AppleInsider › Forums › Software › Mac OS X › Successive Mac OS X 10.5.3 builds continue from Apple
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Successive Mac OS X 10.5.3 builds continue from Apple

post #1 of 50
4/4/08 at 7:18am
Thread Starter 
Mac maker Apple Inc. continued this week with a somewhat unusual practice of providing outside developers with successive builds of its next operating system update, Mac OS X 10.5.3, fairly early in the testing cycle.

The company has historically followed a pattern in which it would alternate between releasing external and internal builds, where successive external seeds -- those to outside developers -- would only occur in the days leading up to the software's intended release.

Development of Mac OS X 10.5.3 has not been following that course. Instead, Apple has externally seeded three successive builds of the OS update to its vast developer community, beginning with build 9D10 late last month and continuing on through build 9D12 on Thursday.

According to people familiar with 9D12, the build tacks on 17 additional fixes and code corrections to a list now over 110 deep. Particular emphasis appears to have been placed on Spaces, they say, where new tweaks target the feature's preference pane, hot keys activation, and general functionality.

In addition, Apple is also said to have patched holes in Kerberos authentication, the .Mac preference pane, AirPort, and Network Setup Assistant.

In a set of developer notes reported to have accompanied the latest build, Apple made no changes to the system components in which it seeks developer feedback. That list still spans 25 items long and includes core components such as AirPort, Automator, Audio, Graphics, iCal, Mail,. Rosetta, Spaces, Spotlight, and Time Machine.

Though Mac OS X 10.5.3 is presumed for a release sometime in the next 7 weeks, the rapid and successive seedings suggest the update could hit sooner than later.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 50
4/4/08 at 7:53am
What I want to know is: Are there functional HP printer drivers in it?

Ever since upgrading to Leopard, HP's drivers have been absolute trash. On my DeskJet at home, pages abort with USB communication errors after 1/3 of a page. On a LaserJet 8000 at work, the driver spews hundreds of megabytes for even simple pages, causing the printer to abort the job with an out-of-memory error.

The GutenPrint drivers have no such problems (so it's not an OS or printer issue), but those drivers have very bad halftoning/dithering/color-matching algorithms, so photos come out looking terrible.

I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 50
4/4/08 at 8:11am
I hope they fix the DVD player, which in its current iteration sucks big time
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 50
4/4/08 at 8:16am
OSX was pretty stable from the word go and while 10.5.1 was a quick fix and 10.5.2 properly addressed most of the unavoidable issues you get following the launch of a new OS, 10.5.3 really should be the update that puts Leopard on course to be 99.99999999% reliable.

I am using Windows Vista and still more than a year after it was launched, it doesn't work properly or crashes when various things happen.

Hardly suprising that major corporations are beginning to evaluate the Mac Platform.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 50
4/4/08 at 8:29am
Although Leopard came with HP drivers for my HP PSC3180, the scanner would not work with them, or the previous drivers that HP had included in the package. A search on HP's site showed that they released new drivers for that unit (and others) back in December.

Have you checked HP's site for updated drivers?

Quote:
Originally Posted by shamino View Post

What I want to know is: Are there functional HP printer drivers in it?

Ever since upgrading to Leopard, HP's drivers have been absolute trash. On my DeskJet at home, pages abort with USB communication errors after 1/3 of a page. On a LaserJet 8000 at work, the driver spews hundreds of megabytes for even simple pages, causing the printer to abort the job with an out-of-memory error.

The GutenPrint drivers have no such problems (so it's not an OS or printer issue), but those drivers have very bad halftoning/dithering/color-matching algorithms, so photos come out looking terrible.

I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 50
4/4/08 at 8:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by serpicolugnut View Post

Although Leopard came with HP drivers for my HP PSC3180, the scanner would not work with them, or the previous drivers that HP had included in the package. A search on HP's site showed that they released new drivers for that unit (and others) back in December.

Have you checked HP's site for updated drivers?

