“Apple recently released the first public beta of the latest Mac operating system, macOS High Sierra, giving customers the chance to preview the next-generation OS prior to its launch this fall,” AppleInsider reports. “Like any major OS update, High Sierra focuses on resolving pain points from previous versions while adding a few new features to keep things fresh.”
“This year, the biggest change is the new 64-bit Apple File System, which delivers increased performance, native encryption and increased crash protection,” AppleInsider reports. “Apple’s graphics API has been updated to Metal 2, offering 10x better draw call throughput than the original Metal, leading to increased graphics performance, smoother animations and enhanced machine learning capabilities.”
“The Photos app has been improved with new organization tools including a persistent side bar, with updated filters. Face detection has been improved, and when users add names to faces, the tags are now synced between all logged in iCloud devices,” AppleInsider reports. “Photos will also benefit from new Live Photo editing features due to arrive with iOS 11, like loop and bounce effects. These tools can be used to create animated GIFs.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you’ve got an external drive or a testbed Mac, install the public beta and give it a whirl. It’s snappy!
SEE ALSO:
How to create an external Mac startup disk for macOS Sierra – July 7, 2017
Be careful. This beta is especially dangerous because of the conversion to APFS. I don’t think trying out High Sierra is any more dangerous than any other beta but if you convert your FS you’ll find a lot of apps that don’t run any more.
I ended up have to format and restore Sierra. First time in any beta I had to do that.
So listen to Apple – Betas are ONLY for test machines. If you update your production machine you’re a dope.
As per usual:
1) Repair your drive. (It’s a test drive! Right?!)
2) BACK UP your drive (if anything’s already on it).
3) Then install the beta.
4) It doesn’t hurt to restart again after the install. It’s common for an OS to be unstable after a major update.
I’m counting on all drive utilities having to be updated to work properly with APFS. I.E. be aware that only Apple Disk Utility is likely to provide repair capability, and we know it only does superficial repair.
Why does Disk Utilities always fail to repair permissions??
Seems like years ago it would. Nothing I use can repair them.
Tech Tool Pro
Drive Genius
Onyx
What is it?
Even a newly formatted drive and a clean instal of Yosemite. Yea I know. I’ve got some olde software. But even a clean instal has at least 5 permissions it won’t fix?
Boot from the recovery partition and try in disk utilities.
Apple used to provide a CLI (character line interface) app in the System that performed permissions repair. That’s what Disk Utility and all other utilities accessed. As of El Capitan, Apple removed access to it in Disk Utility. As of Sierra, Apple entirely removed the app, so of course there is nothing for utilities to access.
Why? As of El Capitan Apple has been using a regularly scheduled permissions repair routine. Therefore, permissions are being checked and repaired in the background. The company believed this was preferable to leaving permissions to be repaired by utilities via the user. The routine is run frequently enough that Apple believes there is no need for user access.
Meanwhile, there is the usual Get Info interface for individual file and folder permissions as the user chooses, within their client account privileges. Utilities like BatChmod can assist in dealing with these permissions beyond Apple’s interface (which has, to be honest, always been a bit clunky).
I hope that helps.
Repair permissions was removed since either 10.11 or 10.12.
With the new macOS’s, you can run:
sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages –verify –standard-pkgs
Similar, but not a 1 to 1 command.
Sorry, it’s just for 10.11. Haven’t played in a while and it’s been removed in 10.12+
Apologies. Give myself one-star.
Invest in an external HD, clone it and install the beta on it. This will allow you to test the beta without risking your setup.
I created a partition on my main drive for this. Works great and allows me to try out my current software.
dan, you’re right, and clearly smarter than newton.
If only Newton had an apple fall on his head to bonk some sense into it.
Clearly Newton will NEVER chance his pristine production environment on the very first beta of anything ever again.
One hitten (by an Apple on the head), twice shy.
I was wondering if APFS would work on a partition, leaving other partitions alone. That’s gonna be my strategy. TY!
As has been noted by Apple: There will be NO Metal support for external GPUs until the spring of 2018. Stay tuned…
I’ve installed it on my MacBook Pro.
The install was easy and trouble free.
So far, no issues.
Everything seems to be working.
I have noticed it does seem to be running warmer than usual.
Of course, it’s not my main machine and I had nothing crucial on it.