Mac's version of the Blue Screen of Death
Oh dear god it's contagious! NNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!1!!11
Apple's recently released 10.5.7 update to Mac OS X is bringing grief to a goodly number of unfortunate souls. MacInTouch readers have contributed multiple posts about multiple problems, some with suggested fixes, some without. MacFixIt has published three separate articles about installation woes - one describing download …
So lets see to get to any and all options for Windows for bootup options its F8 not shift for one mode Command+S for another mode, shove a finger up my ass and put my nuts in a vice for another options. But yet again the *nix, OSX fanbois/girls will be crying about how good their systems are and everything they can do to fix all the worlds ills.
I don't personally care which OS i use so long as it gets the job done for the task at hand.
Gaming = Windows (dont tell me their are tons of games out for OSX or *nix)
Doing something shady = *nix
Looking like a total twat = OSX
Flames because you know they are coming.
Eek!! I know MacOS is technically based on BSD, but....
...well, about 15-20 years back there was a movie called "Misery" about an author abducted by a psychotic fan. When he tries to escape she ties him to his bed, puts a big block of wood between his lower calves and smashes both his ankles in with a sledge hammer so he can't run off again...
...that is more-or-less what Apple has done to their "*nix" so it really irks me when people group MacOS in with the real *nixes :-(
(Having to keep MacOS desktops working on our large mixed environment also irks me - Apple spent months in our server room trying to get it right while we refused to pay them until it was. In the end they gave up and put a Windows server in 'temporarily'.)
Finally someone else agrees with me...
Why is this OS having so many problem? Its not like they have to test their software on thousands of weird configurations with ancient applications, odd drivers and a bunch of other factor.... Yet windows experiences very few problems during install (Maybe a driver hangup or two, but you can't expect that every fucking driver on the planet can be crammed onto a single DVD)
Don't mind me, just throw more fuel on the fire
This is why mac lusers should try a decent OS like linux, or even Windows, where you learn to do things that are useful instead of just clicking on one of apple's preinstalled proprietary applications.
I want a second icon, so I can use the Linux one too...
Microsoft should jump on this for an ad campaign. After all Windows is perfect.
@ James O', giving the average Windows user a choice of keys for boot up options would only confuse them.
No I don't use OSX or any Apple products. XP for games & Cubase. Ubuntu, Debian, OpenBSD for everything else. If Apple products were around half of their current retail prices I might consider taking them seriously, even if they do break every time the OS is updated. ;-)
Problems in past 6 months with Apple update service: 4
Time spent repairing: 24 man hours
Problems in past 6 months with a certain Linux distro's update service: 1
Time spent repairing: 1 hour
Problems in past 6 months with MS update service: 0
Time spent in pub: 24 hours*
Just about says it all.
*OK, I lie. I wasn't in the pub, I was doing 'other' Win32 specific support calls thus rendering this entire 'study' pointless
With the phletora of hardware configurations, third party software, motherboards/graphics cards options from multiple vendors such things are bound to happen - oh wait.
Sorry I forgot: One Apple to rule'em all, one Apple to create'n'sell them.
Glitches could be expected on a <cough> hackintosh <cough> but on a Designed in Californica Apple? WTF?
So you are taking the piss because "safe" mode is entered by holding the shift key at boot, and getting a command line is achieved by holding down command-s. Are you really trying to say that Windows is better because you have to press F8 and select an item on a list? Is remembering key combinations too much for you tiny gamers brain? Tool.
No problems for me. Makes me wonder what 3rd party software people are running to have theses problems.
Seriously people, its not like a Windows Service Pack ever screws up, or whatever Linux does a package in during an update is it now?
The only real issue today was the 449M download, but after that it installed perfectly on my Macbook. Quick reboot and we were cooking with fat again.
As for all the bullshit about MacOS X not being a real unix, get a grip ffs. Anyone who can say that needs a girlfriend and a good hard shag.
Who would have guessed that CrApple would screw up an update for their great and gloriously perfect OS that never crashes. I must admit I never saw that coming at all!
"It just works" - my fat, hairy, unwashed arse it does.
And to the editors, please get it right. They are Apple fannibois.
Paris because according to her people she has gone down less often than a Mac updated with the last two updates from Apple.
Unlike the bug-fest that is Microsloth Winslows,
APPLE IS PERFECT!
IT IS YOUR REALITY THAT IS AT FAULT!
Apple suggests that if you ARE having "slight" problems with the new software, you should simply THROW AWAY your 8-month old Apple and buy a BRAND NEW SHINY ONE which will work FLAWLESSLY.
