about OS X Mavericks

OS X Mavericks (version 10.9) is the tenth major release of OS X, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.

OS X Mavericks was announced on June 10, 2013, at WWDC 2013, and was released on October 22, 2013, as a free update through the Mac App Store worldwide.

The update emphasized battery life, Finder improvements, other improvements for power users, and continued iCloudintegration, as well as bringing more of Apple's iOS apps to OS X. Mavericks, which was named for the surfing location in California, was the first in the series of OS X releases named for places in Apple's home state; earlier releases used the names of big cats.

History

Apple announced OS X Mavericks on June 10, 2013, during the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference(WWDC) keynote (which also introduced iOS 7, a revised MacBook Air, the sixth-generation AirPort Extreme, the fifth-generation AirPort Time Capsule, and a redesigned Mac Pro). During a keynote on October 22, 2013, Apple announced that the official release of 10.9 on the Mac App Store would be available immediately, and that unlike previous versions of OS X, 10.9 would be available at no charge to all users running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or later.

On October 22, 2013, Apple offered free upgrades for life on its operating system and business software.

System requirements

OS X Mavericks can run on most Macs that can run OS X Mountain Lion; as with Mountain Lion, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of available storage, and OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later are required. Mavericks is free to upgrade and all later versions are free.

The full list of compatible models:

• iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch Polycarbonate, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

New and changed features

Here are some features that differ from previous releases of OS X:

• Improved multiple display support: The menu bar and the Dock are available on each display; Apple TV can be used as an external display.
• Mission Control has been updated to organize and switch between Desktop workspaces independently between multiple displays.
• Finder enhancements, including tabs, fullscreen support, and document tags. Pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-navigate-history gestures have been removed, although both are supported anywhere else.
• New iBooks application.
• New Maps application.
• Calendar enhancements.
• Safari browser enhancements.
• iCloud Keychain sync.
• Notification Center enhancements.
• Some skeuomorphs, such as the leather texture in Calendar, the legal pad theme of Notes, and the book-like appearance of Contacts, have been removed from the UI.
• Timer coalescing, which enhances energy efficiency by reducing CPU usage by up to 72 percent.
• App Nap, which sleeps apps that are not currently visible.
• Compressed Memory, a virtual memory compression system which automatically compresses data from inactive apps when approaching maximum memory capacity.
• Server Message Block version 2 (SMB2) is now the default protocol for sharing files.
• LinkedIn sharing integration.
• OpenGL 4.1 Core Profile.
• OpenCL 1.2.
• USB syncing of calendar, contacts and other information to iOS devices has been removed, instead requiring the use of iCloud.
• Some system alerts, such as low battery and removal of drives without ejecting, have been moved to Notification Center.
• The Open Transport API has been removed.
• Quicktime 10 does not support many older video codecs and converts them to the ProRes format when opened. Older video codecs cannot be viewed in Quick Look.
• Improved Privacy: Safari now supports browsing in private browsing mode with certain windows (as opposed to all the windows having to be either in or out of private browsing).
• The "traffic light" close, minimize, and maximize window buttons have appeared somewhat brighter.

Reception

OS X Mavericks has received a mixture of positive and negative reviews on the Mac App Store but Macintosh owners have welcomed its availability free of charge. A purchaser of a new Macintosh with Mavericks installed receives Apple's iWork productivity suite for free as well.

One complaint is that Apple removed the local sync services, which forces users to get iCloud to sync iOS devices with the desktop OS. However, this feature has since returned in the 10.9.3 and iTunes 11.2 updates.

Problems

During the first few weeks after OS X Mavericks was introduced, some Western Digital external hard drive users complained of loss and corruption of data when they upgraded to OS X Mavericks, especially when the hard drives were used with Western Digital's proprietary disk management software. Western Digital removed its WD Drive Manager, WD RAID Manager and WD SmartWare from its downloads area, and urged its users to delay upgrading to OS X Mavericks and to temporarily stop using the Western Digital software. On November 25, 2013, the company released an upgrade for WD Smartware to fix the problem.

Versions of OS X Mavericks before 10.9.2 can fail to validate a Secure Sockets Layer or Transport Layer Security certificate's signature in cases where the connection is made with TLS versions 1.1 or below or SSL 3.0 and forward secrecy is enabled, allowing a man-in-the-middle attack. This vulnerability has been assigned the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures number CVE-2014-1266. OS X version 10.9.2 patches this vulnerability.

Releases

Version	Build	Date	OS name	Notes	Standalone download
10.9	13A603 (GM2)	October 22, 2013	Darwin 13.0	Original Mac App Store release
10.9.1	13B42	December 16, 2013	Darwin 13.0	About the OS X Mavericks v10.9.1 Update	OS X Mavericks 10.9.1 Individual update
10.9.2	13C64	February 25, 2014	Darwin 13.1	About the OS X Mavericks v10.9.2 Update	OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 Individual update OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 Combo update
10.9.3	13D65	May 15, 2014	Darwin 13.2	About the OS X Mavericks v10.9.3 Update	OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Individual update OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Combo update
10.9.4	13E28	June 30, 2014	Darwin 13.3.0	About the OS X Mavericks v10.9.4 Update	OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Individual update OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Combo update
10.9.5	13F34	September 17, 2014	Darwin 13.4.0	About the OS X Mavericks v10.9.5 Update	OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 Individual update OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 Combo update
	13F1066	March 9, 2015			Security Update 2015-002 Mavericks
	13F1077	April 8, 2015			Security Update 2015-004 Mavericks
	13F1096	June 30, 2015			Security Update 2015-005 Mavericks
	13F1112	August 13, 2015			Security Update 2015-006 Mavericks