Major 10.4 Compatability Issues?

blackbeardblackbeard
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I've heard from a bunch of people with access to the 10.4 GM that many Panther apps are not compatible with Tiger. Some programs mention that Apple Script is not up to date, others like VLC apparently just crash a lot. I was planning to upgrade to Tiger as soon as it comes out in stores but if its not compatible with major apps like VLC then I'd be much less inclined...so are there logical reasons why Tiger doesn't play well with some Panther Apps?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    The logical reason is that the apps that do break didn't follow Apple's developer guidelines. Apple does an excellent job of saying "here are our API's that are going to be safe for quite some time". If you go outside those lines, things will break.



    VLC expressly did that to get more performance, now they have to adapt.



    That being said... there really has not been many reports of things breaking (other than the obvious haxies and hardware-touching-apps like Norton... and everyone should know that those will break).





    PS... "major" app, VLC? No. nice, yes. Major? no.
  • Reply 2 of 29
    blackbeardblackbeard Posts: 46member
    Well I happen to use VLC ten times more often than MS Word, or Adobe CS, but thats just me. Do you imagine these problems are relitively minor and require simple updates or will they need to be re-written ala os 9 to os X conversion?
  • Reply 3 of 29
    rockyclarkrockyclark Posts: 10member
    VLC 0.8.1 works just fine under Tiger.. I just used it to play a VCD (all the way through with no glitches) and some MPG files under Tiger A428...



    If anything is guaranteed not to work under Tiger, it's programs that address the networking APIs directly or bypass it by design or need to mod or tweak it on the fly. This includes stuff like Brickhouse, Little Snitch, most VPN clients.. most other stuff will work fine. I've heard Timbuktu works okay..
  • Reply 4 of 29
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,439member
    Don't blame anyone but the developers. We've known about Tiger for 8 months. If their software isn't updated for Tiger in the next couple of weeks then that is solely the laziness of the developer.
  • Reply 5 of 29
    blackbeardblackbeard Posts: 46member
    hmurchison: VLC is open-source freeware, hence its reasonable that the developers simply couldn't afford the expensive license to get early builds of Tiger, no? I've played around with it more and VLC crashes with a good deal of regularity on various filetypes, though if you're lucky it can play straight through some files.
  • Reply 6 of 29
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by blackbeard

    I've heard from a bunch of people with access to the 10.4 GM that many Panther apps are not compatible with Tiger. Some programs mention that Apple Script is not up to date, others like VLC apparently just crash a lot. I was planning to upgrade to Tiger as soon as it comes out in stores but if its not compatible with major apps like VLC then I'd be much less inclined...so are there logical reasons why Tiger doesn't play well with some Panther Apps?



    I don't think there would be any major compatibility issues; and if there are, they would easily be fixed with one of the mac os x free updates, or one of the free software updates. Also, it depends on what proccessor your using. G5 might have some slight incompatiblites with x and y programs, while G4's would possibly have compatibility issues in a and b programs
  • Reply 7 of 29
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    VLC is arguably the most important application on Mac as we speak. Like others, I use it about a dozen times a day. I have set it as default app to open all .avi files give then QT is just useless with them.



    Just look at Versiontracker's top downloads list. Its been number one download for as long as I can remember, probably more than a year.



    In any case, VLC has been working fine on Tiger for the last week for me.
  • Reply 8 of 29
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    VLC is arguably the most important application on Mac as we speak.





  • Reply 9 of 29
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    I know people who download tons of porn, and yes, VLC is VERY important to them.
  • Reply 10 of 29
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Outsider

    I know people who download tons of porn, and yes, VLC is VERY important to them.



    Well, I guess that explains it then. Maybe if I load up on pron, I would find that Pages, or Mail, or iCal, or AddressBook, or Photoshop or all of the other things I use constantly have no significance at all.
  • Reply 11 of 29
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    VLC is arguably the most important application on Mac as we speak.



    uhh... whatever.
  • Reply 12 of 29
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    VLC is arguably the most important application on Mac as we speak.