Been using PCs since GEM desktop days, worked on *Nix for most of my career, I have a Mac, it's fantastic piece of kit, but I love it just the same.
Jebus H, I can't stand Apple's sanctimonious attitude! They think they are so fecking great, with their metrosexual, khaki-cargo-pant wearing demographic, who will s**k the **** of Jobs whenever he demands it!
I will say this one more time you fecking Apple fanbois....IT'S A TOOL (like you!) NOT A FECKING LIFESTYLE CHOICE!!!!!!!
Let me say it once more, I HAVE A MAC AND I LIKE IT! It has problems, it is no worse or better than Windows, KDE, Gnome, BSD, Linux, Amiga even Atari GEM Desktop!!!!!!
Arrggghhhhh!!!!!
(Flame icon as I my head catch fire I get any more angry with my sanctimonious, so called Apple using brethren! )
.. its caused by a 3rd party program installed.
This is NOT a valid excuse for any OS, linux,windows or OSX. They al have 32rd party programs installed on them and should be able to account for that, the only time this would be valid was if the 3rd party program was replacing system files, but in that case why were they able to do that in the first place!
this is happened last time
a small percentage of OS X user had troubles with the update, but the internet media blew it all out of proportion because it was OS X. and then all the pc-trolls out there get on their soapbox and start shouting about how finally they've found proof that OS X is just as rubbish as their OS of choice, when in fact, the vast majority of users have no problem at all with the upgrade.
unlike windoze, where if there is a problem with their service pack, it seems to affect most users
With any operating system there is a small chance of an upgrade doing unpredictable things - it could be Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, TOS, whatever, these things happen.
What matters is whether the company concerned acknowledges any errors, posts fixes, workarounds or if they just turtle and let "the community" sort things for the hapless users.
See, this is why I enjoy El Reg. The commentary on either Apple or This Old Box or stories about willies...all bring a "One Foot in the Grave" feel...I just know it's coming and yet I have to keep watching.
"Oh, I dooon't BELIEVE it!"
Cheers by the way, the update was lovely thanks.
And being a app minder daytimes, I do enjoy some eyecandy in my hometimes. ...
One of those 'oh fekkin arse I'm still a fekkin written in fekkin Visual Basic fekkin sold globally how can that fekkin happen' app minder....
mmm Leopard eyecandy..oo look at that Expose...shucks and you can spot my Aunty's face in a crowded photo?
Oh, stop it. And you run faster on the same hardware than the previous version. See, this is why I still come home nights.
OK, I'm done, carry on gentlemen.
just updated,
OSX worked 1st time no problems then updated the beta of safari as well again no problems. Just thought I'd mention it.
And in the interests of being impartial, Not had any problems with my Vista upgrades either. I use both OS depending on what I want to do with my computer.
Because after nearly 15 years working with Windows systems, I realised that I'd be better off ditching them for ANYTHING else. I was even considering getting a Sun!!!
OK, if once every couple of months you have to boot into safe mode then you're laughing.
Do you know how many times I had to boot into safe mode on any single one of my PCs? I lost count. One of mine BSODd the first time I plugged my USB scanner in FFS.
Besides which, having a unix OS (and yes it is, under the hood) is much better than having some ad-hoc POS.
I'll just say one word to all the MS fantards out there - "REGISTRY" mwah ha ha ha!
No probs at all. Infact never had a problem with ANY update.
It just works - but statistically there will be some that fail.
Strange - in the 8 years since I purchased my angle poise iMac, I have only had two major crashes (one where I powered off an external hard drive by accident), none caused by updates!
St Steve - I'm ready for you!
So a very small number of people that have played about with their Macs have had problems... the vast majority have had no problems whatsover.... so yet again a non-event. Most of these comments seem to have come from people who wouldn't know a Mac if it bit them on the backside.
I just upgraded my Mac Pro and my wife's iMac without a hint of trouble.
Moreover, I read through some of those posts in the article and some of them seem to be due to user error. For example, at the bottom of the "Time Machine" issue thread, the user acknowledge that he just wasn't giving the program enough time to re-scan the file tree, and that everything went fine after he just left it run overnight.
Some other issues seem to pertain to specific models having incompatibilities with specific 3rd party extensions; no surprise there.
I think the problems with this patch have been overstated, as with many others in the past.
-dZ.
I've just spent the last 6 months as a contractor rolling out hardware and software upgrades on around 600 Macs for a very large publishing company. They also have probably twice this number of Windows boxes. By and large it's been seamless, the only problems really have been the occasional old drive failing (some machines are 6-7 years old), bug's upgrading 3rd party software (step forward Adobe) and erm, that's about it really.
