MacOS Sierra

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OVERKILL

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Downloading this onto my desktop before putting it on my work laptop, hadn't seen a thread here about it yet. Anybody using it? Notice any improvements/deficiencies?
 
Yeah I have it on all our devices now, two MacBooks and a Mac Mini. It seems a lot like El Capitan except for having Siri. Other than that I'm hard pressed to notice anything different.

No doubt there is some killer new feature I'm missing out on
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Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Downloading this onto my desktop before putting it on my work laptop, hadn't seen a thread here about it yet. Anybody using it? Notice any improvements/deficiencies?


Be wary it breaks some VPN software corporations use. It broke access to a major places we access.
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Downloading this onto my desktop before putting it on my work laptop, hadn't seen a thread here about it yet. Anybody using it? Notice any improvements/deficiencies?


Be wary it breaks some VPN software corporations use. It broke access to a major places we access.


We use Cisco AnyConnect.
 
I was concerned about fonts. I wasn't keen on the new font they used in El Capitain.
 
I've had it since DP1(I have a developer account). As you said, it superficially isn't much different from El Capitan. Appearance wise it's basically the same aside-of course-from the default wallpaper and the Siri button in the menu bar.

It officially obsolesced some of my previous test machines(specific the early '08 MBP and mid-'09 Macbook) although runs on both with a hack. I have the golden master installed on my '10 unibody Macbook(officially supported), and it's working fine.

I'm generally at least one OS behind on my main computers-specifically my "do everything" MBP and my Mac Pro at work. The Mac Pro is completely out for Sierra(missing some instruction sets necessary), although the MBP will run it fine and has it installed on a second partition.
 
I installed it on my Mac Pro and it seems significantly snappier than El Capitan. This machine always, despite having 16GB of RAM and an SSD, had an issue with the pinwheel popping up periodically. That appears to have vanished.
 
I broke my ".1" rule and finally conceded to installing it on my main Macbook Pro(9,1) last night. So far, so good.

As I've said since DP1, it's superficially not a lot different from El Capitan. I'm still using some hold-over programs from Mavericks and Yosemite, including iPhoto and Disk Utility. Aside from that, I have no complaints.

I played with Siri a little bit in DP1, but IMO it falls into more of a gimmick on the computer. I'm not anti-Siri in general-in fact I'm a regular user on my phone-I just haven't seen a huge value in having it on the computer. If I want to open a program or look up something on the internet, it's just about as fast for me to call up spotlight or a web browser and type what I'm looking for.

BTW, this particular MBP is the mid-2012 non-Retina version. It has a 2.3ghz i7, 16gb of RAM, and a 1TB Samsung Evo 850. It's been a while since I've seen a beachball(or a wristwatch for that matter, which some programs still use).

I found Sierra DP3 or so unusable on my Macbook(Unibody, 2010) with 2gb of RAM, but 8gb perked it up considerably. It's pleasantly snappy even with the old 5400rpm platter.
 
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
I broke my ".1" rule and finally conceded to installing it on my main Macbook Pro(9,1) last night. So far, so good.

As I've said since DP1, it's superficially not a lot different from El Capitan. I'm still using some hold-over programs from Mavericks and Yosemite, including iPhoto and Disk Utility. Aside from that, I have no complaints.

I played with Siri a little bit in DP1, but IMO it falls into more of a gimmick on the computer. I'm not anti-Siri in general-in fact I'm a regular user on my phone-I just haven't seen a huge value in having it on the computer. If I want to open a program or look up something on the internet, it's just about as fast for me to call up spotlight or a web browser and type what I'm looking for.

BTW, this particular MBP is the mid-2012 non-Retina version. It has a 2.3ghz i7, 16gb of RAM, and a 1TB Samsung Evo 850. It's been a while since I've seen a beachball(or a wristwatch for that matter, which some programs still use).

I found Sierra DP3 or so unusable on my Macbook(Unibody, 2010) with 2gb of RAM, but 8gb perked it up considerably. It's pleasantly snappy even with the old 5400rpm platter.


My MBP is a 2014 but my desktop (Mac Pro) is a mid 2010 with the 2.8Ghz Xeon quad core, 16GB of RAM and a few different hard drives, the main drive being a 480GB SSD. I can't recall what OS the pinwheeling started with, but it has basically disappeared now with Sierra, which was nice.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
I broke my ".1" rule and finally conceded to installing it on my main Macbook Pro(9,1) last night. So far, so good.

As I've said since DP1, it's superficially not a lot different from El Capitan. I'm still using some hold-over programs from Mavericks and Yosemite, including iPhoto and Disk Utility. Aside from that, I have no complaints.

I played with Siri a little bit in DP1, but IMO it falls into more of a gimmick on the computer. I'm not anti-Siri in general-in fact I'm a regular user on my phone-I just haven't seen a huge value in having it on the computer. If I want to open a program or look up something on the internet, it's just about as fast for me to call up spotlight or a web browser and type what I'm looking for.

