Mac OS 10.3 Panther Bug: Is It Really Dead?

Wired ^

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The nasty hard-drive-eating bug in Panther has been resolved, according to Apple Computer. But some experts say poppycock -- upgrading to the latest version of Mac OS X is like playing Russian roulette with your data.

As previously reported, there's a glitch in the Mac OS 10.3 (Panther) installer that renders some -- but not all -- external FireWire drives inoperable.

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"The scope of the problem is very limited," said an employee of Oxford Semiconductor, who asked to remain anonymous. "It's a vocal few. As far as I can tell from the forums, it's about 20 people who have been affected. We haven't had any complaints directly."

But MacInTouch's Ford said it doesn't matter how many are affected -- a glitch this serious is unforgivable.

"Obviously, Apple didn't get enough technical or testing help

Will somebody please stand up and accept responsibility?

[Paleo Conservative]

Will somebody please stand up and accept responsibility?

You're talking about a company that has Algore on its board of directors.

[StatesEnemy]

Hmmm... I wonder if all the applebugs will now admit that their relative obscurity is the cause of their heretofore immunity.

[BradyLS]

Can't vouch for 10.3, but 10.2.6 has never given me any problems. Neither has 10.1.5. The trouble for the place where I work is to find compatible drivers for all our old printers.

Apple says this is the fourth edition of OS X in three years. The cynical say this is to drive users to by the latest upgrades.

Maybe, but I do wish all software makes would hammer down a program or OS before releasing it...

[dionyza]

On 10.3 here. No problems at all. Actually, I love it. Smooth & easy to use, just like always :)

-D.

[IncPen]

The trouble for the place where I work is to find compatible drivers for all our old printers.

Gimp print can revive most printers... Google it up, it's free and it works.

[BradyLS]

Thanks. I'll check it out. I should add that our printers aren't THAT old. We have drivers for use with OS 9. It's X that we're tracking down...

[aviator]

Installed Panther on two computers. Most painless and smooth install in the last several OS versions. A much better OS!

[First_Salute]

I also like 10.2.6. Runs good.

We have many, many hard drives, both Firewire and SCSI.

Firewire drives are very, very particular.

There's a way to connect them; and there's a way to dis-connect them; and the rules cannot be violated.

Apple's care-less-ness with regard to the needs of main stream heavy duty Macinosh users who must pump gigabytes regularly through the day, is a major reason why Apple is not a much more serious consideration for business use.

That's a darn shame, really, because the Mac OS v. 10.2.6 is great.

The trouble is the shortcuts that Apple has taken with regard to the quality of the hardware that manages Firewire connections --- there are some timing problems that Apple has failed to address.

So, while we use Firewire hard drives, and because of that, we will avoid Panther for probably one whole year, we continue to double-backup our data to, and use SCSI hard drives.

BTW, we use ATTO SCSI cards and some Adaptec SCSI cards.

The cables, we now buy from Granite Digital.

Footnote: We ALWAYS unmount Firewire partitions and then disconnect the Firewire cable to such partitions' hard drive housings, before Restarting or Shutting Down the computer. "Accept no substitutes."

"Hot swappable!" is marketing bull and proven to be unreliable.

Otherwise, did I say that I like Mac OS X v. 10.2.6?

[itsahoot]

Will somebody please stand up and accept responsibility?

Sure, it is my fault. Even though none of my 4 macs have had any problem with external drives, or mounting machines in target mode. But I may as well confess that neither of my windows XP machines broke either.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

poke it with a stick then run, if it chases you it aint dead.

[drjoe]

Even VERY old printers. I have a need to print three part involces and I use an Imagewriter LQ that I bought in 1989 !!!! With an Appletalk card, an Asanteprint and foomatic open source drivers it works like a charm.

[js1138]

At least they don't get viruses.

[general_re]

Very comforting to a user who is suddenly contemplating all that new free space on his Firewire drive after upgrading, I'm sure ;)

[js1138]

You are an audacious and insolent poophead. ;^)

[general_re]

So my wife tells me, in somewhat more colorful language... ;)

[js1138]

I just wanted to see if you remembered which thread you were on.

[IncPen]

I use Gimp print with my 6 year old Epson printer, in OSx, works great...

[general_re]

It's hard to keep track sometimes - the acolytes of the Cult of Steve occasionally bear a striking resemblance to another set of folks I know ;)

[Swordmaker]

"The scope of the problem is very limited," said an employee of Oxford Semiconductor, who asked to remain anonymous. "It's a vocal few. As far as I can tell from the forums, it's about 20 people who have been affected. We haven't had any complaints directly."

But MacInTouch's Ford said it doesn't matter how many are affected -- a glitch this serious is unforgivable.

"My view is that any data-loss bug is unacceptable, whether it affects 0.01 percent of the 25 million Mac installed base or 100 percent of it," he said.

One one-hundredth of one percent of 25 million is 2,500 users... what is the actual percentage of affected users based on the figures used in the article? .00008%

Apparently every failure of a Firewire drive is now being laid at the door of the mysterious OS X.3 bug... or an even more mysterious Firewire bug... affecting even OS 9 or lower. Let's just ignore the fact that Oxford had already identified this exact problem in their firmware and provided an update available for about a month before the release of OS X.3.

Apple SHOULD have known about the bug in the firmware and provided the patch on its 10.3 release... and should have warned people about it. They didn't.

I have disconnected and connected Firewire drives, upgraded to 10.3, saved data, etc., with no problem.