“In the past couple of years, I’ve fought with Mac OS X updates and iOS updates that are only on a scale that could be described as “Windows-esque”. And I’m not happy about it,” Ken Hess writes for ZDNet. “I waited for a few weeks before updating to Yosemite. Why? Because of “special features” that seem to plague early adopters of any Microsoft update. Yes, I’m tainted. Yes, I’m jaded. But what I shouldn’t be is surprised.”
“Yes, you’re reading it correctly. I’m mixing Apple and Microsoft updates into the same hideous lump. I’m not sure what has gone wrong in Apple’s soup, but I think someone needs to rethink the recipe,” Hess writes. “Apple needs to reboot, clear its memory registers, reinitialize, POST, and nudge itself back to the Jobs days of excellence.”
“OK, now that this bit is out of the way, let me describe my Yosemite upgrade experience to you. It went smoothly enough, but I was apprehensive about doing it. After the initial reboot into Yosemite, I was impressed with the cooler looking icons. But, my excitement was soon subdued by the lackluster (‘lackluster’ is being kind) performance. I rebooted again after about an hour to be sure it wasn’t just me. I rebooted and it was still the same,” Hess writes. “Earlier today I was saved by an internal posting by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes who wrote of the Yosemite 10.10.1 update… I decided to try the update. It worked. My awesome Mac mini is awesome again.”
Full article here.
Related article:
Apple releases OS X Yosemite 10.10.1; improves Wi-Fi reliability – November 17, 2014
Hmm, my mid 2011 iMac is running fine after updating tonight to 10.10.1 but it ran just fine with 10.10 as well. There certainly doesn’t seem to be anything in this update that would turn a “lackluster” performing machine into an “awesome” one at all, but whatever works for him I guess…
Good for you! Truly. But my initial load of Yosemite bricked my wifi on my old Mac Pro. It was apparently an issue of IP addresses (or something), because I couldn’t connect any other device for diagnostics or external repairs. And it didn’t successfully load the recovery partition (so I couldn’t fix my issues, and couldn’t even re-download the update), so I had to take it to an Apple Store genius for a rebuild. Separately, iTunes 12 stopped recognizing my old iPods (3rd, 4th, and 5th gen). They would mount and charge, but immediately eject themselves, and never show up in iTunes, so they couldn’t be synced. This update has happily fixed that.
Yes, some people have had no trouble with recent updates. And some people have. “YMMV” didn’t used to apply to Apple as often as in the last couple years.
Still have a problem getting DHCP address on my computer via any method [wired, wireless, or via tethering over bluetooth to my iPhone]. Worked around it by manually assigning IP address at home, but elsewhere, computer is still screwed.
Same here… I have a mid-2011 Mac mini as well (bought only one year ago as an Apple Certified Refurb). Mine is the 2.5 GHz middle config with the discreet (not integrated) graphics.
I just installed an SSD in the upper bay this evening. It’s quite an “involved” procedure. Many thanks to OWC for their kit AND thorough well-illustrated instructions (without which I surely would have broken something). Instead of doing a restore of my old system, I tried it out with a clean install of Yosemite on the SSD.
I already had 10.10.1 running on the hard drive, and did not notice a significant performance difference compared to 10.10. And I thought 10.10 was an improvement over 10.9.5. However, the clean install on the SSD is noticeably better. And I don’t think it’s entirely related to the SSD. I have 16GB of RAM installed, so it ran quite well off the stock hard drive.
My conclusion is that installing over an existing OS X system is the likely the cause for many who had problems with 10.10. Even though I was not complaining about 10.10 (or 10.10.1) installed over my existing 10.9.5 system, 10.10.1 as a clean install “feels” noticeably better. Probably an accumulation of third-party system extensions in my old system. I’ll be migrating my user data and installing third-party apps I currently use into THIS system, instead of restoring the old one.
Next decision. Whether to turn my new SSD and stock HD into an “unofficial” Fusion Drive…
I have mid-2011 mini like yours and run it in DIY Fusion Drive with an OWC SSD. It runs great.
Just upgraded from a 2011 Mac Mini SERVER (Quad core) edition – to a Quad Core 2012 Mac Mini. (Thanks a lot 2014 Mac Mini’s.)
Thanks Ken1w and Ralph M. for sharing your experiences. Upgrading from 4 GB of RAM to 16 significantly speeds up the machine as well.
