Mac Leopard X OS Problems
November 19, 2007 by Jason Bean
Filed under Computers
My brother was in town this weekend and when we’re together we normally have a little computer / website training sessions. I’m teaching him a couple of tips and tricks for using the Internet, his computer and his WordPress website.
The computer tips have decreased recently though with his purchase of a new MacBook. He’s had it awhile and when we saw each other in late October for our dad’s birthday, he was showing me all the cool new features of the Leopard X upgrade he’d recently purchased.
I’ve got to agree that the presentation and user interface for the Mac OS and for almost all of Apple’s devices is very pretty and slick. It’s attractive, for that I’ll give them credit. I also won’t argue the fact that Mac’s are probably safer from a virus standpoint than most PC’s. What I will argue with you on though is that Mac’s are immune to problems.
This weekend my brother was telling me about his experience with a weird “gray-screen” problem on his computer. After digging a little bit more he finally said the word I was waiting for. It just kept “crashing” on him.
He took it into the Apple store and the Mac gods retail staff were not able to fix the problem either. He eventually had to downgrade back to the old OS and is now happy again with his Mac experience, albeit he’s out $140.
Did I type that correctly? Did I say “downgrade”? Sure did. Sounds a lot like the recent Mac. vs. PC commercial spoof I saw last night. I’ll also continue to make that point that as soon as Mac gets enough people to switch and become a little bit bigger target, there will be hackers that will start focusing on the Mac OS. Honestly, if I had Bill Gate’s money, I’d hire some hackers to focus their efforts on Apple. Not to take them down or do anything malicious, but just to prove they’re not invincible. What better way to spoil an Apple than with a worm?
Wow, bitter much? Your Windows experience must truly be craptastic for you to take so much joy from a single Mac problem arising.
And what better way to undo the effort Microsoft has put in in the last few years to live down its prior well-earned reputation for dirty tricks and unethical, monopolistic behaviour? The Microsoft of today is not that stupid!
Over-sensitive much? I’m not bitter, I just love real-world examples of how Apple isn’t perfect. I didn’t say Microsoft should do what I said I’d like to do. That would be stupid. They should take the money and fix some of their own problems. My Windows experience isn’t crappy at all, actually I’ve been quite pleased with my experience. I also enjoy my iPod and QuickTime movie trailers. There are good things about both Microsoft and Apple, and I appreciate those things.
“’ll also continue to make that point that as soon as Mac gets enough people to switch and become a little bit bigger target, there will be hackers that will start focusing on the Mac OS. Honestly, if I had Bill Gate’s money, I’d hire some hackers to focus their efforts on Apple. Not to take them down or do anything malicious, but just to prove they’re not invincible.”
1) That’s harder than you think
2) writing viruses is illegal
3) Microsofties have other thing to think about. Vista isn’t UNIX; looks like Windows 7 won’t be either. I’m thinking you guys are a good 15 years behind, technology-wise.
15 years??? I’d say it’s a plus that Vista isn’t UNIX, that would make them have even less user base than they do now.
“Honestly, if I had Bill Gate’s money, I’d hire some hackers to focus their efforts on Apple.”
Actually that sounds pretty dishonest to me. :)
So Macs aren’t perfect. Welcome in the real world! Besides some diehard aficionados no decent Mac-user does asume such a thing. However, I would like to challenge your statement that Apple support suggested to downgrade to 10.4 to solve the problem on a long run, leaving your brother with his “worthless” purchase on his own. The MacBook might be flawed, it’s a machine that might need maintenance or repair, dependig on the problem. If your brother agreed to fix it with a downgrade, something many Vista-Users opted for as well recently (leaving them sitting on higher costs), than it’s his own fault. I think that Apple Support offered to send the MacBook in for testing and repair if needed. The computer should be under guarantee, since he seems to have bought it recently, so what gives? Doesn’t he know that? And by the way, why in the world did he pay 140 $ for Leopard when Amazon is selling it for 109 $..?! This was widely advertised.
Well, UNIX variants are the most solid multi-tasking OSes out there – they just aren’t very user friendly, but getting better. Saying it’s a plus that an OS is not a UNIX variant is a pretty foolish statement
I am having a hard time believing the Apple Store in question gave up and had him go back to Tiger. That makes no sense. Why would they shrug their shoulders and give up on their latest OS? If it doesn’t run it might be a hardware issue. In that case the MacBook would be under warranty and they would fix it. If it was software, they could have backed up his data and done a clean install. If that didn’t work, then Apple is bound to fix the issue because the laptop is under warranty. We aren’t talking a third party laptop. Apple builds all of their laptops so they know Leopard is going to run under all laptops that meet the specs.
I just don’t buy this story. Especially when the author decides he wants MSFT to become malicious against Apple customers (the ones who buy MS Office for Mac?).
“Honestly, if I had Bill Gate’s money, I’d hire some hackers to focus their efforts on Apple.”
What would you propose the hackers do? Could you be specific?
That is just childish. And would put someone in jail. Nice. You lost all your cred with that comment.
I guess having a computer isn’t about getting things done, it’s about making sure your computer has the best OS and breaking someone else’s to prove it. Geez. Are all MSFT employees like this?
Moof.
My Macbook Pro will blow the panties off any Windows machine I’ve ever owned…. however… like someone above said… there are aspects of both operating systems that can be appreciated. I use both, but definitely like my Mac better.
While Leopard is not the complete disaster that VISTA has been (i just switched to XP after 3 months with a new Vista machine) it is disappointing that Mac has released a less than bulletproof OS at the same time as VISTA … our choices are dwindling.
il ne faut PAS faire de simple mise à jour (no simply update, never).
Il faut faire une installation “mise-à-jour” (10.4>10.5) via Option : Archiv&Install
C’est un peu plus propre (more clean)
L’idéal, c’est la Clean Install, mais il faut sauvegarder avant (Backups, before) ;-)