Comments on: Leopard and new Mac apps are bumming me out

I love the Mac, I just wish it would stop crashing like the machines used to do in the mid-1990s when you had to obsessively save your work or risk losing it all.

[stangfan]

Using Vista since Feb and no problems.....

You right an entire article on how many problems your having with your Mac and you still find a way to bash Windows. Your funny!

I have five Vista machines running since February and can't say I've had any problems... Strange I know!

[Ninth_Life]

Leopard Ate My Photoshop

After 20 years of dedicated pro Mac use, we're switching to anything else now.
Regretfully shelled out the full price for Leopard in hopes it would resolve
some of those lock-up issues of 10.4 that continually hampered production.
After installation, the horror was realized that Photoshop 7 was rendered
useless, right in the middle of a crucial project. No warning was given to us.
Producing promotional DVDs seemed like a great idea and our Mac was to be
the ticket to success. Unfortunately, it appears all we have is an expensive toy
to make holiday presents with, maybe. Mac is useless professionally anymore.
Creative departments worldwide are discovering they chose the wrong product.
Bloated, slow and frustratingly fickle. Mac's Leopard is nothing but eye candy.
We don't need slicker interfaces. We need a machine that actually works for us.
Two years is too short of a software\equipment lifespan in today's economy.
We expect to get at least five from any computer or all-new software version.
Product dedication is OK, but pushing lemons for that sake alone is just dumb.
Rant away all you want, we have lived and learned hard, where it really counts.

[Ninth_Life]

Spotlight Out

Also, Spotlight has been indexing our G5 iMac for two weeks now. Still unable to
perform any internal searches on the machine. All the files are lost now. Thanks!

[slotcarbob]

OS Leopard

Come on, guys. You are not personally the experience of the vast majority. 5
million installs, and 5000 people have a bad time. That.s 1/10th of 1 percent.
Heck, even if 50,000 have a problem, that's within limits of acceptability.
Where are your backups?

I have Leo on 3 machines (one is a 400 mhz PB), plus 5 clients who switched.
Not a single problem. I knew PS 7 would not run. Told them to upgrade. But,
that said, the biggest safeguard was a cloned bootable backup. Period.

I'm not an Apple wonk, and I don't preach the company lines. It's about good
computing. KNow what you're doing before you Upgrade.

[dpVoIP]

Photoshop 7 ?

Photoshop 7 was released more than 4 years ago. Adobe has since released CS, CS2 and CS3. The Adobe site clearly states that customers must upgrade to CS3 in order to run Photoshop on Leopard.

Expecting Apple or even Microsoft to maintain compatibility with 3rd party software that is more than 3 releases and 4 years out-of-date is a ridiculous expectation.

When running such dated software, any reasonable IT manager would have checked with the 3rd-party software vendor (in this case Adobe) prior to upgrading to the latest version of the operating system.

Don't blame Apple (or Microsoft) for your own companies missteps.

[lantzn]

Pro User? Yeah right.

Wait a minute here, a pro using version 7 of Photoshop. HELLO, we are currently at version 10 with CS3. Your using a version that was released some time around the turn of the century and you're complaining about stability in using it on current hardware and OS? If I'm reading this right you have a 2 year old Mac Pro or MacBook Pro? That means you have an Intel machine. That also means your Photoshop 7 is running under Rosetta. These are all assummption gathered from your details. As far as no warning goes, there are NUMEROUS articles on running a non-Intel version of Photoshop under Rosetta. You also said that you were hoping an upgrade to an even NEWER operating system would fix your problems. If this is the case, then you're not much of a Pro if you can't even figure out why your setup is so unstable. Sounds like it's time to change careers.

[M C]

Umm...Photoshop 7? OS switch in the middle of a "crucial project"??

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[Jkirk3279]

Come on, you're saying you'd rather replace ALL your apps and your Macs too, rather than update PhotoShop?

Just ONE software version higher, and PhotoShop works fine with Leopard.

I suspect a troll.

