OS X Leopard a huge hit!

To me, this OS installed on any PC-based motherboard/cpu/mem/disk would be the ultimate Linux-based system.

Using Leopard as a LAMP instead of Red Hat on a very modern multi-cpu system. Combination desktop & server, where you don't want to run games on it, could find a home in my office.

 

A new version of Windows every 12-18 months would be totally unacceptable. For home users, it may be fine and fun to change the OS every year or so, but companies don't work in that way. The overhead and cost involved in the adaptation would much too high: integration of the current application software, checks to validate it with the business workflow software, deployment of the new OS on all stations, adaptation to new group management tools, establishement of new usage rules, training of employees, ...
Few people have any idea what amount of paperwork and re-certification an FDA 21 CFR Part 11 certified company has to go through if they want to change anything on their IT setup. MS would upset and alienate the corporate world if they would start to create new OS'es at that rate.

Only a tiny fraction of companies have even started the process of making the switch to Vista right now. It will take many years before 50% of the corporate customers have made that switch. I don't think it makes much sense to compare initial sales of OSX vs Windows. To a large extent, they are serving a different market with totally different mechanisms and buying strategies.

I don't think MS brought out Vista too early. There are a lot of incompatibilities indeed, but they are mostly related to existing software that was written incorrectly so that it does not work well with the UAC and the virtualization sandbox. To put it simply, it is because of bugs and bad design and implementation in that software. Again, a consequence of the huge number of 3rd party software and drivers over which MS has no control at all. So, that problem was doomed to show up anway, regardless of when they released it. It will take an update cycle of a lot of independent application software before this settles. An annoying problem, but I don't think there was any way to avoid it if MS wanted to make Vista more secure (which everybody was asking for). If you shut down holes for malware, you risk of blocking some crappy existing software that uses the same mechanisms. Call it collateral damage.

 

I just bought my copy of leopard. Any suggestions before I install it? (I am not looking for Windows advocates to say Don't. Just helpful advice on installing, though it's supposed to be easy, and I already know to select Archive & Install -- Preserve Users and preferences.)

 

So I installed Leopard last night. Made the mistake of starting at bedtime (too sleepy, I suppose, to reflect on the likely consequence of that) and it took nearly an hour to install, so I was up later than I wanted.

The man at the store told me to select "Archive & Install -- Preserve Users and Preferences" but I didn't see this option (maybe too sleepy) and before I knew it, it was installing and I could not go back. However, it did preserve my users and most of my preferences. Oddly, a few of my widgets disappeared from my Dashboard screen, but it took seconds to drag them back in.

A couple of things I don't like: The cards in my FreeCell solitaire game now appear without borders, as if the stack of cards was one long card with many figures on it. It hurts my eyes because it's hard to distinguish the overlap line. When I select "Zoom to Fit" in Preview for looking at a folder of pictures, it applies only to the current picture, and there is no shortcut key for this option. I have to press <apple> + to enlarge each one. Big nuisance! Or click on View and select Zoom to Fit from the drop-down menu. What were they thinking?

Some reviewers do not like the look of the dock, but it does not bother me.

The two really good things are not especially visible: Time Machine is a backup program that works in the background. Great idea! And sandboxing (I think that's what I mean) whereby the memory space is randomized so that a virus cannot predict where anything is, rendering the popular buffer overflow attack harmless.

There's more, but I've not really yet begun to explore. I don't expect ever to find or use 90% of the features. But the improved security and the easy backup were enough to convince me to upgrade.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 1 2007, 02:26 PM) [snapback]533344[/snapback]</div>

Wow, the fact that is this the first on your list of inconveniences proves more than anything else how far Apple has gotten with their product!


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 1 2007, 02:26 PM) [snapback]533344[/snapback]</div>

That's not sandboxing, but address space layout randomization (ASLR). Sandboxing is the concept of offering to programs with lower priveledged a separate, virtualised environment where any harm done does not have any implications on the real system
It might help you sleep better if you know that both sandboxing and ASLR are present in Windows Vista for almost a year already... Apple playing catchup to MS? The sky must be falling down...

But, if you want to preserve that good sleep, don't look here :huh:

 

I had automated, incremental disk-to-disk backups working on unix
boxes back in, oh, 1987 or so. Nothing new there, but it's nice to
see offerings to make it as easy as possible for the general public
who often don't think about backups at all until, well, after the
fact. So long, digital baby pictures.
.
Now, can any of y'all mac-heads tell me exactly where the firewalling
rules are stored across reboots? At a file level, not what GUI to
bring up, because it's clear from various articles that even if you
tell the GUI to "deny everything" that doesn't happen.
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 30 2007, 10:46 AM) [snapback]532434[/snapback]</div>

The past has clearly shown that the majority doesn't even consider upgrading until after the first service-pack is made available... which hasn't happened yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Nov 1 2007, 07:49 AM) [snapback]533380[/snapback]</div>

Thank you for the clarification on sandboxing and ASLR. Nothing about Vista will change how well I sleep because I don't expect ever to use Vista.