It's not just HP. On the Apple discussion forums there is a bunch of threads regarding how a number of Airport printers stopped working after the 10.5.2 update and/or the latest security patch. One solution seems to be to install the printer as an IP printer instead of a Bonjour one. After hours of trying it worked with my new Samsung CLP-300. But I still hope that the Airport fixes included in 10.5.3 address this as well.
*
antiorario.it
communikitchen.com
Reply
*
antiorario.it
communikitchen.com
Reply
post #7 of 50
4/4/08 at 8:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charel View Post

I hope they fix the DVD player, which in its current iteration sucks big time

I hope they make my display wake up when my MBP wakes up. Fingers crossed.
Emailing video from iPhone to Apple TV , sort of..
Reply
Emailing video from iPhone to Apple TV , sort of..
Reply
post #8 of 50
4/4/08 at 9:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charel View Post

I hope they fix the DVD player, which in its current iteration sucks big time

Can you detail HOW DVD Player sucks? I've had no problems with it. Like to hear your experience.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 50
4/4/08 at 9:35am
I really hope this update fixes <insert random obscure pet-peeve here>. It's appalling that they've allowed <insert random obscure pet-peeve here> to go on so long. Does any <insert random schmoe under NDA here> know if <insert random obscure pet-peeve here> will be fixed, because this really is the last <insert random fibrous tube here>!
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 50
4/4/08 at 9:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cavallo View Post

I really hope this update fixes <insert random obscure pet-peeve here>. It's appalling that they've allowed <insert random obscure pet-peeve here> to go on so long. Does any <insert random schmoe under NDA here> know if <insert random obscure pet-peeve here> will be fixed, because this really is the last <insert random fibrous tube here>!

Hopefully you can tell the difference between a "pet peeve" and a documented problem.

-random shmoe
Emailing video from iPhone to Apple TV , sort of..
Reply
Emailing video from iPhone to Apple TV , sort of..
Reply
post #11 of 50
4/4/08 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by walshbj View Post

Hopefully you can tell the difference between a "pet peeve" and a documented problem.

-random shmoe

One persons pet peeve is another persons documented problem.......

Personally, I have pet documented problems!
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 50
4/4/08 at 10:31am
My peeves:

Bring back the old video preview pane in column view. It was much more functional than the current one with the "play" symbol in the center. There was a volume control and a position slider so I could scrub through the video. Even the stupid Quick Look has no volume slider, only a mute button. Apple, stop treating us like children who can't be trusted with "complicated" controls and must be given only the very simplest interfaces.

Have they fixed the damn problem that Disk Utility has with USB drives yet? I've got four different brands and sizes of USB drives from 400GB to 750GB and Leopard's Disk Utility won't work with any of them.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 50
4/4/08 at 11:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

Mac maker Apple Inc. continued this week with a somewhat unusual practice of providing outside developers with successive builds of its next operating system update, Mac OS X 10.5.3, fairly early in the testing cycle.

The company has historically followed a pattern in which it would alternate between releasing external and internal builds, where successive external seeds -- those to outside developers -- would only occur in the days leading up to the software's intended release.

Development of Mac OS X 10.5.3 has not been following that course. Instead, Apple has externally seeded three successive builds of the OS update to its vast developer community, beginning with build 9D10 late last month and continuing on through build 9D12 on Thursday.

According to people familiar with 9D12, the build tacks on 17 additional fixes and code corrections to a list now over 110 deep. Particular emphasis appears to have been placed on Spaces, they say, where new tweaks target the feature's preference pane, hot keys activation, and general functionality.

In addition, Apple is also said to have patched holes in Kerberos authentication, the .Mac preference pane, AirPort, and Network Setup Assistant.

In a set of developer notes reported to have accompanied the latest build, Apple made no changes to the system components in which it seeks developer feedback. That list still spans 25 items long and includes core components such as AirPort, Automator, Audio, Graphics, iCal, Mail,. Rosetta, Spaces, Spotlight, and Time Machine.

