|
October 27, 2007
Leopard!
It's been a while we have posted something on this blog. I plan on changing this over next few weeks. ;) For now, we'd like to shed some light on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility, install issues, and life, universe and everything. First and foremost, we are actively working on the Leopard compatibility for all our haxies (Application Enhancer being the #1 there, as most of our and lots of third party products depend on that). We have a build internally that works with Mac OS X 10.5... so it's a matter of days for the compatibility update. I'd like to note that the problems some people were experiencing while doing the Mac OS X upgrade and being unable to boot due to Application Enhancer installed may have been caused by the "old" versions of Application Enhancer not properly recognizing the system version. The latest 2.0.3, released on 13 March, is properly detecting the upgrade and refuses to load so you should not have any issues with installing Leopard over it. For this reason, we recommend you upgrading to 2.0.3 before upgrading your Mac OS X. It will properly detect the system version and deactivate itself. Meanwhile, we are hard at work at making our products compatible. What has taken us so long? Well, the main reason is that some crucial parts of the system that Application Enhancer depend on were severly broken until... (drum roll) the GM build! So we had to wait until we get it (and unfortunately, ADC account owners only got it yesterday, after it went retail). So now when everything is in place (barring my ISP doing "scheduled maintenance" twice during my attempts to download 6.6 Gb from Apple servers), we are actively working on the updates. All of them will of course be free updates (unless we add some significant new features, which is not the priority at the moment). The only exception to this rule would of course be ShapeShifter. It requires substantional amounts of re-coding to be done, as the UI system was changed drastically. However, we will be back with a separate post on ShapeShifter state in the coming days. For the products I lead on, the order will be as follows: Application Enhancer 2.5, then WindowShade X, FruitMenu, Xounds followed by the freeware haxies. Stay tuned, and please accept our sincere apologies for all the trouble that was caused. We have underestimated the number of people running "outdated" versions of our software. Of course, that's not an excuse... and thanks!   Posted by slava at October 27, 2007 11:45 PMTrackback Pings: TrackBack URL for this entry: Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Leopard!: Leopard インストール！ - その前に from 侍ズム Tracked on October 28, 2007 1:58 AM Custom MAMP on Mac OS 10.5 Leopard from deekayen.net Tracked on November 24, 2007 6:40 AM Related:
Comments
Thanks. I especially want to see Menu Master back again, since the OS built in way of assigning menu shortcuts doesn't work on some important menus, like Send in Mail for some reason -- I can assign a shortcut but it will fail 50% of the time in actual use. Incidentally, I for one am not against paying an upgrade fee since you guys have to work so hard to keep your tools compatible, and I'm sure most users would agree. Just my two cents. Posted by: Peter Payne on October 28, 2007 1:11 AMOops, I don't see Menu Master in the list above there. Please make sure you give it proper attention, as well as Labels X (since those color bubbles are just horrible). Posted by: Peter Payne on October 28, 2007 1:22 AMI have thought for this sometime. I invite you guys to sue the Anti-APE camp, at least the most popular one for spreading false information about a commercial product resulting loss of business. Stop being nice and polite hackers. Sue them for $1 and let this horrible FUD end. I am afraid the Input Manager trojan is also somehow connected to this anti-APE camp. In fact I have fairly nice idea about who their connections may be. They already show themselves publically partying about the FUD about APE made it way to Leopard. You will somehow ship Leopard version of APE and this very same camp who even dares to code a trojan horse to prove their point and DICTATE Apple Inc. what to put to their OS will start again. Be pro-active and sue them really. I am horrified about such degree of attack to any commercial or free software. If anyone did like 1% of this to Adobe Systems, they would lose down to their pants. Playing around with false information and even developing a trojan horse to prove their point shouldn't be that easy. I shouln't be running VirusBarrier because their junk may exist some random place on web. Slava, think about this and keep coding to set us free of the only fascistic, single GUI on the planet.
For the products I lead on, the order will be as follows: Application Enhancer 2.5, >>>>
Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!!
Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!!
Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!! Menu Master!!!
This is the second time a major OS upgrade has been fucked by Unsanity. You lose, guys. Posted by: on October 28, 2007 9:04 AMPeople always want to find something to gripe about, kind of pathetic really. The moral of this story is simply that if you have a heavily modified operating system and are planning on installing a major OS upgrade, uninstall the modifications or at the very least make sure the modifications are the most up to date version. If you get screwed by a compatibility issue Leopard has with a piece of software that was coded when Panther was still the current OS, you have no one else to blame but yourself really... New OS upgrade time is a perfect opportunity to Archive & Install and clean out some of the gunk in your system anyway. Posted by: DMSMac on October 28, 2007 9:48 AMI find it hard to believe that the authors couldn't have been coding/tweaking all along, as the pre-release builds were provided to them, leaving them now, post-release, with just a few tweaks to do. It really sounds as though they're starting from the ground up with ShapeShifter *now*. Did the Leopard UI change that that "drastically" between the most recent pre-release build and the GR build? Something's terribly wrong here in the Apple software world. Either Unsanity didn't work, code, and keep up with things all through the release cycle, or Apple's suddenly dumping lots of new, un-tested code, into the final build. While Apple *could* have done that, it sounds pretty unlikely, and scary at the same time. Posted by: Mark on October 28, 2007 9:52 AM"Sincere apologies"? Perhaps it's time your colleague Rosyna did some apologizing too, for denying all over the forums that the problems could possibly have anything to do with your software. Turns out she was wrong, huh? Mark -- do you really expect Unsanity to spend time working and coding to find out the final release changes and breaks everything they did? The builds of Leopard changed radically throughout the development, and Unsanity is smart enough to know that anything they did could (and would likely) change. This is proven by the GM of Leopard. Apple never even seeded this build to developers, and it included changes that caused a bunch of apps that were supposedly working perfectly with the last build that was seeded. Glad to hear it - I've been using Unsanity products for ever. Hope the new Xounds will allow the empty trash to actually work with custom sounds. The developer has traditionally has a huge (18 months in one case) time lag in implementing the fix and the latest version has been broken for several months. However, lets get the show on the road and worry about that later as Unsanity is the onoy thing holding up my upgrade to Leopard. Posted by: Desmond Foulger on October 28, 2007 12:26 PMThanks slava for keeping us in the loop. Much appreciated. I fully agree with your order of preference, Application Enhancer and WindowShade are such important tools that they should come first. Of course, I totally love ShapeShifter (and ClearDock), but I'm also sure for a lot of people, WindowShade is essential. It is for me! BTW, similar to what a previous poster said, I wouldn't mind paying for an upgrade, if this speeds things up. Posted by: Ivo on October 28, 2007 12:56 PMThanks for the update. I was beginning to think you had all given up since there hadn't been any posts from you on your blog recently. I am glad you made the most recent version of application enhancer able to turn itself off. It made the upgrade to 10.5 painless. Looking forward to all my favorite haxies working again. Posted by: George Bridges on October 28, 2007 1:25 PMThe problem is... Unsanity products are installed on a lot of users' systems without them even knowing about as part of Logitech Control Center. I for one never new I had Application Enhancer installed on my system until someone point out the fact that it was installed alongside Logitech Control Center!! Glad I didn't upgrade to Leopard before learning about this.. Posted by: Michael on October 28, 2007 1:32 PMYou guys really should build in a feature so that haxies can disable themselves on an untried build of the OS (user overridable as well so people can test the haxie for the author). Maintain a plist with an array of OS builds that the haxie is known to work with; the haxie automatically enables itself. Probably hook into iusethis.com since the authors can't test the builds themselves. Posted by: Josh on October 28, 2007 1:56 PMThis is good to hear. I can't wait until APE and FruitMenu are back. What's the word on Menu Extra Enabler? I still hate how Apple locks out third party menu Extras. Posted by: Matt on October 28, 2007 2:02 PMI also have Logitech Control Center APE module installed and have been using it throughout 10.4.x. I performed a test install of Leopard on a Firewire drive and migrated everything from my internal Tiger drive. It works perfectly. All of the special mouse buttons still do what they did previously. I decided to install Leopard to my main partition and I've been enjoying it a lot. Why was I lucky? I'm not exactly sure... I'm rather appalled by Ilgaz naive rant. Face the truth: unsanity and mail/safari hacks all exploit a legitimate feature -- Input Managers which were intended, as the name implies, for providing different methods of user input. Does that sound like what the haxies are doing? Let's see how the author of SIMBL describes his app for Input Managers: Input Managers are a serious security risk since nefarious code can be injected into ALL apps. They could be used to create keystroke loggers, capture passwords and relay them back to a remote site, trojans that wait for an app to acquire root privileges at which point it has ABSOLUTE control over your machine, etc. Now one can see why Apple was originally planning to eliminate Input Managers in 10.5. Input Managers represent a massive chink in the armor of OS X's security. I'm sad they were re-enabled just prior to release, since it's only a matter of time until they are heavily abused by malware.