[BirdDog01]

Leap to Leopard

Have used Leopard for 4 weeks with no problems of any significance. I use a 4 core Mac Pro, and my default browser is a pre alpha build of Camino 1.6. Use this to judge what I might consider a "significant" problem.

[Jazzyflute]

Intriguing

I find this post quite intriguing. I have owned and operated leopard now for about a month. My experience with it has been as follows - Day one, I had extraordinary lag, applications took several times as long to open to function as normal. Day two - everything was back to normal. I think it had to do with my lack of restarting after the installation, and the programs where still updating and adjusting to the new configurations. Since them I have run into no "application quit expectantly" with the exception of Safari, which seems to have acquired some bugs with the new OS. Many websites with tabs do not work properly anymore. And signing into certain mail servers in impossible via safari. I have now switched completely to Firefox, which I was already in the process of doing, and viala' all is good again. I am a college student music major and use garage band frequently. I am not running iLife 08' yet however I have not experienced any crashes, or additional bugs.

[kaltespj]

Bums me out too... Get used to it!

OK, let me start by flashing my credentials. I am an IT professional - started programming a TI-99/4a when I was 5. Hands down, I believe the best OS could have been OS/2.

I used Macs and PC's all through grade-school. I never saw much of a problem with them then - paint was all I needed and Word Perfect, Carmen Sandiego, etc, worked fine on them all. It wasn't until the GUI came out that either one started having issues and I just happened to have a father who worked at IBM so Windows 3.1 came "free" with his PC.

The first Mac I owned was a PowerPC 6000 series with OS8 - it was horrible. I stayed with my NT, 98SE, and Linux boxes.

When Mac went to Intel, I bought a mini, bumped it to 2GB, and began to "try" it. In a short time, I went from owning and relying on six PC's to just having my mini. One tiny little PC overtook them all. I could do it all in one!

I have used Vista since, and well, what's really new? Its shiny, and bright, and they moved things around on me (burried them)...

Then I bought Leopard. It crashes! Yes, indeed, it crashes quite often. But, I', getting old - I'm sick of switching to other platforms and OSes. If I could get DOS to work - I can live with this until the patches come out...

[chesch]

Yup I agree, and wish I could go back one release.

I found the same thing to be true. Also a lot of my widgets just die for no
reason. The startup and execution of applications are slower as well. Backup
express is not compatible with the time machine and I feel the need to get a
brand new external drive before I try to get everything in order. Yes I have
backups on both dvd and an external drive.

I have about 3,000 or so pics that I don't want to lose. I think it is the
magnitude of the files that are causing the problem.

I did the upgrade because a restore of Iphoto lost many of the pictures that I
had made, in no particular order mind you.

Pictures would show up in slideshow but not in Iphoto. Very tantalizing but
frustrating when I would try to find "lost" pics. Any Ideas?

Thanks
Tom

[Jkirk3279]

Well, just because iPhoto can't recall where the files are doesn't mean they're lost.

I guess you didn't burn your photos off to CD ? Backups, backups, backups.

One of the killer apps for Leopard is Time Machine. I bought an external drive and I plug in once a day.

Search with Spotlight for the file types of your pictures, such as jpg, etc.

Copy them off to an external drive or burn to CD as soon as possible.

[Merengoso1]

Rock solid, no crashes

Had a few install problems as well - the dreaded login glitch, a bit of Time
Machine weirdness, new settings needed to teleconference via iChat if you're
on Comcast cable... I reinstalled with archive & install, and everything works
like a dream now (I use 2 iMacs professionally). Leopard does indeed have its
needless eye candy aspect, but as you become familiar with it you discover a
treasure trove of useful new features you can't live without. Don't forget to
apply the 10.5.1 upgrade. As far as Leopard "eating" Photoshop - Adobe has
not updated Photoshop to play well with Leopard or Intel Macs. My Elements 4
works perfectly, but then I don't use it for work.

[chesch]

Yup I agree, and wish I could go back one release.

