[geeks] DVD install of MacOS 10.5.3 or 10.5.4

[Nadine Miller]

On Jul 28, 2008, at 1:22 PM, Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> On Jul 27, 2008, at 17:44 , Nadine Miller wrote:
>
>> It's not impossible to build your own--in fact with an external  
>> disk (an older Firewire iPod, for example), it's downright easy and  
>> you can add whatever tools on there you want besides.
>
> Easy for you and I, but not the average Mac user.

You're telling me an average Mac user can't connect an external hard  
drive, put in a DVD, open Disk Utility, and select "Restore" and the  
external HD?  Those are the exact steps unless you want to customize  
it.  I had to go a step further, because all I had was an ISO of the  
install DVD--I had to mount the ISO.

>> I mean, when was the last time you actually got a DVD image of  
>> Solaris that was fully updated, or <insert favorite Linux distro  
>> here>?
>
> When was the last time you needed that with Solaris or Linux?

When was the last time I needed that on a Mac?  Probably less  
frequently to be honest, but then I've never worked in a Mac shop  
building boxes everyday.

> But to answer your question: you can get updated bootable DVDs of  
> either almost monthly.

For download or for physical media?  If the former, then you know as  
well as I that would never happen from a pay-to-play OS like Leopard.   
As far as I am aware, the Solaris physical media is supposed to be  
updated quarterly, but I don't believe that they always adhere to that  
schedule.  And iirc, that doesn't include all security patches.

I don't follow Linux distros, but I can say that I've seen two or  
three broken OotB distributions (a RH release, 6.10? 6.04? where rpm  
was broken, and the Gutsy release of *ubuntu, and there's another I  
had a problem with that I can remember), and they've bit me more than  
Solaris OotB problems *or* Mac problems ever have.  I think that's  
significant, since I've used Linux significantly *less*.  My major  
beef with OS X is the lack of QA on patches, which I've commented  
about multiple times here.

> The problem with Leopard is 10.5.0 has critical filesystem code  
> errors in it, and it is dangerous to use 10.5.0 to fix a system.
>
> A full filesystem scan is exactly the kind of application that  
> triggers some of the nastier filesystem behavior that Apple finally  
> fixed in 10.5.3.
>
> For most end users, it would be prudent for Apple to ship at least a  
> simple bootable repair CD with the fixed filesystem (and other) code  
> in it.

I've not read anything about these bugs, nor have I experienced  
anything like you suggest.  I have used the 10.5.0 install (restored  
to a HD) to repair perms multiple times, and prepare a system for  
installation.  I suspect the issues are sufficiently corner-cased that  
they don't see the need.  Reading your later post, I see you're  
talking about an I/O subsystem issue.  I'd like to see a reference to  
the problem (preferrably a bug ID), because, as I've said, I've seen  
nothing at all about the problem.

I've seen a lot of other stuff, like crazy video codec issues, and  
stupid permissions issues, but nothing catastrophic.

In any case, if you really think you need that, why don't you get a  
developer's subscription?  Anyone who's doing that kind of VMware or  
DB work would be wise to do so anyway, just to stay on top of all  
development issues.

=Nadine=