I have thought for this sometime. I invite you guys to sue the Anti-APE camp, at least the most popular one for spreading false information about a commercial product resulting loss of business. Wow, there's a whole lot of nuts in this bowl. Put down the huffing bag, and step away from the keyboard, man. Posted by: Harvard Irving on October 28, 2007 3:18 PMFrankly, I think Apple should refund your ADC membership, and ban you from WWDC and all Apple developer programs. Your product destabilizes the platform, and has just caused enormous damage to Apple's reputation, since most of the people seeing the BSOD have no idea that it was caused by you and Logitech. Why don't you go and write windows apps? The people in that market have never expected stability in the first place, so they wouldn't be disappointed. -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on October 28, 2007 4:00 PM"I invite you guys to sue the Anti-APE camp, at least the most popular one for spreading false information about a commercial product resulting loss of business." Ilgaz, you ignorant prat. Does the phrase "truth is a complete defense" mean anything to you? If not, ask a lawyer to explain it to you. If Unsanity wants to sue me, you'd better be prepared to meet all of my legal costs and the award I'd win on the cross-complaint. Try it, and I might very well end up owning all the assets of your LLC. -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on October 28, 2007 4:21 PMMan some of you guys are harsh. No one is forcing you to use APE in any way shape or form. Personally I love FruitMenu, I don't think I could live without it now. I am aware that haxies greatly depend on the internals of the operating system so I've been checking on the compatibility page the last couple days to see if theres been any movement. I appreciate the notification of the plans for APE, WSX, FM and so on. Personally I'd like to see FruitMenu before WindowShade X, but thats just me. Again thanks for the heads up and look forward to updates for APE and FruitMenu. Posted by: Geoff on October 28, 2007 4:35 PMI don't see the apology that you owe Apple. You claimed on ComputerWorld that there was no way that your product could cause problems and it was all Apple's fault. I certainly don't have any problem with your software being incomatible with an OS that was not out when you released your software. But I DO have a problem with you claiming that Apple was at fault when it was actually your problem. Posted by: Joe Ragosta on October 28, 2007 4:39 PMI don't see the apology that you owe Apple. You claimed on ComputerWorld that there was no way that your product could cause problems and it was all Apple's fault. I certainly don't have any problem with your software being incomatible with an OS that was not out when you released your software. But I DO have a problem with you claiming that Apple was at fault when it was actually your problem. Posted by: Joe Ragosta on October 28, 2007 4:41 PM"No one is forcing you to use APE in any way shape or form." That depends on whether you consider fraud to be a kind of force. Logitech made no mention of their malware installation when I ran their installer. If they'd said that they used APE, I would have stopped right there and returned the product. Voluntarily installing a hack to do tricks like windowshade are one thing, but slipping me malware disguised as a mouse driver and prefs pane is something else altogether. I'm astounded that a company like Logitech could be so irresponsible. Apple DTS has made it crystal clear *all along* that APE is an unsupported hack, and I personally warned Unsanity and others that it would probably break with future software updates. Now we have a chorus of wintrolls saying "ha ha, Apple sucks", and most of the users affected by this bug have no idea that it's Unsanity and Logitech's fault. Make no mistake, I am furious about this. This is the first malware of any kind that I've had on any machine I own since I switched to NeXTSTEP in 1989. -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on October 28, 2007 4:43 PM"Unless you're a programmer ... shouldn't make suppositions that imply that Unsanity is lazy or inexperienced. " I am a programmer, and I have been on both sides of that relationship, as an Apple employee in developer relations, and now as an outside developer with products that involve code from the kernel to the GUI. I don't claim that Unsanity are either lazy or inexperienced. I do say that they are IRRESPONSIBLE. They knew exactly what they were doing; that they shouldn't do it; and what the consequences could be at the next software update. Now, if they want to sell a product that destabilizes the OS to customers who are fully informed, that's fine and dandy: anyone who likes windowshades can run it at their own risk. It's when this hack gets snuck into apps like the Logitech Control Center without any mention to the customers that I say they're out of line. -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on October 28, 2007 4:52 PMFacts: So unless your running software that is over a year and a half old, you don't see the blue screen Leopard launch. If you can't be bothered to update your software, ESPECIALLY as your updating your operating system, to ensure that your running on the latest version, then to some degree IMHO, you deserve to have random failures. If Logitech had implemented their mouse driver as a KEXT instead of an APE and had a Leopard compatibility issue, but only if you were running the software version that was over a year old, then would they be getting raked over the coals like this? I doubt it. Fact is, software incompatibilities happen, and this one was just as preventable as so many others. But Unsanity can't be held liable for people that refused to install the most up to date software that they could get. Posted by: Cocoatroll on October 28, 2007 6:12 PMAs stated in the updated computerworld article, the commands everyone has listed don't work and may lead to unexpected data loss due to typos. (always check your input when you are running rm -rf as root). Luckily, a lot of people have forgotten to mount their hard drive as read/write and the destructive commands do not do anything as they lack write privs. You can actually see this in the forum from people that complain the commands give a privs error when deleting the plist. This is because their HD is mounted read only and the plist is the only one that actually exists. Apple's kbase article also had one of these typos. Do not run the rm -rf commands listed. Josh, this is what APE does. Daryn, what do InputManagers have to do with APE? Posted by: Rosyna on October 28, 2007 6:18 PMAPE exploits Input Managers to do its code injection into all apps. Posted by: Daryn on October 28, 2007 6:24 PMDaryn, hmm? Uhm, APE has nothing to do with InputManagers. At all. They are unrelated. Completely unrelated. Posted by: Rosyna on October 28, 2007 6:26 PMAny reason why JCR's comments are being deleted/censored? I find his posts more accurate than most here. Posted by: Daryn on October 28, 2007 6:29 PMI use most of Unsanity's haxies, and I miss them in Leopard. Having said that, perhaps Unsanity could have sent you a mass email saying that they weren't sure that APE and the rest would work reliably with 10.5 and had not been tested yet, and ask that all users disable all Unsanity hazies until testing was complete. I don't think that would have been that difficult, and then the onus of problems due to old versions of APE causing installation headache would have fallen on the enduser, not on Unsanity. Just my two cents. Posted by: Ishan Bhattacharya on October 28, 2007 6:32 PMSorry for the typos. I use most of Unsanity's haxies, and I miss them in Leopard. Having said that, perhaps Unsanity could have sent out a mass email saying that they weren't sure that APE and the rest would work reliably with 10.5, had not been tested yet, and ask that all users disable all Unsanity haxies until internal testing was complete. I don't think that would have been that difficult, and then the onus of problems due to old versions of APE causing installation headaches would have fallen on the enduser, not on Unsanity. Just my two cents...again. Posted by: Ishan Bhattacharya on October 28, 2007 6:37 PMFirst off I'd like to say "Welcome Back!". I was getting a little worried about the lack of posts. Secondly, I am amazed at the level of vitriol posted here. Some people really need to get a hobby. BTW - Whining on blogs is NOT a hobby! Calling APE "malware" goes way too far. I use a number of Unsanity products on about 50 systems and have NEVER had APE cause ONE crash. The complaints about Apple not giving developers are totally valid. I am a developer as well and it's impossible to guarantee a product will work on release day when we don't have the GM. Hell, we didn't have anything close to GM. I get the impression that people think that the developer builds all work 100% and the only thing that changes are the graphics and the UI. That's not true. Sometimes entire chunks of the API don't work. The seed notes say so. If a product relies on those API's then there is no way it could be tested or function properly. This is far from a new complaint. I remember writing something similar when Panther came out. The Tiger seeds were much more frequent and the last seed was much closer to GM (if memory serves). This is still no excuse. Apple froze 10.5 at least two weeks ago. They certainly could have posted it for developers that pay a lot of money to get access to these seeds. For people complaining about APE not disabling itself for new OS versions, well, it does!!! And has since March. Didn't you read Slava's response? If you don't like the Unsanity products don't use them. Simple enough. If you think that the way APE is implemented is bad the alternative is worse. The only other way to load into every program is a kernel extension. A mistake in a kernel extension really can bring down the entire system. Posted by: Bryan Schappel on October 28, 2007 6:56 PMCocoatroll said: "But Unsanity can't be held liable for people that refused to install the most up to date software that they could get." Well, you may be the killer sysadmin, but some of us don't have time to check every application - especially us casual users who either had it installed for us or tried it out a while ago. Yes, even 2 years ago. I don't want to hold them liable, but how about they post a suggestion as to how to disable so Leopard can be successfully installed? Apple discussions has a thread, but it doesn't seem to be working for everyone (like me). Posted by: Bob on October 28, 2007 7:43 PMBob, we did post a suggestion, in multiple places and forums and we sent it to our email list, "Upgrade to APE 2.0.3". Posted by: Rosyna on October 28, 2007 7:46 PMI'll vouch for that. I got that email Saturday, 10/27/07 at 6:38 pm. I never upgrade an OS until .1 or later is released, so it's plenty warning for me (I already had 2.0.3 installed anyway) Posted by: Rick A on October 28, 2007 8:15 PMOne of many similar comments on Leopard compatibility that I am reading: "Due to reports on developer preview releases of Mac OS X Leopard in Internet forums, Apple has denied access to the final version of 10.5 to all software developers. Even companies which paid Apple thousands of