At first I would have thought that OS X 10.11 El Capitan is the same for OS X 10.10 Yosemite as it was OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion vs. OS X 10.7 Lion, that is, a simple update that improves certain aspects of the system's performance and provides a few minor novelties that do not represent a qualitative leap compared to the previous version, so it focuses more on improving the speed and general stability of the system .
However personally I think it is not just a simple update but actually brings such amount of bug fixes and other internal tweaks plus a ton of new features, it almost feels like something new more than just an update. Let's review the fundamental points of which I think are the key to this new version.
Notes is updated Finally!
Now we can create drawings in this application, it will be synchronized through iCloud and will put IMAP synchronization aside (it was about time Apple used its own cloud service) so it will be much faster between your device with iOS 9 and the application on OS X El Capitan. In addition to this, it allows you to create to-do lists, add photos, video, URLs, location to maps and rich text. All attachments are now in a new location, so that now we can see them with a simple click.
We can already say that at least it can stand up to other solutions that although they are still "more advanced" like Evernote for example, their use is not mandatory mainly because, as we have said, Notes has been updated and we can choose to use the native system application.
Spotlight as a search engine
If with Yosemite we could already glimpse this feature, in El Capitan it is established as a search engine to use either to locate certain files locally or on the Internet. Now he understands natural language and that is a big step forward, where before we had to specify some data to locate the files now simply by saying "Look for the photos from three weeks ago" or "I want to delete my Facebook account", understand what that you ask and act on it to show the closest results to those questions, so we will save a lot of time by being able to make queries of a different nature from the same location without having to use more than one application at the same time.
This makes Apple don't have to start your own search engine To compete with Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo, you can now integrate all those engines by overlaying the information sources of each of them and capturing many of the most relevant questions or queries before having to resort to a search engine, it is something that happens on iOS and that from El Capitan will also be integrated into OS X.
Pin your favorite websites in Safari
Safari is my web browser by default and I use it most of the time, so I'm happy to see Apple continue to improve it to find new ways to make it more productive to use. Now it is possible to be able to silence the browser tabs at will and the one that seems most important to me is the ability to anchor the tabs of our favorite websites, that is, something like a «luxury · version of the favorites bar . Simply by selecting this option, the tab will be reduced to its minimum expression in favicon mode and will be immobilized so that we can access quickly without having to open menus or enable one more bar that takes up place on the screen.
Swipe in Mail
The Mail application in OS X is for me a love-hate relationship, since for now it is the one I use daily but I tried alternatives that seem more advanced or I liked its interface better, but I always return to Mail because because I make a lot of use of Handoff and it is the only one that integrates this function to continue your work from your Mac or iOS device at any time without having to start all over again in each of them.
Now they implement the action of sliding with the trackpad to archive messages, mark them as read or delete them, which although it seems that it is not a big thing, it does save time and it was something that I missed and that other applications such as Airmail already had.
Photos improves your management
Photos arrived on Mac a few months ago in Yosemite but unfortunately the most notorious omission in its first version was the inability to add or edit the information of the locations. This feature has been added in the new version of photos that comes with El Capitan, along with other functions such as metadata editing, both individually and in batches.
There will also be support for third party extensions in photo editing which should partly please Aperture users who have made the switch to photos and then found a very limited application for the advanced user. Even so it is not clear which parts the plug-ins will allow to retouch with respect to photo editing, but the possibility is there.
Speed and stability
There are many Mac users who have bitterly complained about bugs they had to deal with in both Mavericks and Yosemite. However the update cycle for both iOS and OS X and now WatchOS seems unstoppable. Apple is now ticking its strategy, with a major release a year in a row another update with minor spending focused on perfecting everything added above.
Of course we must not forget the inclusion of Metal for MacAlthough it may not seem like something innovative, it will help many computers to significantly accelerate applications, professional creative suites and games alike.
All you have said are program updates except spotlight and speed and stability so clearly it is a simple update….
In the article I state that ALMOST seems something new due to the amount of news and I only talk about those that in my opinion are the most important. Of course it is not all new but it goes beyond a simple update (I repeat, in my view).
It is a necessary medium update, focused on performance since developers take advantage of this performance when creating apps, just as it happens in iOS.
These are necessary changes to maintain the OS. But the most important is Metal for Mac and not only for games especially for applications like Parallels.