Run this benchmark, or pretty much any canvas benchmark in firefox and then safari and you'll see what I meant, far slower and very visibly laggy in firefox compared to safari: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/performance/psychedelicbrowsing/Default.html

anyway I actually did manage to fix that in firefox after playing around with about:config today :), you need to go to about:config and change "gfx.canvas.azure.backends" from "cg" to "skia" and change "gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated" to "true" which brings its html5 canvas performance to be the same as safari and chrome.
 
hakr100 said:
So, I was fiddling around with a friend’s MacBook Pro yesterday. He’s running Mavericks on it. I must have missed the “big” stuff, because most of what I saw and played with didn’t impress me all that much.

iBooks…I’m afraid I’m still in the books printed on paper phase of my life. I really dislike eBooks.

Maps…doesn’t seem as useful as Google maps.

Calendar…no big deal.

Safari…still seems slower than Firefox.

iCloud Keychain…wasn’t my machine, so I didn’t mess with this app.

Multiple Displays…I only run one at a time.

Notifications…great, my desktop machine will channel my iPhone.

Finder Tabs…didn’t have time to figure this one out.

Tags…scary, gives me the impression Apple wants to turn its OSX into IOS.

So, this is it? An updated OSX with a few new apps and features? That’s all there is? I was hoping for some big stuff. :(
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you weren't around when Snow Leopard was released. Almost entirely under-the-hood improvements, and that was back when OS X releases were two years apart.

Some of the big goals in Mavericks appear to be speed enhancements and battery life improvements, not necessarily flashy user-interface features.
 
Under the hood changes, yes i'd really agree.

I am a NON Power User, use a 2009 model Macbook, 8 GB ram.
Suddenly, the book seems to get a new lease of life. Seems faster overall and battery has increased from about 3 hours to 4.5 hours of processing.

I mostly use mail, office apps, pages & safari all the time. have been using the book for nearly a week without rebooting and so far, I have seen 0 swap file used.

I did open my iphoto library and that was slow but again, no swap file - i am amazed that it managed everything in 8 GB RAM.

Overall, I think ML was the Vista of Apple and Mav's seems to be the Windows 7ish type update. Just feels smooth, no new features but then, i ask myself, do I use new features? I still continue to use the apps that i use to get my days' work done ..:rolleyes:
 
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hakr100 said:
So, this is it? An updated OSX with a few new apps and features? That’s all there is? I was hoping for some big stuff. :(
Click to expand...

There are huge, huge changes under the hood.

Technically, it is a remarkable update.

I'm sorry it underwhelms you. Feel free not to upgrade.

It failed to make my tea for me this morning, too. If Steve were still alive, I'd have tea.
 
I see one thing underwhelming here is the graphics animation... There are glitches all over. Mountain Lion has more fluid animation than Mavericks.
 
This is why I hope it will be free so people will update to it anyways, even though they don't see anything that new. It's important to keep people updating to the latest versions. There are so many people still on Snow Leopard.
 
hakr100 said:
So, I was fiddling around with a friend’s MacBook Pro yesterday. He’s running Mavericks on it. I must have missed the “big” stuff, because most of what I saw and played with didn’t impress me all that much.
Click to expand...

No offense, but people who think like that are the reason we have to keep going through this daft cycle.

A significant proportion of Mac users still consider Snow Leopard to be the best release of OS X to date. Why? Because they didn't add a load of pointless bells and whistles, but made it leaner, faster and altogether better engineered under the hood. Then along came Lion and they threw that idea out with a bunch of stupid unnecessary cruft that added nothing of any real value and probably made the overall user experience worse. ML reversed some of that, and was a bit better, and now Mavericks has gone back toward the direction of SL where instead of adding endless pointless "features" they've added improved memory management, better energy efficiency, upgraded OpenGL/CL support, SMB2, better support for multiple displays and a bunch of other stuff.

The features that have been added to Mavericks are generally fairly useful (keychain syncing) or add something beneficial to the UI (tabbed finder to reduce clutter). As for Safari, it feel super snappy even on my old Mac Pro 1,1 - so much so that I've started using it for the first time in years instead of Chrome.

Personally I think it's easily their best release since 10.6.
 
Firefox came out at the right time to give an option to Internet Explorer ditto Opera. But since Google hit the go pedal.. ALL other browsers have slipped down... and now Chrome is growing in popularity...despite Googles penchant to know your inside leg measurements and your dogs mating habits!
I think Apple simply do Safari for Apple users and do not really go for global mastery like Google does.

On the subject of Mavericks, there was a fad a few years ago when CSS and Javascript got more usage..to be able to open a website and click from a choice of skins.

An earlier post explains that most changes are in the engine room....so it seems feasible that iOS 6 could be offered as a "skin" while having iOS7 running the "engine room" .... after all, the apps are still using the same icons as the did before the upgrade.
 
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hakr100 said:
So, I was fiddling around with a friend’s MacBook Pro yesterday. He’s running Mavericks on it. I must have missed the “big” stuff, because most of what I saw and played with didn’t impress me all that much.

iBooks…I’m afraid I’m still in the books printed on paper phase of my life. I really dislike eBooks.

Maps…doesn’t seem as useful as Google maps.

Calendar…no big deal.

Safari…still seems slower than Firefox.

iCloud Keychain…wasn’t my machine, so I didn’t mess with this app.

Multiple Displays…I only run one at a time.

Notifications…great, my desktop machine will channel my iPhone.

Finder Tabs…didn’t have time to figure this one out.

Tags…scary, gives me the impression Apple wants to turn its OSX into IOS.

So, this is it? An updated OSX with a few new apps and features? That’s all there is? I was hoping for some big stuff. :(
Click to expand...



what were you hoping for? IOS 7 style flat icons and all the character stripped out?


tbh its true that in the days of os 7 and 8 and 9, there was alway 1 'look at this' addition every iteration.


but i think mavericks is a good release. if it was 100 quid like some of the earlier releases maybe not but for the free/15 euro or whatever itll be, its nice.

the finder tabs makes things a lot neater and means i can leave folders open all the time.

the maps app is pretty cool, i like thaht you can look something up on your mac and send it to your iphone.

keychain will make it far easier for non techy people to have good passwords.


tags, i like, and i never used whatever their predecessor were called before.


little things like splitting the apps folder up a wee bit. i used to keep my games in a separate folder but a lot of them get automatically installed into the apps folder so prob best to leave them there. by using tags though ive tagged all my games one colour and renamed the tag to games, so i press tags from any folder and they all appear. i can do the same with design apps or utilities or sets of folders i keep things in....


but it seems most of the main improvements are under the hood, faster, more better battery life, which is all more important than different icons
 
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