I found that while some Yosemite features, like group messaging and desktop calling, worked on my 2011 laptop, there are limitations with older hardware.

So, for the sake of this review, I also tested the new Yosemite operating system on an “old” 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro that I keep at home. The new Spotlight search in Yosemite is powered by Bing and pulls up Web results. Apple says that computers from as far back mid-2007 (Macs) and late 2008 (MacBooks) will support Yosemite, but as we’ve seen with other software releases, sometimes updating your old hardware to new software doesn’t work out perfectly. And I’ve had a mostly positive experience running Yosemite on those shiny, new-ish machines.īut here’s the thing: Not everyone has a new laptop. I’ve been using Yosemite intermittently since then, on both a 2013 and a late-2012 Retina MacBook Pro.

Apple even teased it out by giving early access to a million beta testers in July. For Mac users, the operating system has been much anticipated since it was first unveiled at the company’s annual developers conference in June (continuity between devices! “Green” messages! The promise of working Mail!). Today Apple formally released OS X Yosemite, its newest operating system for Mac computers.

Macbook pro os x yosemite release date