Apple issues Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update for Snow Leopard
Specifically, Apple said the 10.19MB update resolves issues with:
- Transferring personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion
- Certain network printers that pause print jobs immediately and fail to complete
- System audio that stops working when using HDMI or optical audio out
A similar 10.23MB update was released for Snow Leopard Server.
For those Macs that haven't yet moved to Snow Leopard version 10.6.8, Apple re-released its distributions of that point release with the supplemental fixes baked in:
Monday's releases would appear to be the final updates Apple has planned for the Snow Leopard operating system, with the company having released Mac OS X Lion last Wednesday.
29 Comments
"System audio that stops working when using HDMI or optical audio out"
Where is the LION fix for this?!
"System audio that stops working when using HDMI or optical audio out"
Where is the LION fix for this?!
In an update to Lion. Which we will probably see in a day or two at most.
I'd sincerely hope Apple will continue to upgrade Snow Leopard with bug fixes and updated peripherial hardware support like print drivers, etc.
The user base has now certainly grown to a point where not everyone can simply upgrade to a new major release. First of all, some older hardware may be too slow or not have enough capacity to run Lion, but may still be sufficient for real world use. Second, especially with an upgrade that technically cannot run everything that worked before (e.g. the no-longer-existing services in Server or the missing Rosetta support), some people will have to stick. I'll leave one of my four Macs on Snow Leopard, because it runs a German accounting software that, until it's 2009 version, only ran in Rosetta emulation because of it's older Filemaker base. It won't be upgraded, but I need to keep those years around to look up records or if an audit comes up, so unless I find a legal and working way to run a VM with Snow, I'll not touch the OS install on that box. Many people will have similar reasons not to upgrade, especially when using pro-grade graphics, design, music and other tools. App upgrades of that magnitude don't happen quickly and they can be quite costly. Surely Apple has a more-ready-to-upgrade userbase, but if you look around and see how many XP or even NT4 boxes are still around, you get the idea.
So supporting a "previous" release of an OS, at least with critical bug fixes and security update, including a formal commitment on how long this will be done (i.e. 5 years after it stopped shipping or so) is one of the steps a software company has to take to be taken seriously.
Let's see - I hope AI is not right with it's "the last update" prediction this time - it would't really look nice for Apple.
F.
I'd sincerely hope Apple will continue to upgrade Snow Leopard with bug fixes and updated peripherial hardware support like print drivers, etc. ... I hope AI is not right with it's "the last update" prediction this time - it would't really look nice for Apple.
Almost certainly, the unusual step of releasing an update with the same version number as the last one was done primarily so that they would still have 10.6.9 left for other fixes.
I would say the versioning numbers suggest that this is the *second* last update for 10.6, which sounds about right given that there is rarely more than one or two updates after the new full number version comes out.
Almost certainly, the unusual step of releasing an update with the same version number as the last one was done primarily so that they would still have 10.6.9 left for other fixes.
I would say the versioning numbers suggest that this is the *second* last update for 10.6, which sounds about right given that there is rarely more than one or two updates after the new full number version comes out.
Right. This fix isn't big enough for a .x.x release and Apple doesn't want to extend it to the .x.x.x structure.