Mac OS X: 10.5.2, the Ups and Downs
Mac OS X 10.5.2, so far has been a great update. There are some problems I’ve noticed and some features I like here’s the break down:
Ups:
-Everything runs seems to run faster
-The graphics have really jumped up in Performance. A game called Civilization IV which stopped working with Leopard 10.5, now works again and actually works even better(no audio or graphic glitches). Even Bwana did a post about the new graphics driver reporting that some one got 20+ FPS WoW with this update(went from 30FPS to 50FPS).
-I like the new option in stacks to view in list mod.
-Many bugs I had seem to of faded, OS X now feels very stable
-Spotlight seems more stable, it’s not indexing constantly anymore
-It also seems like more Carbon apps are running better
Downs:
-I was hoping Appication stacks would return(they were in the betas of Leopard back before October) .
-You still need a 3rd party app to turn the 3D dock into a 2D one for the bottom of the screen
-A graphics glitch in the Finder, when I go to directories, every now and again the Window will start to fade out distort.
-I’ve been having issues with compatibility between 10.5.1 and 10.5.2, I have another startup disk on my computer with Leopard. An application I made in 10.5.2 doesn’t seem to work in 10.5.1 for some reason. It appears to be a Webkit issue.
Final thoughts:
So in All I’d give Mac OS X 10.5.2 about a 3/5. It’s great update, but many of the new changes are bug fixes and optimization more than anything. I’ve also noticed some very major graphic issues.
Thanks for posting a list of some of the pros and cons of this new operating system. The big “buzz” and focus (and pressure) is typically on Microsoft, and it’s nice to get some opinions about a different product organized in a list format. I’ve heard some mixed reviews about the new OSX (including a review from someone that had a notebook wrecked by installing the update), but that is bound to happen whenever something is released initially. I’ll be interested to see what changes Apple makes in the next few months as business users and home users start to incorporate the new OSX.