4 months of Snow Leopard, I've had enough

[alleycat]

I've given it a go for four painful months with Snow Leopard. While I enjoyed its speed, its driver compatibility left a lot of be desired. I couldn't use my Epson drivers for my printer, and I was supplied with Gutenprint which looks like Gerber apple sauce when printed. My desktop pictures would never remember what folder I selected upon start up. MS Office 2004 continued to have issues and would crash. All this after doing a complete clean install and re-install of all applications. I had even bigger issues trying to upgrade from 10.5.8 on my very first attempt in September. It wasn't worth the $29 just for the use of Grand Central Dispatch or Quicktime X. Apple doesn't seem to care about the first generation of Intel owners anymore. They are focused to sell as much hardware as possible, and make an OS which favors only the newest Macs. So I am happily reverting back to OS X 10.5.8. My beloved Epson is printing what my camera sees again, no crashing from Office, and my desktop pictures remember where they left off. Yes Vista people I felt your pain, and will not again anytime soon. OS X 10.6 goes back on the shelf with my copy of Windows Vista. Neither of them could cut it on my Mac Pro.

Yes fanboys, flame on…

 

[jpkh]

You are not the only one... there is a lot people who are turning back to old Leopard, including me..

During xmas time i made painfull downgrade but now i'm really happy again with my mac. Running also 10.5.8 now and everything works ok

 

[Morod]

Sorry, I left my flamethrower at home,
I'm sure sorry to hear of all the trouble you're having. Everything is fine here with a SL upgrade.
Best wishes for you in the future.

 

[-aggie-]

I'm surprised MS hasn't run a commercial to make fun of SL, like Apple did with Vista.

 

[alleycat]

He he, thanks guys.

 

[miles01110]

MS Office 2004 continued to have issues and would crash.

I had some sympathy up until here. Using outdated software isn't Apple's fault. :-\

 

[alleycat]

I had some sympathy up until here. Using outdated software isn't Apple's fault. :-\

LOL, Office 2008 has less templates, and sucks more than Office 2004. Hence my rigidness to keep "outdated" software. Yes I tried Open Office, it's a nice option, but just wasn't as featured as Office 2004.

 

[BlackiBook]

I upgraded two personal computers (macbook pro and macbook), a friends mac mini (he bought it right after the intel switch) and my mothers macbook all with no problems what so ever! Maybe its not SL and just your computer, if Leopard was working great then I dont see why you waited so long to switch back! Good luck!

 

[alleycat]

I upgraded two personal computers (macbook pro and macbook), a friends mac mini (he bought it right after the intel switch) and my mothers macbook all with no problems what so every! Maybe its not SL and just your computer, if Leopard was working great then I dont see why you waited so long to switch back! Good luck!

I was mostly hoping Apple would hit a homerun and improve Snow Leopard's ability with older software. They bunted for a third strike instead.

 

[BlackiBook]

I was mostly hoping Apple would hit a homerun and improve Snow Leopard's ability with older software. They bunted for a third strike instead.

Yeah with so many people complaining about problems with SL, I was just relieved I was one of the lucky ones!

 

[miles01110]

LOL, Office 2008 has less templates, and sucks more than Office 2004.

Oh, you're right. I forgot that we use "number of templates" to quantify the value of software.

 

[ChefJayPeek]

I was mostly hoping Apple would hit a homerun and improve Snow Leopard's ability with older software. They bunted for a third strike instead.

Umm why is it Apple's responsibility to make your MICROSOFT Office 2004 or your EPSON printer work with Snow Leopard? Seems to me you should be bitching to Microsoft and Epson. Must just be me though.

Chef Jay

 

[colourfastt]

I upgraded two personal computers (macbook pro and macbook), a friends mac mini (he bought it right after the intel switch) and my mothers macbook all with no problems what so ever! Maybe its not SL and just your computer, if Leopard was working great then I dont see why you waited so long to switch back! Good luck!

I wouldn't say it's his computer; I'd say it's his use of outdated equipment (the printers) and outdated software. No sympathy for anyone using outdated equipment/software.

Umm why is it Apple's responsibility to make your MICROSOFT Office 2004 or your EPSON printer work with Snow Leopard? Seems to me you should be bitching to Microsoft and Epson. Must just be me though.

Chef Jay

Not just you; I say he should be bitching at Epson and Microsoft too.

 

[-aggie-]

Not just you; I say he should be bitching at Epson and Microsoft too.

Yet, when Vista did this to all the hardware, Apple made fun of them. Sounds like the same thing to me. There was no talk that this was the hardware makers fault.

 

[Mumford]

Oh, you're right. I forgot that we use "number of templates" to quantify the value of software.

Yay sarcasm. Let me try:

Seems to me useful features (or in this case, lack of features) is a perfectly valid way to quantify the value of software. It's certainly not the only way, but it is a way.

Guess that wasn't very sarcastic.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

So download a printer driver. What's the big deal? It's not like SL continues to be defiant to your printer/camera.

One thing I didn't understand from the OP's original post was the desktop pictures issue. Could you (or someone else) clarify that?

