Missing User

After upgrading to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), I noticed that the PostgreSQL user I created for development using dscl had suddenly disappeared. Apparently any users that are not created through System Preferences -> User Accounts are excluded during the upgrade process. Strangely, the group associated with this PostgreSQL admin user was still present after the upgrade. It was trivial to restore functionality, but a bit irritating. At least I wasn't stung by the Guest user fiasco that has been finally fixed in 10.6.2.

Now that's out of the way, why is my subversion launchd entry being ignored? Hrmmm ...

IR/EyeTV Oddities

Another thing I noticed was the complete miscommunication between the IR Remote that came standard with older Macs and EyeTV. IR controls were either mismapped (resulting in strange interactions with EyeTV) or completely non-functional. Thankfully, this was resolved easily with the installation of Candalair - an alternative driver for internal Apple IR Receivers. By enabling Leopard Compatibility Mode, things were back to normal. This is obviously a known problem given the very existence of a compatibility mode, but why won't Apple actually fix the problem?

Printing?

One of the primary reasons for me considering OS X a few years ago was the tight integration of device drivers (for things such as printers) with the OS. I was tired of trying to configure PS emulation for standard photo printers in Linux. Printer configuration was by far the biggest PITA under free *nix varieties. Being able to install a printer painlessly was, for me, a true measure of usability.

Boy, have times changed. Where as my initial experience with 10.4 was the pleasant surprise of "wow that worked the first time", Snow Leopard has changed this process into an all too familiar experience of disappointment. Broken driver support for a slew of existing printers formerly supported by Leopard (10.5) was painful, to say the least. The process of upgrading the drivers with Apple's driver fix failed to notify users that existing print queues would NOT function until they had been recreated was completely obtuse in a way reminiscent of Windows. Oh well, so much for the usability advantage.

To see just how badly this process has devolved, try setting up a Canon Pixma 420 for wireless network printing. A friend of my got one of these with his new iMac, and nothing short of a herculean effort got this printer to work with OS X. Can you say "obscure"?

Quicktime X Black Screen

A new and improved Quicktime was supposed to be a boon to Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, right out of the gate, Quicktime X support in Front Row was broken for almost all files. Attempting to play any media files in Front Row resulted in a black screen with no audio or video. 10.6.1 at least restored the ability to play .avi files, but I had to wait until the recent 10.6.2 update to finally have support restored for .mkv's. What happened to releasing a functional product? Given legacy Quicktime support is available in Snow Leopard, wouldn't it have been prudent to wait until this version of Quicktime was ready for prime time before releasing it for public use? At the very least, it shouldn't have broken existing functionality. Where are the QA regression tests?

At What Cost?

I understand the primary motivation behind any public company is profit and Apple is no exception. But what is the cost of relentless push for greater market share if they start to diverge from their core philosophy of "just works"? From a consumer standpoint, there are increasingly compelling reasons to question Apple's current strategies, specially if it comes at the cost of keeping existing customers satisfied. I purchased Apple products because I did not want to contribute to the cycle of "disposable" electronics. Little did I know that by design, this is exactly what I've ended up with.

Hackintoshes are looking better every day ...