OS X Yosemite
OS X Yosemite (/joʊˈsɛmɪti/ yoh-SEM-it-ee; version 10.10) is the eleventh major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.
Version of the macOS operating system | |
![]() | |
![]() The default desktop of OS X Yosemite | |
Developer | Apple Inc. |
---|---|
OS family | |
Source model | Closed, with open source components |
Released to manufacturing | October 16, 2014 |
Latest release | 10.10.5 (Build 14F2511)[2] / July 19, 2017 |
Update method | Mac App Store |
Platforms | x86-64 |
Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
License | APSL and Apple EULA |
Preceded by | OS X Mavericks |
Succeeded by | OS X El Capitan |
Official website | Apple - OS X Yosemite - Overview at the Wayback Machine (archived August 28, 2015) |
Tagline | Every bit as powerful as it looks. |
Support status | |
Unsupported as of August 2017. iTunes is no longer being updated, but is able to download driver updates to sync to newer devices.[3] |
Part of a series on |
macOS |
---|
OS X Yosemite was announced and released to developers on June 2, 2014, at WWDC 2014 and released to public beta testers on July 24, 2014. Yosemite was released to consumers on October 16, 2014.[4] Following the Northern California landmark-based naming scheme introduced with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite is named after the national park.
System requirements
All Macintosh products capable of running OS X Mountain Lion (v10.8.x) are able to run Yosemite as the two operating systems have the same requirements.[5] However, to take full advantage of the Handoff feature, additional minimum system requirements include a Mac with Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth 4.0). As with Mavericks and Mountain Lion, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of available storage, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or later are required.
These are the models that are compatible with OS X Yosemite:
- iMac (Mid 2007 or later)
- MacBook (Aluminum, Late 2008 or later)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
- MacBook Pro (Mid 2007 or later)
- Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
- Xserve (Early 2009)
These are the models that support new features such as Handoff, Instant Hotspot as well as AirDrop between Mac computers and iOS devices:[6]
- iMac (Late 2012 or later)
- MacBook (Early 2015 or later)
- MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or later)
- MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or later)
- Mac Mini (Late 2012 or later)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
Features
Design
Yosemite introduced a major overhaul of OS X's user interface, emphasizing flat graphic design over skeuomorphism, following the aesthetic introduced with iOS 7. It is the first major redesign of the OS X user interface since 10.5 Leopard. Other changes include thinner fonts and blurred translucency effects. Some icons have been changed to correspond with those of iOS 7 and iOS 8. Yosemite maintains the OS X desktop metaphor.[7]
Other design changes include new icons, light and dark color schemes, and the replacement of Lucida Grande with Helvetica Neue as the default system typeface.[8][9][10] It was the only macOS version to use Helvetica Neue as the default typeface, as in El Capitan it was again changed, this time to Apple's own, newly-designed San Francisco typeface. The Dock is now a 2D translucent rectangle instead of a skeuomorphic glass shelf, reminiscent of the Dock design used in early versions of OS X through Tiger and in iOS since iOS 7.
Continuity
Many of Yosemite's new features focus on the theme of continuity, increasing its integration with other Apple platforms and services such as iOS and iCloud.[11] The Handoff functionality allows the operating system to integrate with iOS 8 devices over Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi; users can place and answer phone calls using their iPhone as a conduit, send and receive text messages, activate personal hotspots, or load items being worked on in a mobile app (such as Mail drafts or Numbers spreadsheets) directly into their desktop equivalent.[11]
Notification Center
Notification Center features a new "Today" view, similar to that in iOS. The Today view can display information and updates from various sources, along with widgets.[8][9] The widgets in the Today view are similar to those of iOS 8.
Photos
As of OS X 10.10.3, Photos replaces both iPhoto and Aperture.[12] It uses iCloud Photo Library to upload all the user's photos across their devices.
