Apple Revises Snow Leopard Security Update and Pulls 10.7.3 Delta Update

[MacRumors]

After a couple of issues with some software updates, Apple has made some quiet revisions to address the problems.

The first was a Snow Leopard security update which inadvertently caused problems with Apple's PowerPC emulation layer Rosetta. Macworld notes that Apple has since released Security Update 2012-001, version 1.1 for Snow Leopard. The new version seems to fix the PowerPC crashing issues described with the original update.

Meanwhile, the crashing/CUI errors with 10.7.3 Delta updater has also been addressed by Apple. 9to5Mac notes that Apple has responded by pulling the Delta update altogether, leaving the Combo updater alone.

The different between the Delta and Combo updaters is normally just download size alone. The Delta updater is a smaller download since it just includes the changes, while the Combo updater includes everything and weighs in at 1.3GB. The Combo updater should be available at this support page for direct download, but the page is presently not working. The direct download (1.3GB) link is still working at this time.

Article Link: Apple Revises Snow Leopard Security Update and Pulls 10.7.3 Delta Update

 

[AlexJaye]

A complete mess, that is.

 

[usptact]

As time passes, I am getting an impression that developers at Apple are under *immense* pressure. This leads to quite evident bugs like this.

 

[FroMann]

I think Apple needs to hire some more/better programmers to test their OSX software rather than iOS.

 

[iJays]

Doh
Is this the first of many?

 

[chrono1081]

I can tell that no none commenting has ever worked with software development.

Mistakes happen, its impossible to test for every single system. Its not like every person has these issues, its a select few. You can test all day in the lab but until something is released in the wild the developers will NEVER be able to know if more bugs are present in their code or not.

 

[0dev]

I can tell that no none commenting has ever worked with software development.

Mistakes happen, its impossible to test for every single system. Its not like every person has these issues, its a select few. You can test all day in the lab but until something is released in the wild the developers will NEVER be able to know if more bugs are present in their code or not.

Exactly.

The important thing is that Apple has clearly acknowledged the issues and is fixing them. One of the issues was sorted within 24 hours (the security update).

 

[gmcalpin]

Doh
Is this the first of many?

Really? C'mon, this kind of stuff has happened before. It'll happen again. It's not a big deal unless you've lost data or anything like that.

 

[iMikeT]

As time passes, I am getting an impression that developers at Apple are under *immense* pressure. This leads to quite evident bugs like this.

Yeah, if only new hires were allowed to work on big projects instead of the "fake" ones...

You do have to realize that Apple is an extremely tight ship and work isn't exactly split to various teams throughout the company evenly. From what I've heard, an entire dev team will be working on one project then move to another project altogether. Sometimes, that team will have a more important project come their way while they're in the middle of another and they will have to dump the current project and work on the new one to completion. Then and only then will they return to the old project.

 

[manu chao]

So, the question is: Should I apply the combo if I have not noticed any ill-effects after applying the delta update?

 

[0dev]

So, the question is: Should I apply the combo if I have not noticed any ill-effects after applying the delta update?

No, there's no point.

 

[cvaldes]

So, the question is: Should I apply the combo if I have not noticed any ill-effects after applying the delta update?

I would. Just for peace of mind.

 

[0dev]

I would. Just for peace of mind.

If it's not caused you any problems there's no reason to. The issues only affected some users.

 

[baryon]

In most recent news: iTunes match not working, and two unrelated updates cause serious bugs, both pulled. Maybe they hired some new crazy programmer or something!

 

[leo.andres.21]

Well. That's quite a mess. I am probably the majority, and the lucky ones at that. My delta update went fine. It made my laptop a little lighter, though some hiccups on integrated card though.

 

[theappleguy]

I think Apple needs to hire some more/better programmers to test their OSX software rather than iOS.

Agreed.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Really? C'mon, this kind of stuff has happened before. It'll happen again. It's not a big deal unless you've lost data or anything like that.

