What’s Inside Every New OS X Version

There once was a day when upgrading to a new version of OS X on a Mac was a special event which meant standing in long lines, forking over $100 or so to Apple and walking away with the latest and greatest (and maybe a t-shirt if you were an early bird in line).

Those days are gone. Today, upgrading from one version of OS X Whatever to another OS X version is about as simple as possible unless Apple did it to your Mac automatically. Click on the Mac App Store, download the latest version, click to install, grab a bite to eat, come back later and it’s all done. Except for one thing.

Who. Has. Bugs.

Just between you, me, and anyone in line at Starbucks, I’m impressed that computers even work at all. Really. These are complex beasts that make my first Sinclair feel like an overpriced calculator. Today an iPhone has as much computing power as an entry-level Mac. Beasts, indeed.

Since putting OS X on our Macs way back in the day, back so far that Apple charged customers for the privilege of using a beta, new versions, upgrades, or even some updates came with bugs (with bug being defined as something that goes wrong with an app or so when it should not).

Depending upon what you read, either OS X El Capitan is the most stable, secure, and reliable OS X version ever, or it’s the one with the most bugs. Ever. Thousands of Apple customers have gone online to decry the problems they’re having with bugs on El Capitan.

The so-called bugs range from an inability to install OS X El Capitan all the way to crashes with various connected hardware or apps which haven’t been updated to handle the Mac’s latest and greatest.

Honestly, I’m not sure which planet those folks are from, but despite owning half a dozen Macs from new to old (all of which upgraded OK to El Capitan), our upgrades have gone surprisingly well. That’s with dual iMacs, dual MacBook Pros, a new MacBook, and an aging Mac mini. To be honest, El Capitan runs a bit slowly on the oldest iMac and Mac mini, but that’s been the case with every OS X upgrade forever. Old runs slow.

Tech guru writer Adrian Kingsley-Hughes:

While the Apple faithful want users to focus on the benefits of upgrading to El Capitan, what I’m seeing is the rockiest, most buggy OS X release I can ever remember, and the first time since OS X has been available for download that I’ve not upgraded all my systems on day one.

What’s interesting with that comment is that it’s not reflective of our experiences or those of the Mac360 staff. My informal survey of friends, family, co-workers, and colleagues at Mac360 indicate El Capitan’s installation and usage has gone smoothly for everyone. A few third party apps were not upgraded immediately upon El Capitan’s release and some did not work at all, while others had a problem or two, but subsequent upgrades to those apps cleared up most of the issues.

The question I ask is simple. ‘How is it that technology gurus who write for major online publications and get pre-release beta versions to tinker around with, have problems?‘

Kinglsey-Hughes again:

Every new operating system has its bugs, but El Capitan seems to have more than its fair share of show-stopping bugs, so much so that I’ve resisted installing it yet on any of my mission-critical systems (and regular readers will know that I’m not known for being cautious).

Whenever I hear or read of someone who has problems with an upgrade what I seldom hear or read is anything about their Macs. These are the kinds of questions which technical support personnel want to know when a problem arises.

• Which Mac model?
• How much RAM?
• How much free storage?
• Which applications are installed?
• What devices are connected to the Mac?
• What happened?
• What was the error message?

The answers to those kinds of questions are seldom provided in Apple’s support forums and even technology guru-wannabes like Kingsley-Hughes do not provide specifics. I’m not saying there are no bugs in OS X El Capitan. Bugs are the nature of software, especially new versions of anything used by tens of millions of Mac users. Maybe it’s human nature. If the bugs happen to you, then the software is flawed. If it happens to your neighbor, but not to you, then it’s a good upgrade and ‘Sorry you’re having problems, buddy.’

It’s been many years since I waited a version or two to install a new upgrade to OS X, though the delay was implemented often when I was a Windows user. And to be fair about it all, Windows 10, arguably one of the better Windows upgrades in a decade or two, also has a share of problems.