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OS X Problem Chart, pg.1

Posted on January 27, 2003
Revised on March 9, 2005

PROBLEM

SOLUTION

Slow performance.
This seems to be a result of OS X's new true multi-threading. Although it seems like a good idea, in practice, OS X performs very poorly (OS 9 is sometimes twice as fast because, I presume, the foremost application takes up more processing power). In OS X, all apps receive only as much power as they need. Consequently, everything seems slower. And of course, the graphic intensive Aqua interface doesn't help either.

Sometimes, the system, or a particular application, will slow to a crawl and the dreaded Spinning Rainbow Wheel of Death will appear, sometimes for more than a minute.

There's not much you can do, other than buy the fastest computer you can afford. A multi-processor Mac is highly recommended, since OS X is designed to take advantage of it.

There is a freeware app called CPU Focus that supposedly gives more CPU attention to the foremost app, but I haven't seen any noticable effect in my tests.

Update: Another thing you can try is reset your user settings, which deletes your user preferences, and forces the system to rebuild them. A great freeware tool for this is Dragster. (Warning: Make sure you read the READ ME file that comes with the software!)

Update (Feb. 10, 05): Since upgrading to a dual-2.5 MHz with 2 GB of RAM, this problem has gone away.

Long launch times. Otherwise known as the Bouncing Icon From Hell.
Applications sometimes seem to take a very long time to launch. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. An app that would sometimes take 3 seconds to launch may take as long as 60 seconds or more the next time you launch it. I counted over 86 icon bounces on the dock once.

There is no real solution to this, but a workaround is to keep your most frequently used apps open all the time. OS X allows you to keep a large number of apps open with very little memory footprint (see for yourself by running "Process Viewer").

Also, contrary to Apple's claim, rebooting does help with memory and performance issues. You don't need to do a hard reboot, simply logging out and back in often helps with slow launch times (which implies that the problem could be associated with memory or virtual memory).

Note: In OS 10.2, updating prebinding is not necessary anymore, as the system runs it each time you restart. Anyway, it doesn't seem to fix the problem.

Update: Another thing you can try is reset your user settings, which deletes your user preferences, and forces the system to rebuild them. A great freeware tool for this is Dragster. (Warning: Make sure you read the READ ME file that comes with the software!)

Update (Feb. 10, 05): Since upgrading to a dual-2.5 MHz with 2 GB of RAM, this problem has gone away.

Label colours are gone.
Thanks to the geniuses at Apple, the long-standing ability to label files and folders is gone. This is a particularly important feature in print production workflows, and is sorely missed.

Until Apple fixes this blatant error, there is a good workaround: Use Label X, an excellent haxie from Unsanity. Any labels you may have set previously in OS 9 will be retained. Shareware cost: $7.

Update (Feb. 10, 05): Apple has put Labels back.

Can't print Finder windows.
Yet another idiotic move by Apple. This function is essential for print production, and just about anyone else who wants to print the contents of a window or disk.

Until Apple fixes this error, use PrintWindow by SearchWare Solutions. An excellent feature is the ability to use Command-P right from the Finder.

Update: You can also use Print Center to print Finder windows (click, hold for a second, and drag window title's folder icon onto Print Center in the Dock), but it will only print a directory listing one level deep. That means it won't print the contents of a sub folder even if you have it expanded. This method also prints any invisible files in the directory which can be annoying and misleading in a pre-press environment.

Font conflicts.
You may have problems with fonts such as Times and Helvetica, of which there are several versions in OS X (including Classic). OS X has "dfont" versions, as well as the usual TrueType ones. For print production purposes, where Postscript fonts are always preferred, this can cause problems.

Fonts are, in general, a delicate and complex issue in OS X. Your best bet is to use a Font Management program to manage all your fonts. Some Font Managers will suggest that you remove all the fonts from the System Folders, while others will attempt to manage them for you. The two leading contenders are Font Reserve and Suitcase. From my tests, Suitcase seems to be the easiest to work with. Update (Mar. 9, 05): Extensis seems to have purchased Font Reserve.

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