Hints of new Apple OS coming in June

[MIDI Life Crisis]

C'mon Shoosh, don't hold back! Mvks still doing quite well here. Only bugs I'm seeing are with the columns in Finder and dialogue (open and save) windows where the NAME section is too long. Also HATE the new labels being a dot instead of a color for the entire entry in a lost. Grrrrrr!

[mhschmieder]

Thomas, I am pretty sure you are correct about the source of most of the troubles with Mavericks being security-based, in which case we can only hope that this forced new architectural considerations that simply are taking a full public rollout to manifest their consequences in order to collect enough information for an improved version in 10.10.

I do not use Xcode except occasionally. I love the tool, but it doesn't support what I do. As a lone developer building a CAD-oriented scientific visualization tool for acoustics, rigging, and safety calculations, I have a lot of problem domain specific issues that take most of my time, so I have to be super-careful about choosing technologies that scale well over time (maintenance-wise as well as supporting rapid feature growth) and are cross-platform (as much as that is possible; there is always special-case code though).

Hence, on the client side, I mostly use Java (whereas on the server side it is mostly C and C++ running primarily on Linux). Oracle rewrote Java from scratch with v8 and it's incredible overall (especially the new JavaFX GUI framework), but they are clearly facing some struggles with Mavericks related to security issues (as evidenced by the logging messages I see).

My guess would be that any vendor using technologies that aren't developed directly via Xcode are facing similar issues as they are not expecting to have to write a lot of new platform-specific code. But for all I know, even those using Xcode are in a struggle right now. I haven't really had a chance to analyze the commonality of products with problems.

[HCMarkus]

Normally I have little interest in OS updates as I prefer stability to a constantly moving target, due to all the interdependencies and how many things tend to break.

Wisdom this. My preferred boat, especially on my production machine.

[James Steele]

I have the luxury of having another business and really reserving my studio these days for my own personal projects. That affords me some latitude to take risks and install new OSes. I'm never at risk of hosing a project for a paying client.

On the other hand, in my other business I have to run a specialized Windows app that is integral to my livelihood. I can take NO chances with it. To screw up in this industry is to stand a good chance of being done. Word of mouth travels. Currently, there's a newer version I'd like to update to, but it is so crucial that I have no hiccups that I'm waiting for some downtime so if something goes wrong I can deal with it before the next paying job, and even then, I'm going to install on a non-essential computer to make sure it's all good before I install it on the computers I use day-to-day.

This is why I'm always stunned by the posts that sometimes show up on this board that say, in essence "Help! I have a client coming in tomorrow and I just installed _______, and my system is not working!" I feel bad for them, and we try to help, but I have to resist the urge to say "What the HELL were you thinking? Everything was working fine and you mess with it the night before you have a gig?" Sigh.

[James Steele]

Oh... since it just happened AGAIN to me... I'd like to add this. Apple's Mail app has become a crash puppy since I went to Mavericks. It crashes maybe once a week or more. Never had this issue previously that I can recall.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

That's so strange. My only mail issue is not being able to sort when checking remote servers. Otherwise Mvks is just peachy. Hmmm....

[James Steele]

That's so strange. My only mail issue is not being able to sort when checking remote servers. Otherwise Mvks is just peachy. Hmmm....

Yep. Maybe I'm in need of a clean install. I keep a LOT of old email, however, and the size of my mail "database" or however it's stored may account for my issues. I also have numerous different email accounts.

[Michael Canavan]

I have Mavericks on the laptop here, and it's fine, but I don't do the sort of serious work I do on the desktop there so maybe that's it. I can say that I really like the Finder improvements, but seeing as how Mountain Lion is working just fine on the Mac Pro I've been loath to upgrade.

[Thomas.B.]

Oh... since it just happened AGAIN to me... I'd like to add this. Apple's Mail app has become a crash puppy since I went to Mavericks. It crashes maybe once a week or more. Never had this issue previously that I can recall.

This could be due to a specific email account that has been corrupted. Try to disable all email accounts one by one in the preferences (click on ‘Enable this account’). That will point you to the corrupt email account which you can then remove and recreate with a fresh account.

Interestingly enough the Mail app is the only application that I have an occasional problem with even though I have performed a clean install of Mavericks. The cursor will misalign which makes it difficult to select a specific letter. I can fix the issue by simply quiting Mail and restarting the app but it is a very strange bug.

[mikehalloran]

I have had installation issues only except for Toast 11 and that was fixed in the latest update.

Some are due to Mavericks security settings - easily resolved.

Others were cured by simply uninstalling and reinstalling (DP 7.24 after the OS 9.1 update) or reinstalling (DP 8.06 after the same update).

One was resolved by manually removing old versions (Izotope's uninstaller no longer works - once old libraries are gone, their installers work fine)

The remaining issue is the latest version, 5.0.7, of Encore - a buggy installer with many problems that still doesn't work. Fortunately, I am able to fool the 5.0.6 updater into re-installing. Still no word from Passport nor a new installer.

Other than that, Mavericks is the most stable OS I have ever used. Having found and removed incompatible software when OS 10.8.2 was released, I have had no kernel panics no system crashes, no email issues (the Yahoo server goes down on occasion but it's not a Mavericks issue). Only Toast 11 ever froze requiring a force-quit and Corel has fixed that.

There were the iTunes playback issues but those have bothered me since OS 10.6 and were fixed in the recent 11.1.5 update (I still hate the interface but can listen to the audio again).

Even TechTool Pro 7.2 fixed their issue with the ATi/Apple firmware bug introduced by Apple with OS 10.8.1 (that Apple will never fix).

MOTU Audio Setup.app has or had the same issue but I don't know if they have fixed it. I found out about the issue by attaching the crash report to a Tech Link but never heard back whether the latest build of MOTU Audio Setup.app fixes the problem. If not yet fixed, the workaround is really simple: close the app when you are done with setup. It only crashes your system if left on for a long time.

If you have any of the following cards, you may be affected:

ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5670
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5750M
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5770
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5870
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 6490M
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 6630M
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 6750M
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 6770M
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 6970M

This issue was introduced in 10.8.1, not Mavericks.