    AW Come on ZO, we ALL know that Virtual PC is the most important app for Mac - you have to run Windows to get real work done)



    <ducks>
  • Reply 13 of 29
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    *sigh* it obviously depends what use you have for a computer.



    Business people will probably swear by MS Office apps, some browser, etc.



    I think most of us here are rather net savvy and come accross tons of attachments in email and other videos. Web browsing is probably the most important utility of a computer now a days (along with email) and multimedia is a large part of that. Anyway, as I said, its "arguably" the most important app, not THE most important app. VLC plugs a HUGE hole in QuickTime's inability to support non standard codecs.



    The number one, by FAR, question from new Mac users is "how the hell do I view such and such video? Windows Media Player could play them fine by downloading the codec". Apple has yet to face realities of video codec market and make life easier for its users.



    Anyway, this is totally off topic.



    Regrading Tiger compatibility, I havent run into anything yet. MenuMeters runs fine. I have yet to test other stuff like Gmail Alert, Synergy, BluePhoneElite, and a few Contextual Menu extras.
  • Reply 14 of 29
    rasti-rasti- Posts: 34member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    VLC is arguably the most important application on Mac as we speak.



    And what about mplayer? it's more or less important?
  • Reply 15 of 29
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    I agree that VLC is very important to our platform. Without it, a whole generation of video-pirating users would find that that "Macs can't play most video files."



    While older generations may not see this, picture millions of college students being turned off from the mac because it can't play videos. College students download and trade tv shows and movies quite frequently. The defacto standard for this is divx. Even with the divx plugin, Quicktime Player.app fails miserably. Without VLC, kids would soon find out that one of their primary computing tasks is not supported under OS X.



    With that said, there currently isn't much of a commercial market associated with such functionality. The people who download and watch tv shows and movies aren't typically the type who pay for software...



    Also, the second that quicktime provides reliable divx playback... VLC's popularity will drop like a rock.



    [EDIT]

    And to get back on topic:



    VLC has been flaking out on me under 10.4. It routinely sprouts floating palletes detailing failed audio playback. (On top of the other known bugs from 10.3)



    Earlier it was unusable... until i figured out that by visiting the help menu, all improperly disabled menu items were once again available.
  • Reply 16 of 29
    geekdreamsgeekdreams Posts: 280member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    The number one, by FAR, question from new Mac users is "how the hell do I view such and such video? Windows Media Player could play them fine by downloading the codec". Apple has yet to face realities of video codec market and make life easier for its users.



    It doesn't help that MS is pushing WMV 10 which is completely unavailable to Mac users. VLC crashes on me a lot, and doesn't play, like, 30% of the videos I throw at it, but I still use it more than QT Player. \
  • Reply 17 of 29
    auslanderauslander Posts: 183member
    Does anyone find with VLC that if you open a movie it hijacks the audio settings? Lately, I've been trying to play some AVI movies using VLC but I get errors and after that I get no audio output from my Mac. I checked in the Sys prefs and the audio output setting had been switched from analog to digital (I don't have the digital output hooked up) and from that point on I cannot change it back without a restart. It's been doing it with the last 3 OS software revisions too (10.3.7 - 10.3.9)



    Anyone else found this? I'm using a G5 dual 2.5, 2x250GB HD, 4GB ram, and OSX 10.3.9.



    Thanks.
  • Reply 18 of 29
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    err, afaik, Windows Media 10 is only a new player, not a new codec. The codec is still WMV 9
  • Reply 19 of 29
    4fx4fx Posts: 258member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    err, afaik, Windows Media 10 is only a new player, not a new codec. The codec is still WMV 9



    Yup, though the Mac version of WMP doesnt support the WMV 9 Advanced codec, so that is the reason it cant play all WMV 9 files...
  • Reply 20 of 29
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dfiler

    Also, the second that quicktime provides reliable divx playback... VLC's popularity will drop like a rock.





    It's not the Divx playback that makes QuickTime suck, the performance is. The thing is dog ass slow, here's hoping it will be better in 7.



    VLC rocks, it's by far the best multimedia player out there.
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