I found the same thing to be true. Also a lot of my widgets just die for no
reason. The startup and execution of applications are slower as well. Backup
express is not compatible with the time machine and I feel the need to get a
brand new external drive before I try to get everything in order. Yes I have
backups on both dvd and an external drive.

I have about 3,000 or so pics that I don't want to lose. I think it is the
magnitude of the files that are causing the problem.

I did the upgrade because a restore of Iphoto lost many of the pictures that I
had made, in no particular order mind you.

Pictures would show up in slideshow but not in Iphoto. Very tantalizing but
frustrating when I would try to find "lost" pics. Any Ideas?

Thanks
Tom

[jscott418]

Not impressed with Leopard

Just when Apple is making progress in Windows user's converting to Mac's. It
needed to make Leopard a real home run! It did not in my view. Sure, for
many it certainly installed better then a Windows upgrade, and I don't think
this is a Vista disaster for Apple. But I do think Jobs hyped Leopard a little too
much for what it is. I also agree that putting Leopard concerns after dealing
with the iPhone intro was Apple's big mistake. Apple should never put
anything before their bread and butter. Unless of course they plan to bail out
of the computer business? In my opinion, I like Leopard but would not have
spent the money had I known what I do now. No I am not going back to
Tiger,like I said before this is not a Vista nightmare. But, I do have freeze ups
with apps even with a clean install of Leopard. So I think Apple should be
busy working out some of the glitches soon.

[zamboknee]

My Leopard not all that great either

Agreed. Not happy with the stability issues I'm seeing on Leopard. And a little
bummed out that Pro Tools (Digidesign) wasn't up to speed on drivers for
Leopard. I can't get my Mbox 2 to work right with Garageband. It's almost like
Apple went ahead on development and release without having some of it's
closest partners on board. Either that or digidesign just dropped the ball on this
one.

[sleepy7]

Why upgrade?

It seems to me, according to everything I have read, that anybody that is having problems with Leopard are the ones that have upgraded instead of Archive or a clean install. I'm curious, have previous versions of OS X worked better after running an upgrade install than Leopard? I'm new to mac, I have Tiger, but I would never do the upgrade option. Windows never goes well when performing an upgrade instead of a clean install. That is where part of the bad rap for new versions of Windows come from.

[M C]

Author shows his lack of, ahem, credentials

"I lost my musical masterpiece" - if you were in Garageband (or any massively resource-hungry music composition app, as most are) "for hours" and didn't save early and often, you're a poor excuse for a computer user, or a music "artist."

When someone doesn't seem to grasp something as basic as the above concept, I have to take the rest of his statements with a wheelbarrow full of salt.

Thumbs up, CNet, for acquiring another quality blog author! ;)

[irperez]

Hi I'm a Mac & I'm PC...

The Mac Commercials should be more like this...

"Hi I'm Mac, and I'm PC... "

PC: "Mac, why are you out of breath?"

Mac: "Well I just upgraded to Leopard and I can't keep up with my old self... I just all of a sudden seem so sluggish today. I think I need to restart myself and I'll be okay..."

PC: "Really? Its been a while since I seen those days. In fact it was since 1998..."

Mac: "Ahh! no! not again!!!"

PC: "Mac what happened?"

Mac: "I crashed... AGAIN!!"

PC: "Wow... XP hardly ever did that and Vista doesn't either... Maybe you should hire some better developers; look at Microsoft, their betas releases are rock solid let alone their official releases."

Mac: "I just want to go back to the way I used to be"

PC: "Am I hearing that you want to upgrade to your oldself? Sounds like a commercial I heard on TV, I think your need to get your PR person here before you do that."

[Dalkorian]

Thanks irperez!

Thank you irperez, that was really funny. I've always enjoyed satire that has no
basis whatsoever in reality, it reminds me not to take life so seriously.

[Merengoso1]

Leopard glitches

Sleepy - correct, the "archive & install" and/or clean install options solve most
problems with the 10.5 Leopard installation. I had never had any problems
installing previous OS X systems, unlike with Windows systems. When I applied
the 10.5.1 Leopard update, the weirdness disappeared.

