I’m still getting feedback following my recent BackSpin columns that were critical of Apple’s iPhoto application.
Now while I would like to move on, there are a few points we need to clear up. First, to all of you who think that expecting Apple’s iPhoto to cope with 15,000 photos was way too optimistic, you should read Apple’s iPhoto Support Web site wherein it specifically states the software’s limit is 25,000 photos.
Thanks to reader Mark Robson for that information. Robson also mentioned that he runs a Dual CPU XServe G4 with 2GB of RAM under OS X Server 10.2 supporting 32 eMacs configured in a “managed client” setup. His problem? “There was such a memory leak in the AFP daemon that it would cause the server kernel to panic and reboot daily.”
He never found a solution.
“We were forced to completely disconnect the ‘managed’ configuration [after] four to five weeks of trying everything we could think to stabilize the situation and [finally] we set up each eMac as a stand-alone workstation. It’s been like that ever since.”
Robson concluded: “My experience leaves me to agree with your pronouncement of shoddy workmanship.”
But let’s also note that Apple is way beyond other vendors in some areas. Reader Rusty Carruth wrote, “a job ago I had a PowerBook…running a version of [Mac OS] below X. One day, something went horribly wrong and the system said I needed to reinstall the operating system. Horrors, I thought! All this set-up work I’ve got to redo! So I spent some time trying to work around it, finally gave up and did the reinstall.”
At this point most of us would expect the worst but Carruth got a surprise. “I was completely amazed — it did a reinstall and kept all my settings, somehow removing whatever had blown the system up! I had no more problems either. So, while some things are apparently not perfect, I must say that I was extremely impressed with how well it fixed itself in my case.”
Which, leads to my second point: I am not pro-Microsoft or anti-Apple. I am an equal-opportunity critic. Anyway, Microsoft and Apple aren’t the only companies that need to be criticized. As reader Bob Havey said: “After we get through swearing at Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee, Intuit, HP, Act, et al., we get to Linux — which is another whole can of worms. And don’t get me started on Oracle….One would think that after 20 years we would have software that has been designed according to software engineering principles, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
We simply aren’t criti
