Apple Seeds Build 12D61 of OS X Beta 10.8.3 to Developers

[MacRumors]

Apple today seeded build 12D61 of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 to developers, marking the eighth beta iteration of the newest version of Mountain Lion. 10.8.3 was first seeded to developers back in November.

Build 12D61 has been released less than a week after build 12D58. The new build asks developers and testers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.

As with previous builds, Apple mentions that it has significantly improved WiFi performance, as noted by 9to5Mac. Registered developers can download the update on Apple's Developer Page.

This post originally referred to Build 12D61 as the ninth developer seed of OS X 10.8.3 when it was actually the eighth seed.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Build 12D61 of OS X Beta 10.8.3 to Developers

[Mike MA]

And they did it again

[sshhoott]

Keep 'em coming Apple, keep 'em coming...

[ThomasJL]

As much as I want to ditch 10.7.5 Lion, I am hoping that Apple takes their sweet time with the 10.8.3 update. I don't care about new features since lack of bugs is most important thing for me.

[Peace]

I think this is the last build before going GM. A public release on Friday is my guess.

[KevinMHC]

Wish they release this soon. Cannot stand all the UI lag on my rMBP.

[Sound214]

Originally Posted by ThomasJL

As much as I want to ditch 10.7.5 Lion, I am hoping that Apple takes their sweet time with the 10.8.3 update. I don't care about new features since lack of bugs is most important thing for me.

Then why on earth are you still on Lion? ML is far more polished, which you've certainly read a couple of thousand times.

[buddybd]

Safari already feels snappier.

[cmChimera]

Sigh....Let me have it.

[GIZBUG]

Originally Posted by buddybd

Safari already feels snappier.

These comments were funny about 2 years ago...........kind of old and worn out now....

[Twimfy]

Originally Posted by Sound214

Then why on earth are you still on Lion? ML is far more polished, which you've certainly read a couple of thousand times.

I was going to ask the same thing. Who in their right mind would stay on Lion? You either come to ML or go back to SL.

[Xenomorph]

Originally Posted by Twimfy

I was going to ask the same thing. Who in their right mind would stay on Lion? You either come to ML or go back to SL.

My old MacBook Pro only goes up to Lion.

I want Notes and iMessage.

I can't go to Snow Leopard, because I would lose support for the latest Xcode!

[the8thark]

Originally Posted by Twimfy

I was going to ask the same thing. Who in their right mind would stay on Lion? You either come to ML or go back to SL.

I happen to agree. There are only 3 options.
Your Mac can run ML and you use it.
Your Mac can not run ML so you're still on SL (or forced to be stuck on L - either L, Leopard or Lion)
You are out of your mind and voluntarily choosing L (or SL when you can run ML).

[RoelJuun]

Originally Posted by Twimfy

I was going to ask the same thing. Who in their right mind would stay on Lion? You either come to ML or go back to SL.

Yeah well I'll give you a reason. Apple thought the Macbook that I own (early 2008?) to be unable to run ML. My iMac is running ML, my iPhone is using iCloud. I want all my contacts/calendar etc on ALL my devices. Going back to SL is therefore out of the question. And please, when I updated my Macbook to Lion for a test drive, my SL on my iMac felt out-dated very fast. Although SL was the greatest OS at that time, it is not the best anymore.

And ML is full of bugs, I find 10.7.5 to be very stable.

ML:
- Wallpaper issues
- My external drive with my Time Machine backup needs force eject every time I try to eject the drive
- Disappearing mouse cursor
- Finder sometimes freezes when connecting with another Mac using FW
- Message…complete mess
- Reminders is slow (while it should be a light application)
- Performance in Safari is terrible when zooming in on a page
- After opening an application created in Automator the application doesn't launch
- After ejecting an external drive, when adding a folder from an external drive to the side-bar in Finder, the folder disappears from the side-bar.
- Lots of crashes with the DVD-player application

So, Lion isn't all that bad for me.

