Apple issues second beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers
Just over two weeks after OS X 10.11 El Capitan was made official, Apple has supplied developers with the second beta of the new Mac operating system set to launch this fall.

Identified as build 15A204b, El Capitan beta 2 is now available to download through Apple's developer website. The pre-release software is intended for testing purposes only, and Apple cautions that it should not be used in a commercial operating environment or with important data.
A number of known issues unsurprisingly remain in the second beta of El Capitan, including problems when upgrading from OS X Lion or earlier. Issues are also present in Aperture, Disk Utility, iCloud Keychain, iPhoto, iTunes, Mail, Networking, Photos, Printing, SpriteKit, USB, Wi-Fi, and Language.
El Capitan is compatible with all Macs that can run OS X 10.10 Yosemite. While it is currently in beta, it will be a free upgrade available to Mac owners via the Mac App Store this fall.
Intended as mostly a refinement of Yosemite, El Capitan will still include a handful of new user-facing features. Most notably, the operating system includes a two-app viewing mode dubbed Split View, allowing users to quickly split screen space between two running apps.
Apple has also tweaked Mission Control in El Capitan, making multi-window desktop management simpler. Mission Control now arranges open app windows relative to their positioning on the desktop.

Identified as build 15A204b, El Capitan beta 2 is now available to download through Apple's developer website. The pre-release software is intended for testing purposes only, and Apple cautions that it should not be used in a commercial operating environment or with important data.
A number of known issues unsurprisingly remain in the second beta of El Capitan, including problems when upgrading from OS X Lion or earlier. Issues are also present in Aperture, Disk Utility, iCloud Keychain, iPhoto, iTunes, Mail, Networking, Photos, Printing, SpriteKit, USB, Wi-Fi, and Language.
El Capitan is compatible with all Macs that can run OS X 10.10 Yosemite. While it is currently in beta, it will be a free upgrade available to Mac owners via the Mac App Store this fall.
Intended as mostly a refinement of Yosemite, El Capitan will still include a handful of new user-facing features. Most notably, the operating system includes a two-app viewing mode dubbed Split View, allowing users to quickly split screen space between two running apps.
Apple has also tweaked Mission Control in El Capitan, making multi-window desktop management simpler. Mission Control now arranges open app windows relative to their positioning on the desktop.
Comments
Sticking with Tiger!
Curious to hear where others are seeing lagginess. I'm running El Cappy it on a mid-2011 MacBook Air with only 4GB RAM and it seems very stable and rather snappy. If this is beta quality I can't wait to see the final release. If you've been waiting for new release with a focus on robustness and stability rather than a slew of features your ship has come in.
Did they change some basic library? basic foundation of the kernel? something that breaks down everything?
There's a shitload of under the hood changes, and it's pretty hilarious that you're attempting to claim its more "buggy" by comparing a just released developer beta1 product to a product publically released 8 months ago. Very trollish of you.
There's a shitload of under the hood changes, and it's pretty hilarious that you're attempting to claim its more "buggy" by comparing a just released developer beta1 product to a product publically released 8 months ago. Very trollish of you.
I am a Mac user across the board. Not some random Windows guy writing nonsense comments in Apple Forums to discredit the work of Apple.
What I simply wanted to say, is that Apple "sells" El Capitan as a refinement of Yosemite, still the first 2 betas have, at least based on this article, bugs popping out in all apps across the board, beach balls, etc. So, as a regular non developer user I am asking "what is there to refine is the base has changed so much it is generating bugs everywhere? (which is perfectly understandable if the release was of a totally new OS release, for example) Is it really a refinement or something more profound we cannot see on the surface?".
That's all.
If it were only a "refinement", the betas should not have "bugs everywhere", as it seems, rather reduce and improve current Yosemite bugs (which are there, BTW - no software is perfect and QA at Apple in the last few months/years left a bit to be desired).
I find it hilarious, instead, that you jump to the conclusion of whether I am a troll or not, not even knowing what type of user I am and if I use regularly Apple or not. How about being a passionate customer and man of science, questioning the wording of Apple marketing for a new release, that seems to be more than just a "refinement" and a "there you go, now you can even resize the Spotlight window"??? (as Craig Federighi himself put it - not to mention another couple of comments he made that made me think "he himself thinks this is BS").
Signed,
An Apple (troll?!) user.
PS: I have made a restore from backup on a working iPhone 6 running iOS 8.3 - I get random resets now for no reason, with the same apps I used before the backup - is that quality software for a 700€ phone? not really - still I haven't and will not move to Android. There you go, I said it.
had to come back from the beyond here to comment.
I would have posted similar to you, it is quite logical, and I understand your conceptual argument that if not much changed, why are there bugs. But now as a developer, I realize, anytime you change stuff, it could cause a bug in something else, cause a regression bug, etc. Touching the smallest thing can cause a noticeable or fatal bug sometimes. That's why testing is so important. And so underrated in many a place. It's the last step, and often written off...but is probably the most important!! Nothing matters if stuff doesn't work, right!
Anyway I'm finally excited about OS X again. I've been very happy on 10.6. Every time I use a newer OS X, I've left feeling very happy for multiple reasons. I don't want to get in to a war over which version is 'better', as for my uses 10.6 is better.. but I think finally stability, speed, feature parity and interface have gotten to a point again where I am ready to go. Still not a huge fan the OS X Metro-ification but the dark theme is nice. Delicious. That was the last touch that got me. I'm ready! (for my MBP mid '10 8bg + SSD, still rocking everything smooth except Flash lol)
I would have posted similar to you, as it is quite logical, and I understand your conceptual argument that if not much changed, why are there bugs. But now as a developer, I realize, anytime you change stuff, it could cause a bug in something else, cause a regression bug, etc. Touching the smallest thing can cause a noticeable or fatal bug sometimes. That's why testing is so important. And so underrated in many a place. It's the last step, and often written off...but is probably the most important!! Nothing matters if stuff doesn't work, right!
Anyway I'm finally excited about OS X again. I've been very happy on 10.6. Every time I use a newer OS X, I've left feeling very happy for multiple reasons. I don't want to get in to a war over which version is 'better', as for my uses 10.6 is better.. but I think finally stability, speed, feature parity and interface have gotten to a point again where I am ready to go. Still not a huge fan the OS X flattening of the UI but the Dark theme is nice. Delicious. That was the last touch that got me. I'm ready! (for my MBP mid '10 8bg + SSD, still rocking everything smooth except Flash lol)