OS X Yosemite


OS X Yosemite is the eleventh major release of OS X, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.
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. 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 are able to run Yosemite as the two operating systems have the same requirements. However, to take full advantage of the Handoff feature, additional minimum system requirements include a Mac with Bluetooth LE. As with Mavericks and Mountain Lion, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of available storage, and OS X 10.6.8 or later are required.
These are the models that are compatible with OS X Yosemite :
These are the models that support new features such as Handoff, Instant Hotspot as well as AirDrop between Mac computers and iOS devices:

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.
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. 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 services and platforms such as iOS and iCloud. 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 directly into their desktop equivalent.

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. 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. It uses iCloud Photo Library to upload all the user's photos across their devices.

Other

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. Stock applications such as Safari and Mail have been updated. 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. Safari allows you to remotely close tabs from an iOS device. Safari now supports browsing in private browsing mode with certain windows.
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.
JavaScript for Automation is the new system-wide support for scripting with JavaScript, built upon JavaScriptCore and the Open Scripting Architecture. It features an Objective-C bridge which enables entire Cocoa applications to be programmed in JavaScript.
Along with other framework changes, CloudKit was integrated in this release. CloudKit functions as a Mobile Backend as a Service and is one method for app developers to integrate access to Apple’s iCloud servers into their apps.
There is a "dark mode" in System Preferences which makes the Dock and menu bar darker.

Beta testing

Apple initiated a new public beta program for OS X, a practice not seen with its operating systems since 2000's 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 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. The program began releasing Public Betas on July 24, 2014. Six public betas of Yosemite were released.

Release history

VersionBuildDateOS nameNotesStandalone download
10.1014A389October 16, 2014Darwin 14.0Original Mac App Store release
10.10.114B25November 17, 2014Darwin 14.0About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.1 Update
10.10.214C109January 27, 2015Darwin 14.1About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.2 Update
10.10.214C1510March 9, 2015Darwin 14.1About Security Update 2015-002 Yosemite
10.10.214C1514March 19, 2015Darwin 14.1About Security Update 2015-003 Yosemite
10.10.214C2043March 10, 2015Darwin 14.1Security Update 2015-003
Shipped with Early 2015 MacBook Air – Forked build		rowspan=2
10.10.214C2513March 20, 2015Darwin 14.1Security Update 2015-003
Shipped with Early 2015 MacBook Air – Forked build		-
10.10.314D131April 8, 2015Darwin 14.3About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 Update
This release unified the previously forked build for the early 2015 MacBook Air
10.10.314D136April 16, 2015Darwin 14.3Supplemental Update
Fixes issue with video driver issue that may prevent Mac from starting up when running certain apps that capture video
10.10.414E46June 30, 2015Darwin 14.4About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.4 Update
10.10.514F27August 13, 2015Darwin 14.5About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.5 Update
10.10.514F1021October 21, 2015Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2015-004 Yosemite
10.10.514F1505November 12, 2015Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2015-005 YosemiteIncluded in Security Update 2015-006 Yosemite
10.10.514F1509December 11, 2015Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2015-006 Yosemite
10.10.514F1605January 19, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-001 Yosemite
10.10.514F1713March 21, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-002 Yosemite
10.10.514F1808May 18, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-003 Yosemite
10.10.514F1909July 18, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-004 Yosemite
10.10.514F1912September 1, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-005 YosemiteIncluded in Security Update 2016-006 Yosemite
10.10.514F2009October 24, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-006 Yosemite
10.10.514F2109December 13, 2016Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2016-007 Yosemite
10.10.514F2315March 27, 2017Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2017-001 Yosemite
10.10.514F2411May 15, 2017Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2017-002 Yosemite
10.10.514F2511July 19, 2017Darwin 14.5About the security content of Security Update 2017-003 Yosemite

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." Macworlds review generally praised Yosemite for its design, but noted that it had found WiFi network issues and that Continuity had proved unreliable.

Criticism

Yosemite faced problems with network stability and the discoveryd DNS system. Because of this, Apple replaced discoveryd with the mDNSResponder system in 10.10.4. 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. Some users who upgraded to Yosemite complained that the Finder fails to show the contents of folders.
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.
Spotlight on Yosemite by default reports the user's current location and all their search queries to Apple and third parties. 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.