Though Mac OS X 10.5.3 is presumed for a release sometime in the next 7 weeks, the rapid and successive seedings suggest the update could hit sooner than later.

I thnk you should not let three successive updates lull you into thinking there will be a quick release of 10.5.3. That is because there is a reason for these. Trust me, it'll be quite a while.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 50
4/4/08 at 11:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by serpicolugnut View Post

Although Leopard came with HP drivers for my HP PSC3180, the scanner would not work with them, or the previous drivers that HP had included in the package. A search on HP's site showed that they released new drivers for that unit (and others) back in December.

Have you checked HP's site for updated drivers?

Yes. There are no updated drivers for a DeskJet 842c, and the LJ-8000 is using the updated drivers.

Speaking of the LaserJet, I also noticed that HP is only shipping a PostScript driver for Leopard. Under Tiger, I was able to download and install a PCL-6 driver, which seems to print a lot faster.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 50
4/4/08 at 12:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shamino View Post

I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)

Maybe if you write "John Mayer here," they will write you back, haha.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 50
4/4/08 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tailpipe View Post

Hardly suprising that major corporations are beginning to evaluate the Mac Platform.

So they can load Windows on Macs and say "See, we use Macs"?
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 50
4/4/08 at 1:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ydnar600 View Post

Can you detail HOW DVD Player sucks? I've had no problems with it. Like to hear your experience.

Opening it freezes PowerBooks.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....91685&tstart=0
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 50
4/4/08 at 2:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shamino View Post

What I want to know is: Are there functional HP printer drivers in it?

Ever since upgrading to Leopard, HP's drivers have been absolute trash. On my DeskJet at home, pages abort with USB communication errors after 1/3 of a page. On a LaserJet 8000 at work, the driver spews hundreds of megabytes for even simple pages, causing the printer to abort the job with an out-of-memory error.

The GutenPrint drivers have no such problems (so it's not an OS or printer issue), but those drivers have very bad halftoning/dithering/color-matching algorithms, so photos come out looking terrible.

I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)

I've had a couple different home HP DeskJet printers & they have always had crap drivers, not just for OS X but also for Windows. The issues with USB used to plague me as well but it had nothing to do with Leopard cause the issue existed in Windows too.

I think there are 2 factors that could be causing this. 1, Apple uses Post Script & the DeskJet line of HPs actually use a special format that is neither standard PCL nor PS compliant. To get all the features of your DeskJet is impossible unless you have HP's junk software running on your computer. 2, Many Windows shops have setup all their printers with PCL emulation instead of PS. The symptom of this when printing from a Mac is that the print job spits out tons of garbage & blank pages. I wonder if you are a victim of this with that HP at your work, it may be set to use PCL emulation.

If you are looking for a good home printer that works flawlessly with your Mac get a Lexmark, I ditched my last HP for a wireless Lexmark InkJet & the thing rocks! Apple used to give away Lexmark printers with their Macs but now they do HPs. I don't know why everyone likes HPs so much, I think they've just saturated the market. When it comes to print quality I've not noticed any difference & other brands actually support true Post Script in their low end models.

Hope this info helps, the HP thing drove me mad for a long time.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 50
4/4/08 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by OllieWallieWhiskers View Post

Opening it freezes PowerBooks.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....91685&tstart=0

I've noticed a lot of people with PPC have had many Leopard issues. We had a PPC file server that died after going Leopard. We aren't really using it all that much though since in our experience my of the PPCs we were using had random issues anyway. Seems like as Apple drew near phasing out PPC that they started having a lot of quirks, wonder if the chip manufacturers were letting quality slide because they knew they were being phased out.

