OS X 10.3.7 Development Underway?

[ClimbingTheLog]

How 'bout some fixes?

End of the year? How about a 10.3.7 that fixes firewire, powerbook sleep, MDD audio, DNS failures, network homedir failures, and no feature enhancements?

How about next week?

Give us a 10.3 we can run without signficant issues and can actually recommend to our customers.

Then start in with the new an improved that's just going to cause another raft of problems.

 

[griz]

Come on now, Panther is extremely stable and usable and there is no reason not to recommend it to anyone. If you are waiting for the Utopian OS, then you will be waiting a long time. It doesn't exist. Try using Windoze sometime. They all have their issues. I think Panther is quite nice and in need of little in the way of fixes from a usability standpoint.

 

[bousozoku]

Come on now, Panther is extremely stable and usable and there is no reason not to recommend it to anyone. If you are waiting for the Utopian OS, then you will be waiting a long time. It doesn't exist. Try using Windoze sometime. They all have their issues. I think Panther is quite nice and in need of little in the way of fixes from a usability standpoint.

Actually, considering the memory leak I've seen since 10.3.6, I could not recommend it. 10.3.4 was the best of Panther for me. I hope it gets better soon.

 

[UnixMac]

I just bought that and it plays perfectly and FAST (2.5+6800) on everything as high as possible.

Maybe you should just reinstall it....

Yeah, I have not been at all impressed with the level of optimization on the nv40 for the Mac... I hope Apple and NV get their act together and make this $600 card perform like a $600 card should.

 

[ClimbingTheLog]

Come on now, Panther is extremely stable and usable and there is no reason not to recommend it to anyone.

Are you kidding? You have to click on web links twice because DNS fails? You can't use it to log into server-based home directories? Certain firewire drives stop working? Filenames get truncated on network shares? Heck, I still have a stack of FW drives that all worked just fine on 10.2.8 but only some show up on 10.3. These are essential failings, not luxuries.

I think Panther is quite nice and in need of little in the way of fixes from a usability standpoint.

Exactly. It needs some little fixes and it'd be great. But we keep getting enhancements and more breakage instead.

 

[goof_ball]

10.3.6 worked ok for me. It took out some of my preferences on my 15" PB, ie. iTunes and Powerpoint so far prompted me for first time use.

My buddy's 17" PB got toast. I can't for sure blame it on the 10.3.6 update, but the problem occured right after. He had to archive and reinstall the system.

I hope 10.3.7 is better tested.

 

[maya]

Are you kidding? You have to click on web links twice because DNS fails? You can't use it to log into server-based home directories? Certain firewire drives stop working? Filenames get truncated on network shares? Heck, I still have a stack of FW drives that all worked just fine on 10.2.8 but only some show up on 10.3. These are essential failings, not luxuries.



Exactly. It needs some little fixes and it'd be great. But we keep getting enhancements and more breakage instead.

I can relate to what you have stated I had my trusty external FW HDD that ironically was a "Back-Up' drive FAIL to mount in 10.3.6 and it worked quite fine in 10.3.5

It was a LaCie HDD too worked fine for 2 years and ten suddenly it died *weird* <--- could have just been a faulty drive however it's hard to say at present.

 

[JFreak]

10.3.4 was the best of Panther for me.

and for me too, and for all the other pro audio people out there
i'm still using 10.3.4 and probably will not upgrade until there's enough good reports of tiger stability.

 

[stefman]

I really hope that 10.3.7 fixes all the problems I'm having with 10.3.6.

I would say that 10.3.6 has been the worst upgrade I've ever had with any OS X upgrade...by far!!

I used to eagerly upgrade and not have a problem, but I'll definitively be more cautious from now on.

