First builds of Mac OS X 10.5.1 pack over two dozen fixes

[AppleInsider]

Moving quickly to address issues in the inaugural version of its Leopard operating system, Apple on Wednesday tapped its developer community to begin testing the first maintenance and bug fix update to the software, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.1.

The Cupertino-based Mac maker initiated the testing process by offering software developers access to Mac OS X 10.5.1 build 9B13, which weighed in at a hefty 267MB, according to people familiar with the process.

Among the fixes already baked into the first test build are corrections to Leopard's application Firewall, Spotlight indexing, iCal syncing, Keychain login and text drawing corruption.

Mac OS X 10.5.1 will also deliver a significant number of bug fixes relating to Leopard's email client, namely corrections to Mail syncing, HTML anchors, Email alarms, To-Do Notes, and smart mailboxs.

In total, build 9B13 includes well over two dozen fixes and code corrections, those familiar with the software say, and addresses an issue present when moving files across partitions -- possibly one and the same with the widely publicized Finder data-loss bug.

Apple has reportedly asked that its developers test the update broadly, paying particular attention to Time Machine, Mail, iCal, Back To My Mac, Bonjour, AirPort, gaming graphics, networking and the Finder.

Mac OS X 10.5.1 is expected to be released within a few weeks' time.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Fishyesque]

Finally!!!!!!!! Took long enough!!!!!!!!!!

/sarcasm

[hypoluxa]

yea! I think I will wait just for a few more dot releases before I convert over fulltime... I did enjoy using 10.5 momentarily though.

[tcsdoc]

Glad to see Apple is 'johnny-on-the-spot' with these corrections. But it does seem to point to spotty beta-testing of Leopard. So many fixes and most aimed at the highly touted features.

And Microsoft just announced they were pulling SP1 for Vista from it's beta testers as it's not even close to prime time. M$ expects to deliver those bug fixes somewhere around the middle of next year....

I guess patience is a virtue for Windows suffers, er, I mean users.....

[elroth]

Come on, Apple, just fix the dock so you can use nested folders again and I'll put my name on a 24" 2.8GHz iMac...

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by elroth

Come on, Apple, just fix the dock so you can use nested folders again and I'll put my name on a 24" 2.8GHz iMac...

If you are not planning on using Spaces, you can replace the 10.5 dock with the one from 10.4

[MoBird]

You will always have issues with the advent of a major OS update.

Originally Posted by tcsdoc

Glad to see Apple is 'johnny-on-the-spot' with these corrections. But it does seem to point to spotty beta-testing of Leopard. So many fixes and most aimed at the highly touted features.

[scotty321]

It's a real shame that Apple has chosen to ignore the SERIOUS problems with the "folder side" of the dock in Leopard, and has chosen not to fix any of these dock problems. Namely, the loss of hierarchical navigation in folders, the loss of folders' abilities to display custom icons (without a tedious workaround), and the ability to turn OFF stacks. Horrible changes which have made Leopard completely unusable for us and many others... yet Apple refuses to ignore these issues.

Not to mention the fact that all the "special folders" in the Finder now look exactly the same. Absolutely horrendous decisions from somebody at Apple... most likely Steve Jobs, who is not a power user of Mac OS X and is now catering the operating system to beginners by stripping away features from advanced users.

[Restalot]

Originally Posted by scotty321

yet Apple refuses to ignore these issues.

I refuse to ignore this comment.

[Neruda]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

If you are not planning on using Spaces, you can replace the 10.5 dock with the one from 10.4

How? Can Leopard's menu bar be replaced with Tiger's? Can I make the Leopard Finder look like Tiger's?

Never mind. I'll just stick with Tiger.

[buddha]

Originally Posted by Neruda

How? Can Leopard's menu bar be replaced with Tiger's? Can I make the Leopard Finder look like Tiger's?

Never mind. I'll just stick with Tiger.

Why would you want to replace these superior GUI qualities with those of an inferior one?

[Ireland]

My EYES, the BRIGHTNESS is killing me!!

[jpellino]

Originally Posted by scotty321

Horrible changes which have made Leopard completely unusable for us and many others... yet Apple refuses to ignore these issues.

Completely unusable? Please.
I for one am glad to see that - as you say - Apple refuses to ignore these issues. So we should see some changes any day now.