dollars for the right to get advance information before the official release date did not receive any data about the final version of Leopard before October 26, 2007 16:00 UTC. The final version is known to be different from the preview versions. For this reason, reputable vendors have been forced to wait for the official release of Mac OS X 10.5, testing their software products against this version after October 26th. To publish software "blindly" for an unknown operating system does not match our quality standards and will therefore not be possible. Only this way we can deliver the level of quality you expect from us." --Marcel Bresink, makers of Tinker Tool Don't you anti Apers think that Unsanity wants to be on top of things? Of course they do. I received their email, paid attention and all is well, except that I miss my haxies right now. With all the trouble in our world and country, you guys are talking about lawsuits over version incompatibility? Get a grip! Write your own haxies. Unsanity, you guys are awesome. Many thanks and looking forward. Posted by: Terrapin on October 28, 2007 8:40 PMFor what it's worth, you've got my support, Unsanity. When this is all over, help yourselves to some hot cocoa and a seat by a crackling fireplace. Or something. Posted by: Rezmason on October 28, 2007 10:53 PMIf Windowshade is going to be a free update, could you please at least add the donation sheet again for when you first install it (like it was with the last major update). I'd love the opportunity to keep supporting WS! Posted by: Joshua on October 28, 2007 11:28 PM"Upgrade to APE 2.0.3" Sorry, not good enough. Unless you enjoy an unstable computer, remove APE and all software products that depend on it. APE remains an UNSUPPORTED hack. Even if you tweak it to work with 9A581, if it breaks with the next software update from Apple, it will still be YOUR fault. God damn it, I told you this kind of thing could happen. -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on October 28, 2007 11:55 PMThing to do is, ignore all the FUD which may be resulting from it and implement a perfectly open, plain text "auto check for updates" mechanism inside APE Framework. APE needs it much more than the trivial junk coded by so called ex-NeXT developers. They are posting FUD anyway, no worries if some lifeless Unix nerds who couldn't find a job or product at Appleland uses auto update as a new excuse to hit Unsanity. It should be plain text secured via ordinary https. Posted by: Ilgaz on October 29, 2007 3:38 AMDaryn you forgot (!) something which SIMBL developer or any sane developer (including Unsanity) says... It is a SHAME to do such hack just to get that basic functionality on any OS or Application. Safari has no plugin architecture, OS X has no themes architecture. I kinda know who you people are, I have been into your private forums cheering for every kind of security issue Mac users live calling them "Beige box idiots" or "gays", I have seen posts mentioning next day MOAB shipment and you know what? I am one step behind sharing the information with authories. I have already shared the information leaked with Apple security team almost live. I know your issue with APE or anything, it is this: What is your utility download numbers if it exists?
As a final side note, one of the very critical disk utilities which is run in professional environments lived horrible lag on Leopard inviting Macfixit like FUD mongering sites whining about possible compatibility problems. The utility is written on Cocoa framework using the system built in Frameworks including Quicktime, it uses standard Unix tools coming with OS to write blocks to the disk. It is so stable coded that it doesn't need update until next major version of OS ships. Apple had 7 months to test the software which is not "Theme" or "Hack", instead it is a very critical software which is in use in every professional environment you can imagine. Thank God the software doesn't have any actual issue, it is cosmetically waiting 2-3 mins before it inits. Which OS vendor, including the chaotic Linux scene these days does not test a new OS with the most critical disk utilities warning developer about possible issues? MS could ship Vista months earlier if they didn't test it with the popular windows software and work with the application developers to fix possible issues. It is easier to hit small Texas software vendors or small shareware vendors rather than Apple of course. How many of these anti-APE developers are looking forward to get contracted by Apple? Posted by: Ilgaz on October 29, 2007 4:49 AMRunning a MacBook Pro, new in June. Leopard provided blue screen of death. Unsanity is not the problem. Posted by: Dan on October 29, 2007 8:45 AMHonestly, as both a developer and user, I find this kind of internecine backbiting very disheartening. The APE guys have been attacked for so long, and lumped into the same camp as the SIMBL/InputManagers guys that Slava and Rosyna do a "gasp!" "don't mention InputManagers to us!" thing in a kind of knee-jerk dance every time the topic comes up. I can understand the chip on their shoulders--they're outlaws, after all, unsupported (thwarted?) by Apple and frowned upon by "official" Mac bloggers, who seem to feel they are the only legitimate Apple evangelists out there. Those guys have never blessed APE, so APE is bad. Bull****. Their ire is equally great at InputManagers and SIMBL. Those who are actually coders will also rant about the dangers of code-posing and method swizzling. Can APEs, InputManagers, and other "outlaw" enhancements to Mac OS X be used for malware? APE is probably the most secure of the bunch, since all third-party APEs must adhere to Unsanity's carefully developed API, and they plug in to the APE framework. One of the best things about that framework from a user perspective is the ease with which you can turn the whole bunch off when trying to identify a system problem. Equally great is how easy it is to disable an APE in a given application. And this functioinality comes with the framework... it's not something an APE developer need worry about. InputManagers are definitely rogue fellows. They adhere to a loose, old Apple API that was intended more for uses like TextExtras than Inquisitor. However, what they provide--and the reason why I as a user love them--is some serious, across-the-board enhancements to my Cocoa applications that I'm not getting from Apple. By the way, SIMBL is an API that attempts to bring some order to InputManagers by providing a common framework and unifying some commonly used methods. However, to both users and "gasp! SIMBL!" writers it can appear mostly confusing. (Is it an InputManager, or not?) The guy who developed SIMBL had a great idea, and initially there was some good adoption of SIMBL. But it probably needed continued development and more support to become the "APE" of InputManager-dom. In that sense, they arise from the same impulse that drives Unsanity's haxies... and it's why the two types of "system add-ons" are lumped together. The guys who develop InputManagers (or SIMBL plugins) are trying to provide system-level functionality that will work in all applications. There is no other way to do this than through APE or InputManager that I know of. Well... you could go below APE and use "mach inject", which is what APE does below the surface. That is, it injects code at the mach level, whereas InputManagers inject code at the Cocoa level. One of the biggest differences, functionally, between the two methods is that InputManagers have no effect on Carbon-based apps like Finder, iTunes, or Photoshop, because only Cocoa apps are able to load them. One thing I find amusing about the whole anti-InputManager crowd (including Unsanity) is that there's a lot of similarity between InputManagers and two other system-level add-ons that you don't hear folks worrying about from a security perspective: Contextual Menu Items, and PreferencePanes. Actually, what I said earlier about there being no way other than InputManagers or APE to add system-level functionality to applications on OS X was incorrect. Both Contextual Menu Items and PreferencePanes share with InputManagers the fundamental Cocoa building block known as NSBundle. These are all bits of code that get loaded into the Cocoa framework in order to do things. The main differences are that
With respect to security, Apple has indeed made InputManagers more secure this time around, but I think they can and should go further... without destroying the positive virtues of InputManagers and other system enhancements. In Leopard, InputManagers must be installed at the system level folder, with strict permissions that only allow write access by the root user. This alone helps ensure that none gets installed without the user's permission. One thing that never gets said in these discussions, however, is that if a malware writer wanted to wreak havoc among helpless Mac users, it would be a simple matter to write a badly formed Cocoa application, put up a pretty website, and invite users to try it out. The app could do all sorts of nasty things before the bad code consumed all your memory and crashed the system. On rebooting, you don't necessarily restart the app, but it's installed a daemon process that runs automatically, again leading to a system meltdown in 10-15 minutes. This is purely hypothetical, but very feasible. Ultimately, your system security depends on the user applying some common sense and on the developer community having rational, realistic discussions with Apple about some of the risk factors. No one wants to destroy the creativity that drives people to the Apple platform--developers as well as users. Make the platform too locked up, and it won't be any fun to develop on. But make it too thin, and it's dangerous for everyone. Both APEs and InputManagers/ContextualMenuItems/PreferencePanes have their place at this table, and I for one hope the backbiting stops. No, APEs aren't InputManagers. We get that. But their purposes have a lot in common, and the purposes of both are good. If I were to propose an improvement for InputManagers to Apple, I'd suggest they add features to the System Preferences API. I think it would be a big improvement if InputManagers could be turned on and off in a System Preference pane, which gets installed with much user visibility. I'd support taking away the InputManagers folder if as a developer I could provide the same functionality through a System preference pane. The key difference, as I understand it, is that as an InputManager, I get to load into every application that passes by, actually becoming part of them. It's understandable that some developers would find that notion a bit quease-producing... if you're prone to anthropomorphizing your apps anyway. So why bother defending the evil InputManager? Here's a list of 'em I couldn't live without... nearly all of them are free, by the way:
Those are the ones I currently have active. Others (including ones in the SIMBL family) that I've used in the past and enjoy are:
