Blog FeedMac OS X 10.5 Leopard: A Spotty Release
Time Machine
Time Machine is a good idea whose time hasn’t quite come yet. There is no denying that Time Machine is a simple way to backup your computer and, if you use it in its default configuration, then it’s a no-hassle application that will ensure that, should something bad happen, that you can return to a safe place. While I have seen comparisons to this in other articles during Leopard’s development, Time Machine is most definitely not a version of Windows’s Restore Points or Shadow Copy. Time Machine requires a spare internal drive/partition or external hard drive (Firewire and USB work great and presumably eSATA should work as well) and by default it will backup your entire computer to it. New backups are taken once per hour and it employs a rarely used feature of UNIX called a Hard Link to provide a complete view of your system in each backup; files that had not changed just “point” back to a real version in an older backup and therefore restoring the disk avoids the problem associated with applying the changes from incremental backups. Restores from Time Machine can be performed during the setup of Leopard or an à la carte basis. One of the major differences between Time Machine and other backup mechanisms is that the restoration of something lost is performed in a context that makes sense for what is being restored. For example, if you lose a contact from your Address Book or an email in Mail then you restore the file from Time Machine within these applications so you aren’t dealing with files, you’re dealing with address cards or emails. The Time Machine interface is definitely “over the top” but essentially allows the user to either scroll back through backups using a sort of scroll bar of time at the right side of the screen or to click a button that takes you back to the time when the current view changed (for example, when a file did exist). Even more powerfully you can perform Spotlight searches in Time Machine. As a test I deleted my Fawlty Towers videos from iTunes after my initial backup but I can find these files simply by using the Finder, performing a search for “Fawlty Towers” in Time Machine and using the button to find an occasion in the past when this search result returned something. It’s all very impressive and seems to work quite efficiently, although it remains to be seen how long my 160GB portable Firewire drive will last for (so far I have used about 60GB) and what happens when it is full.
The astute reader will note that in my example of restoring some video files deleted from iTunes that I used the Finder rather than iTunes in Time Machine. This is one of the main problems with Time Machine - not even all Apple’s own applications are Time Machine “aware” and any that are not will default to using the Finder if you activate Time Machine for a restore. It’s definitely a hit or miss affair here. Mail, Address Book, Mail and iPhoto are Time Machine aware so you can search within their interfaces but iCal and iTunes are not. For the life of me I can’t think why iTunes doesn’t work in Time Machine and that’s just sloppy.
Time Machine also presents problems to anyone using Apple’s Aperture professional photo management application, like myself. Time Machine does “it’s thing” based on events detected in the file system - if a change to a file takes place then a notification is generated and Time Machine marks that file to be backed up next time, thus avoiding the need to search for changes. Evidentially there is a problem with the way that Aperture records updates to its database because Time Machine can apparently back it up in an invalid state so Apple recommends that Time Machine be disabled when you are running Aperture and to run manual backups. Again, this was another issue as it took me ages to work out how to trigger a manual backup (Help was no use, as usual) and I eventually discovered that you need to right-click on the Time Machine icon on the Dock to produce the option in the menu that appears.
Finally, in much the same way that I took issue with the general tedium of marking folders not to index, marking folders that Time Machine should not backup is more annoying than it should be. Since my external drive is relatively small (I wanted a portable one to go with the laptop) I didn’t want Time Machine to backup my application or OS. In the same way as I wanted to tell Spotlight just to index my Home directory I wanted to tell Time Machine to only back up this folder as well. Instead, however, you have to manually tell it which folders not to backup. In its defense it does ask you if you don’t want to backup anything installed by the OS if you tell it not backup the System folder but some quick picks would be nice.
Spaces
Spaces is another somewhat controversial subject with UNIX and Linux users pointing out that their OS had this first. No one denies this but since it’s a good idea as yet another mechanism to manage window overload (Exposé only goes so far if you’ve opened tons of windows and applications) I’m glad to see this functionality made it to Leopard. Having previously used the application VirtueDesktops I knew this was a useful function and I hoped that Spaces would be more reliable since I’d stopped using VirtueDesktops because that application had a habit of crashing on me. Unfortunately, while Spaces is very impressive it comes with a few bugs that are highly annoying.