[katewes]

Originally Posted by Twimfy

I was going to ask the same thing. Who in their right mind would stay on Lion? You either come to ML or go back to SL.

I'm staying with Lion 10.7.4 because everything works well for me, with no discernible bugs. Not saying it is perfect for everyone, but for me it works. As for 10.7.5, I've read about bugs where Time Machine take forever to do a backup. As for 10.8, whilst it might be more polished, those people would not claim it is fine-tuned.

The thing is, I use the Mac for work and for me 10.7.4 just works, and I don't care about the fancier features in ML. I'll wait till you kind souls have wrought your life with the angst that comes with beta-testing Apple's early releases of OSX, and I'll get on board when it's much more stable. By that stage, all you poor people are getting ready for the next roller coaster ride to beta test 10.9.

Usually I sit it out till 10.x.6 when the OS is smooth as butter, but this time with Lion I had to jump on sooner than usual since I bought a new Mac, and saw benefit in synched Calendar and Address Books with iCloud. But by the time of 10.7.4, things were quite good already. I missed the circus with 10.7 to 10.7.3, glad to say, thanks to all you kind paid-up beta-testers. Where would Apple be without generous people who volunteer to pay a token fee of $30-40 to beta-test their software.

So I get by with Lion's 2 second shutdown, while you folk help Apple figure out why Mountain Lion take several 10's of seconds often to shut down.

I lament (not) about missing features like Facebook integration, and thicker scroll bars.

Everyone goes on about how ML is so smooth, but on my Mac, with a clean install of 10.7.4 and extra memory, things here are smooth enough already, sufficient for me to forget about the Mac and get on with my work (except for times when I get distracted by MacRumors forums), so I can afford to wait till you guys help Apple iron out the bugs.

I have some Macs on SL, but prefer Lion because of synching of Address Book and Calendar with iCloud.

[ThomasJL]

Originally Posted by Sound214

Then why on earth are you still on Lion?

Because Mountain Lion is more buggy than Lion at this point in time. Are you actually unaware of that?

[HenryDJP]

Originally Posted by ThomasJL

Because Mountain Lion is more buggy than Lion at this point in time. Are you actually unaware of that?

It is not. ML runs amazingly well and Lion is the one that sucks. It's your system that you need to work on.

[milo]

Originally Posted by ThomasJL

Because Mountain Lion is more buggy than Lion at this point in time. Are you actually unaware of that?

Not my experience at all. Far less buggy and performance is vastly better for me. Frankly, staying on Lion when another OS is available (whether that's going forward or going back) is insanity. I'm still not a big fan of ML but it beats the heck out of lion.

Originally Posted by b0fh

I will say this - in December, I installed one of the 10.8.3 betas and tested it with VMWare fusion 5. Crashorama. Two-three crashes a day. *UGH*.

Had to reinstall and go back to 10.8.2

Comes with the territory when you're running betas. If you want the best shot at avoiding crashes, stick with public releases.

Originally Posted by iBug2

So it's much easier for everyone if OS betas came as single disk install images with no upgrade option.

Easier? It's much more work and time consuming to do a fresh install every time. Apple wants seeders to test in their day to day use, if beta updates required a fresh install, people would be testing on a secondary machine (or partition) and not installing all their software. Not to mention that many testers would probably skip builds much more often.

There are advantages to fresh installs but it would probably reduce participation a fair amount. Thankfully there are testers who do fresh installs even though it's not required.

[bedifferent]

Originally Posted by ThomasJL

As much as I want to ditch 10.7.5 Lion, I am hoping that Apple takes their sweet time with the 10.8.3 update. I don't care about new features since lack of bugs is most important thing for me.