Anyone else experienced this, more issues with PPC I mean?
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 50
4/4/08 at 2:35pm
My MBP keeps scanning for connections even though I am connected... my USB airdisk doesn't work.... my printer doesn't work over my AEBS... \: wow:
2011 13" 2.3 MBP, 2006 15" 2.16 MBP, iPhone 4, iPod Shuffle, AEBS, AppleTV2 with XBMC.
Reply
2011 13" 2.3 MBP, 2006 15" 2.16 MBP, iPhone 4, iPod Shuffle, AEBS, AppleTV2 with XBMC.
Reply
post #21 of 50
4/4/08 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hezekiahb View Post

I've noticed a lot of people with PPC have had many Leopard issues. We had a PPC file server that died after going Leopard. We aren't really using it all that much though since in our experience my of the PPCs we were using had random issues anyway. Seems like as Apple drew near phasing out PPC that they started having a lot of quirks, wonder if the chip manufacturers were letting quality slide because they knew they were being phased out.

Anyone else experienced this, more issues with PPC I mean?

Sad to hear you are having problems. It would seem to me that from my (admittedly unscientific) trawling the 'net that people are having MORE problems since Apple moved to Intel than they ever did from PPC. Maybe it is just because they have sold so many desktops and notebooks in the last few years than they ever did previously, that the law of averages kicked in and more people are having problems.
I note that Jeremy from iLounge fame said that he believed people with PPC chips have less problems with Safari than the new Intel people.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/bac...is-hung-again/

Of course all the people who are happy with their Macs don't usually write in to boards and say so.. you usually only hear from people who have problems but that is human nature really.

As a long time Mac user I am wondering whether to go out on a limb and recommend Macs to people after all those Macbook and iMac problems of late. Sigh

I still believe that Microsoft is an agent of the Devil.. (but that's just me )
..... the greatest fame comes from adding to human knowledge, not winning battles.
Paraphrased from Napolean Bonaparte, 1798
Reply
..... the greatest fame comes from adding to human knowledge, not winning battles.
Paraphrased from Napolean Bonaparte, 1798
Reply
post #22 of 50
4/4/08 at 4:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shamino View Post

What I want to know is: Are there functional HP printer drivers in it?

Ever since upgrading to Leopard, HP's drivers have been absolute trash. On my DeskJet at home, pages abort with USB communication errors after 1/3 of a page. On a LaserJet 8000 at work, the driver spews hundreds of megabytes for even simple pages, causing the printer to abort the job with an out-of-memory error.

The GutenPrint drivers have no such problems (so it's not an OS or printer issue), but those drivers have very bad halftoning/dithering/color-matching algorithms, so photos come out looking terrible.

I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)

I have the HP2605dn at home, and at work we use a whole bunch of HPs too they all work beautifully. The trick is to ALWAYS buy a Ethernet printer and to avoid USB unless you are CERTAIN that the driver is perfect. Ethernet printers can print through a PPD which are virtually platform independent (a PPD is a simple text file that describes the printer and its capabilities), USB printers on the other-hand must communicate through a proprietary software-application-driver that usually sucks.

I also use a Epson S9000 which connects through USB but the driver software is well written and works flawlessly; however, sometimes the connection drops-out when connected through Airport Extreme, I think the problem has been solved with the latest Airport update though.
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 50
4/4/08 at 4:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hezekiahb View Post

I've noticed a lot of people with PPC have had many Leopard issues. We had a PPC file server that died after going Leopard. We aren't really using it all that much though since in our experience my of the PPCs we were using had random issues anyway. Seems like as Apple drew near phasing out PPC that they started having a lot of quirks, wonder if the chip manufacturers were letting quality slide because they knew they were being phased out.

Anyone else experienced this, more issues with PPC I mean?

Unfortunately Apple has little regard for the PPC platform, Leopard runs much better on Intel. OSX Server always had SMB and permission problems but Apple doesn't seem to care about them, they'd rather tell you how flawless OSX is. Leopard has some of the biggest bugs when it comes to permissions. I really cannot recommend OSX Server anymore, Apple just doesn't get the IT market. Although Mac OSX Server is cheaper and has some nifty features over XP, the risks are not worth it.
Reply
Reply
post #24 of 50
4/4/08 at 4:26pm
I have no problems printing to three different HP printers. A color laserjet 3600, deskjet 6980 and psc 2500.

