Apple ships the first Leopard update
Updated throughout at 12:33 p.m. with additional details and analysis.
The first update to Mac OS X Leopard has arrived, with fixes for bugs in Time Machine and Finder, among other things.
Version 10.5.1 is now available through Software Update or on Apple's Web site. It's a 110MB update that smooths out some of the more notable bugs reported in the first three weeks of Leopard's life on the planet, and it arrives just one day after Apple shipped what will probably be the last update for Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4.11.
The first update to Leopard is out, with fixes to Time Machine and Finder.
(Credit: Apple)This is a little faster than Apple moved ahead with the first update for Tiger, which launched in April 2005. The Leopard launch went smoothly for most of the 2 million Mac OS X users that upgraded over the first weekend, but the first release of any operating system is usually problematic for some. And Apple was under the gun to deliver Leopard in October, after missing its first deadline in order to make sure that the iPhone shipped on time.
Time Machine was probably the most hyped feature of Leopard prior to its release, but a number of problems cropped up with formatting and restoring files. Those are now a thing of the past, according to Apple, as the new software fixes issues related to backing up on MBR (master boot record) hard drives greater than 512GBs and drives that use the NTFS file system. The update also fixes a problem where some files that have been restored did not appear in their designated folders.
The well-publicized Finder flaw, where data could be erased from a system if the connection was interrupted following a "move" command, is also addressed in the update. And changes were made to Leopard's firewall; Apple tweaked the wording on one of the firewall selection tabs to make it more clear, according to a support document released along with the updates. The default setting for Leopard's application firewall is still, "Allow all incoming connections," but you can now set the firewall to "Allow only essential services" instead of "Block All."
Leopard comes with an application firewall that can be set to allow anything to access your Mac, allow nothing across the wire except for essential networking communications, or allow access on a case-by-case basis, as determined by the user. If you chose that third option for the firewall settings in Leopard, it was still possible for the executables attached to some background processes that run as "root" to gain access to the system, even if you had identified those executables as things you wanted to block. That's not good.
The update corrects that issue so that any executable file marked as "block incoming connections" is blocked, even if its process mate is running as "root," meaning that it has full access to your system. And now when you make changes to the firewall settings, they are enabled automatically so you don't have to restart for the changes to take effect.
There are also fixes for issues with Back to My Mac, Airport wireless networking, and several features. Here is the complete list.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
My take - sofware will have bugs doesn't matter who makes it.
Software will have bugs whoever makes it....but the better companies fix it in a timely manner.
you feel the need to complain about Mac users' point of view,
unless underneath that hardened MS Fan interior of yours, you
actually believe them.
But sure there will be updates to improve fixes on both
platforms XP/Vista & the Mac OS. But it's usually far worst on the
PC platform only because Microsoft has so many independant
platforms to serve - homemade & commercial - which makes it
a very difficult system to predict; on how, when and which to
update. I like to call this the "Microsoft Con-Fusion System",
cause it mostly seems at times, they might be sure about their
product then they play the "no comment" card which bascially
means they haven't a clue on what to do. I sometimes see Jim
Allchin's clueless face when thinking about it. Although, he is
retired, which makes it, not as much fun. :)
For the Mac side of things though, which for life of me I don't
understand why some big corporate companies (in this day age)
hold out on using it for business, is a tightly organized well
integrated system serving all of their computers, older and
newer. Heck I'm running OS X Tiger on a 7 year old Graphite all
in one G3 iMac with a refurbished hard drive, and it still runs
beautifully. For business, Mac's have a shelf life of about 8 years.
Now that their on Intel, my guestimate would be even longer.
With PC's you'd probably have to upgrade parts constantly which
will cost more time and money as the PC ages.
large - unusually small I thought. The article states that it is
110MB. I wonder if the smaller version is for Intel only machines?
Maybe the larger one is a Universal Binary.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1051update.html
the standalone package which would certainly be a universal
binary.
- Applelites against the wall
- by Lenter101 November 16, 2007 4:02 AM PST
- New York Times reports, "Apple has patched over 150 vulnerabilities in the eight security updates it has issued so far during 2007." Darn, I thought this Apple thing was suppose to be so secure and superior? What happen dudes?
- Reply to this comment
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- "Diluted?"
- by ReverendRob November 16, 2007 8:28 AM PST
- First off, I think the word you're looking for is "deluded."
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- Brain-Lites against the facts
- by McBlayde November 16, 2007 8:53 AM PST
- [i]Let's see if these quick fixes actually work before we start
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(12 Comments)For the Applelites who can now only brag about how fast Apple corrects their problems - I say a quick fix that has to be fixed again ain't much of a fix.
Let's see if these quick fixes actually work before we start praising your beloved, over rated Apple software.
BTW, Apple stock closed down yesterday at $160.30, down about $28.00 from its high 2 weeks ago. But, hey, the P/E ratio is now down to 41. Woohoo!
I'm not sure who is more diluted about this company, the Applelite bloggers or the Applelite investors.
"Diluted" is something you do to cut the strength of a solution,
like the Kool Aid you Astroturfers drink. (How much does M$ pay
you guys these days?).
And, even if a patch still has a bug to fix, I say, it's better to only
have to wait a couple of weeks between updates than... How
long has it been since Vista came out? Where's that 1st Service
Pack? Whatever your answer, tell it to the poor people who had
to go back to XP or the smart ones that stuck with it so far.
If you hate Mac OS so much, why are you even reading a Mac OS
article? Maybe you need to get out of the hose more often!
praising your beloved, over rated Apple software. [/i]
Fine, how many exploits in the wild have you heard about?
None? Hmmm, I guess the fixes actually work.
[i]Apple stock closed down yesterday at $160.30...[/i]
Not sure if you know how the stock market works, but in case
you haven't heard, there has been a great deal of volatility in
general. Most EVERYTHING was down. Even Apple is subject to
overall fluctuations. I agree that whatever you are drinking is
what needs to be diluted or maybe given up entirely?