Mac OS X 10.3.2... Soon?

[MacRumors]

Apple has kept busy with ongoing Mac OS X 10.3 updates.

A recent flurry of 10.3.2 releases have been released to Apple Developers (10.3.2 7D12 and 7D15).

While its unclear when the new update is going to be released, Apple requested quick feedback on the latest build. According to one anonymous report, the updated OS X should offer:

-Improved file sharing and directory services for mixed Mac and PC networks
-More robust printing to PostScript printers
-Improved font management
-Updated Mail and Address Book applications
-New ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
-FileVault, Firewire 800, WebDAV and USB Printing improvements from Update 10.3.1
-Previous standalone security updates

 

[groovebuster]

OK, so some of the main issues I have with Panther seem to be addressed with that update. So bring it on!

groovebuster

 

[MacsRgr8]

Hmmm... new ATi drivers.
Just installed the Radeon utility update. Didn't this update also install new ATi (Radeon) drivers, or is there another incompatibilty coming up...

 

[ZildjianKX]

Wow, everything I want. I'm dying for better network support, new version of mail, and new ATI drivers... bring it on!

 

[ontheverge]

I could use new graphic drivers...

Expose is a little choppy when I have a dozen or so windows open. I hope the new drivers make it smoother.

-------------------
iBook 700 16MB

 

[greenstork]

I hope they do some work on Font Book, it is in dire need of an update. That said, updates are always good news, and Font book's a great program if I could only get it to work at more than a crawl.

 

[simX]

Hopefully they've resloved the (admittedly kind of stupid) bug in Font Book where you can disable fonts that are absolutely required for certain applications and that caused weird problems with those apps.

For example, when you turn off Monaco, your Terminal window becomes impossibly small until you reactivate the font.

Of course, Panther seemed to be pretty solid for a .0 release, at least for me. I'm glad that I didn't have any FireWire hard disk problems before the 10.3.1 update came out.

 

[altair]

Re: I could use new graphic drivers...

Originally posted by ontheverge
Expose is a little choppy when I have a dozen or so windows open. I hope the new drivers make it smoother.

-------------------
iBook 700 16MB

How much ram do you have? i can open a bazillion windows and click the expose buttons tons of times and it never even slows down. insanely amazing, imo

I have a tibook 1ghz, with 1gig of ram.

Altair

 

[sethypoo]

I just wonder if this will fix File Vault so I can actually add songs to my iTunes library without it freaking out.

New Expose drivers would be cool.

 

[ontheverge]

Re: Re: I could use new graphic drivers...

Originally posted by altair
How much ram do you have? i can open a bazillion windows and click the expose buttons tons of times and it never even slows down. insanely amazing, imo

I have a tibook 1ghz, with 1gig of ram.

Altair

I have 16MB VRAM, Radeon 7500.

 

[AT71]

So, is the Fax issue fixed?

Sometimes it faxes and sometimes it doesn't. Sometime it receives fax and sometimes it doesn't.

I'm confused.

 

[ITR 81]

Well given that this is the first time they offered Fax and a Font app. with the OS, I think they did pretty good job because it could always been worse.

Though there is one thing I want and thats an update to Safari because it does crash a good bit and if they could only get it to almost never crash I'll be a happy camper.

But hell it took IE up to 5.2 to just get it stable but it still runs slow as hell. So I think Apple did good job for a browser only in it's first update. Come on 1.2!!!

 

[alamar]

mail...and address book

I wish apple would leave the apps alone for a while, there are plenty of places to get much more full featured replacement, and these apps do their jobs fine....lets fix the OS for now, and continue to refine it. IMHO.

Over upgraded apps result in Microsoft Word type problems of having a word processor designed for people who can't type! Auto numbering and outlining pisses me off to no extent! (And I don't like turning them off on every computer I visit!) Even Adobe is guilty of this. The iApps should do their job, and little else. Again: IMHO

Its nice to have upgraded Apps, but really, what is wrong with Mail?

edited for content

 

[coolfactor]

Originally posted by ITR 81
Though there is one thing I want and thats an update to Safari because it does crash a good bit and if they could only get it to almost never crash I'll be a happy camper.

Safari very rarely crashes for me. I had problems when I installed about 100 fonts, and it didn't like some of the invalid files. Disabling the fonts fixed that problem, but as for Safari crashing.. almost never, so I can't see that an update would fix your problem.. has to be something else you've installed.

I definitely need to increase my 256MB RAM because I find 10.3.1 to be slow when switching apps, especially iTunes with 3000+ songs. I hope this is addressed in 10.3.2.

 

[coolfactor]

Re: mail...and address book

Originally posted by alamar
I wish apple would leave the apps alone for a while, there are plenty of places to get much more full featured replacement, and these apps do their jobs fine....lets fix the OS for now, and continue to refine it. IMHO.

Apple has different teams of people working on different aspects of the OS and applications. That's why Mail and iPhoto have some very odd approaches to interface design. The Mail Import Assistant in Mail.app is just silly, and the Keywords feature in iPhoto definitely has room for improvement.

 

[alamar]

Originally posted by simX
Hopefully they've resloved the (admittedly kind of stupid) bug in Font Book where you can disable fonts that are absolutely required for certain applications and that caused weird problems with those apps.

