Snow Leopard deletes users' data
WHILE THE APPLE FRIENDLY PRESS has been crowing about the loss of data on Microsoft servers in the Danger fiasco, Apple snuck out a quiet announcement about how its Snow Leopard operating system also deletes users' personal data.
For the past month, some Mac OS X users have been reporting that all their data turned up missing after logging into their guest accounts.
Apple initially ignored the problem when it first raised its head in September, but has now finally admitted that it happens.
It is not saying this is a major problem of course, only that it happens in "rare cases", but the admission by Apple that there might be a minor problem usually means that there is a serious problem.
The announcement claims that Apple is working on a fix.
Mac users started reporting the problem on bulletin boards two weeks ago. When logging into the guest account on their Mac first and then logging into their regular account, some users have been finding all their data missing and their accounts completely reset.
There is a debate about how much of a problem this really is. One bulletin board has about 100 complaints while others have only a dozen. However the loss of personal data on an operating system seems to us like a greater tragedy than losing an address book on a cloud based mobile phone.
This is yet another problem with Apple's Snow Leopard that has appeared since its launch. Snow Leopard has been plagued with glitches ever since its release, including problems with the Finder hanging or crashing, incompatibilities with some applications and dropping AirPort connections.
Some analysts believe that Snow Leopard was pushed to launch too quickly before all the flaws were sorted out. Apple did that as a spoiler for the launch of Windows 7 which is out next week.
However Snow Leopard does seem to be noticably buggier than its predecessor Leopard, which in turn was nowhere near as reliable as Tiger. µ
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like its namesake SL seems to be falling to pieces.
-- well I guess this means Apple has grown up and releases buggy, unfinished software like the best of them..
I blame the internets... far too easy to patch things after and pretend its a an added feature.
Blah blah blah. Yet another story that the Ferret got his grummy mitts on and distorted in order to feed his seemigly DAILY need to trash Apple.
A broken watch is more accurate than Farrell. At least its right twice a day.
I challenge Heir Ferret to go ONE WEEK without posting trash about Apple.
I STILL don't know why this assclown hasn't been fired yet.
I've used Snow Leopard since it's release - no problems here & it's an extremely remote problem as it is!
Nothing but a single update won't fix.
This guy is obviously clueless.
Just like the rest of the failboat Inquirer.
So why are you even here? And the point is why is it happening at all? SL is meant to be a fix for Leopard surely? Not a bigger problem.
Thoroughly agree (although I know it seems to be bad form to agree with people in the comments) - if the inquirer is such a failboat, how come C is posting here?
I never trust anything but DVD's to back up my hard drive. My pictures any other data go right to a usb flash drive and then to a another hard drive until I have enough to fill a dvd.They are cheap and last a long time. If you have ever had a hard drive fail you learn fast.Now we have to worry about Os eating our data?
Newer is not always better unfortunately.
I am not impressed with Apple or MS.
The communist enterprice -Apple- has another bug inside his DRMed pile of crap. Please, it's quite hard to find a product with no bugs (ups, sorry, FEATURES) in this company.
I work with computers since many years ago and so far have strong reasons to keep myself so away as I can from Apple. You can bash MS so much as you want, but at least they ACCEPT and RECOGNIZE there are bugs in their products.
Now, take a look around Apple. They HIDE, NEGATE and apply full CENSORSHIP to their problems, starting by his very own president, who lies about his health to avoid troubles with the stock market.
And then come to ligth those strange people (like FarrelledbyNik) who obviosly had his brain erased and reprogrammed like a cheap chinese BIOS, and now belongs to Apple's Yihad, bashing anyone who dares to criticize his beloved god or any of their faulty toys... Poor boy, sorry, but my advice for you is to stop working under Steve Job's desk.
I was just going to comment on Distorted's post, but then realized he doesn't know how to spell, so what's the point....
he may not be able to spell but he can put his finger on a sensitive spot, hmmm? ;)
To the poster who hasn't had a problem.. Lucky you. LoL. To those bashing Nick? INQ isn't the only site displaying this news. So y'all can stop that crud.
On another note.. To Apple...
WoW!!.. A user has to rely on a third party malware infestation to get a Windows PC to perform this "trick".
ROFL!!!
To Apple fan-boys. Remember.. Your $1200 Mac is using the same cheap hardware as a $400 Acer. Just in a prettier case. $800 for an OS? Dang, and I thought Windows had gotten overpriced.
knew something about IT - the subject he tries to write about - then we might get a more balanced view.
Firstly yes, it is a bug. ALL software contains bugs. The more functionality you put in the more bugs you get. You NEVER find all the bugs in testing because there are so many different combinations of hardware, software, set-up and user interaction that you could never test them all.