Applications found on OS X 10.10 Yosemite
- AirPort Utility
- App Store
- Archive Utility
- Audio MIDI Setup
- Automator
- Bluetooth File Exchange
- Boot Camp Assistant
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Chess
- ColorSync Utility
- Console
- Contacts
- Dictionary
- Digital Color Meter
- Disk Utility
- DVD Player
- FaceTime
- Font Book
- Game Center
- GarageBand (may not be pre-installed)
- Grab
- Grapher
- iBooks (now Apple Books)
- iMovie (may not be pre-installed)
- iTunes
- Image Capture
- Ink (can only be accessed by connecting a graphics tablet to your Mac)
- Keychain Access
- Keynote (may not be pre-installed)
- Maps
- Messages
- Migration Assistant
- Notes
- Notification Center
- Numbers (may not be pre-installed)
- Pages (may not be pre-installed)
- Photo Booth
- Preview
- QuickTime Player
- Reminders
- Script Editor
- Stickies
- System Information
- Terminal
- TextEdit
- Time Machine
- VoiceOver Utility
- X11/XQuartz (may not be pre-installed)
Other
Spotlight is a more prominent part of the operating system; it now displays its search box in the center of the screen and can include results from online sources, including Bing, Maps, and Wikipedia.[8] Stock applications such as Safari and Mail have been updated.[13] In particular, many security features have been added to Safari, such as a custom history clearing option that lets users clear history, cookies, and other data from the previous hour, day, or two days. In addition, Apple added DuckDuckGo to its search offerings, a non-tracking search engine that doesn’t store users’ data.[14] Safari allows you to remotely close tabs from an iOS device.[15] Safari now supports browsing in private browsing mode with certain windows (as opposed to all the windows having to be either in or out of private browsing).[16]
The green "zoom" button on windows now has a different function in applications that support full-screen mode. Instead of simply enlarging the window, the button now enters full-screen mode, eliminating the full-screen button at the top-right corner of windows that has been present since Mac OS X Lion. However, holding the Option key (⌥) while clicking the zoom button or double-clicking on the window chrome continues to invoke the original behavior.[17]: 123–124
JavaScript for Automation (JXA) is the new system-wide support for scripting with JavaScript, built upon JavaScriptCore and the Open Scripting Architecture.[18] It features an Objective-C bridge which enables entire Cocoa applications to be programmed in JavaScript.[19]
Along with other framework changes, CloudKit was integrated in this release.[20] CloudKit functions as a Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) and is one method for app developers to integrate access to Apple’s iCloud servers into their apps.[21]
There is a "dark mode" in System Preferences which makes the Dock and menu bar darker.[15]
Beta testing
Apple initiated a new public beta program for OS X, a practice not seen with its operating systems since 2000's US$29.95 Mac OS X Public Beta, which had preceded the release of Mac OS X v10.0. Yosemite is part of the OS X Beta Seed Program, a public program that allows the first 1 million[22] users to download and test the Yosemite beta at no charge. Beta testers are required to acknowledge the potential risks involved with prerelease software, and sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).[23] The program began releasing Public Betas on July 24, 2014.[24] Six public betas of Yosemite were released.
Reception
On release, Yosemite received positive reviews, with users praising the simplified user interface. Programmer John Siracusa, who had reviewed every OS release, wrote for Ars Technica that "Yosemite is an aesthetic one-way valve... switching back to Mavericks after a week or two in Yosemite is like returning to iOS 6. Everything looks embarrassingly chunky, glossy, and gaudy."[25] Macworld's review generally praised Yosemite for its design, but noted that it had found WiFi network issues and that Continuity had proved unreliable.[26]
Criticism
Yosemite faced problems with network stability and the discoveryd
DNS program. Because of this, Apple replaced discoveryd
with the mDNSResponder
system (used in Mavericks) in 10.10.4.[27] Another notable bug experienced on Yosemite was the 'Unicode of death' problem, following a similar bug in 2013, in which a meaningless Arabic text string could crash applications using the system text-display APIs.[28] Some users who upgraded to Yosemite complained that the Finder fails to show the contents of folders.[29]
Software developers and users have argued that Apple's yearly release schedule and development practices have compromised stability, and mean that no version of OS X is truly recommendable for users prioritizing reliability over new user interface design and features.[30][31][32][33][34][35]
Spotlight on Yosemite by default reports the user's current location (at the city level) and all their search queries to Apple and third parties.[36][37][38][39] Reporting by Spotlight can be disabled by the user, although, even if this is done, the Safari web browser will continue to send search terms to Apple unless the function is separately disabled.