Mind you, for the benefit of the Windows trolls here, this is a proper serious working environment, a multi-million £ international company. Not some spotty twunt who thinks it's necessary that if you use a computer you need to know 'command line to do useful things'. These people get on with their work everyday, some don't even know, and care even less, what system they're using. And why should they as long as they're getting the job done?
As for the IT dept here (in the London office at least) there's a bout 8-10 support staff most of whom are dealing almost exclusively with the Windows World of Pain. A couple of them have Mac knowledge to whom the occasional Mac related problem is directed. In fact they hired an extra Mac support guy for this roll-out but they let him go early as there wasn't enough work for him.
Can we get on with life now please?
"Do you know how many times I had to boot into safe mode on any single one of my PCs? I lost count. One of mine BSODd the first time I plugged my USB scanner in FFS."
In which case I would strongly recommend replacing your copy of Windows 95 with a slightly more recent version.
Suck as it might, I've never used safe mode in Vista. And in a house with 4 Windows XP machines I only go into safe mode once or twice a year, if that.
Somethings definitely wrong with your setup.
Does no one remember the grief many people had with SP2 for XP or the nasty patch they released several years later ....now what was it called .....Vista !!
oh sorry that wasn't a patch just a poor joke of an OS they released to show the world how not to write, promote support a operating system.
The problem with Winslows users (much) like the joke OS they use is its they suffer from memory leeks..... please show them some pity.
Vista was\is groundwork for future MS OS's to come. They had to break the bad stuff by replacing it with new foundations that were more secure and designed better. XP was still based largely on the old NT kernel written in the early-mid 90's - when the future looked a lot different to how it has actually panned out.
Vista broke lots and pissed a lot of people off - but the fan has been wiped down, OEMs and 3rd parties have adjusted, and we all move on. 7, 8 and whatever else in the future can now build on these new blocks and we'll all be much happier, more secure and quicker going forward.
Vista was a bold move but don't forget, it had to happen at some point. At least it's done now.
That's exactly why Mac's are despised by IT.
I remember the same situation when working for a large accountancy firm in the mid 90's. Roughly 2000 Mac's and 2000 PC's. 95 percent of the IT staff were dedicated to keeping the PC's up and running.
No prize in guessing who one out when it came to standardising on a single platform. Largely thanks to the advice that came from IT.
Windows fails because of third party crap -> WINDOWS SUCKS GUYZ
Mac fails because of third party crap -> Meh, bound to happen. And my mac which has never left the box it came in updated fine. Maybe don't install crap on your machines next time huh?
Windows has a simpler interface for selecting boot mode -> Lololol can't even remember commands wintards.
Mac has a simpler interface for things -> Genius design. "Shit just works".
I swear comments on these articles are only opened to depress us all. And oh god do they depress me...
Seriously?
But yes I have had some updates that were painfull recently on Tiger whcih you had to fix by turning the stuffit extract options off because a quicktime update interfered with it...
Apple have seriously dropped the ball on tesing, which is quite annoying. But no other operating system is being good for thet either.
Still dosn't beat vistas reboot loop though, where the only way to fix it it to load a linux live cd mount the boot partition and delete the pending.xml file. Doing it from antoher windows install it thinks that the system files are in use ^^ idiot os.
..Apple sell their shit on the premise "It just works" - until you install an update, then it crashes.
@Maliciously Crafted Packet
All I can say is you had idiots creating the build. I have a single build for over 400 Windows machines (HP & Dell) and at most have had 1 blue screen in the past 6 months - due to third party software.
Apple make all their own hardware and software and still crap it all up. Ask owners of Buffalo USB drives.
Updated to 10.5.7 last night using the combo installer. Had no problems at all.
Ran the update, restarted and I went off to make my tea, got back to be greeted with the logon screen, logged on and playing COD4.....good times!!!
I use mainmenu for mac which keeps my system running smoothly. I suggest you all download it (it actually fixes disk permissions....shhh!).
My mac is still easier to mantain than my Ubuntu and WinXp set ups.
"By Anonymous Coward Posted Thursday 14th May 2009 07:41 GMT
You do realise that if you boot Windows with the left shift key held down, it disables your startup programs, right?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457123.aspx
Think your high horse might have just thrown you."
I take it you didn't actually read the article did you? Well to point out the obvious:
A) This is done during the LOGON process, not the boot process.
