[Macpartners] Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" Update

[Bill Cattey]

I am sorry to hear that you gave up on IS&T support for Mac OS X.

You raise a question that deserves an answer: "Why does it seem like
IS&T is not testing until after a product ships?"

My personal experience is as Linux Platform Coordinator, but I believe
it is applicable to platforms like Mac OS X.

We *DO* test products before they come out -- as much early access as
vendors are willing to give us.  Some vendors give us a lot of access.
Others don't give us much or any early access.  We negotiate as best we
can.

The issue that keeps a LOT of us in IS&T stressed is that after we have
tested the early versions of a product, the real version of the product
sometimes ships badly broken in some way.  The vendor thought it was a
trivial change, but it wasn't.  We have found that we have to run ALL
the testing we did on the early version AGAIN on the REAL version, and
that we often find nasty problems.

It is an unfortunate situation that, when the vendors ship new versions
of their products, they somehow fail for a non-trivial segment of the
MIT user community.  I appreciate how all you have seen is how long it
takes for us to qualify new software, and how in spite of that delay,
you still get bit by problems.

Although I am saddened by the prospect of IS&T losing the experience
from the users of your 50+ LNS systems, I can appreciate your viewpoint.
When you shrink the problem down from 1000 stakeholders to 50
stakeholders, the job of getting things to work for "everyone" is a lot
easier.

Before you walk away from us, I ask you please to consider the
possibility that we ARE working hard, and that we ARE remedying
problems, just not always in areas that are visible to you and your
smaller community.

Ultimately, IS&T can't do the whole job alone.  We need customers who
will try stuff out, and either confirm for us that all is well, or help
us get problems and solutions through to the vendors.

I hope that IS&T can be useful to you in the future.

-Bill Cattey
Linux Platform Coordinator

On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 22:32 -0400, Kuba Tatarkiewicz wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
...
> 
> Personally I gave up on MIT support for Mac OS X - I've got my own
> copy of Tiger long time ago and it runs fine for me. I consider doing
> same for 50+ Mac OS X users at Lab for Nuclear Science. We already
> have several people with new Macs that successfully run Tiger.
> 
> 
> I am sorry, but I do not understand why time and time again commercial
> software from major vendors is being "tested" when it is released, not
> while in  beta. Are we at MIT or at some A&M?!
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Kuba
> (former Apple evangelist & Friend of QT)
> 
> > hi al,
> > 
> > 
> > will is&t have a versions of 10.3 available for those new macs 
> > that come with tiger? how will departments get this version?
> > 
> > 
> > can they format and go back to the older versions. i have three new
> > macs arriving and noticed they all will come with tiger.
> > 
> > 
> > all use sap, and need certificates for stellar, and of course
> > kerberos. 
> > 
> > 
> > i have one already installed and not having a problem with
> > a kerberos version i downloaded from the software distribution
> > link, user in citrix for sap and some other MIT apps.
> > 
> > 
> > do we take this up will Apple or does IS&T help get us a working
> > macos for Campus. 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >                 thanks, jerry
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >         thanks, jerry
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________
> 
> 
> Kuba Tatarkiewicz Ph.D.
> 
> Assistant Director for Computer Services
> 
> MIT Lab for Nuclear Science
> 
> Phone 617 452 2430
> 
> Fax 617 258 6591
> 
> 24-030D MIT
> 
> 77 Massachusetts Avenue
> 
> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
> 
> _______________________
> 
> 
>