Having said that, I would never go back to a Windows machine for any reason
after experiencing the elegance and transparency of use of OS X and its perfect
integration with applications. No contest there.

[slotcarbob]

This article is a joke

First, Apple is a company, like any other. How much can I get out of your
wallet? Personally, I use Apple because the GUI is better, and I know my initial
costs are recouped in time, resale value, and longevity. I am an Apple
consultant, and have repaired Apple OS since 1997.

Leo is just like everything before it. There are no conspiracies, and Apple is
not a demon in all of this. No OS company knows much until they have a
public release. Period. This article is a bunch of hokum.

The first thing anyone should do is make a bootable clone of their entire
drive. Apple has now made that clear by incorporating TimeMachine into the
OS. TM is not even necessary. Other applications have done better jobs for
years (TM is not bootable. Now THAT's a screw up for real). There is no other
real answer to an Upgrade or Update. It's an adult response to instant gratification of being the first to apply a change in one's OS.

As for incompatibilities, it's not up to Apple to realize every one of them. In
fact, Apple's proprietary nature is what is so attractive, and safe about the
whole experience, folks. They don''t need or want to be compatible with every
darn device and application. That would create the mess known as Windows,
right

So, don't be an early adaptor, people. Wait for X.N.4, or whatever. And if you
do adopt early, what is the mantra?... backup, backup, backup. There you go.

[t3knomanser]

Really? No problems here

I jumped on Leopard first day. My RSS reader died, but was patched by the developer a few days later. My MacBookPro is snappier, and has all sorts of nice little tweaks.

Honestly, this is the first I've heard of any serious problems.

This raises the question- is it the software, or the user. Obviously, if it were the perfect software, all users would have the same experience. I must use or manage my system differently than people that have problems.

[Jkirk3279]

Or, just maybe, you and I and the millions of people happy with Leopard are having the same experience, and some people EITHER got zapped by the APE problem...

Or are possibly trolls.

[technewsjunkie]

Bottom Line: He recommends Macs over Windows

Windows "fanboys", please re-read his last line...He recommends Macs/OS over
Windows.

I would also like to ask if he applied the update that was released, and if he
asked Apple Tech support about these issues before posting an inflammatory
blog for the frustrated Windows users to make knee-jerk insipid comments
about. Sorry Windows users, I use both, have for years, OS X kicks Windows
butt.

[b8375629]

No such thing as "Windows fanboys". When you're the biggest OS in the world, fanboys are unecessary.

Only anti-fanboys exist.

[daverosenberg]

@M C--you seem to have missed my sarcasm re: music

Thanks for the note that shows you haven't read anything else I have ever
written. My point was not that I lost the work but that the apps shoudn't crash
at this point.

[ronart]

Sorry to hear about your problems... but...

Dave Rosenberg,

I'm sorry to hear about your problems, but my experience has been very
different.

I did a clean installation (extremely important to do on major upgrades) and
with the exception of glitches with the Apple Bluetooth keyboard that others
are also having (i.e. numerous keyboard problems) and that I have found a
work-around for... Leopard is great!

All of the irritations (i.e. no hierarchical popups from the Dock, etc.) have
either workarounds or 3rd. party apps that add the now non-existent
features.

So many people do not do a clean install because of the time it takes --
initially-- but then end up with numerous glitches afterwards that take so
much more time to solve or that eventually end with their having to do a
clean installation anyway... that I just hope you haven't taken that route.

Best of luck!

[Hugmup]

It's a permissions problem

For UNIX certification, Apple changed the way permissions and groups are set
up, but did not include a script in the update installation to convert the Tiger
setup to the Leopard setup. I did a simple upgrade and had an unstable system.
On one computer, I fixed the permissions and groups manually; on the other I
did an erase and install. Now both computers work flawlessly.

Apple can fix this with a UNIX script, and I am willing to bet it is in testing and
will be released in 10.5.2.