B) This only disables startup programs, that is to say it isn't safe mode
C) Even if it did take you to safe mode how is having 2 ways to get to get there worse than only having one way?
Who really cares? I mean really, who actually cares? I'm fed up with this childish "my OS is better than your OS" all OSes crap out every so-often, so fucking what. The article is ok, but the comments, are like a bunch of children, worse than that, football fans arguing about the best team.
I'm off to the pub.
Downloaded in a few minutes, admin password, a few minutes restarting, then everything working fine.
Stop bleating about OSX being great/shite. It's as reliable as any other OS and those who use it seem to like it. Who gives a fuck if someone else uses a different system? Use whatever works for you and then walk away from this predictable clusterfuck.
By my calculations it's <25 posts before someone compares Jobs and/or Gates to Hitler.
As usually I update my Macbook Pro with OS X 10.5 update. 8 hours later an el Reg article appears like clockwork with every release of an update and portents doom and gloom. I shake my head, everything works fine.
Today I go into work, updates for windows pushed down from the IT guys in their ivory tower. Forced shutdown and blue screens my system halfway through the shutdown process. I have to manually intervene and get the system booting up again.
Feeling brave, I update my Windows VMWARE Workstation software. No blue screen of death. Just took half the day uninstalling its previous version, sitting there forever on the please wait dialogue box. Then finally reboots and .... and .... working! - Boot up Linux in VMWare and now the VMWare Tools need updating.
Run my linux install and FAIL! -- You can not use the VMWare tools with your LInux you must recompile them. Recompile script FAIL! -- you must download and install all the kernel development tools first.... Download and install. Recompile script! FAIL- all kernel modules but one compile successfully. I have a partial VMWare Tools now running in Linux.
Thanks to Linux + Windows I got to bill the whole day as a contractor just fecking around with the systems. Billing 120 per hour I don't mind. I made close to a thousand off these two OS.
Thanks to OS X I had zero headaches and no time waste at home.
Life, Reality, Deal with it!
" this is happened last time
a small percentage of OS X user had troubles with the update, but the internet media blew it all out of proportion because it was OS X. and then all the pc-trolls out there get on their soapbox and start shouting about how finally they've found proof that OS X is just as rubbish as their OS of choice, when in fact, the vast majority of users have no problem at all with the upgrade.
unlike windoze, where if there is a problem with their service pack, it seems to affect most users"
I'm sorry this is the best post ever, you make a perfectly valid point....... and then go straight into hypocrit land by saying that msot users are affect by service pack issues (when in fact, like with the osx its a small percentage), which is excatly what you were arguing about at first in your post.
Well done , you fail at IT and at life.
Mate, take it easy ... you cannot claim that you have never seen a cockup with updates on Windows, that cannot be, lying or inexperienced. I have 9 years professional experience in IT and have seen cockups with all main OS's - that is just a fact of life .... I would say linux is the worst, though. I use linux for work and at home, and linux updates is so fscking annoying that I do not do it anymore ... The worst distribution for updates was Suse ... I came in one morning only to see that I could not start the shell, because Susue thought it would be smart to update glibc, without updating the dependencies ... it happened overnight, so it had to be automatic updates. That is when I switched to ubuntu ... how many times have I had x fail after an update, I dunno in the 20's or even 30's. Now, I have a Quad, and every time I update my kernel, I have to create a new initrd, because it cannot find my HD with the default one??? so I do not update kernels anymore ... but WTF??
Windows update?? I have had bluescreens, and these are work PC's, no "exotic" software allowed ... on my linux boxes, which I use at home, I have tons of stuff I compiled by hand ...
I seriously believe, being a longtime Mac user, that Apple is pretty good with updates, but that is because they control the hardware ... I guess that when you install crappy software like Norton on a Mac you will get that - I worked for symantec (not for very long, because their software is shite) and know what I talk about, thanks!
Then again, why must we always get to this my OS is better than yours ... everyone uses his OS of choice, let it be so ... all OS's are equal, no OS is better than any other ... Solaris is more equal than the others, though! LOL
The lonely Solaris fanboy! ROFL
PS: I only took Solaris because I want Webster to come along, where is he when you need him?
Quite a lot of people are having problems with this upgrade.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2004318&tstart=0
Fancy been stupid enough to use my TV as a monitor for a mini-mac, I shouldn't use nasty 3rd party equipment with a mac. The solution was simple use the back-ups and go back to 10.5.6 but it is still something I would rather not have needed to do!
Paris as she would not think that just because she hasn't had a problem doesn't mean that one doesn't exist!