For example, when you turn off Monaco, your Terminal window becomes impossibly small until you reactivate the font.

Of course, Panther seemed to be pretty solid for a .0 release, at least for me. I'm glad that I didn't have any FireWire hard disk problems before the 10.3.1 update came out.

You could always change the font Terminal uses. I'm not sure if this is a bug any more than slamming your finger in a car door is

 

[alamar]

Re: Re: mail...and address book

Originally posted by coolfactor
Apple has different teams of people working on different aspects of the OS and applications. That's why Mail and iPhoto have some very odd approaches to interface design. The Mail Import Assistant in Mail.app is just silly, and the Keywords feature in iPhoto definitely has room for improvement.

I assume these apps are not for power users....spare iChat. iChat is really the one they should work on I think. Address book could also use some grouping features, but it doesn't need much more...iPhoto simply needs to be designed, its wacky....then again maybe its just me....

At any rate, I would rather that when they say the OS has X number of upgrades, that Mail Application upgrades are listed. Like you said, different teams...and really why should only the 10.3 crowd get the better Mail app? I'd pay for the threads feature, but can't afford 10.3 yet.

If anyone who can do it is listening, I'd like to be able to play an entire folder of music without launching iTunes.

 

[Trimix]

I am a heavy user of Entourage. Since the installation of PANTHER, I have to close each individual MS Program (Word, Excel and Entourage) before I can use the Shut down Command - otherwise Entourage will keep the computer from switching off.
Has that happened to you too ?
Safari has been good, some pages wont open and I have to use IE - but apart from that no complaints.
The Norton Fire Wall comes on sporadically, sometimes it does not load and I get a message it hasn't loaded.

Have you had similar problems ?

 

[oliverbothwell]

WHAT!

Originally posted by ITR 81
Well given that this is the first time they offered Fax and a Font app. with the OS, I think they did pretty good job because it could always been worse.

Though there is one thing I want and thats an update to Safari because it does crash a good bit and if they could only get it to almost never crash I'll be a happy camper.

But hell it took IE up to 5.2 to just get it stable but it still runs slow as hell. So I think Apple did good job for a browser only in it's first update. Come on 1.2!!!

Yeah but why can't they check their products for this before they release them. Isn't it possible to have a .0 which is secure and fully working? It's frustrating and puts me off upgrading.

 

[1TB]

Printing improved?

Does anyone know what specific printing improvements have been made?

Under OS 9, it was easy for developers to let their programs specify paper trays from within their programs (and thus bypassing the OSes dialogues; handy for printing 2 or more jobs to 2 or more paper types with the click of one button).

Since OS X, this functionality has been lost (at least to the developers of my programs).

Any insight as to why or when this functionality may return?

 

[splashman]

Panther not seeing PM9600 (8.6) via Appletalk

I keep my old 9600 around as a rendering machine, and it's running 8.6. Under previous releases of X (including Jaguar), I had no problem using the "Connect" feature to link up via Appletalk and transfer files from my G4.

Under Panther (10.3.1), clicking on "Network" in a finder window shows my wife's iBook, but not my 9600. From the 9600, I can connect to the G4 via the Chooser, but not the other way around.

When I boot up my G4 in 10.2.8 from my other drive, I can connect to the 9600 just fine. Reboot to 10.3.1, and no-can-see-um.

Anybody else having this kind of problem?

 

[regald]

AT off by default in Panther!

To browse AT-only servers on the network with Panther, you need to activate "AppleTalk" in /Application/Utilities/Directory Services - other than Jaguar, this is off by default in Panther.

 

[splashman]

Re: AT off by default in Panther!

Originally posted by regald
To browse AT-only servers on the network with Panther, you need to activate "AppleTalk" in /Application/Utilities/Directory Services - other than Jaguar, this is off by default in Panther.

Thanks! I never would have found that one. I had activated AT via the Network pref. panel, and I never would have guessed there was another setting in another app that could override it.

I just double-checked -- Mac Help sure doesn't make this "feature" easy to find. Even the help document titled "The computer I want to connect to doesn't appear in the Network browser" doesn't reference this issue. Now that's helpful, eh?

(BTW, the utility is called "Directory Access".)

 

[rt_brained]

Has anyone had problems with FontBook and Suitcase (10 or X1) running at the same time?

I still prefer some of the options available in Suitcase, but I'm concerned that FontBook automatically loads its own sets, thereby creating issues with Suitcase.

Can the two apps play nice together?

 

[pkscout]

Re: mail...and address book

Originally posted by alamar
I wish apple would leave the apps alone for a while, there are plenty of places to get much more full featured replacement, and these apps do their jobs fine....lets fix the OS for now, and continue to refine it. IMHO.

Except that there are bugs in mail and address book that are kind of problems. For instance, if you have an IMAP account and all your boxes are in your inbox, you can't add a rule that moves mail to another of the boxes unless you create a dummy POP account *and* have the IMAP folder open in the tray.

In address book when you drag a contact from an LDAP server to your contacts, *all* your other contacts disappear. The good news it's just a display issue, as quitting and relaunching address book brings all your contacts (plus the one you imported) back.

Just a couple of things worth fixing.