Release history
Version | Build | Date | Darwin version | Release notes | Standalone download |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10.10 | 14A389 | October 16, 2014 | 14.0 | Original Mac App Store release | — |
10.10.1 | 14B25 | November 17, 2014 | About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.1 Update | OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 Individual update | |
10.10.2 | 14C109 | January 27, 2015 | 14.1 | About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.2 Update | OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 Individual update OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 Combo update |
14C1510 | March 9, 2015 | About Security Update 2015-002 Yosemite | Security Update 2015-002 Yosemite | ||
14C2043 | Forked build for the Early 2015 MacBook Air | Security Update 2015-002 Yosemite (Early 2015 Mac) | |||
14C1514 | March 19, 2015 | About Security Update 2015-003 Yosemite | Security Update 2015-003 Yosemite | ||
14C2513 | Security Update 2015-003 Yosemite (Early 2015 Mac) | ||||
10.10.3 | 14D131 | April 8, 2015 | 14.3 | About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 Update | OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Individual update OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Combo update |
14D136 | April 16, 2015 | Supplemental Update Fixes issue with video driver issue that may prevent Mac from starting up when running certain apps that capture video |
OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Supplemental Update 1.0 | ||
10.10.4 | 14E46 | June 30, 2015 | 14.4 | About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.4 Update | OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 Individual update |
10.10.5 | 14F27 | August 13, 2015 | 14.5 | About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.5 Update | OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 Individual update OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 Combo update |
14F1021 | October 21, 2015 | About the security content of Security Update 2015-004 Yosemite | Security Update 2015-004 Yosemite | ||
14F1505 | November 12, 2015 | About the security content of Security Update 2015-005 Yosemite | Included in Security Update 2015-006 Yosemite | ||
14F1509 | December 11, 2015 | About the security content of Security Update 2015-006 Yosemite | Security Update 2015-006 Yosemite | ||
14F1605 | January 19, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-001 Yosemite | Security Update 2016-001 Yosemite | ||
14F1713 | March 21, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-002 Yosemite | Security Update 2016-002 Yosemite | ||
14F1808 | May 18, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-003 Yosemite | Security Update 2016-003 Yosemite | ||
14F1909 | July 18, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-004 Yosemite | Security Update 2016-004 Yosemite | ||
14F1912 | September 1, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-005 Yosemite | Included in Security Update 2016-006 Yosemite | ||
14F2009 | October 24, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-006 Yosemite | Security Update 2016-006 Yosemite | ||
14F2109 | December 13, 2016 | About the security content of Security Update 2016-007 Yosemite | Security Update 2016-007 Yosemite | ||
14F2315 | March 27, 2017 | About the security content of Security Update 2017-001 Yosemite | Security Update 2017-001 Yosemite | ||
14F2411 | May 15, 2017 | About the security content of Security Update 2017-002 Yosemite | Security Update 2017-002 Yosemite | ||
14F2511 | July 19, 2017 | About the security content of Security Update 2017-003 Yosemite | Security Update 2017-003 Yosemite |
Timeline of Macintosh operating systems
Timeline of Mac operating systems |
---|
![]() |
References
- "OS X version 10.10 Yosemite on Intel-based Mac computers". The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
- "OS X Yosemite". Mac App Store. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
- iTunes – Apple
- "Apple – OS X Yosemite – Overview". Apple Inc. (US). Archived from the original on July 16, 2013.
