Apple issues second beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers

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.