And those are just some of the ones I know about. There... now I've written my next blog entry. :-) October 28, 2007 12:23 PM Poster: First, thanks for your civil reply to my post. You said: > Mark -- do you really expect Unsanity to spend time working I would have expected them to be working and coding all through the release cycle, so that they'd be as close as possible to at least a public beta when Leopard hit GR. They may have done so, but based on the way their original post was written, it didn't appear to me that they did. > The builds of Leopard changed radically throughout the' Yes, I would expect plenty of changes through all the pre-release builds, and as frustrating as it is, yes, I owuld have expected them to code for each, so that again, they'd be that much closer when GR hit. > This is proven by the GM of Leopard. Apple never even I was not aware of that, and appreciate the insight. I assumed incorrectly that the last build that Apple would have given to developers would have been essentially the GR release, for one final review. It makes absolutely no sense that Apple would "drop a bomb" on developers at the last minute. So, based on your explanation/info, I can understand them *wanting* to wait, but I think it would have been best to accept the frustration and re-work the code for each release. I certainly didn't mean to imply they were lazy, but it did seem to me that they weren't as proactive as they could have been. Again, just my opinion, based on how I read their original status post. Mark Posted by: on October 29, 2007 12:12 PMLeland Creammonkey is now GreaseKit ;) Both Mike Solomon (SIMBL), and the entire Unsanity crew have been nothing but generous and responsive to me...I respectfully extend my utmost gratitude, and admiration, to all of them. Posted by: CREB/F451 on October 29, 2007 12:15 PMIf you screw around with system files you get what you deserve. Posted by: John on October 29, 2007 2:28 PMGlad the updates are coming soon. Miss WindowShade especially. I didn't know the anti-APE crowd was so vocal. I've just been happily, though not naively, using this stuff for years without issue. Silly me. Posted by: Jason Fox on October 29, 2007 6:08 PMOk, I'm confused. If I have the latest version of application enhancer (and I can't tell what version I have) I can install leopard with no problem? Or would I be better off uninstalling application enhancer? Posted by: dan on October 29, 2007 6:55 PMI can confirm that I had a current copy of APE (installed directly from the website less than a month ago) and I too saw the blue screen issue. I'm not bitching, just wanted to pass on the info for testing purposes. I've used ClearDock for quite some time and like Jason Fox above, I knew exactly what I was getting into. Archive and Install = All Better. No real harm done. "If you screw around with system files you get what you deserve." This statement (and it's many variation expressed above) doesn't make you smart. It makes you an asshole. Please go away. Posted by: Grover on October 29, 2007 8:04 PMI had a current copy of APE and I too saw the blue screen issue. Which means your issue was one of the many issues unrelated to APE. You can view some of these in the Apple discussion thread. look for those that say "I never had APE installed" or "The commands didn't work for me" or "Removing APE did not prevent the problem". Posted by: Rosyna on October 29, 2007 8:10 PMPlease ignore the asshats who troll here after every OS update, blaming APE for everything bad. Apple's FileVault was cause for much more serious problems than APE could ever be. Posted by: Warren on October 29, 2007 9:07 PMOut of curiosity, what proportion of users who install haxies used Macs before switching to OS X? Posted by: curious on October 30, 2007 12:05 AM"If you screw around with system files you get what you deserve." APE and SIMBL exists for the single reason: NOT TO MESS WITH SYSTEM FILES. Slava/Rosyna level of Developers or Solomon can do things 50x faster and easier via overwriting system files. They choose the harder and safer way and users generously use them. Trolls who produced nothing popular, successful get jealous of course. Now go back to your OS X Trojan writing theories. Next time I see a single mention of Input Manager black hat junk, I am not contacting Apple or anyone else, I am forwarding it to FBI. I shouldn't be running Virusbarrier on a HD Video Workstation. Personal firewall developers shouldn't write thousands of lines just to set their app free of lame code injection tactics, Unsanity shouldn't waste time trying to stop your gang like FUD on various sites.
Ilgaz, Get back on your medication. Seriously. -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on October 30, 2007 1:36 AMWell, I don't know how you do it slava, but every single problem about flaky stability in Mac OS X always has APE involved. Coincidence? Not at all, I'm not drinking your Kool-aid anymore dude. Posted by: lynxman on October 30, 2007 7:37 AMGreat news! I'm looking forward to having WindowShade again. :-) Thanks for all your efforts. Of course, it is regrettable that an old, obsolete version of APE caused some people a great deal of trouble. I wished it had never happened. But people need to realise that with some of Unsanity's products, they are installing serious System extensions, which require a compatible OS to work properly. This is really not a mystery. Un-installing incompatible software before upgrading the OS is only common sense - right? More of a concern is that Logitech doesn't inform their customers of the installation of APE as part of their CC, which apparently caught a lot of people by surprise. That's bad business practice. Anyway, I am looking forward to updated versions of WindowShade, ShapeShifter and ClearDock. I wouldn't want to be without any of them, they are essential to the way I work. Best regards. Posted by: Ivo on October 30, 2007 12:48 PMAnything that works through PrefPanes is clearly interfacing with the system more than an everyday application, so I know there are risks. That's my choice. If I am spending money on a new version of the system, I'll take care to ensure that the system is as standard as possible - I can reinstall the add-ons later. All I know is that ever since there were Macs, there have been people doing things with the System (why on earth did Apple create ResEdit). And I cannot operate the way I want without FruitMenu, Silk and WindowShade. Posted by: Geoff on October 30, 2007 1:39 PMAnything that works through PrefPanes is clearly interfacing with the system more than an everyday application, so I know there are risks. That's my choice. If I am spending money on a new version of the system, I'll take care to ensure that the system is as standard as possible - I can reinstall the add-ons later. All I know is that ever since there were Macs, there have been people doing things with the System (why on earth did Apple create ResEdit). And I cannot operate the way I want without FruitMenu, Silk and WindowShade. And I've never had flaky stability with any system as a result of APE. Posted by: Geoff on October 30, 2007 1:41 PMI just opened an old Logitech installer, 2.2.2. It clearly states in the ReadMe file from within the installer that APE will be installed. So, Logitech did inform their customers, and I need to retract my earlier statement. Posted by: Ivo on October 30, 2007 2:16 PMThanks for the update, looking forward to leopard and shapeshifter! To everyone hating on the ol' ape. ... There is no one with a gun to your head making you use it, so calm down. A little headache once in a while is perfectly fine with me for all the aesthetic beauty of silk and shapeshifter and the great options all unsanity's products provide. Posted by: Chris on October 30, 2007 3:30 PMI did a clean install of leopard on my intel imac. I down loaded the recomendend software for my mouse. Logitech. I have the blue screen, and I get it when I try to boot from the leopard disk. So, I am stuck. Cannot boot from my drive or the install disk. I've booted into single user mode and deleted logitechs ape files, but my system is still hosed. I am at a loss. Installed leopard 3 days ago and it worked fine till now. Posted by: Rob on October 30, 2007 8:13 PMRob, thanks for posting an example of a 10.5 problem unrelated to APE. Posted by: Rosyna on October 30, 2007 8:44 PMOddly enough, I accidentally installed Leopard on one of my other internal drives (so it was a completely fresh install) and I got the dreaded BSOD. Nothing was working. Then, I installed on the correct drive (my system drive that was running Tiger and probably too many haxies for my own good) and it went off without a hitch. Odd business. And to think Apple's technote says the only solution is to "rm" all your stuff. Ridiculous. Posted by: Rev. Mitcz on October 30, 2007 10:57 PMI can't understand what most posts are doing here, since they clearly are unrelated to Leopard/Haxial. I've been using Unsanity stuff since it became Unsanity and I must say that the apps I have neen using have been good to me. First, of course, Windowshade. Then FruitMenu, then LabelsX. As for how Apple's relation to developers is, I can't speak, but it *is* kind of telling that neither Filemaker, nor Adobe has managed to release solid ports before or right after the 10.5 release. If two of the major software publishers for the mac has problems, how can you honestly expect Unsanity to release on-time new versions? At any rate, I may for the first time consider using Shapeshifter (once it's out), if only to get rid of the translucent menu bar. Right now it's mint green, and even though Mint was a nice little app, I dislike the colour on a menu bar... Posted by: MGlory on October 31, 2007 9:00 AM> Rob, thanks for posting an example of a 10.5 problem unrelated to APE. How do you figure? His problems started when he installed Logitech's drivers, which, surprisingly enough, use APE. Posted by: CharlesS on October 31, 2007 10:12 AMCharlesS, because they did not disappear when he removed APE. Nor can he boot from the install disc. And I'm pretty sure APE has never been installed on his install disc... Posted by: Rosyna on October 31, 2007 10:15 AMWell, it seems somewhat unlikely to me considering that 1. the problem started when he installed APE, and 2. the problem is *exactly* the same problem that a billion people have been reporting as a result of installing APE. What I find much more likely is: 1. He has not removed APE properly. Given that a command-line solution on a popular site is broken (non-escaped spaces in the path), it's not too hard to figure out how this would happen. 