 

[JFreak]

it has been so all along with panther - jaguar updates used to be good (with one exception), but i too have always been cautious with panther upgrades. so far only the retail version and 10.3.4 have worked nicely in my systems. i think i won't update panther anymore (if it ain't broke too bad, don't break it anymore).

it's as if apple had two separate development teams during the osx ramp-up: like the primary team having prepared 10.0, jaguar and tiger, and the secondary team releasing 10.1 and panther. jaguar was totally on a different level, reliablity-wise. i really hope tiger gets there too, and if this two-team development is in fact true, i would guess apple is going to join the teams into one now that osx is "ready". jobs said that the next major release after tiger would "take a longer time", which would support what i just said. maybe, who knows.

as for panther, it has been a disappointment. terrible firewire issues with audio systems, and very unreliable networking. all this was reliable and stable in jaguar, and i cannot see why the situation has changed so much.

 

[Nermal]

A couple of people have mentioned MDD audio problems with 10.3.6. I have an MDD with 10.3.6 and don't have any problems, so what's wrong?

I did a quick search for 'mdd audio 10.3.6' but that only have me the '10.3.6 released' thread with 350+ responses, and I don't really feel like trawling through that

 

[Mac-Xpert]

i'm still using 10.3.4 and probably will not upgrade until there's enough good reports of tiger stability.

The same here. My G5 came with 10.3.4 and after reading the problems people had with 10.3.5 (mostly networking problems I think) I decided not to upgrade and wait for 10.3.6. But when it turned out that this "upgrade" only made things worse I decided not to take the risk and stick with 10.3.4. This version of Panther is very stable for me. The machine has not crashed yet (running more than 3 weeks now) and the network (although very slow when browsing the afp share on our Windows 2000 server) seems to work reliable.

When the next update is released, I will certainly wait a few weeks to see the responses of the guys who do dare to update immediately (thanks guys! ) and will only update if there aren't any major issues reported.

It's funny how apple will keep on updating the system till the next major release comes out, fixing all the problems and ending up with a good working version of the OS (10.2.8 in its last release works very stable and reliable on my MDD G4.) and then introduce a new OS with some nice new features and eye candy and lots of new problems that weren't in the previous system. Then they will continue to fix those problems and (hopefully) end up with a stable version of this OS, only to introduce yet another new version with lots of new features and eye candy.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed with the next major release "Tiger". You just KNOW that there will be major new problems with that one as well, and everybody will be saying "but it worked the right way in Panther"

 

[Windowlicker]

looks like I'm gonna have to restart my computer eventually

 

[Zaty]

I wouldn't have expected 10.3.7 so soon, given the usual 2-3-month cycle. I guess there are two possibilities why Apple might want to release the new update soon:

1. Many users seem to have all sorts of problems with 10.3.6, so it's only logical Apple tries to address these problems as soon as possible, although the changes that leaked don't seem to support this theory.

2. Development of Tiger is progressing much faster than most of thought and it might be released in early 2005 rather than in May or June. This would mean that 10.3.7 would be the last update for Panther, so Apple has to make sure major bugs remain in Panther. After all, the last Jaguar update was released only month before Panther shipped.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I wouldn't have expected 10.3.7 so soon, given the usual 2-3-month cycle. I guess there are two possibilities why Apple might want to release the new update soon:

1. Many users seem to have all sorts of problems with 10.3.6, so it's only logical Apple tries to address these problems as soon as possible, although the changes that leaked don't seem to support this theory.

2. Development of Tiger is progressing much faster than most of thought and it might be released in early 2005 rather than in May or June. This would mean that 10.3.7 would be the last update for Panther, so Apple has to make sure major bugs remain in Panther. After all, the last Jaguar update was released only month before Panther shipped.

Uhh...Zaty? Don't you mean "so Apple has to make sure no major bugs remain in Panther"?

 

[Pixeled_Apple]

Woh! 10.3.7... Already? Damn they're fast... I hope they don't forget that if too much updates up2 10.3.9, they'll sooner or later have to Tiger! 10.3.10 sounds pretty weird... 10.4 will sound betta!!!

Does anyone actually sleep at Apple?

