Nearly 100 fixes planned for Apple's second Leopard update

[AppleInsider]

Apple Inc. is in the latter development stages of what could possibly be its most significant 'dot release' of Mac OS X ever.

Due out next month as Mac OS X 10.5.2, the update will deliver to users of the company's Leopard operating system nearly 100 code corrections and enhancements, people familiar with the software say.

Among them are twenty new fixes that turned up as part of Mac OS X 10.5.2 build 9C16, which was released privately to developers during last week's Macworld Expo. Some of the more prominent fixes in that build target problems with resuming Time Machine backups and previewing PDF, image and mail attachments.

Since seeding the first pre-release copies of the Leopard update in mid-December, Apple has asked that its developer community test the release quite broadly. The latest build arrived without exception, maintaining a list of thirty seven core focus areas that swapped out an emphasis on 802.11 wireless testing for that of Active Directory.

Mac OS X 10.5.2, which in its current incarnation includes just two known issues, will also deliver support for Apple's just-announced Time Capsule backup appliance and include a revised version of the company's "Stacks" desktop feature.

Apple is also simultaneously testing a similar update for users of Leopard Server, which currently carries a list of nineteen core focus areas and includes over 30 specific code corrections.

Delta -- or bare bones -- versions of both Mac OS X 10.5.2 client and server are some of the heftiest yet out of Apple for a "dot release," weighing in at 450.8MB and 454.5MB, respectively.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[internetworld7]

This is good news except I was expecting this for January but February is right around the corner. The main thing is that they get this right rather than having to immediately release a patch for 10.5.2. I can't wait.

[ouragan]

Delta -- or bare bones -- versions of both Mac OS X 10.5.2 client and server are some of the heftiest yet out of Apple for a "dot release," weighing in at 450.8MB and 454.5MB, respectively.

Mac OS X, version 10.5 was a premature release, just like Windows Vista. When will they stop passing off beta software for the real deal?

[cgarlock]

Hopefully they'll finally fix the Macbook wireless problems

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by ouragan

Mac OS X, version 10.5 was a premature release, just like Windows Vista. When will they stop passing off beta software for the real deal?

When marketing works more closely with Engineering and can have better timeline projections that also keep the interest in Wall Street at an optimum level.

[quagmire]

Hopefully it will fix the crashing of iPhoto and iTunes. My iPhone is messed up because iTunes crashed on my iMac G5 in the middle of updating the iPhone. So it crashes every time I go to restore the iPhone. I will have to wait until my powerbook is back from repair to fix it. GRRR.

[adjei7]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

When marketing works more closely with Engineering and can have better timeline projections that also keep the interest in Wall Street at an optimum level.

So that's never then.

[MsNly]

I hope they fix crashing in all programs

and Disk Utility It doesn't work at all!

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by ouragan

Mac OS X, version 10.5 was a premature release, just like Windows Vista. When will they stop passing off beta software for the real deal?

Generalization. Leopard seems pretty darn solid to me. Your experience may be different, but don't include me in your conclusion of Leopard. It's a very high-quality product. Not beta.

[Foo2]

Originally Posted by quagmire

Hopefully it will fix the crashing of iPhoto and iTunes. My iPhone is messed up because iTunes crashed on my iMac G5 in the middle of updating the iPhone. So it crashes every time I go to restore the iPhone. I will have to wait until my powerbook is back from repair to fix it. GRRR.

Have you tried re-applying the 10.5.1 combo update, iTunes update, etc.?

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by MsNly

I hope they fix crashing in all programs

and Disk Utility It doesn't work at all!

I've never had a program crash on me. Seems to me like you need to look closer at your particular setup.

[machei]

I just started using Time Machine this weekend, and since I have, the Mac won't stay asleep when I put it to sleep... even if the Time Machine drive is off. I hope that's a fixed issue in this one. Very little point in having a sleep feature if the machine's got insomnia.

[BdeRWest]

Yeah, great, support for Time Capsule, Apple's stab-me-in-the-back-for-buying-an-Airport-to-use-with-NAS. Wonderful. Can't wait.

Where my general NAS support with Time Machine!?

[MacTel]

Originally Posted by cgarlock

Hopefully they'll finally fix the Macbook wireless problems

Yeah, I hope they will too. I don't lose connectivity often but when I do it is bothersome.

When 10.5.2 comes out I'll not rush to update though. When I do I'll finally take a look at setting up Time Machine. Sounds like they're working-out some major bugs and I'd rather wait until then to start using it.

[quagmire]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

I've never had a program crash on me. Seems to me like you need to look closer at your particular setup.

It does seem to be dependent on setup. Though Disk Utility doesn't work on either the iMac or Powerbook. But, the crashing apps is only on the iMac. My Powerbook never had iTunes crash or anything. It was pretty stable. But, the Logic Board had decided to go all screwy and I was forced to send it in.

[kb9uwu]

With geekbench 2, both of my machines performed about 150pts SLOWER after the Leopard upgrade. Can I feel any real world difference? No. Just curious if this is consistent with other AI readers.

