“Mavericks is a surf beach in California, and the operating system that takes its name definitely represents a new wave in Mac software, even though it isn’t a drastic change from OS X 10.8,” Darrell Etherington writes for TechCrunch.
“The changes Apple has made are for the better, though, and since it’s free, there’s no reason not to take advantage of all that great new stuff,” Etherington writes. “[Bottom line] Mavericks is free and Mavericks is very good.”
Etherington writes, “Apple has really turned the business of desktop software on its head with this update, and there’s no reason not to update – in fact, there’s every reason to make the software change as soon as you can. Even if you’re not particularly drawn by any single new big feature, everyone will find something to love among all the little changes Apple has baked into the 10th and latest iteration of OS X.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Like wildfire: OS X Mavericks adoption passes 7% in less than 24 hours – October 23, 2013
Free OS X Mavericks will pay off for Apple in many ways – October 23, 2013
PC Magazine reviews Apple’s OS X 10.9 Mavericks: ‘Apple got it right’ – Editors’ Choice – October 23, 2013
Been awful knowin’ ya, Microsoft: Revolutionary Apple ends the era of paid operating systems, office suites – October 23, 2013
Apple makes the world’s most advanced operating system freeware – October 23, 2013
Apple’s new free OS X for Mac hurts Microsoft and the Windows PC industry in myriad ways – October 22, 2013
Apple exploits Microsoft’s confused hesitation on Office for iPad – October 22, 2013
Apple’s OS X Mavericks available today free from the Mac App Store – October 22, 2013
Apple releases next-gen 64-bit iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS; free with new Macs and iOS devices – October 22, 2013
I really love the Maps apps. Essentially it’s no different than on iOS, but there’s something about looking at the 3D buildings on an 27″ iMac that is fascinating.
I just sent in several error reports for Maps. I wonder whether they will ever be corrected, and if so, how long it will take.
Well, I reported my brother’s road not even being on the map (admittedly it was still being built at the time) when Maps first launched and still nothing. To be fair Google only added it recently.
We’ve been in our house since August of 2012, and Google, Mapquest, and Bing all are unaware of our street, let alone our address. Apple Maps, however, had the street listed in Sept of 2012, but still does not know the address numbers.
There’s a street on campus near me that was removed in 1970 when a building was built over it. The street still shows up on Maps and all the others, too. It’s not diamonds, but databases that are forever. Until Murphy’s Law kicks in… 😆
I was playing around with the maps app last night. I had it in hybrid mode and zoomed out as far as it would go. It was really cool. You could see the whole globe. Half of it was dark, and you could see the city lights…It was really cool.
I’ve sent in numerous fix requests for two locations in my neighborhood over the course of Maps’ existence. None have been fixed yet, and it’s been over a year. So, from my experience, futility.
“report a problem” is largely a waste of time. I’ve sent in the same problem since Apple maps launched and it has yet to be fixed. But, I will continue to use Apple maps nonetheless.
Under the hood changes are dramatic, especially for laptops.
I have found the same thing. Really glad I didn’t wait.
It really seems much faster. I have a processor activity monitor in my menu bar that now just barely indicates any activity at all (I don’t do much that stresses the machine, especially since I went Flash-free). And all for free.
Is it just me. My mid 2007 iMac is running a lot faster after installing Mavericks. To me that is the biggest improvement. I love some of the other features also but to make my iMac faster is just awsome, and the price was right…free.
It doesn’t hurt to have 20-40 gigabytes more space now on the boot drive, either.
You may be right iOS 7 did the same for my iPad 3 so I can believe it.
Nope, it’s not just you. Faster and smooth as butter on my mid-2007 iMac. I don’t know if it is a LOT faster, but it is noticeably faster, and seems smoother. Plus, it does take care of using memory better as far as I can see.
And for free. Gotta love it.
Anyone else having issues with sideways swipes in Safari on the Magic Mouse to go forward and back? Yes, that’s my only issue. Everything else looks really quite excellent. Even my printer drivers still seem to work!
Just check the setting under sys prefs, mouse. For some reason I had to recheck that too.