[hypoluxa]

I for one HOPE they change the opacity issue with the drop down finder menus. Apple took a step backwards in regards to that. The menus are hard to read when on top heavy text windows or web windows etc.. Anyone else agree? I remember them changing early versions of OSX because people complained about it. 10.4 was nice in my book in regards to the very little transparency eye candy.

[FineWine]

Sorry, but I'm boycotting Leopard until a way is found to get navigation back in the folder side of the dock - I use this all the time on Tiger. Also the dock is vastly inferior in Leopard - from every point of view, design and look and functionality - the Tiger dock is more clear (I hate the blue orbs), the stupid shelf idea steals space from the display compared to Tiger, and the folders on Tiger are much more clear than the generic BS look of Leopard folders. Plus countless bugs in Leopard. No thanks.

Now, no doubt fixes, workarounds and 3rd party solutions will be found for most of these problems, so I'll wait for that. I'm very disappointed by Leopard. Bring on 10.6. I'll be in the market for an iMac next year, but I may just skip it if Leopard continues to be a dog instead of a cool cat.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by scotty321

It's a real shame that Apple has chosen to ignore the SERIOUS problems with the "folder side" of the dock in Leopard, and has chosen not to fix any of these dock problems. Namely, the loss of hierarchical navigation in folders, the loss of folders' abilities to display custom icons (without a tedious workaround), and the ability to turn OFF stacks. Horrible changes which have made Leopard completely unusable for us and many others... yet Apple refuses to ignore these issues.

Not to mention the fact that all the "special folders" in the Finder now look exactly the same. Absolutely horrendous decisions from somebody at Apple... most likely Steve Jobs, who is not a power user of Mac OS X and is now catering the operating system to beginners by stripping away features from advanced users.

Who is this us you speak for?

[charleski]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

Who is this us you speak for?

QFT.

I hope Apple ignores all the nonsensical hysteria over the dock and focuses on getting the far more serious networking/AirPort issues fixed.

[Squozen]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

If you are not planning on using Spaces, you can replace the 10.5 dock with the one from 10.4

Spaces works just fine with the 10.4-style (and superior) dock.

[Neruda]

Originally Posted by buddha

Why would you want to replace these superior GUI qualities with those of an inferior one?

Menu Bar Transparency: useless, makes the menu bar harder to see in certain circumstances (depending on your background).

Finder: In Tiger, the categories (Networks, MacHD, Desktop) were clearly separated, the icons are much bigger and easier to see.

Leopard Dock: Don't even get me started.

[StuBeck]

Originally Posted by charleski

QFT.

I hope Apple ignores all the nonsensical hysteria over the dock and focuses on getting the far more serious networking/AirPort issues fixed.

Yep, I need them to fix PPPoE over VPN first or I can't use it. Until I get an external hard drive (and they fix time machine) I can't install it anyways.

[backtomac]

I'll probably upgrade to Leo when .1 is released and after I see how it is received by users here. Recently I was at the Apple store in Orlando and was able to play around with some Macs with Leopard. Although I spent limited time on the machines I liked what I saw. As far as the dock and menu bar issues, they seem overdoene to me. I had no trouble 'seeing' and doing what I wanted to do.

As soon as some bugs are worked out I ready.

Does anyone know if there are any HP printer issues with Leopard? I've not read of any but all the printers I use with my MBP are HP.

[NanoAkron]

Sorry to b*tch in my first ever post, but though you might be interested see a few of these, and maybe share tales of your own...

1. Inconsistent finder functionality. Yeah, coverflow is fun for about 3 minutes. I just get fed up of finder loading all of my icon previews as I scroll down my photo folders (seriously...why not read ahead. I'm using a 2.16GHz 1st gen MBP btw). But most concerning of all - enter one of your folders set to icon view and click through to one set up for list view. Now click the back button - wow! they've all changed to list view, even if you get back to your icon view folder. Not good.

2. Dock. Really rubbish. EyeTV used to minimise to a cool miniature live TV icon - now it's just a static image. Other folders minimised to the dock only freeze on the first picture and it's impossible to see what they're supposed to be. And no 2D/3D selection icon? Please... I was also hoping for the possibility to lose any background from the dock and just have icons 'hanging in space'.

