The Best Operating System Gets Even Better

The most enjoyable aspect of being a Mac person is using OS X. When I got my first Mac in 2006 it came with OS X 10.3 (Tiger). It was a bit of a homecoming for me. In the late 80s my career as a developer started when VMS and HPUX were dominant operating systems on professional workstations and mini computers used by petrochemical companies for supervisory control and advanced business systems. I wrote many custom applications in ANSI C for both platforms. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) machines ran their own operating system called VMS. Hewlett Packard workstations and minis ran a flavor of UNIX, HPUX (HP UNIX). C was the programming language of choice because of its portability. If a programmer strictly adhered to the ANSI C standard, source code would compile and link on either platform. Well, any platform for that matter. I spent my first five years as a developer working on these platforms before Windows NT came along and virtually swept everything else aside. Like most people in my field, I spent the next 15 years in Microsoft hell. So, when I got my first Mac running UNIX-based OS X, it felt like I was re-kindling an old friendship.

El Capitan (OS X 10.11) is Apple’s latest iteration of what it calls “The world’s most advanced desktop operating system”. As you might expect, I tend to agree with them. You see, I’ve spent a large percentage of my professional life chained to Microsoft. I hold a MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certification and have developed software, built and administered data centers and managed an IT department for a Fortune 500 company for ten years, all with Windows technology. The day I unboxed my first MacBook Pro was what I imagine being released from prison would feel like. The all aluminum Mac wasn’t only slimmer and sleeker than the Dell machines I was used to, but OS X was such an elegant operating system it completely astonished and even confused me a bit at first. I think years of immersion in the Windows world made me mildly retarded. I’m serious. Fighting Windows day in and day out trains your brain in convoluted ways. When I moved to the Mac I had to re-train myself to think logically. That’s because unlike Windows, the simplest way you can imagine doing something is usually the correct way in OS X. My #1 tip for switchers: Don’t overthink it!

OK, now that I’ve spent too much time meandering down Memory Lane, let’s get back to my original point, shall we? First, El Capitan is absolutely free. Apple hasn’t charged for OS X since it released Mountain Lion (10.8) in 2012. Even then they only charged a paltry $19. The two previous releases were only $29. To find pricing comparable to Windows you have to go back to 2009 when Apple charged “full price” ($129) for Leopard (10.6) which cost about the same as a “Home” version of Microsoft’s OS. The big differentiator: OS X only sells one version and it is complete and full featured. If you want to turn a Mac into a server, you simply buy the Server app for $19. OS X has got to be the best software value on the planet. True, you need a Mac to run it legally, but still. Also, Apple tends to support older hardware than Microsoft. I just loaded El Capitan on a 2009 Core2 Duo MacBook Pro and it runs great. I don’t have any solid data to support this, but I think it runs better than Yosemite did. It just feels snappier. That may be due to OS X’s inclusion of Metal, their technology that better utilizes the graphics processor.

Next, Mission Control is greatly improved. You call it up with a four-finger swipe up or a hot corner and every window you have open arranges itself neatly on your screen with a list of your desktops (if you use multiple desktops) across the top. You click on the window you want to use to bring it to the fore or drag windows up top to another desktop to organize them.

While we’re talking about window management, El Capitan has a new feature called “Split View” which basically lets you run two apps in full screen mode side-by-side. I find this very handy. In fact, I’m using it now to write this. I have Word open on the right with Safari on the left. I have a few pages tabbed in Safari for reference while composing this masterful diatribe. To run two apps in Split View you simply click the first app’s green “Traffic Light” to go full screen, open Mission Control and drag the second app to the first app’s desktop. Voila! The centerline between these two apps can be dragged horizontally to give either app more screen real estate. If you ever lose track of your cursor with all this stuff on the screen (or anytime for that matter), El Capitan will temporarily make it about ten times bigger with a simple shake of your mouse or wiggle of your finger on the trackpad.

