DailyTech - Apple Updates Leopard to 10.5.3

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Software Apple Updates Leopard to 10.5.3
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - May 29, 2008 9:31 AM

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27 comment(s) - last by kelmon.. on May 30 at 8:59 AM

Update adds numerous stability and security updates to the latest Mac OS

Windows users aren’t the only computer users that need to apply security updates to their machines. Apple has released an update to its Mac OS that brings the OS to version 10.5.3.

The 10.5.3 update is recommended for users of Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, and 10.5.2 Leopard. Apple says the update adds operating system improvements to enhance the stability, compatibility and security of the Mac.

The update affects not only the operating system of the Mac but also address issues with Mail, iChat, iCal, Airport and other features as well. General features of the update include a fix for stuttering video and audio playback in certain USB devices, fix for some attached drives not showing up in Finder, resolves stability issues with Word of the Day, iTunes Artwork and Slideshow and adds RAW support for several more digital cameras. Several other general updates are included as well.

Updates specifically for address book include improvements for reliability when searching for contacts with built-in search and resolved issues with mapping address using an ampersand. Also included in the update are improvements for 802.1X behavior and reliability on AirPort and improvements for reliability using Time Capsule.

Updates for iCal include the ability to mark events as private, reliability improvements for meeting alarms, invitations and attachments, and resolved issue where iCal could send cancellation notices when a past calendar was deleted.

In all the update address issues in the Mac address book, AirPort, Automator, iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental controls, Spaces, Time Machine, and Voice Over.

Apple first launched its Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in October 2007. Leopard mauled the sales numbers of its predecessor OS X Tiger.

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Odd

By kelmon on 5/29/2008 11:00:30 AM , Rating: 3

* Puts on cynicism hat*

I don't recall DailyTech in the past posting articles when Apple released minor updates to its OS. Is this a cynical article to drum up traffic by posting an Apple article that will no doubt bring out the Apple fans and detractors alike?

* Removes cynicism hat *

Update appears to be a mixed bag for me. On the one hand my biggest gripe with Leopard has been addressed (generally illogical behavior in Spaces) but on the other some new bugs have appeared, such as attempting to visit the iTunes Store crashing iTunes. I'm also concerned about a .mac sync operation that took place at lunchtime today that appeared to encounter problems (probably due to our office's proxy and firewall) where a process consumed most of the system resources until it was forcefully killed.

The graphics have also been updated in this release. Anyone who installed Delicious Library 2 earlier in the week will have seen the notice when that application starts that, until the graphics updates due in 10.5.3 are released, the application would run like crap (which it did). Now that 10.5.3 is out I can confirm that DL2 runs very nicely now. However, it remains to be seen exactly what those updates were and whether the likes of World of Warcraft will run faster, or if this is just a change to the way that GUIs are drawn to the screen. DL2 makes heavy use of the likes of Core Animation so I suspect the changes may have happened there.

Anyway, just because Spaces no longer seems to be mad, I'll do a little dance.

* dances *

Incidentally, if anyone feels the urge to post "But don't Mac's just work?", feel free not to. It wasn't funny the first time and it doesn't get funnier with age. Just saying now so I don't have to later...

RE: Odd

By michael2k on 5/29/2008 11:47:56 AM , Rating: 2

If 10.5.3 is a minor update, what is XP SP3?

10.5 is a major update. The .3 update is akin to a service pack.

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RE: Odd

By Mitch101 on 5/29/2008 12:22:45 PM , Rating: 2

I guess we know the reason why someone can install Windows on Apple hardware. ;)

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RE: Odd

By othercents on 5/29/2008 12:53:39 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
10.5 is a major update

10.5 was a system upgrade from the 10.4 Tiger OS to the 10.5 Leopard OS. This would be equivalent to the Vista upgrade for XP especially since you had to purchase the upgrade in both instances.

10.5.3 is a minor update like the SP3 is for XP. Granted Service Packs are created to allow you to download one large update instead of 30+ smaller updates where Apple does it differently, but they are both basically the same type of update. I don't think Apple makes the smaller updates as bugs are found like Microsoft does.

Other

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RE: Odd

By daftrok on 5/29/2008 5:29:26 PM , Rating: 1

10.5 was a system upgrade from 10.4 Tiger, however it wasn't the equivalent to Vista "upgrade" from XP. The look was the same less the little reflection table in the dock. The programs were refreshed and it had more language support. It was more along the lines of Windows XP SP1 to Windows XP SP2. It fixed alot of glitches, it ran faster and was much more secure.

The only difference is Apple charged people for the upgrade when they really shouldn't have. Its bad enough people are paying a premium for the hardware, the least they could do is make Leopard free.

