Tim Wilson over at the Creative Cow started this blog post as a comment on the blog post I made over there about upgrading to Leopard (a reprint of what I posted here). It really goes in depth about the dangers of upgrading, and how really there is no way that Apple and other third party vendors can possibly test every possible combination of hardware and software to ensure that no bugs sneak through the cracks. This is also very pertinent to the recent issue I had with Noise Industries FX Factory, and how it was missed.
Many people every day report issues with their software and OS not working properly...and there are literally thousands of possible causes of these. It is just TOO easy to just cry foul and blame Apple for everything, for not "testing" properly.
Well, read his blog posting. It's good.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Nov 30, 2007 at 1:34:07 am
All CalDigit products are compatible with Leopard. This is a good thing as I am flush with Duos and a Firewire VR. Not that I have Leopard yet...on the G5. I do on my Powerbook, and I use these on this machine. And I can say that yes, they work.
Oct 29, 2007 Placentia, CA CalDigit, the new leader in RAID storage solutions is pleased to announce the immediate compatibility of all of its products with Apple's new Leopard OS X operation system.
Starting with the FireWireVR (Triple Interface RAID), our FASTA-2e 2-port eSATA card, our FASTA-4e and FASTA-4X 4 port Superlane eSATA cards, FASTA-1ex ExpressCard34, to our HDPro and RAID SHIELD Management utility, all CalDigit products are ready to go with Leopard.
"Everyone's been asking us recently and we're pleased to announce that CalDigit is ready for Leopard", said Jon Schilling, Sales Manager of CalDigit. "Our users can now take advantage of all Leopard has to offer in full conjunction with ALL of our products."
CalDigit Inc is the leading manufacturer of affordable, quality RAID products. CalDigit is located in Orange County, California at 1941 Miraloma Avenue, Suite B, Placentia, CA 92870. For further information, please contact sales@caldigit.com or visit our website at http://www.caldigit.com.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Oct 30, 2007 at 11:03:19 pm
The new version of Mac OSX is due out on October 26...Leopard. To install, or not to install, THAT is the question.
Now...those of you with editing systems should proceed with caution. I always, repeat ALWAYS say, "if you have a stable working system, DO NOT UPDATE IT!" Having a stable working editing system is the key to a smooth running business, a stress free life, and more time you can devote to reading, riding your bike, playing with the kids...ANYTHING but sitting in your office for hours trying to figure out what went wrong.
OK, if you find that you MUST update your system and play with all the new toys it has to offer, I have a few suggestions to make to cover your butt:
1) CLONE YOUR SYSTEM DRIVE. Get Carbon Clopy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html) and an external firewire drive that is as big as your internal, and clone your nice, clean, WORKING system onto it. This way, if things don't work out with Leopard, you can always go back to your properly working system.
2) GET A NEW HARD DRIVE AND INSTALL ON THAT. Now, this only works if you have a MacPro or G5, or G4...a tower where you can swap out drives. I listed the other option first because anyone can do that, towers, laptops, iMacs, MacMinis. This is the cheaper way to go as internal SATA drives are cheaper than firewire drives. Pop out the current system drive and pop in this new drive. Or, if you happen to have an open drive slot, install this in there, so you can have a DUAL BOOT system. Working system, NEW system. Then boot up on the Leopard Install disk and jump through the installing hoops.
Well, that about covers it. Oh, wait...you DON'T want to spend money on another hard drive? Well, OK, if you don't have $80 to spend on a 250Gb internal, or lacking the funds to buy a $200 external FW 250GB drive....because getting Leopard tapped you out...then this is what you can do. Mind you, it'll not be nearly as slick as the other options.
Back up all your files. Project files, work documents, spreadsheets, pictures, movies, music...you should be doing this anyway. If you don't have a back up drive...what the heck are you thinking?!?! Ahem, anyway, then erase your system drive and install Leopard from scratch. Yeah, you can install Leopard on top of Tiger, but this way you ENSURE that you will have a clean, fresh OS. Then install all your applications and copy back all your files.
OH...and the most important thing I can stress: Do not upgrade while you are in the middle of a project. I cannot stress this enough. If the upgrade messes things up, then you have downtime. And downtime is a killer...because in the editing world there are deadlines. Now, if you are NEVER in the middle of a project, and have several that overlap (I know several people and places this applies to), do the upgrade when you can spare the time to do it, test it, and fix it if things don't work. Weekends are good for this, or any time you can spare a couple days, or have a few days down time and it not be a burden.
But really...honestly...what I'd REALLY suggest you do?
Wait.
Wait and let others install Leopard and find all the issues with it. OR, if you have TWO computers, one you use for work and then another one you use for web surfing and e-mail...install Leopard on that one. The biggest thing I want to get across is that if you are using a machine to earn a living, and it is working fine...don't do something that might cause it not to work. You need to eat.
OK...the time is approaching. Friday will soon be upon us and Leopard will come out.
And I swear, 4 minutes later there will be a post on one of the FCP forums where someone says, "I just installed Leopard, and now I can't _______ in FCP. HEEEEELLLLPPP!"
Don't be that guy. Or gal.
Posted by: Shane Ross on Oct 23, 2007 at 8:43:13 pm
