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Comments: 161 +-   Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.3 Has Landed on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:31PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:31PM
from the little-nudges dept.
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jaymus of dawning writes with word that, as promised, "Apple has just released the latest major revision of OS X. The update yields improvements to tons of system components and applications including the Software Update system, Address Book, AirPort, Automater, iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental Controls, Spaces, Time Machine and VoiceOver. This release contains 200 bug fixes from 10.5.2. See Apple's release page for all the delicious details."
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  • It's 9D34 (Score:4, Informative)

    by TJamieson (218336) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:32PM (#23574909)
    Just like yesterday's test build.
    • Re:It's 9D34 (Score:5, Informative)

      by 0100010001010011 (652467) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @03:43PM (#23576089)
      Updating for those of us at work:

      I'm still at work but I'd like to come home to a freshly updated system, you can do system updates over SSH.

      >sudo softwareupdate -i -a
      Software Update Tool
      Copyright 2002-2007 Apple

      Downloading Mac OS X Update 0.
      ---
      Then it'll install and you can do a
      > sudo shutdown -r now

      Hurray for BSD underpinnings.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        That won't work because the 10.5.3 update installs a new PAM that throws sudo off prior to rebooting, so the last step you mentioned won't run. So what you have to do instead is this:

        sudo -s
        softwareupdate -i -a
        shutdown -r now
    • Is the infamous airport disconnection issue [google.ca] finally been fixed?
  • by oahazmatt (868057) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:35PM (#23574959) Journal
    Now, like all updates, I'll wait a week to make sure there are no serious problems. (For those of you still in disbelief, yes, Mac systems do have their share of problems. Like pesky system updates that may or may not allow you to boot into your OS. I forget which revision that was.)
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      pesky system updates that may or may not allow you to boot into your OS

      You know, I've had my share of problems with Macs over the years but even though I've heard lots of horror stories, no system update has ever hosed my computer. I've used some pretty unusual combinations of Apple/third party hardware, too, like a Centris 650 (68040 chip) with a PPC upgrade card and an ancient Toby Frame Buffer video card out of a Mac II installed.

    • I forget which revision that was.
      10.5.2. You have a short memory! :^)
      • Actually 10.5.2 did not do that to me. I've never had this issue. It was a friend running 10.4 when I was still on 10.3, I believe.
        • by raddan (519638) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @03:49PM (#23576195)
          10.5.2 made my machine unbootable. Fortunately, I got in the habit of making backups before applying updates when the same thing happened to me sometime in the 10.4 era (10.4.8? I can't remember).
    • My friend and I are both on white iMacs, use different isps, and neither can install the upgrade, a package error is encountered.

      I haven't checked the official site but I doubt we are alone in this issue.

      While I haven't had an update completely scramble my setup its not a big fear if you keep to a regular schedule of backups, including immediate ones prior to trying to upgrade.

  • by Gewalt (1200451) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:38PM (#23575009)
    During install, my MBP restarted an additional time or two. I thought for a minute there that I was gonna have to restore from a week old super dupe. Alas, on the third startup, it actually started.
    • by BarryJacobsen (526926) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:43PM (#23575079) Homepage

      During install, my MBP restarted an additional time or two. I thought for a minute there that I was gonna have to restore from a week old super dupe. Alas, on the third startup, it actually started.
      Well, the update was 420mb; it's understandable that you'd need to wait a little for the smoke to clear :P

      Kidding aside, this is semi-common with OS X updates. Usually if it doesn't require an extra reboot, the reboot it does do takes a few extra minutes. I'm guessing that since this update is
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        I have 3 macs two got the 198M update one got the 420M. Odd, they're all intel and I don't immediately know why the variance.

        The dual-reboot thing has gotten to be more common than in the past, the first time it happened i freaked out thinking the box ate itself. Just worrying when it happens for the first time. And a reminder to do a backup before any upgrades :).

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          Interesting, I had a similar experience. Moreover, the machine that got the 200M update took *forever* to install, but the 420M update machine went blazing quick.

          By any chance, are your two 198M macs running with ATi Graphics?
          • Perhaps the 200mb install was mostly patches and the 420 was outright file replacements?
          • by TJamieson (218336) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @06:33PM (#23578669)
            Oof I hate to reply to myself, but so far my experience has been that (1) ATi machines get the smaller update and (2) said machines seem to take an extremely long time to install.

            MacBook (Intel graphics) got the 400M update, and sped right through it. iMac (ATi) got the 200M, and seemed to die on "Running Installer Script".

            Anybody got an nVidia Mac to report in here? Anybody else seeing the same thing?
    • If that scared you, you should have seen what it did to my old iBook G4 ;)

    • Soo, it's turning out that Apple is becoming more like Microsoft? Or at least OSX is becoming more like Windows?
      • The first dual reboot I remember was 10.4.3 on a PowerMac G5.

        Both multiple reboots and extra-long initial boot times are very common after 10.x.x updates. Apple should do a better job of publicizing their existence. After every single one I see a bunch of posts like "OMG! My computer took three minutes to boot! This new OS is t3h sukc!"

        (Not that I ever understood the obsession with boot time, either. But it's amazing how many people shut down the machine every single time they stop using it.)

  • by audunr (906697) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @02:53PM (#23575257)
    10.5.2 Server has a show-stopper bug with AFP/Open Directory which gradually makes authentication impossible. Gradually, you get no file access, no VNC, no SSH and in the end you cannot log on locally with an attached screen and keyboard. The issue has been heavily discussed at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1251475&tstart=0 [apple.com]
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      This is what has kept us from 10.5... we upgraded from 10.4.x about 2-3 months after Leopard launched.

