I've actually been a little disapointed with Snow Leopard. Whilst things for me have not been as bad as the first poster suggests, there have been issues. I had bother with my printer, Safari crashes quite a lot, I get the beachball quite a bit when I open new Finder windows. I've not seen the guest account/deleted data issue, but it's a concern to me.
It's nothing that bad to be honest, and I'm prepared to put up with a few glitches in the early days of a new OS, especially when so much of the code has been re-written.
I do think that the release of Leopard was better though. That was the first upgrade of a Mac operating system I'd ever done, and I'm still amazed at how smooth the install went and how stable everything was.
Apple are in the odd position now that they have set the bar so high, a slight slip-up is news.....
Did you do a clean install? have you deleted all the contents of your preferences and cache directory (Inside your user library directory), logged out then logged in?
Please, don't speak about things unless you know what you're talking about; you're starting to sound like a fox viewer thinking he is an expert on economics.
I'm mainly annoyed by Mail randomly duplicating hundreds of messages every few days. I too hope "no known issues" means they've resolved this major inconvenience.
I also tried to restore a contact that somehow was deleted from Address Book and wasn't able to find it because Time Machine mysteriously had no Address Book contacts before sometime in late August, despite the fact that I've been using the same Time Capsule with the same iMac every day since April! The only thing that's changed about my system is the upgrade to SL.
Other than those two issues (and only the one with Mail is of any real consequence to me), I'm greatly impressed with SL. I think it's the most feature-rich and stable Mac OS to date.
I'm not worried in the slightest. Turn it of and quit worrying about it. Apple has actually acknowledged this bug. They will issue a fix. I have no doubt.
I'm not worried about it, but I wasn't one of the users who lost all their data after using a guest account. I have a friend whose TimeMachine backups have stopped working after installing 10.6. If he had used the guest account he would be screwed. But yes, I have turned it off!
I think SL's initial bugs are consistent with all OSX releases - remember how bad jag was? Also I was forced to try out Leopard with my new machine and it had many issues until things started settling down at 10.5.3
Lets face it - Apple doesn't test their Software well and relies on us early adopters to shake it out. Microsoft got bit badly by this with Vista which is why they released the public beta for windows 7 almost a year early. In this era of people being less patient with computer woes (i.e. the new OS is supposed to be better than the old), I think apple needs to change their strategy and do public betas at least 6 months before formal releases. The old - expecting us to deal with buggy software - days are becoming real old fast.
I just bought SL for 5 macs but am waiting until 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 to install it - I just can't afford the productivity hit to use beta software...
oh and replying to another thread - yes Time Machine needs some scheduling options - I had to do the manual edit to make it only backup every 4 hours because of the constant slowdown
finally - I know there is macfixit out there, but I think it would be helpful if appleinsider made a user friendly bugs and feature request page to easier help the apple community
I'm mainly annoyed by Mail randomly duplicating hundreds of messages every few days. I too hope "no known issues" means they've resolved this major inconvenience.
I also tried to restore a contact that somehow was deleted from Address Book and wasn't able to find it because Time Machine mysteriously had no Address Book contacts before sometime in late August, despite the fact that I've been using the same Time Capsule with the same iMac every day since April! The only thing that's changed about my system is the upgrade to SL.
Other than those two issues (and only the one with Mail is of any real consequence to me), I'm greatly impressed with SL. I think it's the most feature-rich and stable Mac OS to date.
That jarred a memory loose. I remember seeing a backup of the book after upgrading. Check the forums. I think the old address book is renamed and a new one established with the old one's data after upgrading. It's possible your old book is still there, just with a different name.
That jarred a memory loose. I remember seeing a backup of the book after upgrading. Check the forums. I think the old address book is renamed and a new one established with the old one's data after upgrading. It's possible your old book is still there, just with a different name.
You do realize that backups are also for hardware failure? More so than any simple OS crash. It's foolish to think you don't need a backup.
I back up all my files on DVDs- I find them to be more durable than any perpetually spinning device. I have separate DVDs for my iTunes music, videos, pictures, etc. It takes many DVDs however to back just my music for example. Hopefully this may change as I hear rumours on other websites that Blu-ray may soon be built into Snow Leopard's components. I have never had a Mac fail in itself.
Did you do a clean install? have you deleted all the contents of your preferences and cache directory (Inside your user library directory), logged out then logged in?
Please, don't speak about things unless you know what you're talking about; you're starting to sound like a fox viewer thinking he is an expert on economics.
I didn't think I was claiming to be an expert, just telling you what my experience has been and to be honest, I don't appreciate the tone of your comment.
As for my install, the documentation didn't suggest I needed to do a clean install (wouldn't know how to). I've not deleted anything in my cache directory (don't know what it is).
The thing you need to realize is that those of us who don't necessarily "know what we are talking about" are probably the bulk of computer users.
I'm not worried in the slightest. Turn it of and quit worrying about it. Apple has actually acknowledged this bug. They will issue a fix. I have no doubt.