2. He is continuing to boot from the hard drive even though he thinks he's booting from the install disc. There are several cases I've seen which can cause the system to boot from the hard drive even if you're holding down the "C" key. Rob should try holding down the Option key at startup instead to get the boot loader screen and be certain that he actually *is* booting from the install disc. Posted by: CharlesS on October 31, 2007 10:36 AMCharlesS, or the far more likely reason, he has a bad hardware device. Such as a bad USB device or cheap hub. You're assuming his failure was based on user error. Not that he made just one user error (that he doesn't know how to remove APE), but you assume he made two (that he doesn't know how to boot of the install disc, despite having done it before to install 10.5 the first time). Posted by: Rosyna on October 31, 2007 10:45 AMAnd that would make sense, if the issue he was having weren't a known issue with APE. Posted by: CharlesS on October 31, 2007 10:50 AMCharlesS, not being able to boot off a read only DVD is not a known issue with APE. It seems like you're saying he's not telling the truth on two items (removing APE and trying to boot off the disc) but that he is about having the failure after the Logitech install. Which also means you're claiming he made a third user error and didn't install the latest version of the Logitech software (despite him having said he downloaded it). Posted by: Rosyna on October 31, 2007 10:56 AMI do not understand why those who are so against APE, Unsanity, and haxies, repeatedly post negative posts here. You would think if they want nothing to do with the above that they would not waste their time hanging around? I am either a developer's dream, or their worst nightmare as I run systems so loaded with software that is either alpha's, beta's or the like, and I have yet to crash because of APE. When there used to be INITs my friends would laugh at my Mac's startup as virtually the entire screen would march along with INITs loading one by one. Apple has been no saint in the OS crashing department as earlier Apple systems crashed with regularity; it wasn't until Tiger that the Mac OS achieved some balance. My first Mac was purchased in 1984...I've been through many Apple operating systems. Posted by: CREB/F451 on October 31, 2007 10:56 AM> CharlesS, not being able to boot off a read only DVD is not a Getting the "blue screen" problem on Leopard certainly is a known issue with APE. It would seem to be *quite* the coincidence that he encountered this problem *just* after installing APE, wouldn't you? > It seems like you're saying he's not telling the truth on two No, I'm saying that I'd bet money that he tried the command line fix that have been posted at MacFixIt, Slashdot, and elsewhere - you know, the one that has unescaped spaces in each command line and thus wouldn't actually do anything? I seem to recall reading something by someone who was attesting to the ineffectiveness of that fix - oh wait, it was you (http://kevinsmith.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/unsanity-v-macfixit-and-the-little-guy-in-the-middle/). So you know exactly what I'm talking about here. He's not lying - in fact, it's not even his fault, because how is an ordinary guy supposed to know that those command lines are faulty? It's the fault of whoever wrote those instructions, really - but bottom line, I can pretty much guarantee you that APE is still on his hard drive. As for the DVD issue, I used to work with boot CDs all the time, and I can tell you that sometimes, the "C" key trick doesn't work. In those cases, you should fall back on using the Option key to get into the bootloader. > Which also means you're claiming he made a third user error I do not share your faith in the ability of the latest version of APE not to cause problems. Posted by: CharlesS on October 31, 2007 3:13 PMLove Labels and Window Shade. Of the two, Labels is the more important. Why Apple doesn't enable us to color files and folders (instead of their names) is beyond me! Please fix Labels! And thanks for all your good work over the years!! Posted by: keithric on October 31, 2007 11:58 PMAfter ensuring that I had the latest version of APE, I went ahead and upgraded to 10.5 today. v2.0.3 does, and did, in fact, disable itself. I have had zero issues. I've been using Unsanity haxies for years now (FruitMenu, ShapeShifter, ClearDock), and have NEVER had an APE-related problem. Admittedly, I am a bit obsessive about keeping things up-to-date, but you get my point. Be afraid if you want to, but don't try to convince me that my own experience is meaningless. Posted by: Doug on November 1, 2007 2:20 PMDitto what Doug said. APE then WindowShade matches my priority order. Please hurry, it's too bright in my office. Posted by: iMike on November 1, 2007 3:14 PMWell, I can't believe my eyes. I would never have believed it, but it really seems useful now to write a couple of lines just to support the Unsanity team: "Yes, I have been able to update to Leopard and didn't encounter any problem - no blue screen, nothing" I've been running APE and different Unsanity software for years, and I'm looking forward to have my FruitMenu back ;-) Posted by: Bernard Rey on November 2, 2007 5:03 AMI miss WindowShade SO much. I develop and optimize websites, and WindowShade saves me massive amounts of time while working on many web pages, photoshop imaging, internet research, answering mail, etc., all at the same time. I'd gladly PAY to have this compatible with Leopard!!! Please know how appreciated your are for developing this little bit of software heaven. THANKS SO MUCH!!! Posted by: Kelly on November 2, 2007 8:03 AMI didnt read all those comments (this discussion APE/InputManager evil or not is kinda pointless) Anyways, all I'd like to say is _I_ love haxies and sorely miss FruitMenu and MenuMaster. Like the second poster I'd think an upgrade fee would only be fair. (I wont go into details and start a new discussion ;)) Posted by: Dominik Pich on November 2, 2007 8:05 AMIMHO, Leopard is not ready until it can run my haxies. Period. I would gladly pay for an upgrade having used the haxies everyday since 10.2 I use WSX, MM & FM, not to mention AHP & other APE apps. Please get it done soon, best wishes. Posted by: Amanuel on November 2, 2007 9:10 PMFontCard, FontCard, FontCard. Please don't make us wait forever for FontCard. I will not upgrade to Leopard without FontCard. Especially like how you got FontCard working in the Apple Font Panel. The Font Panel is now usable with FontCard in my opinion. Posted by: Cecil on November 3, 2007 5:28 AMI don't have the technical expertise to comment on APE. I've of course read the debate for years and am aware of the issues in how it may be affecting Leopard and OS X in general. In my case I have never had a problem which I could attribute to the haxie architecture, and I obviously love all of my purchased products... and I now miss them! I do know that my 10.5 install went fine, and it turns out that I did have APE 2.03. But, I probably have the latest because a haxie had updated itself recently and installed the current APE version??? I am wondering why APE itself does not have an auto-update function? Perhaps it does and I just never noticed. But if not, it certainly would have been a prudent thing to push upgrades prior to a new OS release so as to avoid the reported problems. I am trying to positive here, but I am also a customer (lots of products) and want to provide some feedback... I am surprised that there is only one product in the line which is 10.5 compatible? I've read Slava's explanation, which I will not take issue with, but I miss my utilities! At least FruitMenu and WindowShade seem to be on the immediate radar. My favorite is Labels X as I actually use labels for productivity and identification of files in my workflow. My eyes are again being assaulted because of Apples's horrendous implementation. My concern is the time-frame for when these products will actually be updated. I was a tester for Labels X in Tiger and I know that it was a VERY long time before it actually got updated. Labels X always seem to be the last product updated, and I can only speculate about the reason for this? But I am hoping this will not be the case for 10.5. I too would echo the comments of a couple of others above... If my purchased products were available at an OS release date (or shortly thereafter), I would more than be willing to pay an update fee (or whatever). This may not be popular considering that your products are very low-cost, but here is one customer willing to spend the money to obtain your utilities... which I think many of are essential. Just meant as feedback from a satisfied customer, but one who would be happier if my utilities were now available :-) Posted by: greg on November 3, 2007 9:45 AMCan't wait to see Shapeshifter back up and running on Leopard, but I do have one question for you guys at Unsanity. What's going on with Resexcellence? I know you guys having something to do with it. When are you gonna actually do something with it? Posted by: Stretch on November 3, 2007 1:56 PMThan you for the info about getting us Leopard users back with your products. Unlike some of the whiners, I'll be happy when a 10.5 compatible version of my favourites are ready! And as for the dim wits that claim your products killed their OS, they must be on crack, Windowshade, ShapeShifter, Mighty Mouse and APE 2.0.3 all simple stopped working once I did an "Archive & Install" of 10.5. So I'll await the updates patiently and say thanks for the great products!!! Posted by: Paul.B on November 3, 2007 2:41 PMSo, I hear Logitech Control Center installs the Application Enhance app. You would think Apple would have tested at least one system with a Logitech mouse, wouldn't you? Or is Apple so arrogant they think all Mac users still use a one-button mouse? Posted by: Dave on November 3, 2007 8:30 PMFor my part, I did see pretty much all over the Mac-focused websites that APE had to be updated to 2.0.3 before I upgraded to Leopard, so it wasn't a big problem for me. I do hope, however, that Silk gets some lovin' pretty soon. I have never cared for Lucida Grande, in part because it's too grande and in part because it's too ugly, and I'd like to get my menus and iTunes interface back to something civilized like Cronos or Myriad. Posted by: Adam on November 3, 2007 11:51 PMGet me my Windowshades back. Expose is crappy substitute for the simplicity of Windowshades and minimize in place. : ) Posted by: Bryan on November 4, 2007 1:27 PMhow the heck am i supposed to start my macbook you fools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Posted by: fuck unsanity on November 5, 2007 3:22 AMDave, Apple checks nothing while rolling system upgrades. That is why AVID phone lines get overhelmed by million dollar studios when Apple updates OS X. People call AVID whether to update or not. Sadly because of that basic reason, many studios (especially Audio) are stuck on OS X 10.2.8. I may be called naive but how hard is to use their own statistics (apple downloads site) or versiontracker to pick 20 most popular Apps, install them (Developer may even send original) and see what happens? At least for 10.5 like major upgrade ? If it is "developers job", they should stop bittorrent paranoia and ship Leopard final at least 1 week before from public. Also if this leak is reason of this amateur like shipped OS X upgrade, they should look elsewhere.E.g. their own staff. I don't think one pro developer paying $1000 or more to see early OS releases would sit and leak a very strict NDA OS to bittorrent, that insecure thing. I didn't like the amount of misinformation, FUD and very serious sounding mistakes of coding so I won't pay $200 to be beta tester yet. I cancelled my order. I don't like companies who doesn't give a heck to small scale developers trusting their FUD mongering fanatics. I better repeat, if MS didn't test the popular/high end software before shipping Vista, they would release it way too earlier. Apple way is "release it and let developers fix OUR problems". If something built on standard XCode with standard Apple Frameworks, you wouldn't expect it to fail when OS upgrade ships yes? That is what happens on many programs. Unfortunately, they get the blame and lose users as result.
