Successive Mac OS X 10.5.3 builds continue from Apple
The company has historically followed a pattern in which it would alternate between releasing external and internal builds, where successive external seeds — those to outside developers — would only occur in the days leading up to the software's intended release.
Development of Mac OS X 10.5.3 has not been following that course. Instead, Apple has externally seeded three successive builds of the OS update to its vast developer community, beginning with build 9D10 late last month and continuing on through build 9D12 on Thursday.
According to people familiar with 9D12, the build tacks on 17 additional fixes and code corrections to a list now over 110 deep. Particular emphasis appears to have been placed on Spaces, they say, where new tweaks target the feature's preference pane, hot keys activation, and general functionality.
In addition, Apple is also said to have patched holes in Kerberos authentication, the .Mac preference pane, AirPort, and Network Setup Assistant.
In a set of developer notes reported to have accompanied the latest build, Apple made no changes to the system components in which it seeks developer feedback. That list still spans 25 items long and includes core components such as AirPort, Automator, Audio, Graphics, iCal, Mail,. Rosetta, Spaces, Spotlight, and Time Machine.
Though Mac OS X 10.5.3 is presumed for a release sometime in the next 7 weeks, the rapid and successive seedings suggest the update could hit sooner than later.
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What I want to know is: Are there functional HP printer drivers in it?
Ever since upgrading to Leopard, HP's drivers have been absolute trash. On my DeskJet at home, pages abort with USB communication errors after 1/3 of a page. On a LaserJet 8000 at work, the driver spews hundreds of megabytes for even simple pages, causing the printer to abort the job with an out-of-memory error.
The GutenPrint drivers have no such problems (so it's not an OS or printer issue), but those drivers have very bad halftoning/dithering/color-matching algorithms, so photos come out looking terrible.
I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)
I hope they fix the DVD player, which in its current iteration sucks big time
OSX was pretty stable from the word go and while 10.5.1 was a quick fix and 10.5.2 properly addressed most of the unavoidable issues you get following the launch of a new OS, 10.5.3 really should be the update that puts Leopard on course to be 99.99999999% reliable.
I am using Windows Vista and still more than a year after it was launched, it doesn't work properly or crashes when various things happen.
Hardly suprising that major corporations are beginning to evaluate the Mac Platform.
Although Leopard came with HP drivers for my HP PSC3180, the scanner would not work with them, or the previous drivers that HP had included in the package. A search on HP's site showed that they released new drivers for that unit (and others) back in December.
Have you checked HP's site for updated drivers?
What I want to know is: Are there functional HP printer drivers in it?
Ever since upgrading to Leopard, HP's drivers have been absolute trash. On my DeskJet at home, pages abort with USB communication errors after 1/3 of a page. On a LaserJet 8000 at work, the driver spews hundreds of megabytes for even simple pages, causing the printer to abort the job with an out-of-memory error.
The GutenPrint drivers have no such problems (so it's not an OS or printer issue), but those drivers have very bad halftoning/dithering/color-matching algorithms, so photos come out looking terrible.
I've sent bug reports to Apple and HP, but they never write back, so I have no clue if there is any intention to fix these bugs. (And if they're not fixed by the time I use up my ink cartridges at home, I'm going to get a new printer from a different manufacturer.)
Although Leopard came with HP drivers for my HP PSC3180, the scanner would not work with them, or the previous drivers that HP had included in the package. A search on HP's site showed that they released new drivers for that unit (and others) back in December.
Have you checked HP's site for updated drivers?
It's not just HP. On the Apple discussion forums there is a bunch of threads regarding how a number of Airport printers stopped working after the 10.5.2 update and/or the latest security patch. One solution seems to be to install the printer as an IP printer instead of a Bonjour one. After hours of trying it worked with my new Samsung CLP-300. But I still hope that the Airport fixes included in 10.5.3 address this as well.