Spaces allows the user to configure a number of virtual desktops that you can assign applications to by either setting them up to open in a defined Space or by using an overview view (activated using F8 on the keyboard or the Spaces Dock icon) to drag them to the desired location. Moving between the Spaces themselves can be achieved using either the overview (everything is displayed in real-time so videos are quite watchable), pressing the Control key and cursor keys, or pressing the Control key and the desired Space’s number. Switching between spaces is usually very fast and so it’s quite convenient. For example, I find it useful to run a Space for Windows XP at work where it is displayed full-screen, one for email and one where I can work on documentation without being distracted. So, it’s all good, right?
No. Spaces comes with at least 2 bugs that are very irritating. Firstly, Spaces may decide to switch you to another Space for absolutely no reason with no warning ruining what you were doing and forcing you to navigate back to the Space that you want to be in. Secondly, Spaces seems to favor switching you to the Space where an application was opened originally even if you have a window from that application open in your current Space. I suspect that Spaces just tends to get a bit confused, or that the applications themselves need to be trained on how to work correctly in Spaces. Still, the problem applications aren’t 3rd party ones but rather Apple’s own flagship applications like Safari so this does not bode well for the Spaces experience in general.
6th November | Reply
I’m kind of glad I didn’t fork out the bucks to upgrade in that case. Spaces is certainly something I’m looking forward to once it works right. I have a macbook and the screen on that is itty bitty so some more surface area should be blessing. Spotlight sounds pretty spiffy as well and a general performance boost is always going to be welcome.
But I don’t use a lot of the 1st party Apple Apps, and I don’t know that they’ve really given me any reason to change that as I really like being able to change from windows desktop to Mac Laptop and not really have to do anything differently.
Maybe I’d feel differently if I only used a mac, or maybe I’d feel differently if i used my mac for more than school work and websurfing but while it looks like a worthy upgrade there just isn’t anything that makes me scream oh i’ve got to have that right now. Spaces could end up being it when i have the money to buy a new OS.
6th November | Reply
It should be noted that all Mac users will need this release at some time in the not too distant future since there’s a lot of developers making their applications Leopard-only. The reason for me (I can’t speak for others) is Objective-C 2.0. Objective-C is the native programming language of Cocoa applications on the Mac and it’s basically an object-oriented extension to C. Having come from a Java background the need to manage memory came as a bit of a shock with all the associated problems when I started writing Cocoa applications and I think all my programs have leaks in them somewhere. Objective-C 2.0 gives you the speed of a native language with the convenience of an automatic garbage collector that should mean you don’t need to manage memory to the micro-management degree that you did in prior releases. Not only should this ensure that memory leaks are not as prevalent in software but it should also speed up the development process itself. There are a few other developer toys as well that should increase overall application performance when applications are updated for Leopard to enable better use of multiple processor cores.
Leopard is another release like Tiger where the end-users get some new toys but the developers probably get more so that it’s easier to write good applications and therefore the Mac universe benefits in the medium- to long-term. Now that I’ve finished this article I start to spend some time learning what all the new tools are since without full Apple Developer Connection (ADC) membership there’s been a lot under Non-Disclosure Agreements until the release last month. This should be interesting stuff.
6th November | Reply
Hmm, iTunes 7.5 got pushed out this morning and still no support for Time Machine. Now I’m really shocked since I felt sure that Apple would address this problem in the next iTunes update. Again, if Apple can’t get this right themselves then what chance does everyone else have? Mind you, it might be iTune’s legacy code that is holding it back. I need to do some reading into the developer documentation and see what it is that needs to be done to enable Time Machine support for an application - if this is only possible in a Cocoa application then that would explain the problem.
7th November | Reply
Wow, excellent review Kelmon! Really enjoyed reading it (on the job actually
) Overall there’s a few annoying bugs in there it seems but nothing all that hard to fix in a short time. I’m glad I haven’t shelled out immediately and decided to wait for at least a “.1″ release. Still, looking forward to installing the Leopard on my iMac.
7th November | Reply
I have testet iChat Theatre with video, audio, pdf and pictures and found absolutely no problems.. There where no skipping in audio, video or what so ever. However I will agree with the low quality on text in some situation. The test was done remotely, that is no local networking.
7th November | Reply
In Reply to #4:
Hi ReiUrusei! Thanks for the comment and you’ll be glad to know that Apple is apparently ready to start testing 10.5.1 so we should see this released in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed that this nukes the major problems.