Since they're moving to an annual release cycle and based on how well that worked for Lion, I don't have much hope. With Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard, beta's required burning to a new DVD every other week for a fresh install. This is something then Senior VP of Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet insisted on to ensure a clean install for testing. Usually lasted 1 1/2 years with beta's every other week. It produced a solid OS X compared to Craig Federighi's work (and no, Bertrand was out in 2011 and had nothing to do with 10.7 Lion, which was introduced by Craig Federighi on stage in 2011's Lion announcement). There wasn't even a replacement for Bertrand in over a year until Craig Federighi was finally placed on Apple's board of directors as Senior V.P. for OS X Engineering in October 2012. Apple should return to a non-annual release cycle and release the OS X update when it's ready.

(before a certain someone drills into me again on this being opinion, do the research and you will learn these are facts based on events and quotes from Bertrand and others. I really do not wish to get into another ego contest, thanks )

PS Bring back Serlet!!!

From Apple:

Bertrand Serlet to Leave Apple

CUPERTINO, California—March 23, 2011—

Apple® today announced that Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Mac® Software Engineering, will be leaving the company. Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will assume Serlet’s responsibilities and report to Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. Federighi is responsible for the development of Mac OS® X and has been managing the Mac OS software engineering group for the past two years.

“I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless.”

Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and then spent a decade at Ariba where he held several roles including vice president of Internet Services and chief technology officer. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead Mac OS X engineering. Federighi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Serlet joined Apple in 1997, and has been involved in the definition, development and creation of Mac OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. Before joining Apple, Serlet spent four years at Xerox PARC, then joined NeXT in 1989. Serlet holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Orsay, France.

Craig joined in 2009, worked on Lion as Serlet departed in early 2011. Many in Cupertino whom I worked with have blamed Federighi for 10.7/8's less than stellar releases, ranging from WiFi issues, SAMBA and other networking protocols being rewritten and more difficult in working with other platforms that 10.6 had no issue with, iOS/Social Networking focus (he and Forestall worked together on OS X in many areas), a lack of OpenGL Core support 4.0+, "Mission Control" was his "baby" and on and on.

[H2SO4]

Originally Posted by bedifferent

With Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard, beta's required burning to a new DVD every other week for a fresh install. This is something then Senior VP of Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet insisted on to ensure a clean install for testing.

How on earth does having it on DVD guarantee a clean install?

[karsten]

hopefully there's updated nvidia drivers to fix the pixelmator crashes on MBPs

[Peace]

Originally Posted by H2SO4

How on earth does having it on DVD guarantee a clean install?

Betas used to come on DVD. In order to install the beta you had to boot from the DVD and the installer would format the hard drive removing all files then do a clean install of the OS. They weren't updates. They were the complete OS .

I think they did that with all major point releases up to leopard or snow leopard.

[bedifferent]

Originally Posted by H2SO4

How on earth does having it on DVD guarantee a clean install?

As already stated, the clean install by installing a new OS with every beta insured that the install would not be hindered by previous bugs or tweaks that the developer may have instigated. As well, the betas were much more developed than currently implemented since 10.7, and required a fresh install rather than modifying the already install beta OS. I recall a few betas in leopard that used ZFS+ but didn't make it to commercial release due to licensing issues.

[SeattleMoose]

Originally Posted by ThomasJL

I don't care about new features since lack of bugs is most important thing for me.

Really, who cares about bug fixes and under the hood efficiency/speed improvements. REAL MEN WANT NEW SOCIAL MEDIA FEATURES!!!

I think I"ll give myself a thumbs down in advance. Oh wait, the forum is now PC, no down votes allowed. Everyone can only be a winner.

[Eithanius]

Originally Posted by SeattleMoose

Really, who cares about bug fixes and under the hood efficiency/speed improvements. REAL MEN WANT NEW SOCIAL MEDIA FEATURES!!!

I think I"ll give myself a thumbs down in advance. Oh wait, the forum is now PC, no down votes allowed. Everyone can only be a winner.

Go back to Windows crapware...! Only REAL SISSIES WANT SOCIAL MEDIA CRAP...! I wonder what other social media crap features do you want to see on 10.9 - Porntube build into NC...? :P