How likely is it that the bug will effect a given Mac? Not very. Firstly you have to be stupid enough to enable the Guest account to log on (it isn't by default and it's a potential security hole if it is enabled). Secondly, having done that, you have to log on as Guest. Thirdly some combination of factors has to have happened before hand (it doesn't happen to all people who do this), Apple are trying to work out what these are.
How bad is it if this happens? Well, if you've enabled Time Machine (which is one of the simplest to use, least obtrusive and neatest pieces of backup software out there, and is pretty well a must for anyone who values their data - HDs can die also) then you can restore your data in a few minutes. If not, options start getting more expensive and time consuming at this point, but it's not impossible to recover all or most missing data.
How buggy is Snow Leopard? For a recent OS release it seems pretty low on bugs. Not perfect, but certainly production ready. Over time some of the remaining bugs will be found, identified and fixed. Chances are that they are still finding bugs in code that was originally part of OS X 10.0
Will Windows 7 be bug free? Not a chance. Even after extensive testing internally and externally you can bet that MS will start releasing patches soon after it is goes on sale.
Not sure about the metaphor, though;...
... What do great cats have to do with King Lear?
... And Snow Leopards can not roar like tiger and leapard -
... everyone knows it's so.
Don't let the
ASBO-chaviks and ASBO-chavelles get you down, good man.
Quando a Roma,
fare come fanno
gli italiani
perché i Romani
attraversato la strada
a mangiare la cucina greca,
buono come il pane.
Ho sentito dire che
il secondo libro della
Poetica di Aristotele
è un dito leccando tickler
costola buona.
Dimenticare il mantello e il pugnale, metterli in una cappa
e di dare loro una rapida calci.
Er... it's been on EVERY FREAKING SITE I VISIT! I'd hardly call that sneaking out.
Then again Ferret's idea of research is grepping the news sites for "Apple" and "Bug", copypastaing the headlines and then writing 20 paragraphs on how hard Apple sucks.
Windows 7 just alerted me that there are 5 important updates. When was its release again?
The difference with a £400 Acer to a £1000 Mac is that the Mac is filled with high quality components, built with quality materials and integrated with clever and innovative technologies.
Unfortunately, that alone isn't worth the £600 premium and yes you are paying around £100 more for the name, but that's life.
It will also outlast the £400 plastic Acer and with the added bargain that you are running a fully fledged OS that isn't fully of bloat and bullsh*t.
You wouldn't understand quality if it slapped you in the face.
You haven't owned a Mac, you might have used one, but never owned one - so you have no room to comment at all.
First, a poor devil, trying to avoid the truth paying attention to my spelling... And here comes another, talking about quality...
As part of my job, I had assembled many computers, with both low and very high quality parts. I laugh very hard on every Apple fanboy because:
* When they used only MAC parts, it was quite slower than a normally well assembled PC. Yet, they screamed hard the opposite and paying twice for twice less performance.
* Irony. Just a couple of years ago, Apple is "Intel inside", DDR2 & DDR3 (just like a regular PC). Finally, they have decent hardware and still paying an eye & kidney for the very same hardware and a not so good OS.
Please, give me a break...
As Distorted said. As of just a couple years ago. Apple has been putting the same components in their fancy little cases. You have allowed yourself to be duped in to a false sense of security that OSX enjoys by simple fact that the creators of malware aren't wanting to waste their time going after a mere 5 percent? of the computers on the planet. The Apple OS is bloated however, we expect it to be. why? Being spoon fed every app Stev-O "thinks" we want to use has always been what we got from Apple.
I dislike the "I'm a PC" adds put out by Microsoft simply due to the fact that a Mac IS a PC. Just has different software on it. Especially since Apple switched to using Intel processors and chipsets in the Macs. Oh yes. I'm well aware of the "quality" components in the case. Same CPU, Same Ram, Same Chipsets, same dime a dozen seagate hard drives, and An Apple "tweaked" bios. Still a PC Still priced over twice what the components are worth Still subject to the same problems as the $400 Acer but worse since due to the design of the tiny little cases they squeeze the hardware in they tend to run hotter thus shortening the expected lifespan of the components. Hey but apple doesn't care about that cause they know their avid fan-boys such as yourself will simply run out and buy another one. I WON'T own a Mac. I've worked on a few. Found them lacking in the supposed quality you speak of. And truly not worth the pricetag. I also don't care to be spoon fed every application. And getting rid of the "bloat" on a new "off the shelf" windows based system is quite simple. Takes maybe all of 20min.
Conspiracy theory time. Ever wonder why Apple won't license their OS for use on machines other than Macs? Simple they don't want the market share to go up too high inviting the interest of the hackers.