Hiking the OS Sierra

Have you hiked the new Sierra? I’m talking about the one for Macs.

I just did and so far my experience is a lot smoother than El Capitan.

No Donner Pass in This Sierra

Of course, every improvement has its bugs. It's always wise to wait out an update for a few weeks. I had noticed a download notice for Sierra back in November. The only thing that sounded interesting was Siri’s appearance on the desktop.

Big deal. I was already asking questions to Google. I figure they already know all my deep dark secrets.

But when the "dreaded wheel of death" started to become a regular on my Gmail (and it was annoying enough on Twitter), I decided to check and see if Sierra had been deemed safe.

Go ahead and update, most sites urged. No one’s been cannibalized, at least not because of Sierra.

As always, I prefer to know about the pros and cons, so an article titled 4 Reasons Not to Install macOS Sierra and 8 Reasons You Should by Josh Smith for Gotta Be Mobile got my attention. The number one reason Smith recommends updating to Sierra is “if you have OX X El Capitan problems.”

This meshed nicely with eighth and last reason, “to get more storage space back.”

Most of the other reasons don’t apply to me. I don’t have an Apple watch or the new MacBook Pro with TouchBar. I don’t really care about new emoji.

The third reason—"if you need better security"—probably applies to everyone. I’ve been reading a lot on security issues and attending conferences so you could say I’m hyper-alert. Updates, of course, include security patches. Perhaps my new Sophos addition will be even better with Sierra.

It did take a long time to install Sierra—about two hours in all, since a new version downloaded immediately after the initial install. However, I did this in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, and my ISP is (sigh) Cox with its wildly changing download speeds.

The immediate effects:

• No data lost
• Remaining storage doubled in size
• Siri appeared on my dock

Best of all, Sierra didn’t trap me into a Donner-like pass.

Nice Stuff from Sierra for a Nonfangirl Mac User

Not long after I picked up a refurbished MacBook Pro last year, I wondered if El Capitan had too much stuff that was slowing me down.

I deactivated a number of preloaded items I wasn’t going to use. I doubled memory from 4GB to 8. All was well for a while.

But after a few months, the Dreaded Beachball came back.

So I can say that the best Sierra feature I’ve used so far is the new storage management function. You get this by clicking on the apple icon in the upper left corner and clicking on “About This Mac.”

Go to the Storage link and there’s a Manage button that gives you a few new tools seen in decluttering apps like CCleaner. Here's a screenshot.

I was able to get more memory freed up, and my Pro is definitely faster than before. The Dreaded Ball has made a few appearances but they are shorter and seem less frequent. Perhaps it’s because Sierra is forcing some updates El Capitan deemed unimportant. For example, Word updated its font library when I opened it for the first time post-Sierra.

There are also some interruptions with the live radio feed I listened to, but no more than I had with El Capitan. And again, they're shorter. On the other hand, I can't seem to get the feed going for a local rock stations but it could be too many listeners since it's giving away tickets for Eric Clapton in New York.

As for Siri, we aren’t well acquainted. I asked if she understands me and it's clear she she has a hard time.

Oh.

Siri also uses Bing for search, which surprised me. I asked her to display articles about problems at Apple’s manufacturing plant in China and she was coy to say the least. Google was happy to call up several articles, including a recent one in the New York Times. However, Google and I have been buds for several years.

Siri did remember to call me Ruth Ann instead of Ruth, which scores a few points.

What's Next, Apple?

I'm not expecting much more change in the MacBook world. Apple's focus is on mobile, and particularly that new iPhone due out later this year.

That's fine with me. I really do most of my work, if not my reading, on my Pro. It's still lightweight enough for me to take to client sites, particularly compared to my old white book which comparatively weighs a ton.

And once that new phone comes out...maybe I can get a deal on the iPhone 6!