Incredible! Everyone who cares about their customers had a compatibility update for Snow Leopard on the day it was released (or before!). Obviously the big old dinosaurs like Adobe and Microsoft were a bit slower. But to wait until January to update critical software for an OS that was released in August is just beyond the pale.
Yet another sign, if one is needed, of Nikon's genuine arrogance. They think because they make the best hardware that they can treat their customers with disdain. I am sorely tempted to prove them wrong by abandoning the brand after over a decade of shooting with their gear.
The obvious answer would be that Apple and Microsoft and others have to update their operating systems to give us new capabilities (or we'd never get new capabilities). It's then up to the software companies to provide software that takes advantage of the improvements in the new OS.
In any case, well-run software companies don't have a problem with new operating systems. As I said, most of them had compatible software in time for the release of Snow Leopard, and most of the rest had updates within a week or two. Why not Nikon?
Personally, I was using an old PowerBook with Tiger until August. I had kept that five-year-old laptop as long as I could, but it was just intolerably slow for Raw photo development by then. I had to buy a new computer, and of course that meant moving to Snow Leopard by necessity. The new OS is superb, but I can't run View NX because of Nikon's tardiness. Anyone who has bought a new Mac since August is in the same boat, and obviously many of us were forced to buy a new computer because the old one broke or was too slow. Yet Nikon thinks it's okay that we can't run their software for months on end.
Interestingly, Thom Hogan explained that Nikon at least has a reason for this slowness, albeit not an acceptable one. Search for "Snow Leopard" on this page. It's something about ISO 9000 procedures.
This also brings us back to the absurdity—yet accepted absurdity—of camera manufacturer's using proprietary Raw formats. If there were any real competition in this market everyone would be using DNG and this kind of problem would be consigned to history.
Specularist wrote:
In any case, well-run software companies don't have a problem with new operating systems. As I said, most of them had compatible software in time for the release of Snow Leopard, and most of the rest had updates within a week or two. Why not Nikon?
It's not always that easy. I am a software developer, and I personally have an experience where an OS bug was found and it was reported to MS. The bug was confirmed by their engineers, which was a long and arduous process in and of itself. You know what the fix was? Microsoft changed the documentation to match the bug, IOW, don't do it like that any more. To this day, that same bug still exists, even in Windows 7. I'm sure Apple has it's OS problems too.
You have no idea what Nikon is up against, neither do I.
Specularist wrote:
In any case, well-run software companies don't have a problem with new operating systems. As I said, most of them had compatible software in time for the release of Snow Leopard, and most of the rest had updates within a week or two. Why not Nikon?
Specularist wrote:
Incredible! Everyone who cares about their customers had a compatibility update for Snow Leopard on the day it was released (or before!). Obviously the big old dinosaurs like Adobe and Microsoft were a bit slower. But to wait until January to update critical software for an OS that was released in August is just beyond the pale.
Yet another sign, if one is needed, of Nikon's genuine arrogance. They think because they make the best hardware that they can treat their customers with disdain. I am sorely tempted to prove them wrong by abandoning the brand after over a decade of shooting with their gear....Show more →
maybe from your rather limited view of the world and how it should be vs what it is. speeking of arrogance apple tends to tilt in that direction just a little too. you know releasing 10.6 and just on its heels (quite literally in hours) 10.6.1 and then just recently oh by the way 10.6.2.
In any case, well-run software companies don't have a problem with new operating systems. As I said, most of them had compatible software in time for the release of Snow Leopard, and most of the rest had updates within a week or two. Why not Nikon?
Because Nikon is not a software company?
Nikon IS a software company. They own NIK, remember? And any company that sells software to support its products is a software company. And Nikon has many software products: Capture, NX, Transfer, etc.
I agree with those who feel there's no excuse for this. It's not enough for me to abandon the brand, but it does show a certain level of either arrogance or incompetence.