[MsNly]

Originally Posted by quagmire

It does seem to be dependent on setup. Though Disk Utility doesn't work on either the iMac or Powerbook. But, the crashing apps is only on the iMac. My Powerbook never had iTunes crash or anything. It was pretty stable. But, the Logic Board had decided to go all screwy and I was forced to send it in.

The most annoying bug is when I try to use a table in iWork, it always crashes.

And when I try to run Disk Utility to fix the problems, it just sits there and says 1 minute and never finishes, or starts for that matter...

[da2357]

Originally Posted by ouragan

Mac OS X, version 10.5 was a premature release, just like Windows Vista. When will they stop passing off beta software for the real deal?

I agree with 'coolfactor' that your statements are generalizations. I've been using Leopard for day-to-day work and have found it very usable and stable. Any comparison with Vista is unwarranted unless you're prepared to list out all your issues with Leopard, which is the only way you can give your statements any credibility.

[Lonon]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

When marketing works more closely with Engineering and can have better timeline projections that also keep the interest in Wall Street at an optimum level.

So, never. Crap.

[solipsism]

I feel bad for you people and all your problems.

[aross99]

I agree that for the most part, Leopard works really well for me on a number of machines, including Powerbook G4's, Mac Mini G4's, iMac G5's, MacBooks, and my MacBook Pro. However, there are definitely a number of things that need to be fixed. Specifically the AEBS firmware issues that cause AirDisk not to work when a computer sleeps; Finder Issues with umounting AFP volumes; etc. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Time Machine backups to AirDisks once the firmware is fixed. Oh, and the stacks fix will be welcome.

I'm just glad Apple is being pretty responsive to fix these issues. Each point release is better and better.

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by MsNly

I hope they fix crashing in all programs

and Disk Utility It doesn't work at all!

Sound like there may be something wrong your end, disk utility works fine on 5 Macs I run ranging from iBook G4 through a Dual G5 to a Intel MacBook. No crashes either. I do get the occasional refusal to quit.

[MsNly]

Originally Posted by digitalclips

Sound like there may be something wrong your end, disk utility works fine on 5 Macs I run ranging from iBook G4 through a Dual G5 to a Intel MacBook. No crashes either. I do get the occasional refusal to quit.

It doesn't crash, it just doesn't work. I've heard a few other complaints of this and its the same on my iBook and my Powerbook.

[Digitaldoc]

****Please consider fixing this, too****

This long-standing bug persists from inception in 10.4.10 into 10.5.1. Often characterized as a bug only on Intel Macs, I can assure all that my dual 867 MHz MDD is afflicted, too. Major symptoms: When attempting to read a compact flash card in either of two different card readers, the system will mount the card as a drive and allow navigation to the folder that contains images (Raw or JPG - does not matter). System shows several thumbnail images, but then freezes. Cannot restart finder or do anything except a hard system shut-down.

Attempts to open folder from Photoshop file dialog fails similarly.

Hope post here is more effective than post on Apple forums.

Steve

[ncee]

Apple will stop marketing / releasing software sooner then they should , when we stop asking them to!

We want the latest and greatest, and we want it NOW! Well, sometimes, now is to soon, but, well, we want it now, so here it is.

They should do a better job of keeping things secret, and then they won't have us excited over something, until it's time to be excited. A bit of a jump is fine, just not months.

With ALL of the different software applications out there and the different combinations of each of the these - it's no wonder, there are issues to some degree.

I use this software, along with this application, and with these printers …

You use these applications, and this other printer, and 4 different applications, and someone else uses, well you get the idea.

Being a beta tester for several companies, and seeing that often I have no problems with a new up-date or version of software, but other beta testers do, makes it very clear the difficulty that software manufactures face.

Which by the way, is whay I ALMOST always, wait until the software has been around for 6 months to a year, before I install it. It's pretty rare that a software up-date comes out, that I MUST install.

Skip

[stevetim]

Originally Posted by cgarlock

Hopefully they'll finally fix the Macbook wireless problems

I have no problems ... what are yours?

[Monkeyoe]

Originally Posted by BdeRWest

Yeah, great, support for Time Capsule, Apple's stab-me-in-the-back-for-buying-an-Airport-to-use-with-NAS. Wonderful. Can't wait.

Where my general NAS support with Time Machine!?

You want NAS support? We'll GIVE you NAS support!

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=83434

[jragosta]

Originally Posted by ouragan

Mac OS X, version 10.5 was a premature release, just like Windows Vista. When will they stop passing off beta software for the real deal?

Pretty odd conclusion - considering that > 80% of Leopard users are 'very happy' with their product vs something like 20% for Vista.

No OS is perfect, but Leopard seems to have a lot more positive feedback than any other.