You rule! Thanks. That fixed it..
Yep, same problem here. Just hangs the tab.
I’m not sure Snapz Pro X will work in Mavericks. I would hate to lose it.
It seems to work OK for me, no doubt they will probably issue an update for whatever little bugs the current version has with Mavericks.
It doesn’t work, or works once then freezes at best. I have resorted to Control-Command-Shift-4 then Space to highlight a window (with shadow border) and place on the clipboard.
Plus I use ‘Precise Screenshot’ (from App Store, not free) for multiple shots. I am not sure what it best for the screen movies (ScreenFlow?).
Snapz Pro X was upgraded recently. It works on Mavericks.
That’s funny, users comments at RoaringApps.com indicate Snapz Pro X has problems with Mavericks, and its maker http://www.ambrosiasw.com only talks about Mountain Lion compatibility.
*scampering to play with Snapz Pro X on 10.9.0*
I have to say that I was running Snaps Pro X on the pre-GM versions of Mavericks. Maybe we can add this to the list of stuff broken by GM2. I’ll post my results later. Thanks Hannah. *sigh*
Follow up:
Snapz Pro X is ‘running’ on Mavaricks 10.9.0 but cannot effectively do anything. I have not seen it crash. But it does go into a tizzy before it is able to save anything it snaps. It can be Quit via Activity Monitor, but there is no point in restarting it again.
The Ambrosia Software forum indicates that others have this problem or something like it. There is a rumor started by its laid off developers that Ambrosia is shutting down. But Andrew Welch, who started the company, says Ambrosia continues on and will support its software. I’ll reference a MacObserver article about the situation below.
Andrew Welch himself has always been the chief developer of Snapz Pro X. That bodes hope that he will update it to work around whatever is causing problems.
But I’d have to talk to Andrew directly to learn the details. I may attempt to do that tomorrow. Obviously this is an important Mac app and requires explanation about its future or whether it has one.
Sorry to mislead folks earlier. I hadn’t gone so far to test Snapz Pro X’s functionality in Mavericks. I only verified that it ran, which it does, defectively.
The MacObserver article about the state of AmbrosiaSW:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ambrosia-still-alive-kicking
My old MacBook, which came with 10.4, and have since updated twice (to 10.5 and currently 10.6), is eligible to run Mavericks. What I have done in the past is purchase a portable 500GB USB drive (really cheap now, about $50 from my local electronics superstore, Fry’s), and installed the current OS at the time, then upgraded it. I now have a drive for each version: 10.6 through 10.8. Thanks to Apple’s genius with making this process so easy to do, I can run 10.9 from an external USB drive to test it out – or use – without committing it to my main drive, but leaving me the option to do so if I choose.
I was worried that they would be tempted to move to an OS 11.
While that offers all sorts of opportunity for slogans about cranking it to 11, “OS X” has become a brand with real equity.
With this move to more incremental builds and free releases, I wonder if the Mac operating system will simply be OS X for the foreseeable future.
Sorry for getting off track, but MDN website has really become a miserable experience to use with all the irritating types of ads . It is like a mine Field. you have to really be careful how you move your curser, or something is shoved down your throat. Just by having your curser move over something on it’s way to your intended destination, it can trigger different kinds of ads from load audio to screen darkening banners that must be clicked on the X to get back to reading your article. Shouldn’t you need to click on the ad if you are interested? Am I the only one frustrated by this?
Also all the advertisements for Apple competitors. Is there no money on ads for Apple products or things that get used with Apple. They gripe about these products and then they have adds for them, go figure.
I just click on the ads of the companies I dislike the most – that way, those companies have to spend money paying MDN. Open it in a new tab behind this one, then close them all when done. I do this with lots of sites as a way of supporting them.
In Mavericks / Safari you can turn off flash animation site by site. It stops MDN looking like a Fisher Price Busy Box.
Ghostery will fix that and more. I love it!
Gotta ask this. How much money do you send to MDN for using this site for all your Apple needs?