3. Safari. Why can't i choose to have safari in tabbed browsing view all the time like version 2? I really hate having my screen jump down when I first open a tab. If it ain't broke - why fix it? At least make it a user selectable option.

4. Mail. Don't get me started. No option to download all my old mails from .mac, poor poor quality syncing. I can't even be bothered with the HTML eye-candy until all the rest of it's fixed.

5. Spaces. What, no separate backgrounds for each space?

6. Pretty much what everyone else has been saying.

That's all for now - see if you find number 1 as annoying as I do.

[skottichan]

Originally Posted by backtomac

I'll probably upgrade to Leo when .1 is released and after I see how it is received by users here. Recently I was at the Apple store in Orlando and was able to play around with some Macs with Leopard. Although I spent limited time on the machines I liked what I saw. As far as the dock and menu bar issues, they seem overdoene to me. I had no trouble 'seeing' and doing what I wanted to do.

As soon as some bugs are worked out I ready.

Does anyone know if there are any HP printer issues with Leopard? I've not read of any but all the printers I use with my MBP are HP.

I have two Photosmart printers (a 7660 as the local printer on my girlfriend's mini and a 8450 networked on the AirPort) both are working beautifully.

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by skottichan

I have two Photosmart printers (a 7660 as the local printer on my girlfriend's mini and a 8450 networked on the AirPort) both are working beautifully.

That's good to hear. Thanks.

[boaz]

Almost 16,000 read the Airport thread on the Apple discussion board and almost 400 people posted issues with Airport under Leopard
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....95706&tstart=0
Does Apple choose to ignore it? Ever since I upgraded my MBP my Airport connection goes down periodically and the only way to restore it is rebooting. My iMac has been upgraded the same day and since then did not have any Airport issues...

[ecking]

Originally Posted by Neruda

Can I make the Leopard Finder look like Tiger's?

Wow you need help to get off your crack addiction. Who'd want that?

[MacSuperiority]

Originally Posted by Neruda

Menu Bar Transparency: useless, makes the menu bar harder to see in certain circumstances (depending on your background).

Finder: In Tiger, the categories (Networks, MacHD, Desktop) were clearly separated, the icons are much bigger and easier to see.

Leopard Dock: Don't even get me started.

THEN DON'T FUCKING USE IT!

Stick with Tiger if you dont like it.

A lot of people like it and some thing just take time to get used to. How can you seriously pass judgment on something from only using it for such a short period of time. Of course when you use something that is the same for years and then switch its going to seem strange for a while. That doesn't mean its worse.

[telusman]

That whole sentence made me shudder a little. I do not believe the loss of hierarchal folders in the dock is a good evolution, and i don't think stacks are superior. They're a neat toy, and a generally good idea, I do use them. I would however love a right click contextual menu (and of course a corresponding menu option), to disable and enable stacks on the fly. A "Make a Stack" checkbox so i can turn them off and on at will.

Originally Posted by buddha

Why would you want to replace these superior GUI qualities with those of an inferior one?

[kcmac]

Leopard is awesome on both of our machines. Bring on the updates! Sweet.

[Neruda]

Originally Posted by MacSuperiority

THEN DON'T FUCKING USE IT!
Stick with Tiger if you dont like it.

That was exactly my point. Perhaps you were too busy cursing and missed it. BTW, the GUI is not my only complaint. Leopard is considerably slower on my Macbook than Tiger was. So I won't install it on my MacBook Pro until I feel some of these issues are resolved.

Originally Posted by MacSuperiority

A lot of people like it and some thing just take time to get used to. How can you seriously pass judgment on something from only using it for such a short period of time. Of course when you use something that is the same for years and then switch its going to seem strange for a while. That doesn't mean its worse.

Um, for me it is. I realize that this is my opinion and that you obviously disagree, but that doesn't make your point of view the correct one. As you said, some people like it, others don't. I happen to think that freaking dock reflections, transparencies...etc are useless, perhaps you don't. Cool.
You must LOVE Vista.