BTW, this particular MBP is the mid-2012 non-Retina version. It has a 2.3ghz i7, 16gb of RAM, and a 1TB Samsung Evo 850. It's been a while since I've seen a beachball(or a wristwatch for that matter, which some programs still use).

I found Sierra DP3 or so unusable on my Macbook(Unibody, 2010) with 2gb of RAM, but 8gb perked it up considerably. It's pleasantly snappy even with the old 5400rpm platter.


My MBP is a 2014 but my desktop (Mac Pro) is a mid 2010 with the 2.8Ghz Xeon quad core, 16GB of RAM and a few different hard drives, the main drive being a 480GB SSD. I can't recall what OS the pinwheeling started with, but it has basically disappeared now with Sierra, which was nice.


Hmm, interesting that you saw beach balling frequently on a 4,1 MP.

My one and only Mac Pro is the original 2006 model(1,1) although it technically is a 2,1 due to the processors installed in it. I fitted a pair of 2.6ghz Quad Core Xeons(X5355) to replace the original dual-duals(X5155, 2.6ghz), which is what makes it a 2,1. It has 16gb of RAM, a Geforce 8800 from MacVidCards, and a 256gb SSD as the main drive. Of course, I also have the drive bays stuffed full on it-they're too alluring to leave empty.

That computer can run El Capitan and probably do so well, although I've kept it on Mavericks since the upgrade isn't straight forward. I can't go to Sierra since the processors don't support the full instruction set. Aside from number of course(few folks see any real world benefit past 4 cores any way) your machine is very much superior to mine.

In any case, I don't know when I last saw a beach ball or wristwatch on it. Most folks find it hard to believe that it's 10 years old.

I SHOULD upgrade it to El Capitan, but haven't due to the work involved and wanting to minimize down time. The Yosemite and later aesthetics are startnig to grow on me, and I also like being able to send and receive SMS messages through the Messages app.
 
Yeah, I found it bizarre too, and it would happen with tasks that should not be taxing at all on the system
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I was entertaining the idea of doing a CPU upgrade on this rig, but it doesn't really seem to make sense unless I end up retiring an old server or workstation and the CPU's fall in my lap. Buying them, they are still expensive.
 
One advantage, if you will, of "obsolete" but still usable equipment is that upgrades do tend to be in expensive, albeit with exceptions.

A matched set of X5355s was about $40. If you want the best in that architecture, you get X5365s. Those really are the same specs(cache, etc) but are clocked higher(3ghz). They run around $100 for a matched set.

I think that people have taken Mac Pro 1,1s up to 64gb of RAM, or maybe even higher. I can't keep up. In general, registered DDR2 RAM is inexpensive since most of it is obsolete server pulls. Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 RAM runs VERY hot though, and the "correct" RAM has big heatsinks to help with this. All registered RAM I've seen does at least have heat spreaders, but the MP RAM has finned heatsinks that are about an inch wide at the top. I think I paid $80 for 12gb-if I'd bought "regular" registered RAM that amount of money probably would have bought at least 32gb. Granted, it probably would be okay since higher cap sticks are newer and run cooler.

Also, I don't know if you've looked at the price of DDR2 laptop RAM. 2gb sticks are cheap, while 4gb sticks are incredibly expensive. I actually gave away an MBP several months ago that I'd forgotten had a 4gb stick in it
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. I've bought 4gb kits(2x2gb) for around $25, while 4gb sticks tend to run $40 each.

I actually went a bit nuts a few months ago when I found a seller on Ebay selling 128mb sticks of 5V 168 pin 4K EDO RAM(used in a lot of pre-G3 PCI PowerMacs). OWC had previously stocked them at $11 each, but recently raised their price to $20. I suspect they ran out of stock, and that was the "new" price. In any case, this particular seller had a lot of it, and I was able to buy 30 sticks at $7 each. Having 8 matched sticks in my G4-upgraded 8600 made OS X stable(it hadn't been previously) and was the last "piece of the puzzle" I needed to install Leopard on it. I also maxed out my 9600 at 1.5gb-with two 200mhz 604es it runs Photoshop 6 at amazing speeds
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That's awesome! My older Mac hardware consists of an old G3 Macbook, a couple of iMac's (the first LCD one and the original bubble style one in red) as well as an original Mac Plus which I believe still works but I haven't had on in a while. Sounds like you have a far more useful collection
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Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
That's awesome! My older Mac hardware consists of an old G3 Macbook, a couple of iMac's (the first LCD one and the original bubble style one in red) as well as an original Mac Plus which I believe still works but I haven't had on in a while. Sounds like you have a far more useful collection
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I have two many hobbies, but a few years ago I took an interest in old Macs and let's just say that being single and living alone it hasn't taken me too long to assemble a collection esp. given the prices on a lot of this stuff.