The thing is, I did use the guest account since I found it pretty useful when I have visitors. I actually have turned it off for now, but surely you can acknowledge that the existence of a bug that could lose you all your data is a pretty big one. If Microsoft had a bug like this, everyone on this board would be up in arms!
I back up all my files on DVDs- I find them to be more durable than any perpetually spinning device. I have separate DVDs for my iTunes music, videos, pictures, etc. It takes many DVDs however to back just my music for example. Hopefully this may change as I hear rumours on other websites that Blu-ray may soon be built into Snow Leopard's components. I have never had a Mac fail in itself.
Yeah and I used to put all my data in manila forders in a filing cabinet.
I didn't do a clean install of SL either. I wanted to try it out for a bit. Just laziness. And my experience is similar to others who have been performing quick and easy upgrades. No appreciable speed increases that I can feel. In fact, Expose has an odd delay every time I activate it that makes it seem a lot slower. Mail has issues. Safari can take my 4GB iMac down to nothing if I surf over a few days.
After a clean install, I'll be interested to see what improves. I love SL and can't wait to put it through its paces with my coming 27" quad cpu.
I'm not beta testing any more OS X builds without getting paid for it.
Updates to 150 components? Apple is off it's rocker, call the medics.
All Apple has to do is get a fleet of volunteers to beta test the new OS before release, it's been impossible to keep it under wraps anyway, so what's the problem?
Give a full version for compensation of reports etc. A mere $30, big deal.
I can just imagine all the support calls Apple is generating and the damage done to "It just works". thats costing Apple plenty.
MS has had public betas of it's OS's for years. with Vista and 7 anyone could download the beta. 7 is pretty good so far but with Vista they literally rewrote the entire kernel between service packs and broke a lot of software compatibility that was supposed to be compatible with Vista
What is this mythical beast called a "clean install," and what does it do that a regular install does not?
erm, its when you boot from the install DVD and then after booting you select the Disk Util from the tools menu and erase your hard drive prior to installing the OS. (of course you may wish to back all your documents and personal files before doing this)
What does it do that a regular install does not?
Well, for starters it only installs the OS. It doesn't have to deal with any pre-existing software on your system and is the best way to 'fix' a troublesome installation.
Once the install has completed you can then restore your documents etc and reinstall any other applications you have.
Comments
I've actually been a little disapointed with Snow Leopard. Whilst things for me have not been as bad as the first poster suggests, there have been issues. I had bother with my printer, Safari crashes quite a lot, I get the beachball quite a bit when I open new Finder windows. I've not seen the guest account/deleted data issue, but it's a concern to me.
It's nothing that bad to be honest, and I'm prepared to put up with a few glitches in the early days of a new OS, especially when so much of the code has been re-written.
I do think that the release of Leopard was better though. That was the first upgrade of a Mac operating system I'd ever done, and I'm still amazed at how smooth the install went and how stable everything was.
Apple are in the odd position now that they have set the bar so high, a slight slip-up is news.....
Did you do a clean install? have you deleted all the contents of your preferences and cache directory (Inside your user library directory), logged out then logged in?
Please, don't speak about things unless you know what you're talking about; you're starting to sound like a fox viewer thinking he is an expert on economics.
From the first Mac OS X....
You notice improvement and enhancement.... So far Leopard is the best, and Snow Leopard sucks...
Crash all the time, and make everything else crash...
And has become like Microsoft Windows, whopping tons of memory for nothing....
Worst OS by far....
Leopard is the best....
They said the same thing about Tiger when Leopard was released. Give it a few months. SL will be the best ever, for sure.
I also tried to restore a contact that somehow was deleted from Address Book and wasn't able to find it because Time Machine mysteriously had no Address Book contacts before sometime in late August, despite the fact that I've been using the same Time Capsule with the same iMac every day since April! The only thing that's changed about my system is the upgrade to SL.
Other than those two issues (and only the one with Mail is of any real consequence to me), I'm greatly impressed with SL. I think it's the most feature-rich and stable Mac OS to date.
I'm not worried in the slightest. Turn it of and quit worrying about it. Apple has actually acknowledged this bug. They will issue a fix. I have no doubt.
I'm not worried about it, but I wasn't one of the users who lost all their data after using a guest account. I have a friend whose TimeMachine backups have stopped working after installing 10.6. If he had used the guest account he would be screwed. But yes, I have turned it off!
Lets face it - Apple doesn't test their Software well and relies on us early adopters to shake it out. Microsoft got bit badly by this with Vista which is why they released the public beta for windows 7 almost a year early. In this era of people being less patient with computer woes (i.e. the new OS is supposed to be better than the old), I think apple needs to change their strategy and do public betas at least 6 months before formal releases. The old - expecting us to deal with buggy software - days are becoming real old fast.