OS X Yosemite. Coming this fall.
- "PSA: The iDevices and Macs that will support iOS 8 and OS X 10.10". Ars Technica. June 2, 2014. Archived from the original on June 3, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
- "OS X Yosemite: supported devices for Handoff, Instant Hotspot, Phone Calling, SMS, and AirDrop". Apple. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
- "OS X Yosemite – Design". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015.
- "OS X Yosemite: Apple's latest desktop OS works even better with your iPhone". Engadget. Archived from the original on June 3, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
- "OS X Yosemite unveiled at WWDC, features big UI overhaul". Ars Technica. June 2, 2014. Archived from the original on June 3, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
- "Apple Changes OS X's Main Font For The First Time Ever". Fast Co Design. June 2, 2014. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
- "OS X Yosemite – Mac + iOS Continuity". Apple. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
- Gibbs, Samuel (April 16, 2015). "Upgrading from iPhoto or Aperture to Apple's Photos? Read this". The Guardian. London. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
- "OS X Yosemite revealed: Translucent windows, cross-platform Continuity, and HTML 5 DRM come to the Mac". ExtremeTech. Archived from the original on June 3, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
- John Patrick Pullen (October 21, 2014). "These Are the 5 Coolest Features of OS X Yosemite". Time Inc. Archived from the original on December 31, 2014.
- Klosowski, Thorin. "Top 10 Hidden Features of OS X Yosemite". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on January 4, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
- "OS X Yosemite: Get to know the new, slimmed-down Safari". Macworld. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
- "Adapting your app to the new UI of OS X Yosemite" (PDF). Apple Inc. June 3, 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- "JavaScript for Automation". MacStories. Archived from the original on September 19, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
- "JavaScript for Automation Release Notes". Apple, Inc. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
- "OS X Yosemite v10.10 Developer Library". Apple Developer Library. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
- "iCloud for Developers". Apple Developer. Apple. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
- "OS X Beta Program". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on July 1, 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
- "OS X Beta Program Frequently Asked Questions". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
- "Apple to release first public beta of OS X Yosemite on Thursday". AppleInsider. AppleInsider. July 23, 2014. Archived from the original on July 27, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
- Siracusa, John (October 16, 2014). "Yosemite review". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017.
- Haslam, Karen. "Yosemite review". Macworld. Archived from the original on August 19, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
- "Latest OS X beta ditches buggy discoveryd DNS service, replaced with mDNSResponder". Apple Insider. Archived from the original on August 24, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
- Thomson, Iain. "That EVIL TEXT that will CRASH your iPhone: We pop the hood". The Register. Archived from the original on August 22, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
- Gewirtz, David (December 2, 2014). "When Yosemite went wonky: Fixing an OS X systems failure". ZD Net. Archived from the original on March 12, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
- Arment, Marco (January 4, 2015). "Apple has lost the functional high ground". marco.org. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Hockenberry, Craig (January 6, 2015). "Death by a thousand cuts". Furbo.org. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Jalkut, Daniel (January 5, 2015). "The functional high ground". bitsplitting.org. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Gruber, John (January 5, 2015). "Functional high ground". daringfireball.net. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Snell, Jason (January 5, 2015). "Apple and software quality". sixcolors.com. Archived from the original on January 15, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- English, Guy (January 5, 2015). "We Don't Need". kickingbear.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- "Fix Mac OS X Yosemite initiative". Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- Soltani, Ashkan; Timberg, Craig (October 20, 2014). "Apple's Mac computers can automatically collect your location information". Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
- Fox-Brewster, Thomas (October 20, 2014). "Spotlight: Privacy Advocates Furious As Apple Feature Siphons Off Location Data of Yosemite And iOS 8 Users". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
- Leyden, John (October 20, 2014). "FYI: OS X Yosemite's Spotlight tells Apple EVERYTHING you're looking for". The Register. Archived from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
External links
- Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived January 2, 2015)
- OS X Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review