Comments on: The Leopard ate my computer http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/techbiz/tech-reviews/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/ My life, my sculpture...and other things Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:38:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Cynthia Morgan http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/techbiz/tech-reviews/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/comment-page-1/#comment-151 Cynthia Morgan Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:37:20 +0000 http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/10/31/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/#comment-151 Thanks, Gary. Your son's right. Wouldn't make very good advertising copy, though, to say "Apple. Even a kid can use it. Not even a Genius can fix it." ;-) Honestly, I've heard lots of good things about Leopard, and probably 95% of the time the install appears to go off without a hitch. From what I'm seeing online, however, that other 5% is a killer, and it really makes me question how far we can broaden the total available market for personal computers. Those of us in the game are used to sigh-and-restore, but would you want your grandmother to try this at home? And I've never met an IT shop (with even a partial set of marbles) that installed a major OS upgrade before the first set of patches was out and validated. I would say this holds true for any OS, even Apple. (Or maybe, after last week, ESPECIALLY Apple...) Thanks, Gary. Your son’s right. Wouldn’t make very good advertising copy, though, to say “Apple. Even a kid can use it. Not even a Genius can fix it.” ;-)

Honestly, I’ve heard lots of good things about Leopard, and probably 95% of the time the install appears to go off without a hitch. From what I’m seeing online, however, that other 5% is a killer, and it really makes me question how far we can broaden the total available market for personal computers. Those of us in the game are used to sigh-and-restore, but would you want your grandmother to try this at home?

And I’ve never met an IT shop (with even a partial set of marbles) that installed a major OS upgrade before the first set of patches was out and validated. I would say this holds true for any OS, even Apple. (Or maybe, after last week, ESPECIALLY Apple…)

]]> By: gary brown http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/techbiz/tech-reviews/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/comment-page-1/#comment-150 gary brown Sun, 04 Nov 2007 00:01:31 +0000 http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/10/31/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/#comment-150 You said: "When I make a major OS upgrade in Windows, I set aside a day, back up everything six ways to Sunday, run through the compatibilities list and fix or eliminate any questionable components, and just in general gear up for war. I did back up an image on iDisk but that was about it. Apple told me I could get away with just clicking a button and I was dumb enough to buy it. Shame on me." I was talking with my son last night about this very subject. Well, about you actually. He does computer support at the University of Minnesota. (He may be a ChemE major, but he's a computer geek at heart...projected masters in computational chemistry). What he said was essentially that we are so used to backing the heck out of everything when we do a Windows install, and NOT backing up when we do the usually more-or-less pain free Mac install, that when the Mac shoots craps we are left in the lurch. He says UMinn is going to be holding off on Leopard "for a while yet". I'm glad to hear things are once again chugging along. GcB You said:

“When I make a major OS upgrade in Windows, I set aside a day, back up everything six ways to Sunday, run through the compatibilities list and fix or eliminate any questionable components, and just in general gear up for war. I did back up an image on iDisk but that was about it. Apple told me I could get away with just clicking a button and I was dumb enough to buy it. Shame on me.”

I was talking with my son last night about this very subject. Well, about you actually. He does computer support at the University of Minnesota. (He may be a ChemE major, but he’s a computer geek at heart…projected masters in computational chemistry). What he said was essentially that we are so used to backing the heck out of everything when we do a Windows install, and NOT backing up when we do the usually more-or-less pain free Mac install, that when the Mac shoots craps we are left in the lurch.

He says UMinn is going to be holding off on Leopard “for a while yet”.

I’m glad to hear things are once again chugging along.

GcB

]]> By: Cynthia Morgan http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/techbiz/tech-reviews/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/comment-page-1/#comment-149 Cynthia Morgan Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:48:52 +0000 http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/10/31/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/#comment-149 Well, now that the Leopard and Freddie are (mostly) getting along, there are nice features about the new OS. It's certainly slicker, browser is better (although I still prefer the Firefox interface), and there are obviously some timesaving features there if I ever have time to figure them out. But no, so far I can't honestly say the upgrade was worth the grief. And I would cheerfully strangle the smug reviewers that said Windows users would be amazed at the drag-drop-and-click simplicity of the installation. When I make a major OS upgrade in Windows, I set aside a day, back up everything six ways to Sunday, run through the compatibilities list and fix or eliminate any questionable components, and just in general gear up for war. I did back up an image on iDisk but that was about it. Apple told me I could get away with just clicking a button and I was dumb enough to buy it. Shame on me. Well, now that the Leopard and Freddie are (mostly) getting along, there are nice features about the new OS. It’s certainly slicker, browser is better (although I still prefer the Firefox interface), and there are obviously some timesaving features there if I ever have time to figure them out.

But no, so far I can’t honestly say the upgrade was worth the grief. And I would cheerfully strangle the smug reviewers that said Windows users would be amazed at the drag-drop-and-click simplicity of the installation.

When I make a major OS upgrade in Windows, I set aside a day, back up everything six ways to Sunday, run through the compatibilities list and fix or eliminate any questionable components, and just in general gear up for war. I did back up an image on iDisk but that was about it. Apple told me I could get away with just clicking a button and I was dumb enough to buy it. Shame on me.

]]> By: gary brown http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/techbiz/tech-reviews/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/comment-page-1/#comment-148 gary brown Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:37:28 +0000 http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2007/10/31/the-leopard-ate-my-computer/#comment-148 Rather have Vista? Boy this thing must be NASTY...though I guess with a BSOD it can't get much nastier (my office manager is still grumpy at me for putting Vista on HER machine. Well... I had to put up a test bed for our software somewhere, didn't I?). Can you pop the hard drive and hook it up to another box, or is that not possible with Mac's (I've never pulled a HD on a portable...). I always image to a second machine if I'm doing something iffy. Like installing Vista. I've found a liberal application of single malt whiskey is appropriate in this kind of situation. GcB Rather have Vista? Boy this thing must be NASTY…though I guess with a BSOD it can’t get much nastier (my office manager is still grumpy at me for putting Vista on HER machine. Well… I had to put up a test bed for our software somewhere, didn’t I?).

Can you pop the hard drive and hook it up to another box, or is that not possible with Mac’s (I’ve never pulled a HD on a portable…). I always image to a second machine if I’m doing something iffy. Like installing Vista.

I’ve found a liberal application of single malt whiskey is appropriate in this kind of situation.

GcB

]]>