"how the heck am i supposed to start my macbook you fools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Push the power button! Posted by: CREB/F451 on November 5, 2007 8:14 AMThank you for updating us on the state of all things Unsanity. I am using a bunch of your Mods and so I eagerly await thier return. I am about to install Leopard and will miss my many haxies. Thank you again for letting us in on what's going on. Posted by: MattyG on November 5, 2007 1:47 PMI simply refuse to upgrade to Leopard until I can use all of my Unsanity products. Period. I do not have a "Mac" without them. And I have full faith that Unsanity will deliver the goods. They always have. I have never, ever had a problem with APE or any Unsanity product in the many, many years I have been using them. Not once. If it takes awhile for the products to be Leopard-ready, so be it. It will be well worth the wait. Posted by: Timothy James on November 5, 2007 8:09 PMI'm with Timothy James (and many others) here. A Mac does not become My Mac until my haxies (and DragThing) are up and rolling. If I wanted a GUI exactly like everyone else's, I might as well be running Windoze. :::koff-koff::: People who upgrade their system software without checking for specific, third-party-software/driver compatibility info - or disabling/removing such add-ons *before* the OS install - might as well be walking down the middle of the virtual highway with big ol' KICK ME! signs on their backs. That's been true since the very first classic Mac OS and its potential INIT/extension conflicts, and it will ever be so. It's "the nature of the beast" as the saying goes. Kudos - and a heap of gratitude - to Rosyna, Slava, and everyone else involved with Unsanity's development. I'll be installing Leopard as soon as it has sauntered its way to me from Amazon, but on a second partition. 10.5 will not become My OS until at least FruitMenu and WindowShade are ready. Trying to run without 'em would drive me insane. (And I don't need the help. (-:) Rosyna & Slava, Hi Guys I want to use my new mac book pro sooooooo much, I have had everything else working fine for two weeks now, but how I am going to make it through a day without window shade. I wish you every success in cracking it soon, I have to have it back whatever the cost! Can you post us patient users out here an update on progress? Posted by: Charles Rogers on November 6, 2007 11:35 AMHello, I'm anxiously awaiting upgrading to Leopard as well, but I won't until I have Windowshade, when I upgraded before and didn't have Windowshade, I was driven insane waiting for the most useful feature ever taken out of an OS. Please let us know that you're working on it and if you could give a totally bogus complete guess of a release date (1 week, 1 month, 1 year..) it'd be greatly appreciated. At least we'd all know that you were working on it. Thanks. Mark Posted by: Mark Armstrong on November 6, 2007 1:51 PM"We have a build internally that works with Mac OS X 10.5... so it's a matter of days for the compatibility update." we're now waiting for 10 days if i'm counting correctly... wassup ? Posted by: macoldie on November 6, 2007 1:58 PMUnfortunately I was someone who got the dreaded "blue wall" when I tried to install Leopard, caused by the APE, and wished I had read your info before I installed. AppleCare helped me out of it (in 2 hours on the phone). I too am waiting with baited breath for an update to Windowshade. Why Apple doesn't just add this invaluable feature we had in OS 9 is beyond me. Posted by: David G on November 7, 2007 10:37 AMguys, come on, please! yeah, good job, unsanity. keep on laggin'... all can you do is blame others for your lack of expertise and incompetence. Joining the chorus: it is really difficult to work without WS! Looking forward Posted by: Terrapin on November 8, 2007 7:11 PMWhile I'm thinking about it, is there any way that you could add a nice little feature to Silk, in which the size of the menubar font could be changed? I was just thinking back to the good old days of Kaleidoscope on Mac OS 9, which offered that functionality. Ah, memories. Posted by: Adam on November 8, 2007 9:48 PMI need menu master to work! Pages drives med absolute nuts with is insane key layout! PuhleeasE!! Posted by: jester on November 9, 2007 8:24 AMAmazing. Another upgrade another delay. Why did I buy this software? Posted by: David Taylor on November 9, 2007 1:15 PMDavid Taylor, if you haven't noticed there are many developers working on compatible Leopard upgrades. Even Apple is having to work on Leopard's compatibility! Posted by: CREB/F451 on November 9, 2007 2:43 PMi keep trying to access files with the contextual menu in leopard! especially with stacks and it's (so far) mediocre implementation, fruitmenu is essential. Posted by: penelope on November 10, 2007 2:51 PMI think Unsanity has handled this issue in a terrible manner, issuing non-denial denials the like. Such as in the MacWorld article where you make the claim that it's not your fault because the most recent version doesn't break anything... http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/news/index.cfm?newsid=19505 That's not the point! Your response clouded the issue and made it more difficult for users to figure out what to do about their problems. The correct response would have been to own up with the issues with the earlier builds, publish a specific critical Leopard warning prominently on your site to anyone who might have older versions installed and publicise the fix in an easy-to-link manner, which I see you still haven't done. This happened to a friend's system, and I came here looking for a fix that involves removing your software. I didn't find one; instead I found a suggestion to upgrade to the latest version (what, so that it could deactivate itself immediately upon Leopard's launch? -- that's a bass-ackwards uninstall procedure if I've ever seen one, and you can't do it if your system is already borked). I had to go elsewhere to find the command-line instructions to uninstall -- and they worked. I find that to be a pretty unacceptable situation, that you decided not to even post the most direct fix right here on your site. Basically, you chose to put your self-interest of keeping your software installed and not openly providing specific instructions for removal, above the interests of users being able to start up their systems. Posted by: DBL on November 10, 2007 2:54 PMDBL, if you have read Apple's very own Software License Agreement for Mac OS X, in the Welcome to Leopard booklet you will learn what Apple has stated all along, and that it they guarantee no third-party software working with their own software. Not only that Apple really guarantees very little in the way of their own software. Only a bloody fool would have tread into uncharted waters without reflection—as Unsanity clearly stated for obvious reasons. Really, there are people who should neither own nor be allowed next to a computer. Thanks for the link to the Macworld article as I have contacted MacWorld to cancel my subscription based on their shoot-from-the-hip article. In closing, I have dealt with the Unsanity crew for several years now, and your insipid remark of "Basically, you chose to put your self-interest of keeping your software installed..." could not be further for the truth, but then again you obviously have not dealt with the Unsanity crew for very long. Posted by: CREB/F451 on November 10, 2007 9:45 PMI'm postponing my final transition to Leopard until FruitMenu is compatible. I am, as well, prepared to pay for an upgrade for both my FruitMenu and Menu Master licenses in consideration of the certain difficulties you face. Aside from the above encouragement, may I request that you consider methods of implementing FruitMenu without involving the frontmost application. As it seems currently, when the frontmost application is busy, FruitMenu's items are at times dimmed and unavailable, requiring a switch to another app to access what ideally should be a system menu unencumbered by any application's availability (particularly so when FruitMenu is being called upon to simply launch another app). As an example of the desired behavior, the Spotlight menu seems to have global availability. While I am nonetheless grateful for your efforts, I am hopeful your work with Leopard will reveal a solution to this minor issue (for the several 'switchers' I routinely assist as well as me). Posted by: Russ Thompson on November 11, 2007 1:21 PMYou guys are not only unprofessional, you are also a bunch of cowards. You removed my comment with a valid criticism towards your company. cowards. cowards. cowards. Posted by: hater on November 11, 2007 4:22 PMThank you, I now have a bricked MacBook and 1 million comments to read unrelated to MacBook unbricking. Posted by: FullD on November 12, 2007 5:20 AMUnsanity rule #1: If you don't know who to blame, blame Apple. Unsanity rule #1: If you don't know who to blame, blame Apple. Unsanity rule #1: If you don't know who to blame, blame Apple. Stop the nasty complaints! $10 for life is dirt cheap. How far do you think $10 can go? There's only 2 or 3 people working here. I like FruitMenu so much, I'd gladly pay another $10. That said, please hurry! Posted by: Ben on November 12, 2007 2:02 PM@hater, The product you've bought relies on an unsupported hack, which Unsanity was repeatedly warned, by myself