Plug them in (usb) and they just work.

Edit. I wirelessly print to the 6980.
Reply
Reply
post #25 of 50
4/4/08 at 4:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hezekiahb View Post

I've noticed a lot of people with PPC have had many Leopard issues. We had a PPC file server that died after going Leopard. We aren't really using it all that much though since in our experience my of the PPCs we were using had random issues anyway. Seems like as Apple drew near phasing out PPC that they started having a lot of quirks, wonder if the chip manufacturers were letting quality slide because they knew they were being phased out.

Anyone else experienced this, more issues with PPC I mean?

I've only had Leopard on my pb 1.67 a month I suppose.
No issues here - 10.5.2 seems stable enough. Running fcp hasn't been a problem.

The thing I find a little annoying is getting used to all the network mounts showing in the finder sidebar window. I mean that's good and handy - but I'm so used to seeing the mounts on the desktop that if you forget to eject from a finder window and then sleep the machine, it's the ol' sluggish wait when you wake back up while it tries to establish the connxn.
Sooo - is there any way in leopard to mount the connxn on the desktop - like the olden days
Maybe I'm missing something ... likely enough.
Reply
Reply
post #26 of 50
4/4/08 at 5:47pm
I use a PPC iBook and have had a few niggles with Leopard.
Initially I had the 'wireless dropping' bug but it was fixed with 10.5.2.

Now I have noticed that I cannot copy from a finder window to a destination in the sidebar. For instance if I have downloaded a tutorial and I want to move it to Movies. I cannot just drag the file onto the movie icon in the sidebar, I have to open the movie folder in another finder window.

Other than that I am loving Leopard
Macbook 4Gb OSX.6.4
Website
Tiggy Isand
iOS Game: Fireflight
Reply
Macbook 4Gb OSX.6.4
Website
Tiggy Isand
iOS Game: Fireflight
Reply
post #27 of 50
4/4/08 at 6:10pm
Quote:
As a long time Mac user I am wondering whether to go out on a limb and recommend Macs to people after all those Macbook and iMac problems of late. Sigh


Same here. In addition, Canadians have to pay a $550 or $650 premium over the competition to buy from Apple. And if you discount CPU frequencies (which can be lower on the Windows side), or AMD CPUs, you're still stuck with a $350 premium to buy an Apple computer. By the way, the Canadian dollar is at par with the American dollar, 1 or 2 cents less, 3 to 5 cents more.

Why should Canadians pay so much more? To give Steve Jobs a billion dollar bonus in stock options and a second billion dollar bonus to divide among his puppet Vice-Presidents? I think not.

Given that these guys are paid a salary of $15 millions per year, why should they expect a bonus for such a mediocre work leading to Apple's 2.9% world market share?

As a 20 year Mac user, I am not in a position to recommend Apple to the people I know as I feel that under Steve Job's leadership, Apple's single objective is to rip-off its customers. Some like it, many more question it, and most people, 97% of people, avoid it altogether. Sad, but true.

Reply
Reply
post #28 of 50
4/4/08 at 6:32pm
Well, I hope Apple takes its time with 10.5.3 and really bangs out the bugs with Leopard. Leopard, while better by miles than Vista, was still pretty disgraceful for a company like Apple.

In short, Leopard was the buggiest release of OS X since 10.0.0. (It's why we got 10.1 for free.)

I am pleased Spaces is getting a serious look since the implementation--notably the taking of control at seemingly random times--is one of the worst designs I have ever seen. Ever. (Even Microsoft wouldn't do something so stupid.

And getting things like Back to My Mac to actually work would be wonderful.