My oldest piece is a 512Ke, although I'm looking for a "real" 128K(marked Macintosh on the back and the original logic board design). The 512Ke I have has been upgraded to 1mb of RAM. These upgrades weren't uncommon at the time, and since the RAM is a collection of DIPPs the upgrade is done by basically "piggybacking" another set of DIMMs onto the existing ones. It's sort of crude looking, but works fine. I also have a working HD20, which is something of a rare item. The 512Ke and HD20 are in my office. I have them connected to several other old Macs via a Localtalk network, and can print from any of them to a Personal Laserwriter 360.

I've managed to put together an example of nearly every variant with a "G" series processor from the original "Kanga" Powerbook(a 3400c with a G3 grafted in-a very short production item) up to the G5 Quad and last generation Powerbooks. The only ones I'm missing are the Xserve G4 and an iMac G5. To really fill it out, I'm missing several iMac G3 colors along with Clamshell G3 colors. I went nuts a few months back on buying Digital Audio G4s, and have every factory processor configuration(466, 533, dual 533, 667, and 733). I also collect processor upgrades and rare video cards. I'm missing a few video cards and trying to find all the processor upgrades would be an exercise in frustration but I do have some rare examples of both. I also have some computers that have been upgraded to the gills, like a Digital Audio G4 with a 2ghz 7448 processor and SATA hard drives and a beige G3 minitower with a 1ghz G4 and a bunch of other upgrades.

I'm working on buying a couple of Twentieth Anniversary Macs(TAMs), which honestly are pretty crummy computers but I can't get around the "cool" factor of them. Basically they're internally a PowerMac 6500-a low end computer-with a display from a Powerbook 3400C.

Other recent interesting finds/purchases were a first generation Macbook Air(what a terrible computer) and an XServe RAID. I have the correct fibre channel card on the way for the RAID, but need to load it up with 14 more-or-less matching ATA hard drives. That's going to cost a small fortune. Even so, it should make the dual 2.7 G5 I'm using absolutely scream.

I'm going to keep using the 15" 2012 MBP for as long as I can. It has the high resolution anti-glare(matte) screen, which is something Apple no longer offers. I've had plenty of interesting looks over the computer from people who "know Macs" since it's a Macbook Pro(and a large one compared to the current line-up at that) with a silver bezel like a Macbook Air. Aside from that, I also have a dual 1ghz Quicksilver that sees regular use along with a heavily upgraded Cube and a 1ghz Titanium Powerbook.
 
That is a bloody awesome collection!!!!!
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I feel ashamed of my G4 and G3 iMac's, LOL!

What OS's are you running on hardware that vintage?
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
That is a bloody awesome collection!!!!!
thumbsup2.gif
I feel ashamed of my G4 and G3 iMac's, LOL!

What OS's are you running on hardware that vintage?


Thanks!

I run System 6 on a lot of my early 68K stuff, while later stuff with enough system resources gets either System 7 or OS 7.6. I do have system disks for System 1-5, and boot them just for the heck of it every once in a while.

I run either OS 8.6 or 9.2.2 on PowerPC computers from the G3 era and earlier. I don't like OS 8/8.1, so tend to avoid it. 8.5.5 is a really solid OS, but 8.6 adds USB mass storage support. I find that 9.x can bog down some low resource 601 and 603 processors, especially in laptops. My 8600 and 9600 are both running 9.2.2.

Since I started using Macs in the OS X era(really the Intel era) I also have fun pushing the limits of hardware on OS X. A friend of mine modified the Tiger(10.4) kernel and I've been able to run it on 604e based systems(specifically the 8600 and 9600). It's not really a usable OS, though, as it's glacially slow on low-spec computers. Also, interestingly enough, it doesn't even see the second processor in my 9600. I do have either Tiger and/or Leopard installed on almost everything that will run it, even if the computer primarily runs OS 9.

I have a few special projects that are moving along at a slow pace. I have a bunch of G4-upgraded G3s, and the G4 makes it theoretically possible to run Leopard on them. I have a modified install(from the same friend who re-wrote the Tiger kernel) that will plug in and boot on beige G3s along with B&W G3s as long as they have some sort of G4. Unfortunately, he and I are still tinkering with getting it to work on my G4-upgraded 8600.

In addition, I've recently procured a G4 upgrade for a Pismo Powerbook G3, and once I get some other kinks ironed out in the computer(I need to order more RAM and will probably put in a 7200rpm HDD) I'm going to install Leopard. Interestingly enough, the Pismo can work with a bone-stock Leopard install.

As OS X goes on PPC, I stick to Tiger and Leopard. Leopard maintains the best software support, although Tiger is lighter and there's a decent amount of software for it. I rarely use versions of OS X older than Tiger-in many cases they run slower, have worse software support, and anything that can run OS X at all can be made to run Tiger. With that said, I do have one tower(a dual 500 Gigabit Ethernet) that has every version of OS X from Public Beta to 10.5 installed. I have another B&W G3 tower with all the Developer Previews along with Rhapsody.
 
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