I did look at your link. The reviewer thinks Apple still didn't get a lot of stuff right. One reviewer's opinion. My opinion is that MS is the Evil Empire.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Nov 1 2007, 09:33 AM) [snapback]533426[/snapback]</div>

Yep. Unix had it right a long time ago. The reason OS X is as good as it is is because it is built on Unix. But Unix (like Linux, another superior OS) is too complicated for a non-techie home user like me. OS X is as close as I can come.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Nov 1 2007, 10:10 AM) [snapback]533443[/snapback]</div>

I'd never have installed the first version of a Microsoft OS. The fact that I did so with OS X 10.5 (Leopard) shows how much more confidence I have in Apple (a lot) than I have in Microsoft (none at all). This, of course, is just my own personal, subjective feeling about the two companies and their respective OSs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 1 2007, 07:10 PM) [snapback]533465[/snapback]</div>

Well, I just thought that, you know, thinking about all those scary Windows-based botnets out there sending spam to your beloved Mac sometimes might keep you awake at night. After all, this is Halloween time
I just wanted to comfort you a little by telling you that rescue is on its way.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 1 2007, 07:10 PM) [snapback]533465[/snapback]</div>

The reviewer wasn't really negative about it. And believe me, Vista also has it's share of shortcomings. But it reveals some interesting facts for Leopard users. Especially about the 'secure' guest account.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 1 2007, 07:10 PM) [snapback]533465[/snapback]</div>

Yes, I know that by now. But thanks for reminding anyway :huh:
But I would encourage you to realise that such black/white vision is usually counterproductive, and in the end often harmfull.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Nov 1 2007, 01:10 PM) [snapback]533465[/snapback]</div>

That's a good way of looking at it. After all, the PC user's mindset is totally different anyway. They generally perfer upgrading hardware at the same time. Why bother with the OS only when you can get a dirt cheap replacement of everything, especially since the newer was designed to take advantage of those updates.

 

any sales numbers update?

 

My only complaint about Leopard, is that it has not fixed some problems with Tiger. I still dock my iPhone, and it can not find my camera automatically, like it should. And with my 160GB iPod, it still seems to protest the size of it; as in, the syncing process takes forever.

But those are two very small problems. Otherwise it works well.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Nov 1 2007, 11:47 AM) [snapback]533491[/snapback]</div>

They're not sending spam to my "beloved Mac." They're sending it everywhere: most of the traffic on the internet is spam. And as long as it takes a computer tech to configure Windows to be safe, those botnets will happily chug along.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Nov 1 2007, 11:47 AM) [snapback]533491[/snapback]</div>

I'm not all that optimistic. But I don't lose sleep over it. I merely recognize where the weak link in the malware war is: Microsoft.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Nov 1 2007, 11:47 AM) [snapback]533491[/snapback]</div>

Yes. I do believe you. B)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Nov 1 2007, 11:47 AM) [snapback]533491[/snapback]</div>

Usually, yes. And I give Bill credit for being a spectacular and inspired philanthropist. But his software is unacceptable.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a @ Nov 1 2007, 11:51 AM) [snapback]533494[/snapback]</div>

You get what you pay for. Those dirt-cheap computers are cheap because they're built cheap. With a Mac, you don't need a new computer every year.

 

QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 30 2007, 10:46 AM)
It's official... Leopard is a hit, while Vista was a flop.

QUOTE(john1701a @ Nov 1 2007, 12:10 PM)
The past has clearly shown that the majority doesn't even consider upgrading until after the first service-pack is made available... which hasn't happened yet.


That's why it is "flopping". Trust. Why does it NEED a service pack to be stable or useable?



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TJandGENESIS @ Nov 1 2007, 04:45 PM) [snapback]533574[/snapback]</div>

That's likely a hardware (UBS 2.0) issue. USB 2.0 isn't particularly fast.

My 1st Time Machine backup (127 GB) took 5 hours on a USB 2.0 drive...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(n8kwx @ Nov 1 2007, 08:16 PM) [snapback]533623[/snapback]</div>

Ah, I had not even thought about that. That is probably true. However, I failed to mention that often when it's syncing that particular iPod, it causes the program iTunes to become unresponsive, and I have to force it to quit.

Which is something I had hoped Leopard would address, and perhaps correct.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(n8kwx @ Nov 1 2007, 07:16 PM) [snapback]533623[/snapback]</div>

It doesn't. That audience is simply of the habit to wait, not interested in being first... much like consumers that don't ever buy a vehicle the first year it is out.

Myself, on the other hand, upgraded immediately and haven't experienced a single problem... even when I added defective memory. Microsoft does have a sense of humor. The error that detected the hardware problem had "Blue Screen" as the title. I was quite amused.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Nov 2 2007, 01:40 AM) [snapback]533769[/snapback]</div>

I've never seen those kinds of speeds from a USB hard drive. The bottleneck is the USB-PATA (or SATA) bridge controller; the ones I'm used to seeing top out at around 15MB/sec. Maybe you're buying better enclosures with faster controllers than I am. 60MB/sec is approaching the max sustained transfer speed of the typical 7200rpm HDA. I see 60-65MB/sec sustained on the 500GB SATA and PATA drives that I have in my 6TB home video server (runs SuSE 10.2).