Using Yosemite for web development

Question

I am eager to try out the new Yosemite beta, but the confidentiality agreement somewhat startles me.

I know I cannot disclose any confidential information about the OS or post screenshots of it anywhere, but what else does that imply? I am a web developer and I use my Macbook for surfing the web, listening to music, programming and web development in general. Can I still do all these things (and the rest of everyday stuff) if I update to the Yosemite beta? What are the legal limitations of using Yosemite?

What I'm asking is can I still produce websites, web software and etc. at work using Yosemite Beta as a development environment?

Answer 1

From my personal experience, Yosemite isn't really too bad in terms of bugginess. It's quite unlikely that you will suffer data loss, but take backups as always. I have had no more problems running on Yosemite than Mavericks (aside from some cosmetic issues related to Dark Mode and reducing transparency).

That said, it really depends on what you use for web development. TextMate, iTerm, and Xcode work really well, but if you've got another IDE running you might want to wait until you know it works well with Yosemite. I'm also a big fan of Alfred and Karabiner, both of which have official support for it.

Also, what reason do you have to run Yosemite? Even if it is low risk, it isn't worth the trouble to just be able to use the flashy new GUI.

The legal limitations are pretty severe, however:

[…] don’t blog, post screen shots, tweet or publicly post information about the pre-release Apple software, and don't discuss the pre-release Apple software with or demonstrate it to others who are not in the OS X Beta Program.

In a work environment it's going to be difficult to avoid discussing or demonstrating it to people not in the program.

So in this instance, it's probably a good idea to wait until 10.10 is publicly released, as Apple also warns against using it on production machines or business-critical ones.

Answer 2

There is nothing in the beta program terms and conditions that preclude you from using the OS fully - connecting to the internet at large and with whatever programs you care to install and run on Yosemite.

The only prohibition I see is that you not blog opinions, details and/or post screenshots of the product while it is in a beta status (and presumably you would be bound to not share the beta versions anywhere - but I don't see that addressed explicitly). If you can keep quiet about the software, you should have no problem honoring your end of the bargain as Apple describes it publicly. Be sure you read any terms carefully in case my impression (or the publicly available terms) isn't the only thing you agree to when you enroll in the program.