Existing users, 
Leopard STILL cannot search unindexed volumes when you're just looking for filenames! If you disable Spotlight or if your drive can't be indexed for some reason, you can't search for filenames! OS 7.5 - OS10.3.9 could do this quite happily, but 10.4 and 10.5 still can't do it. Tools like EasyFind and File Buddy do not work nearly as well as the old Find File, and tend to crash or hang regularly so they are useless to me. I've noticed that EasyFind has problems finding some filenames with '.' in the name, and File Buddy simply refuses to search some hard drives.
At the AppleCentre today I plugged a client's FAT32 formatted USB backup hard disk into a new iMac loaded with Leopard. Tried to search for ".myo" files (this is company data used by the MYOB accounting package) as this is a standard search I would probably use to retrieve data from a client's computer if they are upgrading, switching from PC to Mac or experiencing computer troubles.
Using Leopard, I hit Apple-F - typed in myo - sat there for about a minute. NO ITEMS FOUND.
I came home, plugged the hard drive into my computer running OS 10.3 Find File - typed in myo - 3 seconds later it showed me 16 items. After 10 seconds it showed me the remaining two items.
I just tried EasyFind and File Buddy 9 on the drive, but they both took more than 5 minutes to find anything, and File Buddy 9 suddenly stopped searching and wouldn't display any results. EasyFind eventually found all the files I wanted after TWENTY TWO MINUTES. I tried 5 times and the only thing that reliably found ALL the files I was looking for was 10.3.9 Find File.
I even tried a friend's Windows XP computer - it found the files, no troubles!
I CANNOT FIND ANY FILES WITH LEOPARD!! I CANNOT DO MY JOB!!! I CANNOT USE 10.4 or 10.5!!! Already some of my favourite applications are not supported by 10.3.9. So what will I do when support for all of them ceases?!?
I hate Windows with a passion, but at least I can find files. It's slow and cumbersome and doesn't work as well as 10.3.9 Find File but it is 100,000,000 times more useful to me than any Apple operating system containing Spotlight.
Goodbye Apple! It's been a long and mostly enjoyable experience for the past 15+ years, but now I will have to look elsewhere for my next computer. I'm happy that all the switchers (who've never known any better) are happy, but Apple does not know how to keep its existing user base happy.
I put some comments up on the Apple Discussions pages regarding this matter, but Apple removed them. Suddenly my comment was gone, along with all the suggestions people had given me about how to find files on non-indexed volumes. Apple are not interested in this issue, because it taints their whole 'perfect digital hub' image. If you look at the Spotlight discussions group you'll find hundreds of people tearing their hair out because Spotlight hasn't indexed their drive completely, or that they can't find a file with Spotlight that is sitting right there on their desktop! Spotlight is flawed! It's great for searching file contents, but no good for finding files by name or date.
I love Apple, I just can't use their new operating system. When it is fixed, I will be back in a flash, buying a new Mac.
Apple Mac OS X
Snow Leopard operating system.
Version: 10.6.2
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years...
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: Crazy Dave Friday, October 26 2007 @ 10:54 PM PDT
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Less than a month
Recommend Product: NO
Comments
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - Edwin-schemer
Have you ever tried the "locate" command in a terminal?Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 12:03 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - Crazy Dave
If you even bothered to read my original email, I said that EasyFind doesn't work very well. It took 22 minutes to find my files versus 10 seconds for OS 10.3.9 Find File. EasyFind does not show a file's path in a separate window, it shoes everything in column view, making long paths buried deep in a file system very hard to locate. I have to manually click on EVERY SINGLE FILE and click 'Reveal in Finder.'The Terminal's Locate command REQUIRES AN INDEX. The 'find' command works but it's very easy to mis-type a command and lose a file. I can't believe people are actually suggesting I use the Terminal to find files. This is 2007, not 1977. If I have to resort to using the Terminal whenever I find a file, I may as well just use Linux. Most of the software I use these days is open-source, I don't use iWork, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iChat etc etc for my job.
Don't even get me started on how Leopard's new 'feature' of being able to search network computers REQUIRES LEOPARD TO BE INSTALLED ON THE OTHER MAC. So searching OS 10.3, Windows or Linux servers for files is impossible.
I'm going to go and watch the movie 'Idiocracy' now. The future seems bleak.
Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 01:24 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - tkzero
I'm sorry, but you really have no business installing a brand new OS on the first day, because you are entirely unprepared to put in any time with it, or any realistic expectations. eg: did you really think that installing 10.5 on one machine would allow you to search all your computers? You do not have a realistic concept of what this new system can/will do.You yourself go on about "can't do my work". You had no business exposing your "work" to a bleeding-edge OS. What, your work is super-important that you must leave Apple because of some glitches on the day 1, but it WASN'T important enough to hold off for a day or two in the first place and see if there are any issues identified? What a weird concept. In the future, you need to decide how important your "work" is to you and what you are prepared to expose it to.
Obviously, given how important your "work" is, you made a full, restorable backup of both your system and your data? Well, should be only minutes to get back and running under your old OS. But you've done that already right?
There needs to be some kind of test taken at the Apple Store before they'll sell it to you. Might filter out some of those who need to be kept away for a few days...
Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 05:39 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - Piotr Grella-Mozejko
Your comments on someone else's negative critique are not well thought through, I am afraid. Indeed, one buys new operating system expecting it to work (because it is available COMMERCIALLY, not beta). If it does not work on the first day, it means the operating system is no good. Apple has demonstrated enough arrogance and ignorance over the years for us to just disregard them. What is even worse, Apple has fallen into the "one-and-only cool OS" trap, and stopped (or so it seems) listening to its customers. So far, any criticism of Leopard seems fully justified, even after only one day of using it. New operating systems released commercially should works seamlessly right from the start. I am not at all surprised people think of switching to Windows. NOT AT ALL.Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 11:34 PM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - julia2
While I doubt I will ever leave the Mac platform, I do agree that the Mac file search functions are not what they should be. While the concept of Spotlight is great and is occasionally just what the doctor ordered, many times a filename search is all that's wanted or needed. It is absolutely mind-boggling that we do not have it, and with boolean search criteria. Being able to trust search results is really important. As it is now, if Spotlight finds your stuff then great, but if it doesn't, you still have the sneaking feeling that it's there somewhere, not being found.Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 06:42 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - lbrown5
Finding files by name on *indexed* volumes is very simple. In Finder, command-F to open a New Search. From the first option dropdown, select Name. Enter part of the name of the file(s) you are searching for. The end.Most people do not connect unindexed drives on a regular basis. This will not cause finder to look for and index any/all unindexed drives connectd to your Mac, but it will return the files on indexed drives containing the word you entered. And very quickly.
Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 08:38 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - Crazy Dave
tkzero can you even READ?!? How old are you? Most people from age 10 or so can read quite competently. If you're 9 years old I can forgive your comments. I made it quite clear in my first post that I tried Leopard on an iMac at the AppleCentre. I never installed the thing on my own computer. Why would I buy an OS that is broken?I also made it quite clear that OS 10.4 DIDN'T WORK EITHER. It isn't brand new!
And yes, I can't do my WORK because of a SINGLE, SMALL, LITTLE detail that just happens to make my work IMPOSSIBLE with 10.4 or 10.5. If somebody tried to sell you a car with no steering wheel that only drove in a straight line you wouldn't buy it, so why would I buy an OS that can't find anything on a hard disk or network volume?
I have a VERY realistic concept of what Leopard can and can't do - That's exactly why I'm writing in this discussion forum, because it CAN'T DO WHAT I NEED, and nobody seems to care enough to fix it. All I get is responses from people who can't read. And Apple deleted my discussions regarding Spotlight's inadequacies from their forums for reasons that can only be guessed at.
As per your comment: did you really think that installing 10.5 on one machine would allow you to search all your computers? Well I DID hope that 10.5 would allow me to search all my computers, especially considering i can already search all my computers with 10.3.9, and with Windows XP and with System 7.5 on my old 1992 LC475. Five years ago I ran a network of 27 Mac computers and 3 Windows computers. Every single one of them could search for files on every single other computer with File Sharing. It is now impossible with Leopard.
Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 06:59 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - MacGuffin
I feel your pain, especially given that reading the response to which you just responded sent me scurrying back to your original post to see if I'd read it correctly. Clearly, people CAN'T read. I, however, can and posts like yours make me more determined than ever not to install Leopard until the first revision is announced. As to your problem, I hear ya. There were a number of really useful functions that never even made it to OS X 10.x, much less to later revisions. And I not only think it's not unreasonable to be able to search other Macs on a network running previous revisions, but if a user can't install a new OS out of the box, why the hell should he buy it in the first place?There's clearly a school of thought that thinks that the purpose of these forums is to worship at the shrine of the application being reviewed. Adulation should be based on logical thinking, not used as a substitute for it.
Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 08:52 AM PDT
GOODBYE APPLE!! It's been a fun 15 years... - josephyli
I would try searching in Versiontracker the application EasyFind.Reply to This
Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 12:02 AM PDT