[Neruda]

Originally Posted by telusman

That whole sentence made me shudder a little. I do not believe the loss of hierarchal folders in the dock is a good evolution, and i don't think stacks are superior. They're a neat toy, and a generally good idea, I do use them. I would however love a right click contextual menu (and of course a corresponding menu option), to disable and enable stacks on the fly. A "Make a Stack" checkbox so i can turn them off and on at will.

Exactly. This is a step backwards for some (and many of us will sorely miss this functionality).

Apple: FTFD! The D stands for Dock.

[Neruda]

Originally Posted by ecking

Wow you need help to get off your crack addiction. Who'd want that?

I'll get off the crack when you get off the Kool Aid.

Can people actually have a cogent discussion on the pro/cons of an issue without resorting to cursing and ad hominem attacks? I don't like certain things about Leopard so I must be smoking crack. So anyone that disagrees with you is smoking crack then, right? If you really believe that than guess who's the one doing drugs. It ain't me.

[kaiwai]

Originally Posted by scotty321

Horrible changes which have made Leopard completely unusable for us and many others... yet Apple refuses to ignore these issues.

So what you're actually saying there is that Apple isn't ignoring the issues, and instead, addressing them.

[chris v]

Originally Posted by MacSuperiority

THEN DON'T FUCKING USE IT!

Stick with Tiger if you dont like it.

Sounds like a plan! I've been checking out the app incompatibility list, and it's pretty damn major, too. Use Adobe CS products? Then don't bother with 10.5, from what I've read. Quark 6? Ditto.

I don't have $1000.00 to shell out on app upgrades to make things work with the new
OS, so I guess it's 10.4 for me for a good while.

[Wellinator]

I can't believe how many complainers there on here. There are always going to be problems with a new OS release. It is time to stand up and embrace change. Without change life would be boring. Change is the only thing constant in this Universe. Apple will take care of the problems. Out of all Apple's OS releases this is the best upgrade I have ever experienced.

[starrius]

Call me cynical but I am so happy that there are those people who will jump on the first version of anything that rolls out of Cupertino. They get to do my troubleshooting and "beta" testing for me. Saves me the trouble. I had said from the time Leopard was announced that I would wait for 10.5.2 at least before buying. Looks like I was right.

[aresee]

Originally Posted by Wellinator

I can't believe how many complainers there on here. There are always going to be problems with a new OS release. It is time to stand up and embrace change. Without change life would be boring. Change is the only thing constant in this Universe. Apple will take care of the problems. Out of all Apple's OS releases this is the best upgrade I have ever experienced.

Change, people just don't like changes. All you can do is sit back quietly and wait. In a couple of weeks the complainers will quiet down and start saying how great everything is.

[sjk]

Originally Posted by telusman

I do not believe the loss of hierarchal folders in the dock is a good evolution, …

After getting used to accessing them from a Finder contextual menu with the FolderGlance plugin I wondered if they really ever belonged in the Dock at all.

With FG it takes a slight bit of menu navigation after a right-click to reach a desired folder compared to being there immediately with the pre-10.5 Dock right-click, but having Finder Desktop and window backgrounds is a larger and easier right-click target (for me) than shuffling the mouse to Dock folders.

Anyone bemoaning the loss of hierarchical Dock folders in Leopard should consider trying FG as an alternative. Took me about a day to get used to it (on Tiger; Leopard's not ready enough for me yet) and now the Dock access method seems obsolete (though still of value on systems without FG installed, of course).

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by charleski

QFT.

I hope Apple ignores all the nonsensical hysteria over the dock and focuses on getting the far more serious networking/AirPort issues fixed.

Exactly! Hey look! My folders are back!

What's this big gaping security hole? Who cares?! My folders are back!

[elroth]

Originally Posted by aresee

Change, people just don't like changes. All you can do is sit back quietly and wait. In a couple of weeks the complainers will quiet down and start saying how great everything is.

You obviously don't have thousands of folders nested eight or more levels deep and need to get in and out of them all the time. How would you do it? Let's see... click on a stack, then move the mouse and click on the first level, then move the mouse and double click on the second level, then move the mouse and double click... Get the point? Stacks are worthless for those of us who have this kind of workflow. (Spotlight isn't the answer either). And no, we will not "get used to it" in a couple of weeks. It's a non-starter, and why many of us who are wanting new computers now won't buy them until there is a fix (which could be as simple as Apple adding back in the old functionality).