Step up Apple...

M

mightyjlr

Registered
By now alot of you have probably heard the HUGE problems with Safari. For many users Option clicking a download link will erase a users home directory if the "remove download list items" preference is not set to manual. Many other people have reported printing not working after they install Safari due to some files being deleted. Neither of these things has happened to me, but it has happened to ALOT of people. Obviously this is beta software and these things happen, but Apple needs to post something on the Safari download page about this and fix it as soon as possible. Any loss of data caused by an application is inexcusable. I love Safari, it is my default browser now since I haven't had any problems with it, and it is very very fast. These problems need to be fixed immediately however, letting this go too long will be a huge embarassment.
 
i think it's great that you posted this here to let people know. however, i don't think i see the need for apple to put up big warning signs on every page of their site for a problem with beta software. Beta means use at your own risk and all beta users should be aware of that. if you're not ready to take the risk, you shouldn't be using it. no doubt apple will fix this as soon as possible if it is really something caused by safari, and not by system hacking by other parties. even then, i'm sure apple would attempt to fix it if they can. i am sure apple will not emabarrass you in front of your wintel friends who are still waiting for all their security holes to be patched and who often lose a file or a drive while using non-beta software or opening a virus infected file.

so now everybody knows - don't option click a download link in safari.
 
Originally posted by edX
i think it's great that you posted this here to let people know. however, i don't think i see the need for apple to put up big warning signs on every page of their site for a problem with beta software. Beta means use at your own risk and all beta users should be aware of that. if you're not ready to take the risk, you shouldn't be using it. no doubt apple will fix this as soon as possible if it is really something caused by safari, and not by system hacking by other parties. even then, i'm sure apple would attempt to fix it if they can. i am sure apple will not emabarrass you in front of your wintel friends who are still waiting for all their security holes to be patched and who often lose a file or a drive while using non-beta software or opening a virus infected file.

so now everybody knows - don't option click a download link in safari.
Click to expand...

i don't think they need to put up big warning signs all over their site at all..... they do NEED to put something up on the Safari download page though, at least until the problem is fixed. beta or no beta... we are talking about your HOME directory here. basically all of the important data I have on my computer is in this folder. if Safari deleted a system folder, I could always reinstall Jaguar and the problem would be fixed. if it deleted an application, same thing. not so for my home folder, although my REALLY important data is backed up, there are about 10 gigs of data there that isn't.
 
On another note:

a) Organise your computer in a way that you can backup vital stuff. Myself, I have an external 60G Firewire drive on which I backup my home folder at least once a week. If you tend to have too much in your home folder, you can make a separate folder (outside your user's folder) for all the crap that you gather over time. As pointed out earlier, you can always reinstall Mac OS X from the original CD and applications from their original CDs as well.

b) Make sure you don't have your machine on autologin, and make sure that at least a second admin user (better: the root user) can login. Also, make users login with login/pass instead of clicking an icon, as 'root' doesn't show up as an icon. If you screw up your home folder (and there are other ways to do so than Safari's bugs), you're always glad you can still login to the machine easily and graphically as another admin user.
 
Why do people make excuses for Apple when several critical flaws have been found in their software, beta or not?

If this was Microsoft, you people would be tearing them apart.

Bottom line is, Apple has released beta software that it advertises on its mainpage for everyone to download. There is no risk implied by Apple for downloading Safari. At least none that I can easily find.

Anyway, I could go on but I just find the excuses and work arounds comical.
 
If you read the agreement when installing the beta software you will see that it says use at your own risk.

It's not their fault that no one reads the agreements.
 
I am amazed that so many complaints are listed here... This is beta software. Beta means a non-finalized, non-rigerously tested software. That is why Apple put the bug button in Safari to begin with (a stroke of genius on Apple's part; watch this feature pop up in other browsers quickly). Send ONE detailed bug report to Apple, maybe post it here as a caution to other users, and leave it at that... Give Apple time to sort it out and release an update...

(Sorry for ranting, I'm done now...)
 
well, i think apple may have stepped up like i said they would. in less than 48 hrs from your post, apple has released a new version of safari. while the new features don't say exactly what it includes, you can bet it wasn't to add tabbed browsing. :D

home folders everywhere can sleep easier i'm sure. :)
 
If Safari deletes everything in your home directory then it's a major problem. Really, Apple has implied that it's ready for you to use.

It's on the Apple homepage inviting you to download it and Steve Jobs stood up on stage and said "...it's a beta. A *strong* beta."

Really, I didn't get the impression that it was going to be so dangerous.
 