Narcissistic blather…
Definitely snappier, and the fan is mostly quiet now…the dozens of ads blinking in the MDN website had been choking my poor Mac
The OSX and iOS updates actually seem to have fixed my continuity and handoff issus on my 13″ MacBook Pro, iPhone 6, iPod 4 and iPhone 5s. Having Safari, Mail or Notes seem to handoff appropriately from 1 device that is sleeping to another device that is awakened from sleep. The time I spent with Apple Tech support appears to have made a difference
The big deal for me was the process of working on my MacBook Pro. I was finally able to see the icon on my MacBook indicating a file was open on another device. At that point I was able I to open the file on my MacBook, make changes and see them reflected on the other device. Still seems a bit glitchy but a definite improvement. I’m happy but it still need practice.it’s a good start for me!
I’ve been having loads of problems with Yosemite regarding email, specifically using an iCloud email account and junk mail filtering. In short the client side of Mail no longer filters junk mail. I’ve been bugging Apple tech support about this since it was a beta and nothing has been done. Yesterday I was told that this is on purpose. A second tier tech spoke to an engineer and was told that iCloud accounts only have their email filtered at the server and clicking the junk icon will not cause Mail to learn anything. It will work with other services like Yahoo Mail and email providers but no longer with iCloud.
Personally I find this extremely annoying but apparently they don’t plan on doing anything about it so any people using iCloud email will need to get a different mail client or start using a third party filter.
Apple has done some stupid things in the past but this takes the cake.
Internet sharing still broken
VPN client still broken
Mine works.. might be something on your end.
Been running Yosemite since June and no issues. 2009 Early Macbook Pro 17″.
Now if RNDIS via USB could be fixed. It worked in Mavericks.
Seems to have fixed my problem with jerky scrolling in Preview fore large 2 column docs.
My 2nd gen MBA, which is probably the weakest Mac capable of running Yosemite, as it has only 2GB of ram and a 1.86Ghz C2Duo chip, was running okay on Yosemite, but ram was always a bottleneck if I had too many apps open or if Safari had too many tabs.
Now, it seems like my MBA is twice as fast, seriously. The ram issues which were crippling my MBA are gone. It’s really quite awesome again.
OK. Seriously? I am beginning to develop some serious doubt….Mail fixes for Exchange? No, I still get mail that is marked read on the server (and I can see that on the Dark Side) and I can not mark is an read because the menu says: mark as unread, but the blue bullet remains. I was hoping this little though annoying bug would be fixed…
Further, no problems!
Curious, stating a FACT gets me a 1 star……..
Say what? Performance issues on a Mac mini?
Does not fit with my experience. I have bought a new Mac mini in Spring, and for me Yosemite was all around positive. No performance problems whatsoever except some Wi-Fi dropping (not an issue for me, since the mini is hooked up with a cable anyway). In fact, Yosemite ran better than Mavericks, in particular the Finder. Way better.
So, given those two anecdotal experiences, I conclude that his perceived performance problems are not related to Yosemite specifically.
Besides, he never goes into details what his problems with Yosemite were, or why his son refused the iPhone 6, or why he thinks it’s the “worst ever”.
I hate people writing like this who give a scathing verdict without explanation.
Filed under FUD.
We have 3 mac minis at work and have no issues at all. At home I have an iMac and a MacBook Air and are having an issue with the sharing name, but beyond the same device showing up multiple times it’s not causing any issues in terms of general usage. Not sure if 10.10.1 fixed it as I’ve not installed it at home yet.
next years OSX release needs to be a 100% bug fix release. Stop the madness.
Every system that I have upgraded has started a reindex of Spotlight, which makes the system very sluggish for a while. The only thing that will fix that is patience. Let your system perform the reindex. It’s that simple. I guess this guy didn’t bother to launch Activity Monitor. Otherwise he would have seen the mds processes running with high CPU.
This! The effect is especially burdensome if you’re a power user (or file hoarder). A SpotLight reindex on my machine runs over 8 hours at minimum. I do wish Apple would provide more feedback as this occurs in order to better shape users’ expectations. I get the complaint from users with many updates and once I can get them over the initial disappointing experience, a couple days later they’re fine.
I totally understand what you’re saying about having lots of files. I have almost 2TB stored on an external USB3 drive. The reindex took about 40-45minutes, so experience will vary. Also, both of my Macs have an SSD installed. That is likely one fo the reasons why my own reindex didn’t cause problems. A call to AppleCare would have probably ferreted this out if this guy had tried that option.
Since updating, I am getting an iTunes error 1000 when Movie is nearly finished downloading. It worked well prior to the update.
I lost a lot of work due to 10.10 crashes and graphics card problem. hoping 10.10.1 does the trick. Bizarrely 10.10 seemed to become completely unstable in the last few days.
