Definitely a rant...
- So if the developers took a 6 month holiday sponsored by Microsoft, that'd be much better, because there's no time like tomorrow to start work on 10.5.4? You're basically saying that Apple being pro-active in developing and making Leopard better is a "huge lump of a mistake".
No, but seeding one week later shows they were releasing 10.5.3 knowing it still had bugs to be fixed. And it came in at >500Mb... of fixes, and more to come! Maybe we should be done with it and have a newly written OS and put Leopard in history?
- How many users, what percentage has Leopard been a "disaster"? Not all of them i'd imagine, but that's infer implicitly through the wide reaching statements.
Ask Apple Geniuses and the forums rather than relying on "imagination". Yes these are full of ranters and complainers (why moan when it works?) but the traffic concerning Leopard is unprecidented. This is reflected in the major rehauling of the updates. It could well be 10.5.9 will feature NONE of the code of 10.5.0 through updates. Admission that there was something seriously wrong with Leopard. With 500MB updates, we are showing huge levels of rewrites.
- Leopard and wifi does need work. I'd imagine they are working on it. As you yourself say, the Store Genius's have problems with users with problems that need OS fixes. Which i'd imagine would be part of what developing 10.5.4 would include, which you call a "huge lump of a mistake" 😉
If Apple workers are conceding perfectly stable wifi networks are being broken on using Leopard, then this is a problem. Wifi has been around for a while and Leopard is meant to be an ADVANCE of Tiger, but it is a huge backward step in this regard. And the fact I mention Genius' concerns that this is an OS fault and not hardware or ISPs should not be forgotten here. By your admission, Leopard has taken something that worked well in Tiger and made it unstable or inoperable. In the name of progress!
- I can't comment on iWeb, Pages, but iPhoto 08, iMovie 08 and Leopard weren't "inferior" releases. You can still use the older versions if you want. Note that they are all likely to get updates. Apple ballsed up iMovie (and Mossberg will agree with you). I'd imagine they will have learnt from that. Bear in mind that for all the new software mentioned, the iPhone will be soon addded to this mix, so there are major changes they have to do anyhow.
Pages was incredibly slow, buggy and pretty pathetic. Everyone bought it because it was tagged with Keynote. This was admitted by Jobs, so it's on record, let's not rewrite history here. iPhoto 08 required a couple of hasty updates to sort it out it's slow rendering and instability.
Apple's recent qulaity control has been poor, rushing out incomplete software. Pages and Leopard were definitely rushed and could have done with a few more months of work. Leopard 10.5.3 is the nearest to a working version, and I would suggest 10.5.0-2 should have been in house works in progress.
Are Macs the core? There is profit in them, Apple's laptop sales are helping out, and soon iPhones will be going great guns too. No need to be ranting about potentials like "Apple tumbling down". Though a great turn of phrase for a rant 😉
There has been so much hype with iPhones and iPods but Apple's great quarter results are from Mac sales (I include Macbooks etc). The computer business allows them to diversify, but without Mac sales with the great profit margins, the iPhones don't pull in as much cash. I have a long memory and remember Apple nearly being bust when they dropped the focus on producing great Macs and I never want to see that again. So let's face facts and reality, rather than seeing it through Apple tinted glasses. There is a lot of work for Apple ahead, and fixing the software arm is hugely important: who will buy Apple machines is the OS is wretched?
I realise I upset Fanboys with this. But the fanboys defended Gil Amelio and were happy to say, "What iceberg?" while standing on the deck of the good ship Apple as it was sinking mid 90s. Perhaps my being harsh is because I support the company so much, and the best friend is one who can be honest and say it as it is, rather than supporting failure.
Enjoying the debate! Thanks for answering ;o)