Apple has a certified developer program and when you join the program you receive builds of the operating system in advance so you can begin testing your software and modifying it, if necessary. Nikon has apparently chosen to ignore all that and simply wait until after the final release and even then, they don't seem in a big hurry to maintain compatibility. And since every other application I have works fine under Snow Leopard (according to reports), the reason for Nikon's incompatibility must be because they violated programming conventions in the first place.
In my case, I've simply not upgraded my computer to the latest OS - I'll have to wait until Nikon gets their act together, but if I were buying a new machine, I'd have a problem because the new models only come with Snow Leopard. In a poor economy, Nikon should be trying to keep every customer they can. Not supporting the computer that has the biggest growth (albeit still overall small market share) is not the best idea.
actually there has been quite a few developers that have befallen the 10.6 issue that are "certified developers". so your assertion that nikon was the only one is less then accurate. this also occured when leopard first reared it head too.
zoetmb wrote:
Nikon IS a software company. They own NIK, remember? And any company that sells software to support its products is a software company. And Nikon has many software products: Capture, NX, Transfer, etc.
I agree with those who feel there's no excuse for this. It's not enough for me to abandon the brand, but it does show a certain level of either arrogance or incompetence.
Apple has a certified developer program and when you join the program you receive builds of the operating system in advance so you can begin testing your software and modifying it, if necessary. Nikon has apparently chosen to ignore all that and simply wait until after the final release and even then, they don't seem in a big hurry to maintain compatibility. And since every other application I have works fine under Snow Leopard (according to reports), the reason for Nikon's incompatibility must be because they violated programming conventions in the first place.
In my case, I've simply not upgraded my computer to the latest OS - I'll have to wait until Nikon gets their act together, but if I were buying a new machine, I'd have a problem because the new models only come with Snow Leopard. In a poor economy, Nikon should be trying to keep every customer they can. Not supporting the computer that has the biggest growth (albeit still overall small market share) is not the best idea. ...Show more →
Nikon does not own Nik, Nik is a privately held company. Nikon worked with them to develop Capture NX, but Nikon does not control them.
I've never expected software companies or hardware vendors to perfectly time their releases to coincide. It's nice if they do, knowing the complexities of development it seems ridiculous to demand it. You simply have to have patience and wait to upgrade to the latest & greatest OS until all of your software and hardware is supported.
Not even Apple themselves managed to get everything right for the launch of Snow Leopard. It's for example not Adobes fault that there's no 64-bit CS4 for SL.
Gustaf Lindber wrote:
Not even Apple themselves managed to get everything right for the launch of Snow Leopard. It's for example not Adobes fault that there's no 64-bit CS4 for SL.
If Apple didn't just break compatibility between versions of their OS then there wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately Apple has long history of breaking everything and forcing software vendors to rebuild for the new system. Personally I prefer an OS that has a track history of bending over backwards to maintain compatibility of applications.
Just want to point out for those that don't understand. Apple releases developer copies of its operating systems in advance of the general release. Nikon had access to a SL seed at least a year before it was released and access to a gold seed about a month before it was released, though really nothing changed from the release immediately before gold to gold other than a few bug fixes. Nikon has now had about 6 months with a final feature set implemented version of SL available to them and they still haven't updated. I call that bad customer service.
skyvan wrote:
Just want to point out for those that don't understand. Apple releases developer copies of its operating systems in advance of the general release. Nikon had access to a SL seed at least a year before it was released and access to a gold seed about a month before it was released, though really nothing changed from the release immediately before gold to gold other than a few bug fixes. Nikon has now had about 6 months with a final feature set implemented version of SL available to them and they still haven't updated. I call that bad customer service.
regretfully your info is so far from accurate. that koolaid must realy pack a punch. apple has been known to change things up until the last minute. post delivery 10.6, 10.6.1, 10.6.2. are you actually aware of the total real changes that have been made in those including the "undocumented" ones. when i here "minor fixes" from ANY software company you have to wonder what is the underlying truth. and you're right is is bad customer service, on the part of all software developers.
and oh by the way it isn't nikon that would be for the most part NIK software nikons external developer.