[stevetim]

Originally Posted by quagmire

Hopefully it will fix the crashing of iPhoto and iTunes. My iPhone is messed up because iTunes crashed on my iMac G5 in the middle of updating the iPhone. So it crashes every time I go to restore the iPhone. I will have to wait until my powerbook is back from repair to fix it. GRRR.

i hear they are fixing memory leaks with Rosatta (required by G5's) so I wouldn't be surprised.

[DrBoar]

Issues with Leapard.
1.No hierarical collapsing folders in the dock, I have had that feature since 8.6 or something (with the folder under the Apple menue)
2.The Document icon is less distinct than in 10.4
3. The Program folder Icon is less distinct than in 10.4
4. The program folder incon is now "Adobe Acrobat" since installing Acrobat
5. Firewall settings are now more hidden,
6. Scanners....
7. The brilliant feature of TimeMacine to run backups on any >800 MHz G4 but then require core animation capable graphic card if you want to actually recover anyhing. That is so sweet on the G4 towers and the G4 powerbooks and iMacs.

I have had all X sine public beta and they all have been big strides forward up to and including 10.4, all eagerly awaited and full with usefull new features. 10.5 sure have added pretty things and I am sure many under the hood things for multi core CPUs etc. But as far as a usefull GUI it feels on par with 10.2 or 10.1, not way ahead of 10.4

[stevetim]

Originally Posted by ouragan

Mac OS X, version 10.5 was a premature release, just like Windows Vista. When will they stop passing off beta software for the real deal?

Both 10.5.1 and 10.5.2 are solid! very impressive in my experience.

However apple should call their new "Smart Folders" Dumb Folders because they only can display "name" "Kind" and "Last Opened" ....


Last Opened??? who cares?

[quagmire]

Originally Posted by stevetim

i hear they are fixing memory leaks with Rosatta (required by G5's) so I wouldn't be surprised.

Rosetta is the PowerPC emulation software for Intel Macs which makes PPC apps able to run on Intel Macs. So I don't see how that would cause iTunes to crash on the iMac using the PowerPC G5.

[stevetim]

Originally Posted by quagmire

Rosetta is the PowerPC emulation software for Intel Macs which makes PPC apps able to run on Intel Macs. So I don't see how that would cause iTunes to crash on the iMac using the PowerPC G5.

true. i got ahead of myself.

[tmedia1]

I don't know why, but over the 15 years I've owned Macs, several of them have have problems with sleeping properly or at all. Wish Apple would address these issues....

[stevetim]

64 bit vista for everyone (instead of just Pro users) on bootcamp?

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by MsNly

It doesn't crash, it just doesn't work. I've heard a few other complaints of this and its the same on my iBook and my Powerbook.

I strongly recommend anyone with strange problems to run Font Book and validate all fonts in both user and main Libraries. Remove all that show up with yellow and red flags. Leopard seems to be way more picky about fonts and doing this stopped numerous problems I had with applications from both Adobe and also iLife and iWorks.

[Monkeyoe]

Originally Posted by tmedia1

I don't know why, but over the 15 years I've owned Macs, several of them have have problems with sleeping properly or at all. Wish Apple would address these issues....

Well. I put it down to good old insomnia

[addabox]

Originally Posted by DrBoar

Issues with Leapard.
1.No hierarical collapsing folders in the dock, I have had that feature since 8.6 or something (with the folder under the Apple menue)
2.The Document icon is less distinct than in 10.4
3. The Program folder Icon is less distinct than in 10.4
4. The program folder incon is now "Adobe Acrobat" since installing Acrobat
5. Firewall settings are now more hidden,
6. Scanners....
7. The brilliant feature of TimeMacine to run backups on any >800 MHz G4 but then require core animation capable graphic card if you want to actually recover anyhing. That is so sweet on the G4 towers and the G4 powerbooks and iMacs.

I have had all X sine public beta and they all have been big strides forward up to and including 10.4, all eagerly awaited and full with usefull new features. 10.5 sure have added pretty things and I am sure many under the hood things for multi core CPUs etc. But as far as a usefull GUI it feels on par with 10.2 or 10.1, not way ahead of 10.4

Leaked screen shots indicate Apple has added this back as a Stacks option, thank the good Lord almighty.

You can browse and spotlight search the back-up folders on a TimeMachine target drive without the eye candy. They're tagged by date and type, so it should be pretty easy to summon up a given version of a given even without traveling into interstellar space.

I have no idea what is going on with the low contrast folder icons. Just one of those Apple things that you go "hmmmmmm......"

[macbookschmo]

And the update's yours for only $20 dollars... oh wait that was the iPod touch

[auxio]

Originally Posted by machei

I just started using Time Machine this weekend, and since I have, the Mac won't stay asleep when I put it to sleep... even if the Time Machine drive is off. I hope that's a fixed issue in this one. Very little point in having a sleep feature if the machine's got insomnia.

I have this problem in Tiger too (10.4.11). Both with my MBP and my wife's PPC Mac Mini (moreso with the Mini). The computer only goes to sleep about 1 out of every 3 times you actually tell it to do so.

So I don't think this bug is anything new with Leopard. I believe it's a longstanding problem.