I have been writing software for over 26 years. In every project that I have worked there as always been a group of people devoted to software testing. The software group has a well defined and executed set of tests that are executed before the software is released. Even with all this bugs still happen. After all software is written and tested by people. In all my years, I have never seen a situation where a release of software has never had any sort of bugs. You can test and test but at some point you need to decide to release the software.

And the important thing is how Apple responds to correcting the situation.

 

[linuxcooldude]

I would. Just for peace of mind.

Could be why some people are experiencing problems. Constantly putting updates over previous updates when its not broken.

I always use the Apple software updater to choose which updates are needed on my system. I admit I'm afraid I would download the wrong combo update for the wrong system and possibly screw it up even worse...lol

 

[jameslmoser]

Yeah, if only new hires were allowed to work on big projects instead of the "fake" ones...

You do have to realize that Apple is an extremely tight ship and work isn't exactly split to various teams throughout the company evenly. From what I've heard, an entire dev team will be working on one project then move to another project altogether. Sometimes, that team will have a more important project come their way while they're in the middle of another and they will have to dump the current project and work on the new one to completion. Then and only then will they return to the old project.

With the profits apple is making there is no excuse for this. They should have a team devoted to specific aspects of their software, or at the very least, to Mac OS X. I'm a programmer and I have specific parts of our software I know very well, and I work on them almost exclusively. If someone has a problem with them, I usually can help or solve it. If I fix something of someone elses, I may learn it well enough to do what I need to do, but a few weeks down the road if I need to answer some questions about it or do something else with it, its almost like I have to learn it all over again. Not exactly the most productive way of coding, and this sort of thing leads to the mistakes we are seeing.

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I think Apple needs to hire some more/better programmers to test their OSX software rather than iOS.

Agreed!!!

 

[Tumbleweed666]

With the profits apple is making there is no excuse for this. .

Just for clarity, your theory is that if you make large enough profits, you can eliminate software bugs?

 

[linuxcooldude]

With the profits apple is making there is no excuse for this. They should have a team devoted to specific aspects of their software, or at the very least, to Mac OS X. I'm a programmer and I have specific parts of our software I know very well, and I work on them almost exclusively. If someone has a problem with them, I usually can help or solve it. If I fix something of someone elses, I may learn it well enough to do what I need to do, but a few weeks down the road if I need to answer some questions about it or do something else with it, its almost like I have to learn it all over again. Not exactly the most productive way of coding, and this sort of thing leads to the mistakes we are seeing.

So all of the software you and your team that has been used by the public has had 0% bugs that needed to be fixed after its been released?

 

[TwoBytes]

Well the update didn't fix the nvidia graphics freezing that many people are having

 

[jameslmoser]

So all of the software you and your team that has been used by the public has had 0% bugs that needed to be fixed after its been released?

I didn't claim that, and yes we have over 42 million users world wide, its quite public.

Actually I should be more specific.. the users that use my projects code is over 42 million. In total for our company it is much much higher.

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Well the update didn't fix the nvidia graphics freezing that many people are having

Microsoft would be completely trashed for this... and the funny thing is they don't get to pick all the hardware that their OS runs on. Apple pretty much does.

 

[linuxcooldude]

I didn't claim that, and yes we have over 42 million users world wide, its quite public.

Actually I should be more specific.. the users that use my projects code is over 42 million. In total for our company it is much much higher.

I'm just saying there are too many variables to take into account in all situations. Its just impossible to do that, no matter how many programmers Apple hires & how good they may be.

 

[jameslmoser]

Just for clarity, your theory is that if you make large enough profits, you can eliminate software bugs?

No, my theory is that if you make that much in profits, you should be able to have enough competent people who work on specific projects to help prevent more bugs. This is two OS's they managed to screw up at the same time. An occasional bug is one thing, but when it becomes a regular problem thats another.

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I'm just saying there are too many variables to take into account in all situations. Its just impossible to do that, no matter how many programmers Apple hires & how good they may be.

If you have one person who does something specifically and regularly, they are less likely to screw it up verses someone who jumps around doing a bunch of different things... its just common sense. Its where the whole division of labor idea also comes in.