and others, not to use. The upshot is that it's far more difficult for them to update their products than it is for developers who actually follow the recommendations given in Apple's developer documentation. As for calling them cowards, I don't really see how bravery enters into it. They're irresponsible, sure, but cowards? How do you figure that? -jcr Posted by: John C. Randolph on November 12, 2007 4:58 PMAny news about when the APE is going to be released? I have bought leopard but dont install it waiting for the update of APE... Posted by: John on November 13, 2007 1:23 AMI am a long time user of Shapeshifter and follow Unsanity closely. They have many useful products and the one I am actually looking for the most is Cleardock. I have had a dark blue background for the dock since 10.3 and with Leopard I really miss it. I haven't seen this haxie mentioned at all, but I just wanted to let you know I will be checking Unsanity every day until the updated version is released. I know it is far down the list, but please don't forget it. Thanks. Posted by: Homer on November 13, 2007 6:11 AMUmm ... not to point out the obvious, but it's 2007 - haven't you WindowShade users tried out Spaces? I mean, isn't the point of WindowShade to get windows out of the way to see other windows, even if just temporarily? If you used Spaces, you could just group your windows according to task (or just to keep large windows spatially/geographically separated, so they don't overlap), and you'd never have this issue. I've been using Desktop Manager with Tiger (Spaces is better) and 6 workspaces on a 30" Cinema HD Display. I never even think about needing something like WindowShade :) @Riot Nrrrd™, Thanks for getting the Leopard compatibility done a.s.a.p., your efforts are appreciate. I miss Windowshade dearly, it is such an essential haxie. Posted by: MacBook on November 14, 2007 6:59 AMQUOTE: REPLY: I wish we could have some timetable to see when you are expecting to have the APE ready.... During this week, during this month? Posted by: John on November 14, 2007 4:07 PMSpaces is certainly nifty.. but Windowshade is utterly essential. I think the two together will make my mac so very happy. Unsanity you rock. Posted by: G on November 14, 2007 4:58 PMSpaces v Windowshade, you are obviously not using your Mac in front line production, Windowshade is essential for users needing lots of windows open who work faster visually using this tool, Spaces just slows you down to remember what's going on in all these 'spaces'. Maybe that's fine for some but not me. Come on team get Windowshade back out here for us real mac users with deadlines to meet. Posted by: Charles Rogers on November 15, 2007 4:30 AMHey unsanity. I think it would be a nice sign to alot of your customers who are currently unable to use ANY of your software right now to offer some sort of incentive when you get the ball rolling. How about a free app for paid customers? I think a free 10$ app would be a nice show of appreciation to all your fans. Some, myself included up until about 2 weeks ago, actually have a leopard dvd sitting in their office without even opening it, since 10.4 is the only way to use app enhancers. Just a thought. Thanks guys. Posted by: Chris on November 15, 2007 6:56 AM"Some, myself included up until about 2 weeks ago, actually have a leopard dvd sitting in their office without even opening it, since 10.4 is the only way to use app enhancers." I installed Leopard, but would have waited until 10.5.1 knowing what I know now as 10.5 needs help in many areas. Hopefully, that update will appear soon. Posted by: CREB/F451 on November 15, 2007 7:39 AM10.5.1 is there today. The only question is whether the new code delays APE, FruitMenu, Windowshade any further. I don't expect any goodwill gesture from Unsanity, but if Rosyna has time to write a long piece on bug issues in 10.5.0, would a short little piece on how the upgrades are going be too much to ask? Posted by: Geoff on November 15, 2007 11:08 AMWell, I am also waiting and waiting and even after 2 weeks, none of the applications have entered Beta testing. Can you guys just give a a little update on how are you doing? I am also waiting with Leopard installation, but if you are still like 1-2 months behind, I am not waiting. There were some ugly posts up there, but for those who did support you, status on how you are doing with possible release calendar would make us all happy. Geez, guys, got Leopard on an external disk using it just for Time Machine: been waiting for APE support... Please say something about your progress, ANYTHING. Posted by: Gianca on November 15, 2007 3:15 PMyeah please just throw a stab in the dark timeframe at us, it feels like we are being ignored. its obvious you are struggling however it would be more favourable to your customers to hear you at least say that and just let us know where you are. i've only installed leopard on one of my machines as i am waiting on you guys. ROUGHLY how long should i wait? i think if there is no mention on this within the week, we should start fighting for refunds. obviously we hope for the best, basically a little resect for your customers. Posted by: omegamale on November 16, 2007 2:39 AMI don't know if this whole "refunds" thing is quite right, unless you just bought the haxies. I don't think it took this long for Unsanity to get their stuff ready for Tiger, but then, Tiger wasn't nearly as much of an upgrade as Leopard has been. Who knows how much changed from Tiger to Leopard that, whether accidentally or maliciously, served to break the haxies? I'd like an update on the work, of course, but I think we can still be patient. If you really need the haxies, stick with Tiger. Leopard can wait. Posted by: Adam on November 16, 2007 2:51 AMhey, just want to say i support you guys and desperately want windowshade and windowdragon and practically everything you guys make. sadly i upgraded to leopard without owning a tiger cd or making a back up. love all my Unsanity Haxies..Never had a problem with any of them. 10.5 installed without a hitch. for those that can't keep thier apps updated, try Appupdater widget, it does a great job. Posted by: Bassetman on November 16, 2007 11:32 AMoooopps the wiget is called App updater on the apple widget site. Posted by: Bassetman on November 16, 2007 11:41 AMHope I can use DesktopSweeper on Leopard, when APE becomes 10.5.x compatible. Thanks for creating the APE interface! Posted by: enases on November 17, 2007 6:52 AMDoes anyone reading/contributing to this thread personally know (as in face-to-face) the people behind Unsanity? If so, perhaps they could post a word letting us know if Unsanity is still a going concern. If the hundreds of us who are waiting for APE etc. don't soon hear otherwise from either Unsanity themselves or someone with direct personal knowledge, I think it's safe to assume (in spite of this post's initial ray of hope) that Unsanity is no more, and that APE etc will not be made public for 10.5. The "compatibility" page at http://www.unsanity.com/products/compatibility spells it out pretty clearly and makes no mention of any forthcoming upgrades. It's sad that this post had to get all our hopes up. I know I'm not alone when I express great appreciation for all the hard work Unsanity did indeed do (both to create the software in the first place, and to try to update it). Here's hoping their future endeavors won't be thwarted as this seems to have been. If indeed anyone reading this does have personal contact with Unsanity, please pass on our best wishes, and let them know that if ever in the future they do go back into business, they should send out a word to their email list (and post to the regular forums) letting folks know that they are once again up and running. So long Unsanity and thanks anyway, ~ your long time customers and fans Posted by: eli on November 17, 2007 8:51 PMUnsanity is old news and dying software. It has been 2 years since I have used any of their haxies, and I am much happier. That bitter Rosyna person only remembers to badmouth X when a new version comes out and it takes Unsanity 3 months to produce updates. I just want to have an idea when you think APE will ready to use for Leopard? or you don't have plan? Posted by: macdi on November 19, 2007 8:54 PMI would have to agree with the sentiments of the above posts. I love these apps and have gladly paid for many of them. An update to the website or beta versions of the software would be amazing. Don't keep us waiting so long! It's evil! Posted by: jw on November 19, 2007 9:27 PMtotally, even if it was a humble "we are having a lot of problems but are working on it" message to say that they were still there, but, it just looks grim. such a dissapointment really, i love the apps so much i am thinking about removing leopar from the only one machine i have installed it o to revert back to tiger, as great as leopard can be, without these apps any new benifits feel like i'v sacrifised a lot of the stuff i loved most about my macs. i wish unsanity would see how well they are being complemented here, and just give us the courtesy of "yes we are still here". it feels like that way a friend avoids you when you've lent them money. Posted by: omegamale on November 20, 2007 8:30 AMYep... looks like I picked the right time to skip upgrading to the latest OS. Posted by: MattyG on November 20, 2007 10:15 AMHi, I