Apple's Leopard Not as Error Free as It Should Be

Ars technica has a post out on reports of some early Apple (AAPL) Leopard adopters experiencing bugs with the new Mac OS. I haven't upgraded myself yet. I almost did right at the launch simply because I'm always one to try the new and (hopefully) better, but now I'm glad that I didn't.

The biggest reason that I'm glad that I didn't is that apparently Leopard doesn't work with Adobe Flash - which seems like a big deal to me. Adobe Flash runs Zooomr's photo uploader, and we've confirmed that anyone that installs Leopard can no longer upload photos to Zooomr.

Kristopher Tate, our Founder and CTO at Zooomr, blames Adobe for this, and has posted a link on our upload page where people can tell Adobe how they feel about this. Apparently Adobe has not yet updated Flash to work with the new Mac OS Leopard. This seems like a pretty large oversight. There is a forum post on this issue here.

As for me, I'm going to wait on upgrading to Leopard for sure at least until this bug with Flash is fixed. I'd hate to not be able to upload my photos to Zooomr. I may even wait a bit more than that just to make sure all the kinks are ironed out. I have heard generally positive reports from people who have upgraded, despite the obvious reason that I can't upgrade at present.

I still haven't upgraded my PCs to Vista, or even tried Vista. In part this is because I switched my primary computer to a Mac last Fall. Microsoft (MSFT)is sending me a Vista upgrade in the mail though which should arrive any day and I'm looking forward to finally testing out Vista. I still use my Media Center PC in my living room, but my biggest complaint with it is that my music library of over 100,000 mp3s loads so slowly on Media Center and then it frequently stops playing for 20 or 30 seconds at a time while I have my music and photos on. I'm sure I'm putting stress on the system as I'm accessing my music library over a gigabit network from a Drobo on another PC. I'm hoping that Vista will make my MCE experience a bit smoother.

Comments

[drb:]

Well, if the author of this article would do some research, he would find out that this issue has been resolved and it was really an Adobe issue. Adobe has quickly resolved the issue within a week. I would like to see things resolved in Windows within a week. Yeah, good luck. Any major issues Apple quickly resolves. That's why they have updates. Microsoft waits almost a year before they release a Service Pack and you still have a crappy OS. Allow, Deny.

2007 Nov 01 03:16 PM

[drb:]

Hey, if your media center pc doesn't work that well, then maybe it's time to upgrade that system to a Mac-based media center. There's always time.

2007 Nov 01 03:40 PM

[thinking ahead:]

The title of this report is inaccurate and misleading

2007 Nov 01 03:44 PM

[drb:]

I know. I guess he wanted to see his article pop up in Yahoo news so he can boost his ego, since everywhere else is positive on Leopard. It's usually third party apps that need to be re-written anyway. Some developers are better and faster at resolving the problem than others. People have to realize that what and how Apple is developing their OS is quite different and overall a much better strategy. Apple implements as many good features they get from the feedback they get and they actually listen to their customers. Why do you think Apple's market cap is getting bigger, and BIGGER and they are a much more efficiently run computer/software maker than anyone else? I think it is because they eat their own food because it tastes better.

2007 Nov 01 03:54 PM

[drb:]

I know. I guess he wanted to see his article pop up in Yahoo news so he can boost his ego, since everywhere else is positive on Leopard. It's usually third party apps that need to be re-written anyway. Some developers are better and faster at resolving the problem than others. People have to realize that what and how Apple is developing their OS is quite different and overall a much better strategy. Apple implements as many good features they get from the feedback they get and they actually listen to their customers. Why do you think Apple's market cap is getting bigger, and BIGGER and they are a much more efficiently run computer/software maker than anyone else? I think it is because they eat their own food because it tastes better.

2007 Nov 01 03:54 PM

[drb:]

What would be a great article is how fairly large companies are paying for client and server licenses for file/print, email, etc. whereas Apple gives you unlimited licensing. Boy are people getting RIPPED off with Microsoft's licensing..... How about several hundred dollars for a OS upgrade versus $129 or less. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... I'll take the $129 or less upgrade to Leopard desktop license, thank you very much....... It works great! Much faster OS and browser. Even on an older computer. It's like Vista Ultimate, only more features. Has Microsoft come out with 3+1 video conferencing yet? Hmmmm... I think maybe Apple should offer iChat AV client for those lonely Microsoft users to get a bigger bite of Apple.

2007 Nov 01 06:06 PM

[Andrea Di S...:]

This article is groundless: one would not install MacOS X with its 300+ new features for a single problem in Flash player?

The problem is being recognized as NOT caused by MacOS X in the article itself though: so the very single point on which the article was based is annihilated by the author himself.

And again: why this abrupt change in topic with Vista? Let's rename this article as "My purported problems with digital life".

Andrea Di Salvo
Milan - Italy

2007 Nov 01 08:57 PM

[thompson:]

When I saw the title of the article, I clicked on the link expecting to find a description of a number of bugs (aka "errors") inherent to the Leopard operating system. What I found was a description of one incompatibility issue that was identified as a failure on Adobe's part to update their Flash software.

Now, I am not one to belittle the importance of the failure described. The author made it clear that this was a major issue for him, and no doubt it will be so for some (uncounted) others as well. It is fine to draw some attention to this so that others might be spared some trouble.

But look again at the title. What "error" of Leopard is even mentioned in the article? Gads, what is up with either authors or editors these days? (Another article at Seeking Alpha earlier this year drew fire for a similar misleading title problem, and the author first blamed the editor and then blamed the respondents for caring about the title to begin with. "It's only a title... ignore it and read the article." ) Did anyone go to Journalism school? Titles actually matter and should match the subject. They set the tone of the article, and the tone is a strong tool of writers. Say it again with me: "Titles actually matter and should match the subject."

Thompson

2007 Nov 02 12:33 PM

[James Cullen:]

Earlier this year? Try three weeks ago. It was my article, I would know.

Also, I suggest looking at this guy's bio:
Additionally, Thomas Hawk is the Chief Evangelist for the Photo Sharing Site Zooomr.

2007 Nov 02 12:51 PM

[thompson:]

Yes, it was your article. I didn't think it necessary to specify which article nor precisely when it happened, because you got blasted enough at the time. It was enough to (correctly) observe that this "misleading title" thing has happened at least twice now at Seeking Alpha.


< Also, I suggest looking at this guy's bio:
Additionally, Thomas Hawk is the Chief Evangelist for the Photo Sharing Site Zooomr.>

Yes, I noticed the implied relationship in his article, when he referred to the CEO as "our CEO". That pretty well provides motivation for his angle, but it doesn't excuse the bogus title.

Thompson

2007 Nov 02 03:49 PM

[imobile:]

Alas, such ludicrous headlines, shoddy 'reporting' is a real turn off ~ reminds me of those WMD's in Iraq. I've installed Leopard on both a 18 mth old iMac and 36 mth G4 iBook and apart from three Safari crashes ( Safari did blame Adobe flash ...Ver 9.0.98.0 updated yesterday) on iMac Core Duo, there have been NO problems!

2007 Nov 02 03:55 PM

[User 120694:]

the article is misleading. It should have been a criticism of adobe and not Apple.

2007 Nov 06 09:39 PM