Yup, it's working fine - thank goodness.

As someone who is switching to Mac for music work (Mac Pro, 2.6GHz quad core, 5GB RAM), what is this "Combo Update" and how is it done? Why is it safer than just going to the software update and checkmarking "OS X 10.5.0" and updating that way.

I'm going to be very nervous upgrading to Leopard. [:)] At least with Windows XP service packs, I know they've been solid and have caused zero issues for me. Being new to Mac, I'm a little apprehensive.

Sam, Leopard will be the equivalent of upgrading to Windows Vista. You don't have to worry about that; it's not even going to be available until this autumn.

***

About 10.4.9: since switching, I've had USB issues when first starting up, namely the mouse and keyboard aren't seen until I plug them directly into the Mac (instead of the monitor's built-in hub) and wait a little while. My guess is that the machine is having a hard time sorting out the individual IDs.

I wonder whether this is related to the Syncrosoft dongle issues?

If I weren't lazy I'd start up from a 10.4.5 backup and see whether this is only 10.4.9, but alas.

@Nick Batzdorf said:

Sam, Leopard will be the equivalent of upgrading to Windows Vista.

Well.. that sounds kinda scary. I've heard tons of Vista complaints and upgrade nightmares. So I'm not sure what you mean by this statement. [:)]

Edit: Nevermind, I remember now. OS X has an "archive and install" option where it backs up all your previous stuff into a folder, and installs the new OS, then you can copy whatever files you need from your old install. Very cool.

Question on that: say I'm on 10.4.9, using Logic Pro, other software, etc., and I do an archive/install of 10.5. Do I reinstall Logic Pro? Or can I copy it over from /Applications and copy its data from /System/Library/Logic(?)

And I'm not sure what you mean by what do you mean by this statement. [:)]

This is an OS that won't even be available for at least six months, so clearly there's not much point in worrying about it today. When it becomes available, you'll have plenty of time to research what is and isn't available and working in it before changing over - just as you do with Vista now. I haven't read reports of people flocking over in droves yet, by the way.

One thing about Macs is that you can start up from whatever drive or partition you want very easily (in the Startup Disk preference). So if you want to test the waters before jumping in, just install the new OS on a FireWire drive and see how it works.

Even before then, it's always a good idea to make a bit-for-bit disk image of your present startup drive in trouble-free condition onto an external one in case something goes wrong. That ensures you don't have to spend time troubleshooting. In the case of a new OS installation you can just go back to your previously working set-up - auths and all - if it doesn't work out.

Crossed posts.

The answer is no, you don't have to install anything over again (assuming the old v. of Logic is still compatible, which it probably is). To me the worst thing about Windows is that it wants to wipe your whole fricking drive when you just want to reinstall the OS.

I like my Windows slaves when they're working, but they drive me nuts when something goes wrong. The entire crew on VI-Control couldn't help me the last three times I got stuck, in fact either could the guys at VisionDAW.

Awesome, thanks for the response, Nick. Looking forward to going Mac [:)] I've had it with Windows. Not that Mac won't have issues, of course, but I expect far fewer.

I plan on using SuperDuper to make clones nightly (it handles incremental clones too, very cool). That will be my failsafe as well, in case anything goes wrong with the Leopard upgrade later this year.

SuperDuper is great for making incremental back-ups that you can boot from - I use it every day - but the clones it makes aren't bit-for-bit copies, i.e. they aren't guaranteed to restore your software auths.

So I keep two kinds of copies: everyday clones made with SuperDuper, and actual bit-for-bit image files made with Apple's Disk Utility (inside the Utilities folder).

@stevesong said:

I have had some issues since installing OS 10.4.9 - the one that affects Vienna Instruments software is a change in the amount of time it takes to open (initially) a a single empty instance of the VI plugin. Prior to installing 10.4.9 this took 1' 10" but afterwords, it took 6 minutes to accomplish this.

[[:|]]

Launching the VI standalone on my C2D MacBook/10.4.8 takes 22 seconds. If, then, you quit and relaunch VI, it will start again in 7 seconds.

Opening a single VI instance in Logic Pro 7.2.3 takes approx 4 seconds.

Coqui:

Stay with OS 10.4.8 - - no matter what I do (reinstalling the 10.4.9 update with the Combo installer, repairing permissions, running Apple's Disk Utility) load times remain variable under OS 10.4.9 - from 1 minute and 5 seconds to 6 minutes. The shortest times occur only immediately after the directory has been rebuilt by DiskWarrior. I should add that I have the enitre Cube + the Bösendorfer running on one G5 at the moment (not all at once, of course!) - so that loading times are longer than if there were fewer licenses. (My next computer - - in addition to rather than a replacement for the G5 - - will be from the next generation of MacPro desktops, whenever they become available.) Under OS 10.4.8, load times were consistently towards the short end of this spectrum.