Day: February 12, 2008

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OTOH… Mac OSX gets much-needed update

Earlier, I wanred y’all to watch out for the Vista SP1 from Microsoft. Now, word is well and truly out (and Apple’s servers being well, urm, serviced): news of much-needed “updates” (*cough* fixes) to OSX:

Sundry changes improve the performance of, or fix bugs in Dashboard, iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental Controls, Preview, Safari and Time Machine, while iSync gains support for Samsung D600E and D900i phones. The Finder has also been updated, with fixes for eight issues, including a couple that could cause unexpected quits.

Yeh, yeh, I know: MacCultists insist only pure, pristine and perfect code issues from Apple and all the crap code is limited to Me$$y$oft. Move along. Nothing to see here about “fix[ing] bugs in” various things in OSX folks depend on daily or things in Finder (Finder, fer heaven’s sake! You’d think they could fix the dumb name for the thing, too… *heh*) that “could cause unexpected quits.” (Yeh, “Crash Different” indeed.)

I will hand it to Apple for having created an atmosphere where its bug fix releases are viewed as something other than… bug fix releases, patches, fixes for their own “shrink-wrap betaware”.

Once again,

Crash Different

(On the gripping hand, Apple does fix its broken products, eventually. Mostly. Well, they are computers, aren’t they? ;-))

Well, at least I’m not counseling you to avoid this round of fixes, as I did with the Vista SP1. 😉

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Vista SP1 Available *yawn*

Vista’s not exactly Micro$oft Bob, but it’s vying for position to edge Windows Muppet Edition and DOS 4 out of top spots for Micro$oft’s worst OS offerings.

Oh, yeh, it’s got some nice eye candy and some neat features, but it’s measurably slower than XP and has been plagued by driver issues that have “bricked” more than a few computers. (Which is why many have “upgraded” their Vista machines to XP… even though that is not, IMO, the best of Micro$oft’s operating system offerings. YYMV, of course.)

And here comes Vista SP1 (lately the credo of savvy computer users has evolved from “Microsoft early buyers: shrink-wrap beta testers” to “NEVER buy a Me$$y$oft product before the first service pack!” *heh*)… which some tests show is slower in file copy operartions than pre-SP1 Vista and which “fixes” the driver issues by… making them worse?

*heh*

Still, if you’re a glutton for punishment, Windows Vista SP1 can be officially downloaded NOW – but don’t do it! outlines how to download the 1.13GB update (only available at this time as a pack including both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, along with some “fixes” for the installation process–read for “fixes,” “new processes that may well break something else” *heh*)… if you dare.

Oh, what the heck. Here’s the direct download link, but let me repeat, “Don’t Do It!” 😉

You have been warned.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, A Newt One, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.