All going well, it looks like 10.5.3 will be the version that should have shipped in the first place. Sure, there still will be bugs, but OS X will finally be a stable and properly designed OS X.

Fingers crossed...
Reply
Reply
post #29 of 50
4/4/08 at 11:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ydnar600 View Post

Can you detail HOW DVD Player sucks? I've had no problems with it. Like to hear your experience.

You can find my and others complaints on the discussion thread.
It freezes my system forcing a reboot.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....34856&tstart=0
Reply
Reply
post #30 of 50
4/5/08 at 1:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tailpipe View Post

OSX was pretty stable from the word go and while 10.5.1 was a quick fix and 10.5.2 properly addressed most of the unavoidable issues you get following the launch of a new OS, 10.5.3 really should be the update that puts Leopard on course to be 99.99999999% reliable.

I am using Windows Vista and still more than a year after it was launched, it doesn't work properly or crashes when various things happen.

Hardly suprising that major corporations are beginning to evaluate the Mac Platform.

Well Mac Excel 2008 is such a laughably sub-par program, so far below Excel 1997 literally, that no corporation's finance dept could ever use the Mac platform.

This is obviously MS's intention, of course.
Reply
Reply
post #31 of 50
4/5/08 at 1:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BWhaler View Post

All going well, it looks like 10.5.3 will be the version that should have shipped in the first place.

Oh really? And who would have designed it, a magical person?

They need feedback _from_ the user base in order to _find_ the bugs that need squashing. So it's not possible to release 10.5.3 until now, after the user base has created the agenda.

The problem is, nobody is better than Apple at designing bug-free OS's. Apple is the best OS maker the human race has yet produced.

I just don't get why criticize Apple about being slow or stupid. They are doing the best they can. They are the best in the world at their craft.

If you don't like 10.5.0 or 10.5.1, you had the option of waiting. There is still nothing bad about 10.4.11. New product releases are often not perfect. 10.5.0 was not great but it was about average for a major release, each of which had its own big problems.
Reply
Reply
post #32 of 50
4/5/08 at 1:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ouragan View Post

Given that these guys are paid a salary of $15 millions per year, why should they expect a bonus for such a mediocre work leading to Apple's 2.9% world market share?

As a 20 year Mac user, I am not in a position to recommend Apple to the people I know as I feel that under Steve Job's leadership, Apple's single objective is to rip-off its customers.


What ridiculous nonesense. MS is the one raking in huge profits without innovation.

Apple has unleashed everything good about the personal computer revolution during the past 30 years.

In 1997, Steve Jobs took control of a weak, directionless Apple Computer. Since then, Steve has made Apple a mighty world powerhouse in IT, music and now cellular phones.

Apple does not rip off its customers. The OS is a very reasonable $99 or so.

To accuse Mr. Jobs of money-hungriness is preposterous. He is paid $1 per year in salary. He spearheaded Mac OS X _itself_ for the love of everything Holy.

Steve personally created not only the majority of Apple's market wealth of some US $150B, but also the pleasure and productive output of Apple customers and developers. IN total, Steve has influenced maybe $1 trillion of economic activity. In return, he has been very modestly paid indeed. He has maybe US $1 billion but has not pursued his personal wealth, but rather, gave everyone pleasure and more productive tools.
Reply
Reply
post #33 of 50
4/5/08 at 11:02am
I would hope that Apple fixes Finder folders. It is so frustrating when folders do not remember who they are anymore. Let me set a in a view I want and put me back in charge. This used to be so great; now it's a PITA.

Adding some speed (or memory) to 'Stoplight' would be nice. Why must it render the same icons over and over again? Can't it render a Word doc icon once & then cache the damn thing someplace for instant retrieval? It finds 12,000 "hits" & I must wait for 12,000 icons to be rendered before the spinning beachball stops!?! This thing is fracking worthless.