just upgraded to Leopard and as you know my Windowshade stopped working. Can I be put on your email list so I can find out when it will be working again. Thanks. Mi,e. Posted by: Mike on November 20, 2007 12:38 PMWhat in the name of all that is holy is going on here?!? A month later, from a company that's consider a premiere third part "Holy Grail", after a major system release, and there's nobody "answering the phone"? This is bizarre, and appalling. APE Enhancer is a life saver for people who want productivity from their machine. While I do believe you're trying hard, a few "we're having some difficulties with the new build" messages would go down far more easy than ignoring the rank-and-file. C'mon, guys. Get your act together. You're making a polished product like like Amateur Night in Dixie. Posted by: Peter Briggs on November 20, 2007 2:38 PMHi all, Just to say, I'm waiting for Window Shade to be compatible with Leopard before I upgrade, I can't live without my Window Shade ! Please put me on your email list to be firest imformed as when Window Shade is back for Leopard Oh and yes, why free ? I would be glad to pay quite a few bucks for such a great haxie upgrade after soooo many years of rock solid service. Regards Tycho Posted by: Tycho on November 20, 2007 6:27 PMHere's my pickle_ I recently bought a couple of Haxies within the last few months and I either stay on Tiger until they get updated or I migrate to Leopard and have a useless product_ It would be a little different "feeling" if I had bought them a year ago - 2 years ago_ But right now it's feeling more like a "new purchase" that will break if I upgrade [akin to the whole iPhone / JailBreak non-sense]_ Except there's no "hacking" involved_ I looked up the history on when Haxie Updates were made to adapt to the new system in contrast to when a new OS was released [including the Intel Switch] to get some sort of barometer - but that didn't seem to work much as it ranged from Haxies released 2 days before a launch to a few days after a launch to almost 11 months after a launch_ But yeah - as for those like me who just bought some Haxies and would probably feel like a waste of money if we upgrade - total appreciation would go out if UNSANITY did not act like Apple and keep folks in the dark until after the last minute_ No one probably cares about the nit-picky day to day of coding software - but it's like a little kid riding in a car and wanting to peek out over the ledge of the window to "see" what's going on outside of the car_ A monthly update or somehting would do good - "Hey guys - we can see the light at the end of the tunnel" or "Apple did some really funky shit with this last round of an OS build and we'll get thru it - but we're stumped at the moment"_ You know - something - just throw us a bone_ Posted by: billy bob on November 22, 2007 5:21 AMWell, whats the status right now? Hey everyone, I sent Unsanity an email and got this not so promising response: Hi, We are hard at work getting Application Enhancer and our haxies compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. We've been so delayed because APE didn't even run until we received the shipping version of Leopard. We currently have a working internal build of APE, so it's only a matter of days until we release APE 2.5, and updated versions of our haxies shortly thereafter. Please keep an eye on our official lines of communication (website - http://www.unsanity.com, blog - http://www.unsanity.org, newsletters - http://www.unsanity.com/list, etc.) for more information on compatibility releases, calls for beta testers, and other updates, and watch our compatibility page at http://www.unsanity.com/products/compatibility. I have it figured. Unsanity are waiting. For System 11... Posted by: Peter Briggs on November 23, 2007 6:51 AMUnsanity is the only company I know of that appears to be "surprised" by an Apple update and waits until it hits the streets to do any work on updating their products. Unsanity should be ashamed of their work ethic. Regardless of pricing, unsanity should be working on new versions with every development seed of a new OS. That way when the retail hits shelves it's a minor thing to correct for the few minor changes in the retail version. Customer service should be paramount. As it stands it obviously is not. Posted by: --- on November 23, 2007 11:56 AMGuys, I love Windowshade. At this point, I'd even pay to have it work in 10.5. But all you have to do to keep the natives happy is to make a short post like: "Making things work is harder than we thought due to some last minute changes Apple made in the code. Maybe 2, possible three weeks. We hope...." Posted by: Machiavelligz on November 23, 2007 3:47 PMI tried Launchbar from obdev as an alternative to Fruitmenu and it's a great product wih tons of more functionality. http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ It also works great on Leopard, is actively supported and doesn't need an app-enhancer or whatever. Okay, I hate to pile on here but WTF? You post an 'update' on 10/27 and that's it? I mean, I'm lost without FruitMenu but you folks don't appear to be interested in letting anyone know what's going with your updating process. Is it close? Have you revised to Leopard compatibility road map? I'm using QuickSilver right now and yeah, it's 'aight' but it's not what I want. And if this is a case of money, charge for the update or whatever: just get the software working or let us know when! Please!? Posted by: David Barnes on November 24, 2007 1:53 PMgreat! any other alternative suggestions form anyone, i must admit mighty mouse and shapeshifter are pretty high on my misslist Posted by: omegamale on November 25, 2007 3:27 PMIf anyone has an alternate for the indispensible "MenuFela", I can get onto Leopard and forget again about having to use an Unsanity product. Posted by: Peter Briggs on November 25, 2007 4:02 PMFor those who really believe that Unsanity have died, I thought I'd mention that Panic's Candybar is still incompatible with Leopard, which offers icon substitution similar to (and a bit more advanced than) Shapeshifter. It doesn't prove anything, but it does suggest that interface-altering programs may be more broken than normal stuff. Still, I'd like an update on Unsanity's work. Posted by: Adam on November 25, 2007 10:49 PMGlad you are hard at work on the upgrades. If you need a beta tester for windowshade, please put me on the list. I am having a meltdown here without it. I hate it when I minimize windows and they go to the dock. I LOVE windowshade and wish it had been part of the OS as it used to be many OX's ago. I AM COUNTING ON YOU!!! Please Hurry! Thanks. Classic Menu is a good replacement for fruitmenu and it works with Leopard now. Posted by: frgough on November 26, 2007 3:18 PMI like everyone most others just want to know when we get our windowshade back. I have been forced to learn how to use spaces, its handy to leave open windows ready to use, but requires a brain expansion module to remember what the **** you have opened up in all the different desktops. I don't like it, but it works.... APPLE 1 UNSANITY 0 come on guys get back in the game and tell us what's going on. Posted by: Charles Rogers on November 26, 2007 11:43 PMDevelopers should take notes on how NOT to behave from these guys. anyone know of any replacement app for windowshade? I'm ready to move on... Posted by: Tom on November 27, 2007 5:28 AMI believe that users need to get real...how long did Apple delay Leopard's release? Apple did developers no favors with Leopard's late release; add to that the holidays. I enjoy spending time with friends and family in this season more than have concerns about software upgrades. Posted by: CREB/F451 on November 27, 2007 7:39 AMWow. i have to say it's a bit disturbing to see all these comments and not one reply from Unsanity. It's been a month now and no update on progress? Surely someone could spare a few minutes to let us all know what the deal is, especially if the truth is not promising. I too am suffering through Leopard without WindowShade functionality and wish there was an alternative. The closest I've found is Sticky Windows (http://www.donelleschi.com/stickywindows/) which appears to be a smaller operation than Unsanity, and they've got it to be Leopard compatible. Come on Unsanity, just be honest and give us an update, please? Posted by: btully on November 27, 2007 9:55 AMCandyBar for Leopard was just released today... but no word on even a single haxie upgrade from our favorite developers? Something tells me we're in trouble... Posted by: MattyG on November 27, 2007 12:49 PMHave patience. Software development can be tricky and from what I understand it's especially difficult on the Mac. My vote goes to WindowShade. October 27 - November 27 Not good enough, guys. Posted by: Peter Briggs on November 27, 2007 4:36 PM Let me just say you guys run a horrible business. what is the deal with resexcellence? it seems as if you guys are just avoiding the issue entirely. People aren't asking for much, just a post on the resexcellence page. i mean come on, is it that hard to take 5 minutes out of your day to at say whether you've given up on the project or if you put it on the back burner or what i going on? i mean right now the site is at 1,520 comments and you haven't responded one bit. Posted by: falling4ever on November 27, 2007 8:46 PM |