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RE: Odd

By kelmon on 5/30/2008 2:28:44 AM , Rating: 3

Sorry, that's just plain wrong. From a developers perspective there was a lot in 10.5 from 10.4, such as the introduction of Objective-C 2, CoreAnimation, full 64-bit support from the UNIX level through to the Cocoa GUI, etc. Saying that Leopard simply changed the look and added some new applications demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the platform. And, to a degree, that's fine. I'm not about to pretend that I know what changed in Vista from XP because I don't. Clearly you don't know what changed in Leopard from Tiger. Just either accept this and don't post stupid comments like that, or do your research first.

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RE: Odd

By daftrok on 5/30/2008 3:26:27 AM , Rating: 2

Overall my point was that these upgrades, though indeed useful both for consumer and programmer alike, weren't earth shatteringly different than Tiger and not worth paying 129 dollars for. Since Mac users pay a premium for the hardware, the software upgrades should be free of charge. The GUI was virtually the same; the programs got upgrades; Objective-C became easier to use and code for, Core Animation makes things more fluid, but overall its the same OS. If they meant for a different OS, it would have been called Mac OS 11.0 not 10.5. And I do know what changed in Leopard from Tiger, because as everyone else I had access to this:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

Oh sure 300 sounds mighty impressive, until you read it all and see Language support was used over 15 times and 10 features were for the DVD player and 24 for iChat. Is it an upgrade? Yes. Is it as big as an "upgrade" from XP to Vista. God no. The entire appearance of the desktop changed in Vista. Every single program on there changed, even Paint and Wordpad and even Windows Movie Maker. There was Live Search and cascading windows, over the top animations that in turn caused issues.

So don't say that a comment is stupid simply because you disagree with it, especially when you are saying the change between Leopard and Tiger is as big as the change between Vista and XP and at the same time admitting you don't know what changed between Vista and XP.

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RE: Odd

By pxavierperez on 5/30/2008 7:29:28 AM , Rating: 2

He didn't say your comment was stupid because he didn't agree with you. He said your comment was stupid because it's clear that you have no idea of what you are talking about.

From the programming perspective Leopard's inner core is a major update from Tiger.

I love it when people write reviews of a software based on what he read from the feature list rather than using the software itself. It's like "I've never driven or seen a Honda before but here's my comprehensive review based on what I read from their colorful five page catalog."

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RE: Odd

By kelmon on 5/30/2008 8:59:10 AM , Rating: 3

I'm trying hard not to laugh here, but referring to the marketing list of what's changed and actually knowing what's changed are two totally different things. Let's be honest here, you have no idea what Core Animation is, or why it's important to a developer, do you? It's nice that you tried to do some research, but it would have been more impressive had you referred to articles posted to the Apple Developer Connection.

So, no, I'm not saying your comment is stupid because I disagree with it. I'm saying it's stupid because it's completely wrong and you're digging yourself a bigger hole by just not accepting it. I mean, if I said I thought Vista was just a pretty version of XP then I've no doubt that you'd be all over me and telling me why that statement's wrong. And that's fine because, as I've noted before, I don't know the details of what's changed in Vista "under the hood". However, when it comes to Leopard, I do know what I'm talking about.

I'll also note that I've never compared the changes between Tiger and Leopard to the changes from XP to Vista - you've introduced that bit yourself. Vista is clearly a much bigger update than Leopard is, but then you're being asked to pay more for it and had to wait much longer. All I'm saying is that saying that Leopard doesn't add anything significant over Tiger is incorrect. Certainly it adds much more than a Windows Service Pack and suggesting that it should be free (and I'm sorry to be repeating myself again) is just stupid.

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RE: Odd

By sprockkets on 5/29/2008 1:56:26 PM , Rating: 2

So 3 service packs in a year?

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RE: Odd

By Chadder007 on 5/29/2008 2:17:43 PM , Rating: 3

Apple's way of releasing updates is different than Microsoft's.

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RE: Odd

By Segerstein on 5/29/2008 9:02:35 PM , Rating: 2

More like 3 service packs in half a year , since 10.5.0 was released in October 2007, while .1, .2, .3 were released later.

MSFT XP SP3 - one service pack in four years .

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RE: Odd

By kelmon on 5/30/2008 2:32:53 AM , Rating: 2

Yes, but we can't ignore the fact that Microsoft does post fixes to problems in its supported OSs each week. They might not be bundled up into a handy Service Pack but they are posted, so its debatable as to whether Microsoft's strategy compared to Apple's really makes much difference overall.

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RE: Odd

By zolo111 on 5/29/2008 9:52:20 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
The 10.5.3 update is recommended for users of Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, and 10.5.2 Leopard. Apple says the update adds operating system improvements to enhance the stability, compatibility and security of the Mac .