I really wish that Apple would put BLUETOOTH back into Address Book! When I downgraded from Tiger to Leper, I lost the ability to dial my cell phone directly out of AB. I lost the ability to text message right out of AB. And I lost the ability to connect the two for many, many other purposes. Don't punish OS X users just because Apple sells a cell phone now. Sure, we all realize and have bent over to accept that iPhone is so much more important than the Mac and/or OS X but I really miss this stripped out feature.

Let me turn Stacks off completely, please. Let me navigate folders in the Dock the Jaguar, Panther, Tiger way - you know, super fast instead of dog-butt Leper slow.

Return my AirPort range to me! Give me back my lost bars!!! Going from 10.4.11 to 10.5.2, I lost 53 feet of AirPort connectivity at home.

Make iCal worth using again. I used to be able to set an appointment with one or two clicks. Now it takes around 8 clicks and 3 separate windows - it's painful to use this thing now. Apple has turned a promising and much-needed application into a real pain in the arse.
Hot tub blonde, pouring champagne: "Say when..." Dangerfield: "Right after this drink."
Reply
Hot tub blonde, pouring champagne: "Say when..." Dangerfield: "Right after this drink."
Reply
post #34 of 50
4/5/08 at 1:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hezekiahb View Post

I've had a couple different home HP DeskJet printers & they have always had crap drivers, not just for OS X but also for Windows.

In my case, my DeskJet 842c has worked perfectly with HP's drivers from Mac OS 10.3 and 10.4 (and Windows XP). Ditto with the laser printers at work. I only started seeing problems after upgrading to 10.5.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hezekiahb View Post

If you are looking for a good home printer that works flawlessly with your Mac get a Lexmark...

Interesting. The last time I looked at Lexmark devices (which was a while ago), they only made "winprinters", using proprietary host-based rendering tech, and no Mac support. I assume, from your post, that this has changed.

My plan right now is to just gumble and use the GutenPrint drivers until I use up my ink cartridges. Then I'm going to replace it with a Brother HL4070CDW color laser printer. $500 gets up to 21ppm (reviews say it's more like 17, but that's still good), network connectivity, built-in PostScript and a duplexer. Yeah, this costs a lot more than an ink-jet printer, but given the lousy quality and expensive supplies for today's ink jet printers, I think it's worth it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suhail View Post

The trick is to ALWAYS buy a Ethernet printer and to avoid USB unless you are CERTAIN that the driver is perfect. Ethernet printers can print through a PPD which are virtually platform independent (a PPD is a simple text file that describes the printer and its capabilities), USB printers on the other-hand must communicate through a proprietary software-application-driver that usually sucks.

A few comments here:
  • The LaserJet 8000 that's been giving me problems at work is Ethernet-connected. So that doesn't necessarily mean everything is OK. The GutenPrint drivers work, but they're not calibrated to the hardware, so pictures all come out dark and grainy. I can compensate a little by adjusting the gamma in the driver, but I don't have the time or desire to play with all the different settings that I could theoretically set.
  • It is well known that HP's drivers bypass many of Apple's system services and directly access the USB port. I've even seen HP reps say so on some Apple support discussions. This, of course, means they end up breaking and need fixes, whenever the device driver model changes (as I suspect it did in 10.5). It's my understanding that drivers from other publishers use Apple's application-level USB APIs and don't have this problem.
  • PPD files are "PostScript Printer Description" files. They allow generic PostScript drivers to be used with most PS printers. They do nothing for printers that don't use PS, no matter what the manufacturer is. But this shouldn't cause a problem. In 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4, HP's PCL-based drivers worked great, as did their DeskJet drivers.
No, I still think this is a case of HP shipping broken drivers because they were unable/unwilling to get them fully functional by the time Apple needed them for the Leopard distribution.

Which is why I want my next printer to have built-in (not software-emulated) PostScript. This way, it should be able to print from absolutely any operating system using generic drivers. I won't need manufacturer-provided drivers for such a printer.
Reply
Reply
post #35 of 50
4/6/08 at 6:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by matt_s View Post

Return my AirPort range to me! Give me back my lost bars!!! Going from 10.4.11 to 10.5.2, I lost 53 feet of AirPort connectivity at home.

