I don’t know if anybody is going to believe this, but I have a confession: Apple software isn’t perfect, and lately it’s been getting worse.No, this isn’t me being angry with still-existing Leopard bugs, although those obviously still exist, like…
- Every time I restart my computer, if I don’t hold down that Option key, it automatically boots into Windows instead of Mac OS. (I have Boot Camp installed.)
- My calendar simply isn’t syncing with my iPhone anymore.
- If run Azureus, the entire computer gets slow as molasses and ultimately wont shut down without a hard-shutdown (holding down the power key).
- EyeTV programs playback with audio out of sync.
- CorelDraw Suite 10 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 have problems running (My fault: I’ll mention this later.) if you use the case-sensitive filesystem.
Given that Leopard was supposed to release in June and got delayed to October, you would think I’d have fewer problems, but that’s reality for you. I remember that Tiger had a few problems upon immediate release, and it took a few months until the OS and the application developers released enough updates to fix everything.But no, that’s not my problem. My problem is that OS X software, especially that from Apple, is crashing way to frequently. It’s not at all unusual for Mail or Safari to crash—for example, the Dominos Pizza site will always bring down Safari—and iMovie will sometimes do the same. And right now I can’t remember what, but there was a piece of USB hardware which, if I plugged it in, would do the OS X equivalent of the Blue Screen of Death.I haven’t been working in Windows-land recently, but do the newest Outlook and IE 7 simply crash and burn periodically? Do Windows users have applications suddenly fail and say to themselves “darn, I should have hit the save button a few minutes ago!” ??
I have run Leopard since last Friday night. After a reboot I have had no issues at all, except for a VPN client software that will not run. The maker has a beta in the works. I don’t blame Apple. The software maker has known about this issue for months.
I see nothing but improvements: shutdowns in less than 10 seconds (on my 2nd Gen MacBook Pro), starts up faster, less spinning beach balls, overall speedier desktop. I love it, and the vast majority of users out there have given it glowing reviews.
Sorry your experience is not better, but you can’t blame Apple for broken apps. Leopard is a major improvement under the hood. No one has put together an OS that runs in both 64-bit and 32-bit modes within the same OS. This is a huge development that most don’t understand. Apple’s history of OS development may not be perfect, but they have done everything they have said they were going to do in every release, and it simply amazes me how they can write these updates with a vastly smaller group of programmers than MSFT, for example.
Look at their history: flawless execution from Motorola 68K processors to PPC; very good transition from NextStep to OS X; virtualization of OS 9 (Classic) in OS X; smooth transition from PPC processors to Intel. Heck, MSFT can’t ship an OS that runs both 64-bit and 32-bit apps. They are seperate OSs. And the Object Oriented Programming in OS X is a huge advantage that few outside of Redmond know about, where all the tools (XCode) are included with every copy of the OS. MSFT doesn’t provide these free tools Windows and they don’t include all the APIs. They keep a lot of them for themselves.
OS X is an awesome OS, and Leopard is another great step in its development.
Comment by Chuck — November 3, 2007 @ 9:27 pm
I’m sure it’s jarring when a new OS feature prevents a previously-used mode of operation (your comment about stacks) from working. And yes, the Downloads folder is plain silly as a “feature”, but then again, I was always too lazy to designate my own Downloads folder and kept cluttering up my own desktop; I admit I’m one of those idiots who was too lazy to do it himself.
I suggest you try not to fight Time Machine too much. I’ve already found it very useful in restoring some system files (both in my personal Library/Preferences folder, and in Applications when I screwed-up an upgrade) and theoretically if your entire hard disk dies, Time Machine will happily reconstruct it for you. It’s meant as a complete system backup, and I’ve been pretty happy with it.
So my defense of Apple—yeah, Leopard is still bug-ridden, and all the puff-reviews from the media are a little silly, but for the average user I think Apple has increased usability, and after another few months the real bugs will get hammered out.
Comment by me — November 3, 2007 @ 11:30 pm
i am a long time Apple user–from iPhone, to iPod, to iBook, to Mac Pro, etc., etc., etc.
However, i am amazed at the accolades that Apple is getting for Leopard. i couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and had it on pre-order for months. But, i was amazed when i installed it how simple usability has declined with this “upgrade.”
Stacks, for example, removes the capacity to pull a folder (or an entire hard drive for that matter) into the dock and to be able to thereby easily navigate the subfolders contained therein. Stacks appears to go only one level deep, so the user has to open the folders to then dig into subsequent ones to obtain the file being searched for.
Then there is that silly Windows-like drive-bar that shows up in every single folder that is opened in the finder. Like this is necessary? Not only is it ugly, but it makes every single window far larger than it needs to be. In 10.4 this side bar could be hidden by a simple click in the folder window on its pane, but now, the only way to rid oneself of it is to collapse the entire tool bar (and it still has a habit of showing up). This annoying side bar causes folders to be entirely too large, ugly, and to take up screen real-estate.
The cover flow? Again, one level deep. And when clicked on, the folder that is chosen appears BEHIND the coverflow folder. How useful is this?
Time Machine? Although you can tell it what you DO NOT want it to back up, you can not tell it what you WANT it to do. For example, i can’t tell it i want it to watch specific folders on my hard drives to back those up rather than backing up the entire hard drive.
The download folder? Fine. But what idiot didn’t know how to designate a folder to place all their downloads into in the first place? Please.
This OS has lots of “pretty” features. But these features hardly increase ease of use, nor do they increase productivity. In my estimation, Apple has sorely screwed up with this outright UGLY thing they refer to as an “upgrade,”
Comment by Gene Surber — November 4, 2007 @ 12:01 am
I don’t blame Apple for the broken apps. Actually, the worst mistake I made was choosing the case-sensitive file system when I reinstalled my system, and that’s been 25% of my app problems.
And I usually give Apple all the credit they are due and more. Most readers see my blog articles as written by a Mac fanatic. I just figured I had to admit things like Mail and Safari crashing on an almost daily basis. Leopard still gives me problems. Yesterday I simply could not access my laptop’s filesystem over the network. When I tried to connect Finder would freeze with the spinning beach-ball until I restarted it. (I tried both smb and afp file protocols, but I could access my desktop’s filesystem from the other direction.)
It’s buggy and I know that 10.5.1 will have everything better. My advise to the novice is still the pretty standard advise of experts: always wait for the first major bug-fix patch before you go out and buy the thing.
But really I do appreciate Leopard. I’m a programmer and I’m blown away with what Apple has added to its OS in the last two releases, what with Core Image + Core Video, Core Animation (primary driving technology of the iPhone’s interface) and Core Data, plus the Sync services… Apple does constantly push the envelope in terms of innovation.
Comment by me — November 5, 2007 @ 9:42 am