I just couldn’t resist, I simply had to install Snow Leopard as soon as I got my hands on it, neglecting to check if my favorite applications and plugins were compatible. I thought, since Snow Leopard has been out with developers for so long, that surely they must have something ready by now.
How wrong I was.
Mail.app
I love the built-in Mail application, it does everything I need (with the help of a few plugins) and it does it very easy, for me at least.
But I’m also very dependant on the following three plugins:
DockStar
Adds more “badges” to the Mail icon in the dock, so instead of only displaying unread mails, it can also display (unread) mails in other folders, smart folders, drafts etc.
Ecamm, makers of DockStar, claims their newest version 2.1.1 works for Snow Leopard, but users might have to re-install after upgrading to Snow Leopard. In my case, the installation never ends, it just goes on and on and on forever, until I quit it. It doesn’t freeze, it just installs forever – without installing anything.
Update: I finally got it working. Created a new user account on my Mac and installed DockStar in there. After that I copied the DockStar.mailbundle from ~ \Library\Mail\Bundles and put it into the same folder but in my primary user account – and it worked.
Update, Sep. 9th: DockStar version 2.1.2 was recently released, said to fix installation issues and shortly after version 2.3.1 was released to fix a crash in 2.1.2 – so everything should be okay now, just go ahead and download the newest version of DockStar and get those dock badges fired up!
Letterbox
This plugin is just great. I don’t know why Apple is refusing to take advantage of widescreen monitors. Letterbox turns Mail.app into three vertical columns, one with your foloders (which is default), one with the content of your mailbox and one with the preview pane. I love it and I just can’t use Mail.app without it.
You guessed it, doesn’t work with Mail.app either. The developer was expecting to have a release ready for when Snow Leopard came out, but there’s nothing. Developer of Letterbox, I know you’re doing this for free and all, but please get to work!!! 🙂
So I figured I’d try the alternative, WideMail. It’s much more advanced and I don’t really like it, I just want it as simple as Letterbox does it. But WideMail doesn’t work either.
Update, Sep. 10th: There’s a beta available at the Letterbox website but it doesn’t come with an installer so you’ll need to follow the instructions carefully to get it running. It’s a beta, mind you.
Letter Opener
Formerly known as OMiC. This little plugin converts winmail.dat files (from Outlook) into something Mac Mail.app will understand. Winmail.dat is something Bill Gates told his developers to come up with on one of his bad days – or so I like to think, cause it’s really a curse for non-Outlook users. Letter Opener 2.2.2 is said to be Snow Leopard compatible but no official word on the developers blog yet – and it doesn’t work either.
Update, Sep. 9th: Winmail.dat Fix: Letter Opener 3 For Apple Mail & Snow Leopard Released.
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So that’s two out of three Mail.app plugins I really enjoy using, that doesn’t work in Snow Leopard. How unfortunate, that I will now have to do without them for an unknown period of time.
MenuMeters
For my menubar, I like to have a quick overview of what’s going on, specially with disk activity as the Mac’s doesn’t come with LED’s to indicate any read/write action going on. A quick glance at the virtual LED’s in the menubar will tell you why the system might feel a bit sluggish at the moment, if there’s some heavy disk activity going on. MenuMeters doesn’t work in Snow Leopard yet, either.
Update, Sep. 12th: MenuMeters is now available in a beta version that works on Snow Leopard – get it now!
And on top of all that, my 1-day old 24″ BenQ monitor also just died. The backlighting comes on for just a second and then disappears. I can see what’s going on at the monitor if I point a flashlight at it, but that’s hardly a good way to work. So now I have to return it and see what else I can find as this was the last one in stock.
It’s time for a sad panda…
Besides that, I’m really enjoying Snow Leopard. It’s great!
When Apple releases 10.7, I’m surely going to make the same mistake, rush out and install it as soon as possible and then rant (whine) about lacking compatibility from third party apps and plugins. But never the less, I’ll be having the newest operating system available as soon as possible – just like now!
That’s all that matters to a tech geek like me…
This is the very reason I love Tech Patio, now I know to stay away from Leopard for the moment.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..Weekly Rewind =-.
Hopefully you mean SNOW Leopard cause Leopard was great, no problems there 🙂 To be honest, Snow Leopard is great too – the only two problems I’ve experienced so far, are the incompatibility issues mentioned above, and that’s probably not because of Snow Leopard but more because of slow developers….
Yep, as long as you are on the “bleeding edge,” you can warn everyone else! (While you get to enjoy having the newest operating system the soonest possible). Sorry your weekend went this way though!
That’s right – but usually I prefer to wait at least a few days with stuff like that, as I also use my computer for work, so if I run into serious problems with software, I’m going to have a problem at work next day, unless I spend all night fixing it 🙂
Luckily everything else with Snow Leopard works beautifully. There’s really no reason for you not to get a Mac now 🙂
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one to install things without checking for compatibility issues. I’ve been caught out several times, which is why I’ve now installed a test blog for trying things out. The only problem is that I don’t always use it. Pretty slack huh?
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Sometimes It just Doesn’t Pay Being Jack =-.
I guess some of us just have to be lazy from time to time, spend our energy in trying out new things rather than testing them first – but that’s how we learn, I suppose, the hard way 😀
I know, the problem is that I know what I’m supposed to do, and yet there are a lot of times when I decide to cut corners by not doing it, and I know that one day soon I’m going to pay for being so slack.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Blog Me This You Blogging Fools =-.
It looks like there is a fix with mail and snow leopard and having it widescreen.
http://www.vanillahd.com/mac-apple/how-to-get-mail-in-verticalwidescreenletterbox-layout/
Hi JJ, thanks for your comment. Yes I have noticed the beta of Letterbox, but personally I can hold out for a couple of more days till there’s an installer ready that doesn’t require too much effort to get running and then I’ll of course update my post with the new informaiton. Thanks for the link though!
I was guilty of doing the same with another OS. But what I did afterwards was get back to the old. It was a really long day reinstalling everything.