Yes, please fix AirPort. The way it is now I can not connect to about half of the networks that I try to connect to, even when Tiger has not problems connection to them. That renders Leopard essentially useless on a laptop. It's too bad because Leopard is a nice OS apart from the airport problems.

It would be nice if they would fix the little bugs in X too.
Reply
Reply
post #36 of 50
4/6/08 at 10:26pm
I hope the development speed is a sign of soon-to-be-released, what with the known issues around the Leopard graphics update - unless Apple just releases a new version of that, soon.

As it stands, I can either live with it and have Excel 2008 lock up my new MBP most times when I resize a window, or I can unofficially roll it back and live with a lot of other graphics-related crashes and (even) less reliable successful wakes from sleep. Thanks to boot camp, vista and office 2007, I have a reliable Excel - that is also ridiculously much faster - in the meantime.

In terms of pet peeves , the ability to change the spotlight window view settings would be really nice. Tiger handled this much better! Better sticking of Finder window settings, and especially geometry! would also be great - they could just add geometry settings to the Automator action. I've resigned myself to just leaving all windows at the default size, which means cover flow never even gets a chance to prove it's worth anything. If they could make the iTunes dashboard widget work at all - for the first time ever - it would be pretty cool too ... still not really useful, but hey.

I haven't been hit by lower airport reception, but I have had SMB issues, specifically Leopard not being able to (re)connect to shares after waking from sleep.

I usually look forward to updates, and I usually have no issues - this time I'm really eagerly awaiting the fix !
Reply
Reply
post #37 of 50
4/7/08 at 12:15am
"which means cover flow never even gets a chance to prove it's worth anything"

heh, yep, Cover Flow is real nice eye candy - but in terms of practical navigation - uhh well, no thanks.
Reply
Reply
post #38 of 50
4/7/08 at 5:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bwik View Post

What ridiculous nonesense. MS is the one raking in huge profits without innovation.

Apple has unleashed everything good about the personal computer revolution during the past 30 years.

In 1997, Steve Jobs took control of a weak, directionless Apple Computer. Since then, Steve has made Apple a mighty world powerhouse in IT, music and now cellular phones.

Apple does not rip off its customers. The OS is a very reasonable $99 or so.

To accuse Mr. Jobs of money-hungriness is preposterous. He is paid $1 per year in salary. He spearheaded Mac OS X _itself_ for the love of everything Holy.

Steve personally created not only the majority of Apple's market wealth of some US $150B, but also the pleasure and productive output of Apple customers and developers. IN total, Steve has influenced maybe $1 trillion of economic activity. In return, he has been very modestly paid indeed. He has maybe US $1 billion but has not pursued his personal wealth, but rather, gave everyone pleasure and more productive tools.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Reply
Reply
post #39 of 50
4/7/08 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

Mac maker Apple Inc. continued this week with a somewhat unusual practice of providing outside developers with successive builds of its next operating system update, Mac OS X 10.5.3, fairly early in the testing cycle.

Though Mac OS X 10.5.3 is presumed for a release sometime in the next 7 weeks, the rapid and successive seedings suggest the update could hit sooner than later.

It's not unusual at all. They always deploy rapid early builds when there are glaringly huge problems. It's not happened that recently I suppose.

Right now I can't use AirPort... which is just stupid. That's three builds now... all wit broken AirPort - but only for some.
Reply
Reply
post #40 of 50
4/10/08 at 5:32pm
Ah yes I thought I was just going nuts! Spaces activating randomly is just downright bizarre. Quite jarring. Glad they're on that!
"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch
"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox
Reply
"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch
"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Mac OS X
AppleInsider › Forums › Software › Mac OS X › Successive Mac OS X 10.5.3 builds continue from Apple