Hey, Apple has released other "final" software that was just as dangerous... remember the iTunes 3 installer fiasco? It was erasing people's partitions left and right. And my favorite, which affected me, was the hard disk driver that came with Mac OS 8, which erased my Performa's partitions. This isn't the first time Apple has released dangerously faulty software, and then quickly fixed it.

Microsoft has lots of security holes, Apple sometimes erases your hard disk every rare once in a while...

*shrugs* $%!# Happens, eh?

"There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who have lost data, and those who will."
~I forget who
 
From ATAT: (http://www.appleturns.com/)

"Whoops, looks like we may have spoken a smidge too soon when we said that Safari is all that and a bag of Baked Lays. True, it is a zippy little browser, and it's got a healthy dose of that Apple fit and finish we all know and love, but apparently there are a couple of bugs still crawling around under the hood. "Big deal," you say; "it's beta software, after all, and bugs come with the territory." Well, yeah, that's true-- but when a product hits the public beta stage, any "issues" still remaining are usually relatively small potatoes. We're going to go out on a limb and hazard a guess that very few of the 300,000 people who rushed to download what Steve Jobs called "a very solid beta" expected to have their home directories wiped clean just by option-clicking a link, as MacFixIt reports.

Then again, as long as it's the same very few who actually experienced the bug, there isn't a problem. MacFixIt has only two confirmed instances of an option-click download nuking a user's home directory, and since that breaks down to two in about 500,000 (or 0.0004%), yeah, we suppose that qualifies as "extremely rare." Still, any bug capable of sending your home directory-- including your entire iPhoto and iTunes libraries, everything on your Desktop, whatever else you've got stashed away in your Documents folders, etc.-- to the Great Data Beyond should rightfully give you a screaming case of the heebie-jeebies. Shades of the iTunes 2 installer which exterminated data with extreme prejudice, yeah?

...

The moral of the story, kiddies, is to remember that installing beta software should be undertaken with the same type of caution as befits the act of stuffing live wolverines down one's pants: there's always a possibility that you'll wind up losing it all. And heck, even if you shun pre-1.0 products as if they were lepers bearing vacation slides, you should still always keep your backups up to date, especially when installing new software; after all, that iTunes Installer of Doom wasn't beta, you know. Danger lurks around every corner! Run! RUN!!"

Gotta love ATAT. :)
 
I always find it funny when people complain about the first version of a software package. Because we put an emphasis on the speed of development over the stability of the product, early adopters always get burned.

That is the two edged sword of beta and first version software. You get to be one of the first people on your block to run the software, which is always good for braggig rights. The only problem is that beta software might just be buggy enough to eat your children. Which I am lead to believe is bad.

As soon as I heard about Safari I wanted to run it. But I was concerned about gotchas. So I think I might just hold off now for a spell because my PowerBook is creaking along as it is.
 
Originally posted by kendall
Why do people make excuses for Apple when several critical flaws have been found in their software, beta or not?

If this was Microsoft, you people would be tearing them apart.

Bottom line is, Apple has released beta software that it advertises on its mainpage for everyone to download. There is no risk implied by Apple for downloading Safari. At least none that I can easily find.

Anyway, I could go on but I just find the excuses and work arounds comical.
Click to expand...

i think the word BETA says it all:) (noone reads the agreement. thats why they call it BETA. it comes AFTER alpha. or is that too difficult for sum ppl 2 understand?)
 
All these excuses are really funny. It doesn't matter whether the app is a beta or not. Apple KNEW hundreds of thousands of people would be downloading Safari. Whatever the license agreement says, it is extremely BAD PR to distribute something that can erase your home directory by accident. Anyway, I hope this bug really was fixed in the update.
 
No matter how much you test something, there are going to be some problems in a BETA version. Apple did an incredible job keeping the browser under wraps until MWSF and it is good release. Apple responded very quickly to the bug reports and they new Beta V51 doesn't have this problem anymore. Anytime you are running a BETA you are assuming that something is probably not going to work right. If everything was perfect they wouldn't call it a BETA. Jeesh.

-Juxel
 
2 confirmed cases out of 500,000+ download is nothing. What is Apple suppose to place on the website? "There is a 0.0004% chance that this beta software may delete your data."? How ridiculous does that sound, and isn't something with that low of a probability for problem already implied with the software's beta status? I think a beta software with 0.0004% serious issue rate is indeed a strong beta.
 
and just why would they be expecting anybody to be option clicking anyway? just to see what happens?

and the bigger point is that apple did fix it right away. what more do you want? free imacs for everybody? :confused: :rolleyes:
 
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