“Windows-esque” is right. As a usability consultant I noticed this terrible slide toward Microsoft’s way. A lack of consistency, Edit something and the buttons sometimes say “Save” or “Done”. Change for the sake of change, did the Trash icon really have to change? Increased steps to do the same thing. I remember installs on Windows, click Install and there is another dialogue “Do you really want to install?” followed by more dialogues and questions. iTunes install of iOS is now like that, 4 clicks to install an update. Then there is the gratuitous animation sliding and flying around, which triggers an automatic reflex which forces the eye to focus on the movement and away from what you want to look at. It is a mechanism to protect us by forcing us to look at movement which could be a predator, e.g., a snake, and so can save our lives. But I don’t think the web site name in a Safari tab sliding sideways to centre itself is a real threat, but the reflex draws my eye there anyway. Graphic design should meet the needs of the user and not decoration and be tempered by usability studies. I see no evidence of that just inconsistency, increased clicks, gratuitous change and distraction animation and a more “Windows-esque” feel.
I too found that my Macbook Pro started dropping the WiFi connection with Yosemite but 10.10.1 has definitely fixed that issue. Speed is great and Yosemite is solid. However I have thought for some time now that these upgrades are a little too quick out the door these days – iOS8 had to be patched fairly soon after release and now so has Yosemite but this whole issue has an enormous impact on Developers, software book authors, millions of app users and of course, Apple themselves.
The intense pressure to write software and release on a 12 month cycle has hit quality control hard. I have been downloading various versions of Xcode 6 over these last few months some of which were billed as Gold Master or final release but some versions have been completely unusable with multiple crashes on a continuous basis. The new Swift language introduced by Apple at WWDC this year was also a surprise but the tools have lagged far behind with support, despite the billing, Xcode has been very buggy in this respect.
Constant releases of buggy code results in a downward cycle of mistrust that finds its way into every nook and cranny – if you look at the comments about Xcode and OSX server in the App Store it doesn’t paint a rosy picture for Apple. I tried to use OSX Server but had to delete it as it simply did not work and had actually started to cause side issues on my machine.
As for book authors, they must be having a really hard time – last summer I had been waiting for a book about Xcode 5 to arrive which had been pushed back on release for so long due to having to accommodate constant changes that by the time the book actually shipped it was out of date! This makes for a complete waste of time and money for everyone involved.
When app upgrades were on a longer cycle (i.e. every 2 years or so), everyone had more time to absorb the changes in software development kits, tools changes and technical data before another upgrade was due. This largely enabled the correct testing to take place and buggy code was much less manifest than it is these days. Now, I absolutely cherish Apple products and software, they are on a different planet to anything offered by Microsoft, but the bug laden and untested code that is coming out of Apple these days is making it very hard to run with – lots of us (devs) are ignoring certain updates until at least update 3 or 4 since it is only then that we can be reasonably sure that the tools and code will be reasonably fit for purpose and we don’t have to spend all of our time fighting it.
While Yosemite and the new look are a matter of personal taste, (I personally like the new look) buggy code releases are indefensible given the size of Apple these days and the resources they can command, its about time they addressed some of these issues and start building some confidence going forward. Having to release upgrades so soon after a final release tells you that the code has simply not been thoroughly tested and time constraints make this nearly impossible to do so adequately; all it does is to invite a lot of negativity in their own shop window – the App Store, which is a real shame.
iMac, mac mini, MacBook pro, iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPad 4-not a single issue on any of them.
I have updated every time one was offered and was in the user beta testing of Yosemite.
People experiencing issues installed something, changed some system settings or installed some kind of hack.
Apple had moved away from the annual updates of OS X because there weren’t huge feature improvements/additions to justify yearly cycles. Now Apple has moved back to the annual OS X update cycle, and I think it’s affecting initial quality of the upgrade. There just isn’t enough time to prepare the upgrade with all of its new features, make sure it integrates well with the new iOS upgrades, and perform quality control on a wide variety of Mac systems. I would prefer that Apple take more time to get it right, so it is smooth from the beginning.
After all, it’s not like Apple will take 3-5 years or more like Microsoft does.
It has to do with leadership. Apple has all the resources it needs to stick to an annual update if it wished, but instead of fundamental upgrades (ZFS, for example), current Apple leadership is busy making the formerly intuitive Mac GUI harder to read, harder to discover features, and uglier. To most Mac users, absolutely nothing important would be lost by going right back to Snow Leopard.
My bottom of the OK list 2008 MacBook runs Yosemite fine. Sure it’s slower than modern machines, but it still runs acceptable fast.
Not true. My Brand new imac 5k keep crashing mail, iphone, itunes. what a update do go there.