If I worked @ apple, I'll probly be drinking Coke all day, and sleep won't sleep for even a bit

 

[broken_keyboard]

According to this, Microsoft are planning to launch a desktop search by the end of the year (there's a comment at the end)

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6765618&section=news

So maybe that will force Apple to hurry Tiger along...

 

[wrldwzrd89]

According to this, Microsoft are planning to launch a desktop search by the end of the year (there's a comment at the end)

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6765618&section=news

So maybe that will force Apple to hurry Tiger along...

It seems that developments with Apple and Google have convinced Microsoft to change their plans regarding desktop search. I don't think Apple should be worried, though: the Spotlight technology Apple already has is proven and has been shown to work; unlike Microsoft, who hasn't shown any working demos of either Longhorn searching or their desktop search tool as far as I am aware. Also, Google clearly has the advantage when it comes to Internet search, and Apple is smart enough to just use Google in Safari rather than try to compete with it, since internet search is not in Apple's market.

 

[broken_keyboard]

It seems that developments with Apple and Google have convinced Microsoft to change their plans regarding desktop search. I don't think Apple should be worried, though: the Spotlight technology Apple already has is proven and has been shown to work; unlike Microsoft, who hasn't shown any working demos of either Longhorn searching or their desktop search tool as far as I am aware. Also, Google clearly has the advantage when it comes to Internet search, and Apple is smart enough to just use Google in Safari rather than try to compete with it, since internet search is not in Apple's market.

Yes. I think Microsoft have probably decided to be a bit less technically ambitious. If I understand, their original approach was to replace the filesystem with a relational database (WinFS). That would certainly give you good search, but is also a pretty invasive change to the system, and I could see why it would take them years.

If they have now decided to go with the much simpler Apple approach of adding a hook to the OS file writing functions, they should be able to get a solution out much faster (which may be what we are seeing with this announcement).

 

[oingoboingo]

I mean we've had at least 4-5 updates a year on the Mac, it's like a new Service Pack for Windows every 2.5-3 months! I don't think Microsoft can pull that off. Releasing at this rate Windows XP would be on SP17 or something now, not a shotty and incompatible SP2 (I have 2 PCs). Who can say that Jobs doesn't love us (and our money)?

To be fair, Microsoft has to take into account a lot more hardware, drivers and 3rd-party applications than Apple does when it releases a Service Pack. It doesn't control the platform top-to-bottom like Apple does.

That said...XP Service Pack 2...what the hell were they thinking?

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

10.3.6 and iTunes 4.7 are just too hot...

Looking forward to an update.

After updating my iBook G4 to 10.3.6 and iTunes to 4.7 it has gotten really hot. The processor reaching 60 degrees Celsius at a regular basis, just running Safari and iTunes (even when using headphones and not Airtunes). It didn't use to get that hot without playing CM4 or when ripping CDs. Safari uses 40-60% CPU just playing songs.

Don't know if it's an OS X problem or really an iTunes-problem that 10.3.6 made worse, but upgrades can only make things better (or so I hope)...

 

[ASP272]

Thanks Apple for always being on top of your game and continually improving the OS for the pleasure of your loyal consumers.

 

[UnixMac]

Thanks Apple for always being on top of your game and continually improving the OS for the pleasure of your loyal consumers.

Hear Hear

for the most part, my Mac works better now with 10.3.6

 

[bretm]

After all, the last Jaguar update was released only month before Panther shipped.

They still continue to update Jaguar elements. But nothing will ever be bug free. They continued to update OS9 for about a year after the first version of OSX.

 

[kettle]

Does anyone else ever wonder about similarities between the cats?

I always get the feeling that Panther has a lot of the clunkiness that Puma had. I'm kind of hoping that Tiger has the same base feel as Jaguar had.

If this sounds confusing I think I mean maybe Panther was built on the guts of Puma and maybe Tiger is being developed on the guts of Jaguar, like an over lapping period.

just a feeling I get sometimes, prolly very irrational.