I just bought SL for 5 macs but am waiting until 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 to install it - I just can't afford the productivity hit to use beta software...
oh and replying to another thread - yes Time Machine needs some scheduling options - I had to do the manual edit to make it only backup every 4 hours because of the constant slowdown
finally - I know there is macfixit out there, but I think it would be helpful if appleinsider made a user friendly bugs and feature request page to easier help the apple community
I'm mainly annoyed by Mail randomly duplicating hundreds of messages every few days. I too hope "no known issues" means they've resolved this major inconvenience.
I also tried to restore a contact that somehow was deleted from Address Book and wasn't able to find it because Time Machine mysteriously had no Address Book contacts before sometime in late August, despite the fact that I've been using the same Time Capsule with the same iMac every day since April! The only thing that's changed about my system is the upgrade to SL.
Other than those two issues (and only the one with Mail is of any real consequence to me), I'm greatly impressed with SL. I think it's the most feature-rich and stable Mac OS to date.
That jarred a memory loose. I remember seeing a backup of the book after upgrading. Check the forums. I think the old address book is renamed and a new one established with the old one's data after upgrading. It's possible your old book is still there, just with a different name.
That jarred a memory loose. I remember seeing a backup of the book after upgrading. Check the forums. I think the old address book is renamed and a new one established with the old one's data after upgrading. It's possible your old book is still there, just with a different name.
Thanks, I'll check around.
You do realize that backups are also for hardware failure? More so than any simple OS crash. It's foolish to think you don't need a backup.
I back up all my files on DVDs- I find them to be more durable than any perpetually spinning device. I have separate DVDs for my iTunes music, videos, pictures, etc. It takes many DVDs however to back just my music for example. Hopefully this may change as I hear rumours on other websites that Blu-ray may soon be built into Snow Leopard's components. I have never had a Mac fail in itself.
Did you do a clean install? have you deleted all the contents of your preferences and cache directory (Inside your user library directory), logged out then logged in?
Please, don't speak about things unless you know what you're talking about; you're starting to sound like a fox viewer thinking he is an expert on economics.
I didn't think I was claiming to be an expert, just telling you what my experience has been and to be honest, I don't appreciate the tone of your comment.
As for my install, the documentation didn't suggest I needed to do a clean install (wouldn't know how to). I've not deleted anything in my cache directory (don't know what it is).
The thing you need to realize is that those of us who don't necessarily "know what we are talking about" are probably the bulk of computer users.
I'm not worried in the slightest. Turn it of and quit worrying about it. Apple has actually acknowledged this bug. They will issue a fix. I have no doubt.
The thing is, I did use the guest account since I found it pretty useful when I have visitors. I actually have turned it off for now, but surely you can acknowledge that the existence of a bug that could lose you all your data is a pretty big one. If Microsoft had a bug like this, everyone on this board would be up in arms!
From the first Mac OS X....
You notice improvement and enhancement.... So far Leopard is the best, and Snow Leopard sucks...
Crash all the time, and make everything else crash...
And has become like Microsoft Windows, whopping tons of memory for nothing....
Worst OS by far....
Leopard is the best....
It's a poor craftsman that blames his tools. I've had no problems with Snow
installation or what so ever with my iMac 2.4. I say it's pilot errors, yours.
I back up all my files on DVDs- I find them to be more durable than any perpetually spinning device. I have separate DVDs for my iTunes music, videos, pictures, etc. It takes many DVDs however to back just my music for example. Hopefully this may change as I hear rumours on other websites that Blu-ray may soon be built into Snow Leopard's components. I have never had a Mac fail in itself.
Yeah and I used to put all my data in manila forders in a filing cabinet.
Does SSD say anything to you.
After a clean install, I'll be interested to see what improves. I love SL and can't wait to put it through its paces with my coming 27" quad cpu.
Migrating from 10.4 to 10.5 was smooth like butter....
Nothing crash as often as I am today with 10.6....
Personally, working in IT, your problems all point to user error.
I'm not beta testing any more OS X builds without getting paid for it.
Updates to 150 components? Apple is off it's rocker, call the medics.
All Apple has to do is get a fleet of volunteers to beta test the new OS before release, it's been impossible to keep it under wraps anyway, so what's the problem?
Give a full version for compensation of reports etc. A mere $30, big deal.
I can just imagine all the support calls Apple is generating and the damage done to "It just works". thats costing Apple plenty.
MS has had public betas of it's OS's for years. with Vista and 7 anyone could download the beta. 7 is pretty good so far but with Vista they literally rewrote the entire kernel between service packs and broke a lot of software compatibility that was supposed to be compatible with Vista
What is this mythical beast called a "clean install," and what does it do that a regular install does not?
erm, its when you boot from the install DVD and then after booting you select the Disk Util from the tools menu and erase your hard drive prior to installing the OS. (of course you may wish to back all your documents and personal files before doing this)
What does it do that a regular install does not?
Well, for starters it only installs the OS. It doesn't have to deal with any pre-existing software on your system and is the best way to 'fix' a troublesome installation.
Once the install has completed you can then restore your documents etc and reinstall any other applications you have.