Bugs & Fixes: What bugs Mac OS X 10.6.2 tackles

Mac OS X 10.6.2 came out Monday, and while Macworld’s Dan Moren detailed the changes in this latest update to Snow Leopard, I wanted to check out which bugs cited in previous Bugs & Fixes entries have been eradicated by Mac OS X 10.6.2.

First up, Mac OS X 10.6.2 remedies the Guest account bug that, if you fell victim to it, could eradicate your entire Home directory.

Second, Apple informs us that the update fixes “font duplication issues” and an “issue with some PostScript Type 1 fonts not working properly.” With a bit of luck, the former fix resolves problems such as those described in Font Duplicate Misadventures. The latter is almost certainly a fix for a frustrating font bug that especially afflicted QuarkXPress users.

Apple tells us that there are improvements in “automatic printer updates.” This is a bit vague, but I am hoping that it includes better support for older printer models, an issue I detailed in this article on Ethernet-networked printers and Snow Leopard (although the main issue covered in that article is not something that would be addressed by 10.6.2).

Finally, although I never mentioned it in a Bugs & Fixes column, an important issue came up in e-mail and Twitter discussions I had with several readers: You could be suddenly and unexpectedly logged out, returned to a blue screen and logged back in. Apple claims that this too has been fixed by Mac OS X 10.6.2.

This is hardly a complete list. Mac OS X 10.6.2 fixes over two dozen other problems, as Apple details in a support article. The point of this column is simply to show that there are happy endings to at least some of the stories of bugs reported in this space. Of course, we win battles, but the war goes on. See you next time.