Submitted by Apple, which last week asked that developers provide feedback on their experiences using pre-released builds of Mac OS Leopard, has followed up by seeding a significant stability update to the next-generation system software. The latest seed, labeled Mac OS X Leopard 9A500n, arrived via Leopard’s Software Update mechanism as a ‘recommended’ update for all developers running Mac OS X Leopard build 9A499.
I hope they don’t release it too early – having had bad experiences in the past with previous MacOS X releases. Lets home that with the rapid increase in marketshare, Apple takes on the responsibility for delivering a quality product very seriously.
I personally have never had a problem with osx being unstable nor ‘unfinished’ (unless you count 10.0 but it wasn’t DEFAULT for a fair while after)
Yeah, I’ve found OSX 0.1 releases to be solid, not counting 10.0. (I can’t speak for 10.4, since I’m still running 10.3.) But it could be that the jump from 10.4 to 10.5 is more significant than previous jumps, so maybe there will be more problems than with previous jumps. We’ll see.
My experience, back in the dark ages – using an eMac. It was preloaded with 10.2.4 (updated to the latest version when received it) and it was great. Upgraded it to 10.3.x the early releases were rather horrid. I bought an iMac G5 which came with 10.3.x by default (later build) was was ok but early 10.4.x were buggy.
*Now* when I mean buggy, I don’t mean the whole computer falls down in a big scream heap – it was bugginess and quirkiness in applications.
While I found 10.4 to be pretty good at launch, I felt it was less polished than 10.3 at launch. Things were sorted out after a few patches, but still.
Like people above have said, I’ve never had a problem with Stability, the early first version of 10 were a little buggy in places, but still pretty good.
At least from then on they are just improving code, with no real huge huge changes that will effect performance and stability (Like OS9 to OSX terms of changes)
My only concern is how is it looking to be released on time? Wasn’t it October to be released?
Better hurry up and get those suckers pressed and ready.
Can’t wait, will be a great release, as usual.
Yep, it’s supposed to be coming out in October…likely later in the month. As for a “great release”, I’m a bit leery this time around, if for no other reason than the transparent menu bar, which seems a horrible idea from a usability standpoint. Here’s hoping that there’s an option to turn it off.
Edited 2007-08-22 02:12
Any release that will silence Vista’s short lived dominance is fine with me. Buggy or not it needs to appear soon. Lets hope this release will win back Apple’s home user market and begin the revolution. =)
Any release that will silence Vista’s short lived dominance is fine with me. Buggy or not it needs to appear soon.
NOOOOOOO!!
We want a solid release right off the bat. Why go through the crap that Vista’s early adopters are going through? No sir. I will not touch Vista for my own use until SP1. For my Mac, I want 10.5 to be solid and not have to wait for 10.5.1 to deploy it.
Any release that will silence Vista’s short lived dominance
I think his statement about Vista’s current dominance is flame bait. Can you imagine the average Microsoft hater letting a comment like that slide?
P.S. Vista is not that dodgy. I’ve got Vista on my machine and I bought my brother a new machine with Vista it on. Microsoft recently released two updates to improve compatibility and performance issues. I no longer have any hesitation recommending it to most people.
As a member of the ADC I have been testing 10.5 for some time now. I can’t say I have found many bugs, but I agree with all who think the menu bar needs an option so it isn’t transparent. It feels really out of place when you have an app pushed right up to the top.
I’ve had a few apps freeze then quit on me, but its nothing to write home about. The stacks takes a bit of getting used to and I keep thinking that my downloads aren’t downloading as you can’t by default see them on the desktop. Photobooth’s effects didn’t all work (in 9a466) plus the bit where you record a video with a live background on sucks performance wise. I have three Mac’s I’ve tested it on, Mac mini 1.42GHz G4, 2.1GHz iMac G5 and a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro.
I can’t say its a massive change however, the built in screensharing feature is handy, means I don’t have to keep Apple Remote Desktop open, but aside from that meh….
Let’s see what happens in October ‘eh?
pac
So you are saying there isn’t an option to turn off the transparent menu at the moment? Hmm, that sucks. I could get used to it but I really don’t se why they did it at all Vista has transparency all over the place and it’s just annoying sometimes. It’s by no mean awful though, just annoying at times. I’m pretty excited about the stacks thing. So much so that I started working on an applet for gnome that works similarly, let’s see if I can pull it off.
there is a hack already available to turn it off
http://www.manytricks.com/blog/?id=14
Just give me my dwrite back to have floating vertical menus that tear off and the problem of windows being pushed to the top is solved.
I don’t think Apple will have Leopard in stable condition until 10.5.3.
They just seem to be making so many huge mistakes. The latest patch release (10.4.10) has broken many laptop computer issues again, for instance. Maybe, it will be a lucky 13 (10.4.13) that will be the final release for Tiger.
I’m not sure whether they took all the time between Tiger to develop Leopard but they need to find better methods to ensure quality and security because what’s happening now isn’t working that well.