Weird and really cool. I’ve been running Mavericks on my Late 2008 MBP. I swear operations and finder is just as fast if not faster as when I first got it. Amazing how a new operating system adds new kick butt features without slowing down the machine. Good job Apple!
After updating, no Adobe CSS programs work.
I have the CS6 and CC versions on my machine, and they all work fine. Which version are you on?
Is that really a bad thing?
I’ve had no problem with Adobe Photoshop CS6, which I use frequently. I just tried Illustrator CS5, and it worked without problem. So, I’m pretty sure your programs can work in Mavericks.
Things you can try:
– Fixing your disk permissions in Disk Utility
– Deleting your /username/Library/Application Support/Adobe folder (this will delete all your local settings and mods but not the apps themselves).
– Reinstalling the apps.
Plan to upgrade to Mavericks however just heard that we must pay for upgrades to BusyCal 2.5 as SyncServices(?) was removed from Mavericks.
Although the OS is free, for a lot of us there will be upgrade fees for the other software we use IE Parallels.
Keep an eye out for cheap prices on Parallels. I got version 9 for dirt cheap via the recent Fall bundle at MacUpdate.com. I can’t remember ever paying full price for Parallels or its upgrades.
Anyone else finding that their machine takes longer to start up with Mavericks? Everything else is much faster, and I’m loving it so far, but that is one issue that’s really quite irritating.
Oh, and swiping in Launchpad seems to be very broken, but I’m sure that’ll be fixed.
(I’m running an original rMBP, btw.)
It might have been slower the first couple of startups, but seems OK now (13″ Mid-2012). Everything (MacBook, mini, and iMac) certainly shuts down faster. Just a couple seconds of the spinning picket fence. It was getting close to a minute with ML.
I’m tempted but I just don’t know what it’s going to do to already marginal programs like Quickbooks… as much as I fucking HATE Quickbooks!
Safari is completely unstable. Won’t stay up for two minutes. Was the same way in Snow Leopard. Having to use Chrome (which I DON’T want to do).
Diggin’ everything else.
Peace.
I’m on a mid-2007 iMac.
Same machine here, but everything is fine. Did you try turning off any Safari extensions you might have? They might be having trouble. The only trouble I’ve found is an old VMWare Fusion (4.1.4) is a little flakey. I’ll upgrade it to 6.0 today.
One major tip: If you use Glims with Safari, it alone turns Safari into a Sit&Spin, crashing mess. The solution is to either uninstall Glims or update to version 1.0.41, available now over at:
http://www.machangout.com
Just a small issue, and one I doubt Apple will fix
Early versions of AirPort Extreme are no longer supported.
The last version of Airport Utility that supported them was version 5.6. This version was absolutely needed to configure older airports. AU 5.6 worked up until 10.8 Mountain Lion. However it will not run on 10.9 Mavericks. Not sure why, really too bad, because that older hardware is still in fine operating condition.
NO. Do NOT immediately update to Mavericks. PLEASE wait for the 10.9.1 update. There are some rude bugs in the final version of 10.9.0 that were NOT in the betas. They require repair. Some of them are quite annoying. These include:
1) Clunky file transfers via Wi-Fi over a LAN.
2) Screwy spell checking that can make a mess of what you’re attempting to write.
3) Ruined Mail app if you’re a Gmail user.
. . .
Hang on until this crap-injection is sorted out by Apple.
I am not eligible to upgrade with my 2006 MacBook Pro Core Duo :(. Stuck on Snow Leopoard. The computer still works well, so hard to justify buying a new one (even though I would love to) when I have kids to support.
I sympathize. I can’t upgrade my good old reliable MacBook C2D from 2006. It’s stuck at Lion (and I keep Snow Leopard on another partition for when I’m sick to death of the stupid Lion Finder). Snow Leopard was a great version of OS X.
Meanwhile, my old MacBook works great as is, for now.
Whats wrong with the mail app if your a gmail user?
Nothing that unsubscribing from the Google personal information vacuum wouldn’t fix….
Joe Kissel at TidBITS wrote a long article about the situation:
http://tidbits.com/article/14219