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According to all-things-Apple commentator Jim Dalrymple, the Cupertino company is about to follow in Microsoft’s footsteps…
…by “pre-downloading” the latest version of the company’s Mac operating system, macOS 10.12 Sierra, in the background.
The idea is to make it more appealing to upgrade, because you won’t have a 5GB download to wait for first before you can kick off the installation.
The latest version is the first Mac operating system in the Version 10 series that isn’t called OS X.
Apple changed the name to macOS, following the orthographic style of its mobile platform iOS, a literal and figurative reminder that Apple’s Mac and iDevice environments are much more similar (and getting ever closer) than they are different.
The “pre-download” process is a bit like airlines and baggage handling: if your flight arrives at a gate really close to the baggage hall, don’t be surprised to find your luggage coming out on a carousel that’s right at the far end of the reclaim area.
The theory is that the time you spend walking to the furthest carousel doesn’t feel like waiting.
On the psychological principle of “a watched pot boileth not,” it ultimately feels as though your luggage came out more quickly, even though it didn’t.
As we all no doubt remember, Microsoft tried something similar with Windows 10, and then kept fiddling with the “pre-download” formula.
As you can see from many of the comments on the numerous Naked Security articles we wrote on Microsoft’s upgrade saga, the overall outcome was not a positive one:
- Microsoft downloads Windows 10 to your computer even if you don’t want it yet
- The Windows 10 update that you (almost) can’t refuse…
- Windows 10 now asks nicely if you want your free upgrade
- Windows 10 update now full-on full-screen deep purple
A minority of people with restricted internet data plans complained that the large, unannounced background update burned through an unacceptably large portion of their monthly allowance.
(A few people said they were happy, however: they wouldn’t have initiated the download themselves, but once the free upgrade was ready and waiting, they figured, “Cool! Why not?”)
After a few months, Microsoft went one step further, classifying the pre-downloaded upgrade as a “recommended update,” and popping up a dialog to tell you that it would be installed automatically unless you intervened:
Image from Microsoft via the BBC
At the time, many users claimed that the dialog invited you to assume that clicking the [Close] button in the top right of the window would cancel the upgrade, and were shocked to find it didn’t.
We disagreed, albeit only modestly. We thought the dialog could have been better designed visually, but we couldn’t help noticing the words “Click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel [the] upgrade,” so we recommended reading dialogs before dismissing them.
Microsoft made two changes to the upgrade dialog, eventually ending with a full-screen purple box that was certainly in-your-face, but could hardly be faulted for technical clarity:
Image from Microsoft
Apple, it seems, is currently only at the pre-download stage, so you aren’t being forced to install the macOS 10.12 update, for all that we strongly recommend it for its security fixes alone.
Nevertheless, we can’t help but be reminded of Apple’s “foisted music” episode, at the time of the iPhone 6 launch, when Apple automatically gave iTunes users a free copy of a U2 album called – ironically, as it turned out – Songs of Innocence.
In the U2 fiasco, which prompted an apology from front-man Bono, it wasn’t the free music that offended people, but the fact that it was automatically clocked up as a purchase on iTunes, as though you’d actively chosen to buy it rather than passively received it.
Oops…I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea. Might have gotten carried away with ourselves.
What to do?
If you can’t spare 5GB of disk space, or you don’t want to download the Install macOS Sierra application until a time of your own choosing, you can head to Apple menu | System Preferences | App Store and decide how much control you want to give Apple over the update process.
If you do turn off automatic updates altogether, however, be careful: you will need the discipline to check by hand from time to time, using Apple Menu | About This Mac | Software Update....
If you’re a Mac fan, tell us what you think of this step.
Will Apple users generally be happy with this “pre-download” process, in a way that their Windows counterparts weren’t?
Image of Apple logo courtesy of TungCheung / Shutterstock.com.
This is infuriating. I run a small corporate network, w OS X and Ubuntu. When I do a major upgrade, I download it once and use a thumb drive. And I NEVER do a major update company wide update without major testing.
You can still do that with Sierra.
Presumably you already have automatic downloads (and “pre-downloads”) turned off, so this won’t affect you at all. Let the Sierra installer download onto your test computer, as you did for any recent version of OS X; before letting the installer run, copy the entire
Install macOS Sierra.appto a safe place for future reference.Once you are happy with the software as tried on your test computer, use the
Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmediautility to make yourself a bootable USB drive for installation and recovery purposes.One download, install at leisure, recover when needed. (The “installation” USB drive doesn’t force you to install – it also lets you open a command prompt where you can mount and access internal and external storage for emergency backup and repair. Practise with the
diskutil coreStorageand you will be able to mount FileVault encrypted volumes in emergencies, too. Assuming you lawfully have the password or recovery key.)This “feature” doesn’t *install* Sierra automatically. It just downloads it, if you have your Mac thus configured. There’s a big difference!
No, not happy about the pre-download process. Just about happy with El Capitan with most processes switched off. Too much is done automagically, the Mac connecting to services I don’t need and want. Will abandon OS X for Linux.