One of the biggest improvements in El Capitan is Spotlight. I stopped using Quicksilver and Alfred a couple of versions ago with Spotlight’s transformative improvements in Mavericks. Basically, all I ever used either for was a launcher. Spotlight started doing that just fine in 10.9. Now Apple has taken Spotlight to a whole new level by including search results for weather, stocks, web video and transit information. They’ve also added a Siri-like capability of natural language queries like, “Spreadsheets I worked on yesterday containing inflatable girls and beer kegs”. I know these third-party apps like Alfred and LaunchBar do tons more, but I never used them like that. Spotlight does everything I need and Apple looks intent on continually improving it. Besides, it’s built-in to OS X and it’s free. Good ‘nuf!

Mail also has a couple of nice additions. The one I like best is the ability to trash messages with a two-finger swipe to the left or mark it as unread (or read) with the same motion to the right. Mail is also better at recognizing data within email messages like, “let’s go fishing at 4 tomorrow”. Clicking that phrase gives you the option to add it to your calendar. Mail has always been good at recognizing signatures within a message and giving you the option to add that person to your address book, but now it even recognizes when someone’s email address has changed and gives you the option to update that contact.

Notes has finally been transformed into something useful. Well, maybe that is a bit harsh. Anyone who follows me knows what a complete Evernote freak I am. For several years, Evernote has given me the ability to clip and save snippets from Web sites, attach documents and pictures to notes, create multiple notebooks, sync them across all my devices and a ton more. Now, Apple has improved Notes so much it's like an “Evernote Lite” by adding some of Evernote’s features. It isn’t near enough to make me consider switching, but the new Notes will probably be good enough for 90% of users. Like everything else in El Capitan, it’s completely free.

Safari also gets some really nice updates. First is a new feature called “pinning” tabs. Any open tab can be pinned which means it gets a miniature tab on the left side of the tab bar and stays there until you remove it. Every time you open Safari all your pinned tabs are loaded and available for instant viewing. This is handy for frequently accessed sites like an RSS aggregator or reference site like Wikipedia that you use often. To pin a page you simply right-click (<CTRL-click>) a page’s tab and select “Pin Tab”. To remove it you do the same and select “Unpin Tab”. Also new is Safari’s ability to AirPlay web video without sharing your whole screen. This makes it much easier to squirt YouTube, Vimeo and other HTML5 compatible vids to your Apple TV or other AirPlay capable device. Another nice new feature is Safari’s ability to mute audio from any or all tabs.

Maps is getting public transit info. Now you can get directions using mass transit in selected cities. There’s a dozen or so in the US and Canada including San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Toronto with a promise from Apple of many more to come. Interestingly, there’s over 300 cities in China who’s public transit is included. Why? Well, it’s the power of communism I guess. Since virtually all transit in China is state owned and operated, the data interfaces for all cities is identical, making it a much simpler coding effort for the Map guys at Apple. In North America and Europe, inclusion of a city’s transit information is a “one-at-a-time” effort. Since transit systems are built, owned and operated by a wide variety of companies and municipalities, virtually none of the systems are the same.

One thing you’ll notice right away when you first boot El Capitan is the new system font. Apple has changed it from Helvetica Neue to San Francisco, the same font as the Apple Watch. It is, in a word, beautiful. It’s amazing how such a simple change can transform the look of the entire Mac. There’s also a few more eye candy-type changes. The spinning “Beach ball of Death” is bigger and flatter in keeping with other aesthetic changes. Disk Utility gets a complete makeover to look a lot like the About This Mac app though it’s functionality appears not to have changed. There’s also a new color picker with animated crayons for changing font colors and the like.

I’m sure there’s tons more stuff I’ve yet to discover both visible and “under the hood”, but the best part of El Capitan is its roots. UNIX is superior to any technology Microsoft has ever employed. It is designed for security and stability from the ground up. Apple has taken this UNIX foundation and built a stable, beautiful, feature-rich operating system on top of it. The end result for us lucky (smart) Mac users is we get to use the “worlds most advanced desktop operating system”. Every year Apple improves the technology and releases a version that makes us feel like we’re using a new computer again…

…for free!

Update on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 1:46PM by Joseph Kelley

My speculation about the use of Metal on my 2009 MBP was erroneous. I've since learned that only Macs built since 2012 can take advantage of this tech. But what I said about my MBP feeling "snappier" is still true nonetheless.