In Reply to #5:
Hi rubberduck! Can you provide any details on what systems you used to test the iChat Theatre feature? I honestly tried to make this work by trying a LAN and Bonjour connections, plus using 2 high-end(ish) Macs but you can see the results in the review. The only thing that I was unable to test was doing Theatre over the Internet using a pair of Macs both running Leopard. However, if you have the facilities to test this then I’d be happy to try this with you and update my review accordingly. If you are interested then please send me a message via iChat to the screen name mpeaston at mac dot com.
I did watch a MacWorld video last night and saw that they were able to get Theatre to work OK so I really am left wondering what I was doing wrong.
7th November | Reply
To answer your question “It’s all very impressive and seems to work quite efficiently, although it remains to be seen how long my 160GB portable Firewire drive will last for (so far I have used about 60GB) and what happens when it is full.” just go til apple.com and take a look at what apple writes about Time machine. To quote apple:”Backing up to a full disk.
One day, no matter how large your backup drive is, it will run out of space. And Time Machine has an action plan. It alerts you that it will start deleting previous backups, oldest first. Before it deletes any backup, Time Machine copies files that might be needed to fully restore your disk for every remaining backup. (Moral of the story: The larger the drive, the farther back in time you can back up.)”
How can you write a review of Leopard without having spent time investigating the features of leopard.
7th November | Reply
In Reply to #7:
If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt from writing this article is that you should only use your own experience and not base judgement on marketing material. I will be very interested to see what happens but whether it is what Apple says will remains to be seen.
7th November | Reply
I guess is a matter of what angel you would except from a review. For me a review should question the features and their useability and if its worth spending the extra money on.. Not to question whether their work or not
7th November | Reply
When I press D on Word of the Day ScreenSaver, Dictionary opens up and the word gets displayed. Did you move Dictionary.app from Applications folder to any other location?
Sorry for my bad English!
7th November | Reply
In Reply to #10:
Nope. Dictionary remains in its default location of /Applications/Dictionary.app. Still, it’s nice to know both what this option was supposed to do and that it works for at least one person. It is, of course, baffling as to why it doesn’t seem to work for me having installed fresh onto a clean disk.
7th November | Reply
Re: Cut not working in the Finder, this is a deliberate design decision and it’s a good one - the Cut/Copy/Paste metaphor doesn’t work properly for files. Here’s an example of how it breaks (you can do this on Windows for example):
1. Copy a file (Edit->Copy)
2. Delete the file.
3. Try to paste the file (Edit-Paste)
Step 3 doesn’t work, because it never really copied the file, only a reference to it. In contrast, if you try this with some text in a word processor, everything will work as expected. IMHO, kudos to Apple for not allowing this feature.
7th November | Reply
In Reply to #12:
I do take your point but there has to be a better way of moving a file than the current options of either:
1. Opening 2 Finder windows and dragging the file between them
2. Attempting to navigate your folders using a single Finder window and spring-loaded folders
3. In a single Finder window copy the file, navigate to the desired destination, paste the file, return back to the original folder and delete the old copy of the file
All of those solutions are dumb and there’s no getting away from this. Cut and Paste works damned well in Windows so I honestly don’t see what the resistance is to an option to move a file rather than copy it (excluding the humongous bug discovered recently if the transfer fails). Moving a file certainly should not be as much of a faff as it is with the Finder.
10th November | Reply
Apple has now posted information about its Firewall, which is just as well since the settings are pretty meaningless:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306938
What’s particularly damning is the following note from the article:
So, by default, and even if you had your firewall enabled under Tiger when you upgraded, Apple will setup Leopard to allow anyone to try and attack your computer. Who’s stupid idea what this? While I realise that attacks against the Mac are rare and so far don’t seem to work unless you manage to con someone into handing over their administrator password, surely this is asking for trouble if someone DOES succeed in developing a remote hack.
For a company that advertises its security Apple sure has a funny way of displaying their commitment to it.
10th November | Reply
Well, having the Windows Firewall in XP SP2 turned on has been nothing but a headache at work. Obviously when we install Windows ourselves on a PC we have the option of turning the firewall on or off during the installation procedure - which I think it what Leopard should be doing.
But each time we get a new computer from Lenovo it’s already got it installed and it’s a pain if you forget to turn it off. And we need it off to get a bunch of our remote applications working properly across the board.