Apple should just create an image with those updates and sell it as a NEW IMPROVED BEST YET OS.

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RE: Odd

By afkrotch on 5/29/2008 10:30:04 PM , Rating: 3

They will. They'll probably slap it all together into Leopard, give the users a new version of iChat or some crap, then release it as OSX 10.6 lolcat.

"I r in your brainz. Making u pay for thiz."

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RE: Odd

By darkpaw on 5/29/2008 4:53:50 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Is this a cynical article to drum up traffic by posting an Apple article that will no doubt bring out the Apple fans and detractors alike?

Yah! Thats why I refuse to post to this article.. dammit!

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RE: Odd

By borismkv on 5/29/2008 5:49:33 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Incidentally, if anyone feels the urge to post "But don't Mac's just work?", feel free not to. It wasn't funny the first time and it doesn't get funnier with age. Just saying now so I don't have to later...

Give you a deal. I'll stop saying, "But I though Macs just worked!" when something goes wrong about the time Mac dorks stop saying "Macs just work!" That is to say, prolly not gonna happen.

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RE: Odd

By borismkv on 5/29/2008 6:34:02 PM , Rating: 2

Oh, and let's not forget the immortal, "Buy a Mac" solution to every computer problem that gets posted in just about every tech support thread in non-tech forums I've ever seen.

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RE: Odd

By Clauzii on 5/29/2008 6:55:27 PM , Rating: 2

With 47 security issues resolved and numerous application corrections etc. etc., just by saying "minor update", You probably missed WHY DT spend time on an article.

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December?

By Trollaxor on 5/29/2008 10:55:47 AM , Rating: 2

Leopard was released in October, mate.

RE: December?

By Zandros on 5/29/2008 11:02:33 AM , Rating: 2

Also, 10.5.3 isn't a security release, even if some points deal with security, as those are aptly named Security Update "year"-"number".

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RE: December?

By esandrs on 5/29/2008 3:55:58 PM , Rating: 2

10.5.3 includes the 41 security fixes that are also available separately as Security Update 2008-003.

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RE: December?

By kelmon on 5/29/2008 11:03:41 AM , Rating: 2

Released on my birthday, in fact (cheers for the card). This release probably was the one that should have made the store shelves. I'm still annoyed at Apple for having released Leopard when it patently wasn't ready despite the delays earlier in the year.

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RE: December?

By mmntech on 5/29/2008 4:53:53 PM , Rating: 2

No worse than the other company, who's name I shall not mention to avoid useless debate. I think it was only the newer ones that had issues. Wasn't it driver related?
I never had any issues with Leopard though with my iBook G4. The only real problem is it runs slower than Tiger.

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RE: December?

By kelmon on 5/30/2008 2:46:49 AM , Rating: 2

Possibly true, but then I'm not really interested in any other company's products if I'm using Apple's. It's it bit like the political responses to statements that a government is performing poorly - they'll often respond that they're better than their competition even if the performance is still rubbish, and that's just infuriating. I've had a Mac now since 10.2.8 and believe that quality is decreasing in each OS release. The overall OS is better each time but it normally takes some time to iron out the initial bugs and I feel that there are more bugs in the newer releases. I couldn't find any issue in 10.3 when it was released. With 10.4 I experienced the occasional kernel panic (translation for non-Mac users: total OS crash). With 10.5 I've had 1 kernel panic and assorted issues that I honestly don't think should have been there in a release product. Again, we're onto the ship-n-fix scenario, and I think they're shipping too soon, particularly for a company with control over the hardware.

If you at all interested you can read my review on the initial Leopard release here - http://www.aelon.net/2007/11/mac-os-x-105-leopard-...

Interestingly, while 10.5.0 was slower on the old PowerBook G4, it actually feels faster than 10.4.11 even though the benchmarks don't bare that out. That said, Tiger definitely felt slower than Panther, although that was mostly due to the bad performance in Spotlight that they fixed in Leopard.

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I like how apple does releases every few months it is very nice

By Esquire on 5/29/2008 11:01:21 AM , Rating: 2

And they offer tweaks to as a bonus to security fixes.

FINALLY Fixed AD Integration (for me)!

By esandrs on 5/29/2008 4:02:32 PM , Rating: 2

If anyone has had the "joy" of attempting to integrate Macs into an Active Directory environment on 10.5, you'll know that there has been issues (aka: it didn't work for many).

Some subsets of AD integrators have gotten the OS X plugin to be functional at each point upgrade of 10.5, but we were only able to manage with a local hosts file kludge under ".2" and couldn't join at all before that.

Now on ".3", we're finally joining correctly!