[geeks] Mal de OS X (was: Weird MacOS issue)

[Mark Benson]

On 24 Dec 2008, at 00:21, Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> I see Apple quality has falling off in the last 2-3 years, hardware  
> and software.
> Leopard was released long before it was ready, and it still isn't  
> right.

I blame that damned one-in-the-eye-phone myself ;)

> The Mac Pro has been one of the most problematic computers I have  
> ever owned, even compared to my $350 Dell T105.  In fact, I'm on my  
> second one: Apple had to replace the first one which died  
> prematurely.  Of course, some of the problems are Leopard and nVidia  
> drivers.

Mine's been fine, don't go giving it ideas! *hides Mac Pro's eyes*.

> Apple nVidia drivers are outdated and buggy.

10.5.5 was supposed to address the issues we had originally with the  
8800GTs and yet I still managed to pile it into a big heap while I was  
fooling with Quick Look.

They can't even keep the Windows ones up to date for Bootcamp. Surely  
that can't be SO hard!

> Apple's sleep code is buggy, especially on the Mac Pro.

Apple's sleep code is buggy on everything.

> Apple shipped a ton of nVidia 8800GT graphics cards that were  
> broken.  The jury is still out on my own and Apple tech support has  
> so far been useless in trying to determine it.

Again, no issues here, and I have run mine ragged (had it down to 12  
fps at some points in Mass Effect, because I was using forced AA/AF  
with HDR on at the same time) and while the fan was rolling pretty  
hard it still kept ticking).

> Apple's USB code still has kernel panic inducing bugs, though most  
> of that is finally gone.

Ugh don't remind me. I have a USB Audio dongle for my iMac G4 that's  
basically useless because the machine won't pick it up again after  
sleep. I guess that's what I get for trying to run 10.5 on unsupported  
hardware though ;)

> There is something wrong with Intel virtualization, because running  
> anything like Fusion notably increases the chances of a kernel  
> panic.  Maybe that's Intel's fault?

Hard to say without trying the same thing with VMWare in Windows or  
Linux and watching the results.

> Recent releases of Leopard seem to suffer increasingly from  
> tlbflush() issues where CPUs do not respond to interrupts.  Instead  
> of handling the problem, MacOS kernel panics.  It seems to be  
> related at least somewhat to virtualization since it happens far  
> more frequently if you are running something like Fusion or  
> Parallels.  This started happening after the Leopard release where  
> Apple said they had improved multi-core speed.

How do you spell 'kludge', again? ;)

> It's frustrating and I worry about it a lot.  I hope Apple's recent  
> focus on Leopard will flush this stuff out

If Snow Leopard isn't a significantly stability and functionality  
improvement over Leopard then they can kiss my custom goodbye. I'll  
buy a Dell next time ;)

> and I hope their hardware QC improves as well.

Amen. you aren't the only person I know who had a Mac Pro die just  
after delivery.

> Well, I think the issue here is this:

I think the issue here is this:

I'm clueless and I'm gonna shut up ;)

If I don't post again, have a good Holiday season everyone :D

-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Visit my Homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson>

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."