Apple OS X Yosemite 10.10 - First Impressions

Greetings, visitors to this small corner of the interwebs. Today I installed OS X Yosemite (Beta). Now, prior to Mavericks, I had version 10.7 "Lion" installed on my 2011 MBA. I skipped 10.8, as it didn't seem worth the 30 bucks. When Apple released Mavericks as a free update to the OS, I thought that was a smart move. I upgraded right away. The MacBook Air is a great little laptop for staying connected, and getting stuff done, and having security and feature updates for free is a smooth move by Apple.

Anyway, on to Yosemite. Stumbled upon the Beta, and was super stoked to give it a try. Some work and vacation later, I get around to installing it. Let's give it go. First things first, some disclaimers:

• I only have one iDevice. A lot of the heavily touted features in OS X Yosemite are about a seamless integration and connectedness of your iPhone, iPad, all of your Macs, etc. It's just the MacBook Air for me. I use it as a primary or secondary computer, depending on which mood strikes me that week. I live and work in a Windows and Android ecosystem, and need Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10 to be all it can be for the MBA as a single iDevice.
• I switch computers. A lot. I've got a Windows laptop that I use for work. There's the Windows desktop which I use for games and general computing at home. I'll be on the lookout for big bang-for-the-buck features, game-changers, and the things that keep me coming back. Sometimes it's the little things. The MBA is my on-the-go, and I'm going to look at how Yosemite can make it the go-to.

Installation

Installation went pretty smoothly. I had received the Beta invitation email a little over a week ago. I followed the link right away, from a Windows desktop. I like that there were instructions of what to expect: I would need to sign in to the App Store from the MBA, and it would appear in Updates. Great.

I was a little surprised when I finally got connected, opened the App Store, and didn't see the Beta in the available updates. Updated to 10.9.4 just to make sure that wasn't at play. OK. I opened the email again, and was glad there were no hiccups with returning to the Beta portal. When I visited it this time, either I read more closely, or the experience changed because I was using Safari on the MBA. I got a code to enter, and was able to click it, and automatically open the App Store. That was kind of cool. Yosemite downloaded as an "Install OS X Yosemite" package, similar to the Mavericks install. I ignored a few of the warnings, such as making a Time Machine backup, but I would not encourage others to do the same without weighing your risks on your own. Prior to installing I had 9.5 GB when 8 are recommended. Meh, I removed the Bootcamp partition (I had Win 8 dual installed), and resized System to 120.99 GB. Verify Disk, and repair it, if necessary. I don't know if failing to do so would have affected installation, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to start out on the right foot. OK, ready to rock and roll.

The installation appeared to go pretty quickly. I wasn't sure how long it would take to complete altogether, as there were indications of time remaining.

Annoyance #1:  In the installation, I would have appreciated a more forthcoming and honest representation of what to expect, especially with respect to time and progress. The streamlined speed of the install also seemed to translate to streamlined UI, and apparently that meant little feedback. Also, I felt a little duped: there were about four or five progress bars, which each reached full (100%) in their own time – some slower, some more quickly. But all-in-all, it was about 2 minutes, a restart, and 10-15 minutes more, before we were ready to go.

First Looks

The new "flatter" look is definitely very noticeable. If this were your first Mac, it would probably be just another new thing about Mac. Coming from Mavericks, yeah, it's different, but it's not overbearing. It gets comfortable quickly. The Finder icon is a nice throwback. Cute.

Translucency – One of the things that keeps me coming back to Mac is Exposé. Yosemite added some flair here. I honestly can't remember if the background image itself was blurred or not in Mavericks, but it's welcome here. Also, the hard grey background of the desktop previews is replaced by a subtle frost over the blurred background. The new design choices make the screen feel bigger when using Exposé, and overall throughout the OS, the translucent touches direct my focus to the things I care about most.

More Later.

I'm sure I'll be having opinions on many parts of the refreshed OS. What would you like to see? Safari? Notifications? I'm looking forward to finding out if I'm an outlier amongst evangelists anywhere. Stay tuned, and please comment below!