How Healthy is Tiger?

[TigerPRO]

I don't think its much of an insult to call a pre-release version of an OS that is 2 builds old comparable to an OS that has been out for 4 years and through two service packs.

It's no insult at all. But in fact it's not even funny; it's hilarious! lol.

 

[gopher]

In your opinion, is it possible that something could be done within Mac OS X to prevent these things from happening, or at least detect and fix them automatically?

Check my FAQ:

http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html

It covers every avenue of possible corruptions and how to fix them if you suspect them.

I know what you mean about Firewire firmware, because I had some serious issues involving an external hard drive. But my only observation and complaint would be, even when problems with external peripherals occur, they should not bring down the whole system. For example, my issue happened when I plugged two particular firewire devices into the system at the same time. But even when I disconnected them, OS X would still remain "wacky" as if it couldn't just let go and forget the problem. Even to the point where I couldn't shut down the computer without using the power button.

They should not bring down the entire system, that's true, and most of the time they don't. Sometimes only a force quit with command-option-escape is necessary. Sometimes it is proof that you need more quality RAM or disk space. But Mac OS X works best on a system that doesn't have any gremlins on it. These stability issues are ones I've only seen on other people's machines. Not mine, since I always follow the upgrade process to the letter.

That's always been one of the key differeneces between Windows and OS X, that when something doesn't work, the system won't lock up because it isn't prepared to deal with things not working. However I think Mac OS X is starting to need more refinement in this area.

Well Windows can be brought down much more easily, and frequently not due to any user input. A virus, spyware, or adware can bring down Windows quite easily, and it wasn't because the user wasn't cautious when upgrading, it was because they left their security open gates open which Microsoft does by default. Macs on the other hand do not. A big advantage Macs have over Windows is most issues are internal to the machine itself, and have nothing to do with external influences besides the immediate peripherals. That makes them a lot easier to track down. You know if you just installed XYZ software or hardware. You don't know which e-mail attachment loaded in your system a virus, or which popup window took down your Windows machine.

The unfortunate thing is many third party hardware don't follow the industry specs, and that is where things get into trouble.

 

[TigerPRO]

That's a very useful and well researched FAQ you've got there. Thanks!

 

[gopher]

Thank you for the feedback!