      We ran into issue after issue of this exact same bug. We even ran into this in our Apple Training - was great watching the trainer think nothing was "officially" wrong. Seems for us that it was when we did screen sharing (during training) just 1 computer connecting to the server would cause the crash.

      Now - we have purchased servers that only support 10.5 - and we haven't had a SINGLE issue with AFP c
  • I've had serious crashes in 10.5.2 with CoreAudio and Time Capsule, and many small annoyances with iChat, window behavior, Spaces, etc. Hopefully this fixes the bulk of them, at least the serious ones. So far, so good.
  • by neoform (551705) <djneoform@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 28 2008, @03:13PM (#23575595) Homepage
    Am I just not seeing why this would be hard?

    I really want to be able to backup to a remote drive. Perhaps allowing me to save to a disk image?
  • What new drivers are in there for hardware that apple has not came out with yet?
  • how long be for psystar comes out with own update for 10.5.3?
  • Usually I wait AT LEAST a week to see what sort of problems folks have before considering going for a big update, but this time I decided that I'd just go ahead and give it a shot on my lappy (2.2G Macbook).

    It was a 420MB monster for this machine, and took a considerable time and a couple of auto-starts, but it's up, it's running, I don't have any new problems (yet?), and a couple of small peeves with 10.5.2 appear to have gone away.

    Time will tell, but so far I'm either lucky or actually came through unscat
  • I encountered an error installing 10.5.3; downloading the Combo Update and running it again fixed the problem. I had moved some of Apple's software from /Applications to /Applications/Apple; the installer tries to guess where you've moved it, but apparently the 10.5.2 installer guesses wrong. My /var/log/install.log read:

    May 28 15:14:57 macpro payloadExtractor[5981]: Diverting "./Applications/iSync.
    app/Contents/Resources" to "/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1
    .8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/do

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 28 2008, @07:03PM (#23579033)
    Leopard's Spaces had been criticized for making it hard to organize virtual desktops by task rather than by application (for example at http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/why_apple_spaces_is_broken [sun.com] and http://www.dribin.org/dave/blog/archives/2007/11/13/spaces/ [dribin.org]).

    10.5.3 seems to address most of these criticisms with two small changes: Command-Tab now tries to find application windows in the current space before switching spaces, and there's a new preference to not switch spaces at all when switching applications.

    This makes a big different in the usability of Spaces!
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I would much prefer it if there are no windows open in the current space but the application is running, Command+Tab gives the app focus but not any windows.
        In the Spaces system preference pane, uncheck "When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application". I think this will give you the behavior you are seeking.

        This preference option is new in 10.5.3.
    • Re:Service Pack 3 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SageinaRage (966293) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @03:00PM (#23575393)
      You prefer your bugs to go UN-fixed?
      • I prefer not to have to install little patches that have many dependencies on other patches and require restarts individually when I have a fresh Windows install.

        It would be nice if Microsoft bundled their updates quarterly and let you download one blob and then select the updates to install in one shot.

        SP3 was in the oven for a long time and I'm so glad it's here now, but getting an SP2 or earlier system up to date was a huge pain in March.

        Quarterly updates (delta and combo version) are helpful. They would reduce my work building slipstream disks by a lot.

        You don't miss bug fixes because you just do quarterly+other updates as they come- but for new installs combo updates are wonderful.
    • Re:Service Pack 3 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by oahazmatt (868057) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @03:14PM (#23575605) Journal

      I'm hardly stating the popular opinion, but vista only has 1 service pack so far... and osx has 3 - and the hardware to run osx is much more expensive, but virtually the same. (then again, at least it is OSX-ready)
      Actually, I don't know what it is you're trying to state. Yes, Vista only has 1 Service Pack out. This is the third revision for OS X. These revisions acknowledge bugs or imperfections with the system (in my philosophical opinion, nothing created by a human [a flawed being] can be infallable) and tries to improve the imperfections and fix the bugs.

      Why would this be a problem? I'd rather my OS manufacturer pay attention and regularly release updates rather than stockpile them for a rainy day (never used XP at home, so I'm not sure how MS does the Windows SPs).

      If you're going to judge an OS by the number of service packs released, it can go both ways. "Oh, this one only has one service pack, it must be really stable." -- "Oh, this one only has one service pack, this other company must pay closer attention to bug reports".
    • Re:Retardedness (Score:5, Informative)

      by Poltras (680608) on Wednesday May 28 2008, @03:15PM (#23575619) Homepage
      You know they actually fixed the dock folder problem, right? If you right click and check "Display as Folder", it shows as the icon of the folder itself. You can then choose the icon of the folder itself to fit your needs. It's been there since at least 10.5.2.
    • The large download is the Combo update. If you used Software Update, you've got the smaller Delta (10.5.2->10.5.3) version.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        Nope. I got the 420 MB version through Software Update on both of my MBPs (one 2.16GHz Core Duo, one 2.4GHz Penryn).
    • I think they released this early exactly so they would not have to talk about it, but leave room for other more important things...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      I don't recall His Steveness ever spending much time talking about double point updates to OS X. He certainly doesn't talk about "how well it's doing."

      The keynote is almost certainly going to be dominated by iPhone. I'm sure he'll also mention the old standards, that iTunes is the biggest US retailer of music and that Mac sales have continued to grow faster than the industry average.

To get something clean, one has to get something dirty. To get something dirty, one does not have to get anything clean.