Apple seeds fourth build of OS X 10.7.4 Lion with no known issues

One thing I noticed with the previous builds is that it changes your login screen back to the default wallpaper. However if you go into the directory to change it back to your customized image, it still shows the custom image. Weird. Not a bug, just an annoyance.

Do we know what 10.7.4 brings to the table?  Are there tangible improvements, or is this just a stability update?

 

Note to self: "stability" is not "tangible"… 

 

 

Tell that to someone with vertigo

No known issues? lol

 

http://workstuff.tumblr.com/post/20464780085/something-is-deeply-broken-in-os-x-memory-management

 

It's worth pointing out before you guys get all defensive; Loren Brichter has this issues too.

Edited by Ireland - 4/24/12 at 7:07am

 

 

Maybe that should be obtain?

 

 

Well I can categorically state that my Macbook suffers all the things described in that blog.  Things started getting worse with Snow Leopard then just got diabolical with Lion.  Admittedly my 2007 Macbook is getting long in the tooth but since Lion it is getting unbearable in its performance.

 

For example, switching user accounts - once a seamless process - now often results in a spinning beachball while the machine displays the logon screen.  The only way I have found around this is to open a new desktop in expose/spaces (whatever it is called) and to then logout the current user.  Aperture can take 5 minutes to start before it gives you control, iTunes can sit for a couple minutes too.  The list of issues goes on.  

 

It is not quite the Apple experience I originally bought when i converted back in 2007.

 

 

 

 

I run my day to day stuff on a 27" iMac quad core 8GB ram, standard HDD.  I only reboot when OS updates require it and I have never run up against the issues that they talk about.  Maybe they are running programs that are memory hungry but at this time I have Photoshop CS 5.5, Parallels 7, CoRD, Mail, Outlook 2011, and Safari.  Along with those I have Dropbox, Cubby and Skype running.  This is the usual number of programs I run 9 to 5 every day.  In the evening the majority of those are quit and I run some games.  Im not saying the issue doesn't exist, I just have not experienced it.  No beachballs between switching programs etc, no slowdowns, even when I have my windows test machine running with 4GB allocated in parallels, christ, safari is presently only taking up 300mb with 7 pages open.

No news that they fixed the network shares issue and in particular the smb shares issue... How disappointing... A dime a dozen ipad app can connect to smb networks in a flash and search them and OS X takes a tens of seconds and can't search them... no known issues my a**...

 

As for the article Ireland posted, it's my personal experience too with lion. I am having the same issues to a t:

 

 

 in all of my four macs running lion. Points 1-2 are very noticeable in my set ups, no. 3 is not applicable to me as I don't own a time machine, and 4,5,6 being very apparent: a very large number indeed of page outs for no reason with plenty of  ram available and inactive ram not getting freed as it should... fyi two 2006 24" white imacs with max 3gb of mem, a current rev 11 air with 4gb mem, and a current low end mini with 4gb mem...

 

 

 

 

 

It's a multitude of issues I think with similar symptoms but very different problems.  

 

The first is Safari memory leak issues.  I've found that quitting Safari every so often is a must or my computer will continually get slower and that's with 12GB of RAM.  This is probably the biggest performance boost for me.

The second is directory search path issues, which Apple has patched several times with Lion but it continues to be broken.  I can't be certain but this seems to effect switching users if you utilize WINS.

 

I know I read somewhere they switched the search path order to search Bonjour first & then listed directories, I big change from Snow Leopard.  I'm not sure why they did this but seems a pretty stupid move to me since chances are if it's bound to a directory or has local policies set those should be searched first.  In general network related performance in apps has a lag, including just opening a terminal session.  Lion doesn't appear to have these issues at least from a lag in performance perspective, Lion is looking more & more like the Vista of Apple (not counting Leopard against them, it did after all have to deal with supporting dual hardware platforms).

 

 

I suppose you mean "SL doesn't appear to have"... 

 

Agreed on the safari memory leaks issue. I 've blocked flash on it and I routinely quit it every few hours to get back to decent system performance. 

 

I wonder if at the moment apple has the resources to keep tackling both OS X and iOS at the same time. Since I 've not read anywhere of them hiring more personnel I guess they still keep shifting programmers and engineers back and forth to aid each team's established stuff when one becomes a priority over the other. It's painfully apparent that the os that's suffered the most from this shift of focus is OS X.

 

I think they should have already started considering hiring more people for their os development. I can't see how with their current user base and growth rates they can still afford to have the same team working on the two os's .

 

I also think the current leadership of OS X is not fit for purpose and should be replaced. If Tim Cook thinks lion has been a resounding success and listens to arch kissers like Gruber then apple will be in trouble. Apple is already in trouble because Cupertino might think whatever the want about lion, but the word on the street and the user's experience is quite different.

 

I think Cook is called upon to take a Jobsian role here and seek to address these issues decisively and effectively internally via hiring more people and changing the head of os x development. If word goes around that apple is not only selling at boutique prices (I am not of that opinion but that's the established notion) but they are also selling unreliable systems, if users start realizing that if they run windows 7 on their machines the machine is faster for most everyday scenarios and also this prolongs the time span of their system, then apple will be in big trouble. They shouldn't believe for a moment that what with their size, clout and tightly integrated ecosystem they are impervious to a backlash in the industry.

 

 

LOL

I rarely post, but I had to let you know that I spent the past 8-10 minutes cleaning my keyboard. :-P

SafarI seems to be a significant issue with this memory management issue. My 2008 MBP,with 2GB, runs much better when Safari isn't loaded and running. What does seem rather dumb is that the beach balling is often associated with menu access, if this is indeed memory management related then it is a sign of a fairly stupid memory manager. After all why would any OS focused on interactivity page out the primary UI code. I have to believe that more than one buy is involved here.

That being said I do believe most of this belly aching is somewhat inflated. I would leave Lion for anything right now. Lion gets more things right than wrong.

Now back to this thread, has anybody seen signs of new hardware support in this release? Honestly it looks like a flurry of test release are hitting the developers just before new hardware should come out.

 

 

I'm still running SL on my desktop Mac and 10.4.11 on my laptop. I've gotten used to waiting a while for better stability to set in before upgrading to the latest major version of Mac software. I've been this way since Apple released version 3 of Mac OS a zillion years ago and it's kept me from being knocked out of running my Macs on a day-to-day basis. I keep reading about the latest versions of Lion, but still haven't seen where it's ready-for-prime-time yet.  Now, Apple wants to jump to ML in a month or so, and Lion is still sick IMO.  <shakes head>

 

 

Thanks for the report. This is why I'm reluctant to upgrade to Lion. I'd rather stick with SL with it's known problems than to change to Lion with SL's problems plus Lion's new ones. Apple needs to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n until they get a firm foundation back under the OS.

 

 

It surprises me that Apple hasn't been able to get the Safari memory leak issue under control. It's been years since it first had the problem.

 

I stopped having the Safari memory problem with 5.1, and I'd had it since at least 4.0 before that…

 

 

I think you and I are on the same page. I'd LIKE to move to Lion -- because I like to create kiosks with Quartz Composer -- but I can't USE an unstable OS, period. 

 

Snow Lion was supposed to be the major cleanup OS version -- but it seems they must have kobbled together more "shiny new things" for Lion - like making it dependent on a network-type download. I think a LOT of people -- especially consumers are ready for the App Store, but it seems a bit like burning the bridges. Hint; your geek users are not soldiers and don't like any kind of trip without a return ticket.

 

>> Still, I've got to move one of my Macs to Lion because I'm getting forced into iCloud on my email. Again -- another burnt bridge to prevent me from retreating.