Apple Updates Panther Via Software Update

arobase writes "Apple releases update to Panther thru Software Update. The build number changes from 7A179 to 7A202. Updates Mail, Exposé and iChat."

Comments

updates to closed developer betas make news now?

[RalphBNumbers]

So they've updated a closed developer beta that only a few thousand people have legally, and this is news?

If you want to talk about closed betas of Apple's upcoming updates, at least talk about the recent one that fixes the screensaver character buffer bug that got plastered all over /. a few days ago. It isn't all that important either, but at least it serves as a good followup.

the reason why they'd do this

[goodchef]

There would seem to be no compelling reason to use software update for a patch that's for a still-developers-only product. 1) It does make it easier for those developers to get it. But the bigger reason I see is that since pretty much everyone who has Panther will install this, Apple would get a decent count of the number of installed copies of Panther, and from that a fairly decent estimate of the amount of piracy.

Personally, I could download it, but I'll just wait until August when they release it. One of the big reasons I like Macs so much is that they just work, and installing a prerelease version of an OS while they're still tweaking it and fixing bugs means goodbye to that.

Re:the reason why they'd do this

[phillymjs]

There would seem to be no compelling reason to use software update for a patch that's for a still-developers-only product.

How about this reason: To test the new Software Update control panel?

I have only given my downloaded copy of Panther a cursory playing-with on my spare G4, but I can tell you that Software Update is quite different from the one in Jaguar-- you can opt to have the computer automatically install "important" updates, and there are a few other changes that have been made.

~Philly

Re:One step closer to Linux

[Mikey-San]

Yeah, that's what a lot of people just don't understand. It may be easy to type a short command in a shell window, but most end-user/average consumer types are deathly afraid of the command-line. (I'd like to blame DOS's shitty CLI for this, as bash and the C shells are nice.)

Geeks will use a CLI; Mom and Dad won't.

Re:One step closer to Linux

[Dixie_Flatline]

It's not just that they're scared, there's a lot more to know in those three short lines.

In both instances, you must know what you're doing, every step of the way. Those three lines can be arranged in 9 distinct ways. If you type them out of order you won't get the same result. If you typo, it doesn't work. Yes, you can probably do it by rote, but you still have to be more aware of what's going on at any moment than you do when you click 'Install'.

I LIKE the command line, but I KNOW that it's not the same amount of work. Us geeks would do well to remember that.

Re:Expos� on G3's

[neverkevin]

I have never had a problem with expose or any other Apple program on my 600mhz iBook. However, the Cisco VPN software is really buggy in 10.3b and I have had 2 system crashes pre update (1 crash toasted a few files on the harddrive). I talked to the local Apple rep about 10.3, he said they are still very much in the development process and that Apple know how buggy this release is. He also said they expect it to ship by the end of the year, so being about 5 months away from ship date, you can't really expect much in the way of stability.

Setting the Software Update Timing?

[NaugaHunter]

Has anyone found a way to manually set when the update will check? If you check manually, it sets itself forward by day/week/month according to your setting but at the current time. The problem is occasionaly I'll be surfing at an odd hour (read: 3AM Saturday), see that an update has been released, and kick off the updater. It then resets itself to check the following Saturday, 3AM. I've looked through various preference files and a couple of sites I thought might have something.

For the record, it is possible to change the time to the current time by changing the Daily/Weekly/Monthly option and changing it back. Unfortunately this resets the counter - I tried it know and even though it last checked 4 days ago it now won't check until next Sunday morning.

So if anyone has found this, or is better at looking, I'm betting I'm not the only one that would like to know. (I tried looking for files that changed today with the time I changed it, but either a) I did my search poorly or b) it's saved in a system file with other preferences that doesn't get updated immediately.) I suppose it's possible it's only saved in PRAM, but I'm not sure how to find that how - maybe someone with more Developer access could ask around.

And yes, changing the current date/time, moving the D/W/M setting, and then resetting the time would work. But that's crazy talk. I can appreciate the logic that Joe User will most likely check the first time at a time they'd normally be on, but not all of our usage schedules are that orderly. It wouldn't have hurt them to give the option of specifying it exactly, so you can check manually occasionally but not reset the automatic scheduling.