Doesn’t bother me at all. Home user admittedly. But I’d rather get downloads done (especially Security ones) without having to think about it too much.
I’m especially not going to be upset by a feature that can (according to your article) be quite granularly customised.
This also looks like it applies to incremental updates to a big “named” OS version, rather than a full upgrade. Plus even if Sierra was auto-downloaded in the background (it wasn’t for me), it can’t install without my intervention. Yet.
So it’s not exactly like when people (including me) were forced into upgrading to Windows 10.
As far as we know, the downloaded Sierra installer will not start without your intervention. But, as you also say, “Yet” 🙂
Let’s hope that Microsoft’s unclear dialog and Apple’s previous experience with the U2 incident (the Bono one, not the Gary Powers one) will dissuade Apple from forcing things any further…at least until we have all got used to the idea, and vendors have got good at making it all work just fine.
|(In ten years’ time, we’ll probably be annoyed at devices that don’t keep bang up-to-date by themselves, and criticise products that continue to support older, unpatched versions, but in the meantime, we need a bit of leeway to get used to the fact that upgrades and updates are becoming two sides of the same coin – and will soon become a one-sided coin at that.)
I just wish Apple would just inform me that something “New” and “Improved” is available. Please let ME DECIDE IF I want it and WHEN I want it. The Win10 fiasco gave me a lot of extra work undoing WIN10 and stopping MS from trying again. (still getting calls about this).
I found my iPhone iOS 10 update wanted to load in on the cusp of a weekend, when IT support is GONE. What if it bricks or breaks something? I need my phone on the weekend!
How to avoid it? I have to plug in and recharge at *some* point over the weekend (it loads in when you are attached to a power source. I guess I could’ve pressed “later” at this point…but the update will continue to hang overhead.
Windows 10…millions of us are “tech” for elderly parents, with aged systems of their own. How do you teach your dad to *avoid* that update? *I* had a hard time sidestepping it with my own device (until I could make sure all of my firmware and driver’s were up to date). Would you like to train your non-tech dad on an entirely new operating system at the drop of a hat? (Win 7 to 10; no touch screen)
No download, upgrade or update should be possible without the prior consent of the user. If a user chooses to open the gates to his computer, it’s OK of course. But only then.
To be fair, you can control what gets fetched and, if so, how it gets deployed via the App Store system preferences, as shown above.
I’m a Mac fan, Paul, but I also live out in the sticks and a slow Net connection goes with the territory, so I’m no fan of the automatic large updates. Murphy’s law says they always cut in when I’m working on something important and slow everything to walking pace. Another downside of Apple’s system updates I’ve found is that my Time Capsule (WiFi backup) won’t back up computers on different operating systems. When I upgrade my work machine (I’m a writer) I keep my older Mac for general household use and as a reserve backup, so, unless my very recently retired 13″ MacBook Pro (about six years old) is man enough to run Sierra, updating my newer machine will mean making alternative backup arrangements for the older one. No big deal for a computer buff I guess, but a pain in the bum for someone who just wants things to work and keep on working.
Personally, I think they’d be mad to do the ‘oh look, we’ve just upgraded your OS, hope your computer still works!’ move that Microsoft did with Windows 10. A lot fewer people to pee off, and a proportionally larger reputational dent.
While the bandwidth usage can be a concern to some (Apple should first put up a screen that allows users to turn off updates if they don’t want it downloaded, but to get the regular updates for their current OS) I think it’s a good idea to get it downloaded. Many users won’t download it and when I need to install it for them, I have to wait for the download which takes more time and planning.
At THIS point, I don’t think they are doing a “Microsoft” (or at least the last most Microsoft ploy of just installing it without warning) since it’s not auto-installing. Maybe they are doing what Microsoft did initially by downloading it so that it’s ready, but that’s far from the PROBLEM that Microsoft created by auto-installing. I’ve had several clients get Windows 10 right in the middle of the day when they didn’t even want it. THAT’s really bad for businesses when they don’t even know if all their software is compatible.
Lastly, there should be some notes to users about making proper backups before installing the update. If it does mention it, it’s not very prominent and people will update without proper backups and if the update fails, I’m the one who gets a call and it’s already a mess and with no backups, it’s a bigger mess.
A 5 gig download during the day would take 20% of our monthly quota with our satellite provider. Absolutely want to do it between midnight and 0600 at my convenience. Lucky you guys with cable or fiber.
See the advice above on how to get to the configuration screen for autodownloads (and autoinstalls).
I have two Macs, both getting a bit long in the tooth. I do major updates on them separately, in order to sort out any wrinkles on the first one before I kick off the second. Note that major updates involve long install times (never mind the downloads) and several restarts, so not ideal for updates without warning.
This time round, the 2009 MacBook went OK but I had to do a permissions kludge to get the subsequent updates of Pages, Numbers and Keynotes to work. But the 2007 iMac refused to take the new OS at all (too old…). I assume that Apple will have the intelligence to prevent automatic download of major updates to older machines.