 

[chrono1081]

I dont really have issues with snow leopard. A few here or there but nothing major to make me switch back to leopard. The improved finder speed in addition to the quicklook feature is awesome for me.

 

[Jason Beck]

So download a printer driver. What's the big deal? It's not like SL continues to be defiant to your printer/camera.

One thing I didn't understand from the OP's original post was the desktop pictures issue. Could you (or someone else) clarify that?

I agree. I have absolutely no issue with using iPhoto as my storage for my
wallpapers. I used to just keep a folder in my documents>pictures>wallpapers, but I started really using iPhoto lately and
I like it.. Shows up in every application all most with the iMedia browser.
It's nice having access to all my pictures, whether I am using Rapidweaver
for my website or Word.

I havn't had any major issues in word08 either. I am using the Office suite
extensively with my classes in college and it hasn't crashed on me once.
To each his own though. I won't flame the OP.

I think Leopard was grand, but SL gets better after every patch. 10.6.2,
is really good imho. I would just stick it out. Thats what I am doing.
I also do a lot of Adobe work and havn't had an issue there either.
Just my two cents. Leopard is great, rock on' with it!!! =)

 

[Angelo95210]

I have absolutely no issue with the 10.6.2 release...

 

[ziggyonice]

I'm sick of all the b*tching about Snow Leopard. Just about every "issue" at this point is in regards to third-party applications that have yet to be updated to work with the latest version of the software. Quit complaining about Snow Leopard and start complaining to the developer who is too lazy to update their applications. Snow Leopard works great, especially three months after it's been released.

Wake up people. Sheesh.

 

[maflynn]

I can understand your frustration. I had a lot of trouble trying to get my canon pixma pro 9000 MKII printer working with SL.

Overall for me, the OS has been a solid upgrade, aside from the printer issue. If the OS is giving you tons of headaches or isn't doing what you need to be done. Downgrade back to 10.5. At least you have a solid OS.

I don't get the allusion to vista however. Two different situations, MS over-promised and under delivered an OS that was not only buggy but also impaired the user from working with the wacky UAC and high system requirements. Vista universally sucked.

With Snow Leopard, a minority of people are having a problem, and while I can feel for the OP's problems he's not in the majority. Most of us have a well performing OS that was not over promised or under delivered. Apple was clear with what features the system would have - most of it is under the hood.

Like Vista, if you don't like it, then use a different OS.

 

[makinao]

We've got four macs here. First is an office issued MacBook with 10.4.11. It aint broke, so I haven't felt the need to "fix it" with SL. The same is true with our home iMac 20" which came with Leopard, and has since been updated to 10.5.8. I've suspected some minor issues with both Tiger and Leopard, but nothing disastrous or infuriating. Both of them did not support our Samsung ML-1610 printer. But after an hour of surfing, I found a linux driver that worked flawlessly. The same drivers worked with all our macs that followed.......

Next is my wife's MBA 1st gen that originally came with 10.5. After many months of procrastination, I installed MS Office 2004 and the HD went nuts. The HD eventually died completely after a week. I heard the same story from two friends with MBs. Three cases is not enough to prove MS Office 2004 was the cause for the dead HDs, but it does make me a bit suspicious. When our MBA came back from the shop last month, it had SL installed. I promptly updated it to 10.6.2, and did not put in MS Office anymore. It has been trouble free since then.

Last is my month-old Macbook 2.13 that came with SL. The only problem I've experienced is that it intermittently cannot copy entire folders to a FAT32 USB thumbdrive, or to my Mac-formatted external backup HD. I suspect a bug in Finder, and have read some threads in apple support suspecting the same thing. Office 2008 hasn't caused any problems, but I hardly use it, preferring iWork and NeoOffice.

 

[kainjow]

I'm sick of all the b*tching about Snow Leopard. Just about every "issue" at this point is in regards to third-party applications that have yet to be updated to work with the latest version of the software. Quit complaining about Snow Leopard and start complaining to the developer who is too lazy to update their applications. Snow Leopard works great, especially three months after it's been released.

Wake up people. Sheesh.

There are still plenty of bugs on Apple's side though. As a developer I just found yet another one (have found several in the past months). It is slightly nerving

 

[reebzor]

I am also not a fan of Snow Leopard incompatibility with just about everything. It's been fine at home, but nothing at work wants to work with snow leopard. (mainly lotus notes, which is heavily relied on). I'm so glad we just spent $20000 on 3 macs a couple weeks ago.

 

[Gman257]

I would have to say from what it seems, people with the first versions of the Mac Pro, like myself are better off running 10.5.8. Since we have the EFI32 it is pointless running 10.6 which I found was very memory hungry. I would see it go through my 6G of memory like it was nothing, & in 10.5.8 I haven't seen it use past 3G. I too went back to 10.5.8 & haven't had a problem since. Perhaps when we upgrade our systems to something with EFI64 then perhaps we would have a better chance with Snow Leopard, otherwise save yourselves some headaches.
That's my 2 cents worth.