The Future of Logos for the Mac User?

Just a question or two, does anyone know if Logos 5 is going to improve for the Mac user anytime soon? I've felt like a beta tester trying to use the software for the last 7 years since switching to a mac. As a lead pastor I just need stuff that works and Accordance is far better imho. I've been a very longtime loyal user (I've got floppies from Logos, seriously) and thousands of $'s invested. I've been to 3 Morris Proctor seminars, including the first cruise with Bob and Dale P. I have been as loyal and a longtime user of Logos as anyone. I know Bob P. has roots with Microsoft, does that mean this is as good as it gets for the Mac user? I am not interested in sending in log files and etc, I can get the software working well enough most of the time, but then randomly it will hang and slow things down even more and I go crazy again. I am not asking for technical support, just a forecast please. I seldom ever post here but have read nearly everything on the forums that applies to my situation and have become pessimistic that anything is going to become better for the future for the Mac user.

So I am posting because I am now seriously considering selling my library to invest in resources in Accordance. But if there is a new version that is really going to finally work smoothly I would love to know.

Thanks for reading this.

Rich

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abondservant

... I am not interested in sending in log files and etc...

So I am posting because I am now seriously considering selling my library to invest in resources in Accordance. But if there is a new version that is really going to finally work smoothly I would love to know.

Thanks for reading this.

Rich

I am not a representative of Logos, though it occurs to me that the emphasized part of your last post be reflective of the problem. The windows users participate in fixing the software when things go unfortunate directions. If the mac crowd (no offense) all take that position then I doubt anything will ever be perfect. Software development is a team effort. I know there is a new version coming soon for PC - 5.3. I presume that means there is a new version for mac as well. Hope you get everything sorted out.

mwk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615087#Comment_615087

My experience since switching to a Mac is the opposite... for the most part they're very good about feedback and sending in logs, at least with the software I use a lot.

But I wonder if that's where a problem is. I use Adobe products for my work and when something goes wrong, I get an automatic pop-up to send a log or crash file. I don't have to dig for the log file, or even turn on any sort of logging. It's done automatically and I just have to click a button to give my permission to send a file. That now happens with a fair number of programs I use.

I used to have problems with the Mac version of Logos, but they've been few and far between recently. So I can't comment any more on whether or not auto log sending is an option.

If not, perhaps it should.

Dave Moser

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615087#Comment_615087

... I am not interested in sending in log files and etc...

it occurs to me that the emphasized part of your last post be reflective of the problem.

Is Logos Mac software still advertised as a beta product? If so, that's fine. If not, the problem isn't with users not contributing; the problem is a commercial product not meeting expectations.

(Note: I'm not a Mac user so I haven't experienced what Rich is going through.)

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615107#Comment_615107

(Note: I'm not a Mac user so I haven't experienced what Rich is going through.)

I am a Mac user from 1984, and I do not experience what Rich is going through. Logos 5 is not perfect on the Mac OS—nor on the Windows one either—however, it is far from being as unusable as Rich claims. Perhaps he needs to humble himself enough to submit logs so others can help him discover what is wrong with his installation.

Rich Huston

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615111#Comment_615111

Respectfully, I've never been asked to humble myself to use software before. If this was an isolated instance for me there may be point here but this has been going on with me and a number of other for years now. (Read my earlier posts please) I'm looking for some hope about the future not just more beta testing. I've never had any reoccurring issues with any software that compares to this.

Rich Huston

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615107#Comment_615107

... I am not interested in sending in log files and etc...

it occurs to me that the emphasized part of your last post be reflective of the problem.

Is Logos Mac software still advertised as a beta product? If so, that's fine. If not, the problem isn't with users not contributing; the problem is a commercial product not meeting expectations.

(Note: I'm not a Mac user so I haven't experienced what Rich is going through.)

Exactly my point Dave. Too busy to spend anymore time trying to fix things.

mwk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615111#Comment_615111

I appreciate the links to the logging procedures, Jack. It confirms what I thought I had remembered... a process that is longer than it should be.

It takes about 15 steps to report a problem when it should only take two or three. And these steps don't even guarantee anything since you have to hope your problem is one that can be recreated each time. As someone who used to work as a software tester, you prayed for bugs you could easily reproduce. But not all bugs are like that.Beyond the current issue with Rich, I hope Logos puts some extra effort into better integrating logging and crash reporting from within the program itself. (At least for those issues where Logos is still functional.) That's going to make it easier on users, and it's going to provide more data to Logos to keep improving the program.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615118#Comment_615118

It takes about 15 steps to report a problem when it should only take two or three.

Logos Support => https://www.logos.com/support/logos5/mac/problem offers a logging utility for OS X, which simplifies turning on logs and creating zip for forum posting or email to Faithlife. Thankful that need for Logos diagnostic logging has noticeably diminished.

I am not asking for technical support, just a forecast please. I seldom ever post here but have read nearly everything on the forums that applies to my situation and have become pessimistic that anything is going to become better for the future for the Mac user.

Forecast is 64 bit Logos 5.3 that needs OS X 10.9 or newer => 5.3 Beta 1 Warning

Thankful for many awesome improvements plus Thankful for substantial Logos 5 feature parity between OS X and Windows. Also like Logos 5 full screen mode on OS X.

My favorite Logos feature is visual filter highlighting that combines hundreds of search results for simultaneous display so can "see' range of verbal intensity in Greek, English, and Spanish resources with appropriate morphological tagging. Recently added Louw-Nida 93 Relations =>

By the way, am downloading OS X Yosemite Beta 1 in preparation for 64 bit Logos 5.3 Beta 1 using a newer SSD in an i7 iMac.

FYI: Logos is a resource intensive application that benefits from fast processor, graphics, and quick storage along with adequate memory. Solid State Disk (SSD) is noticeably faster than hard disk, especially newer SSD or Flash storage with write speed faster than 500 MB/sec.

Keep Smiling [:)]

abondservant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615107#Comment_615107

... I am not interested in sending in log files and etc...

it occurs to me that the emphasized part of your last post be reflective of the problem.

Is Logos Mac software still advertised as a beta product? If so, that's fine. If not, the problem isn't with users not contributing; the problem is a commercial product not meeting expectations.

(Note: I'm not a Mac user so I haven't experienced what Rich is going through.)

My point was that the mac user pool is smaller, which by the numbers would then mean a smaller user base for the beta, which means a smaller subset of potential problems presents themselves. It may be that the issue you have is related to something specific on your end which may not have shown up during the proper beta. Which means your un-submitted log may be the first that has been seen of this particular issue. Which may mean there are others having the problem - but that they haven't submitted their log yet either, nor posted to the forums. In my experience they have a quick turn around time for most problems.

Further the next update that you will see is 5.2b which is now a release candidate. RC1 had to small glitches to fix and they released the second release candidate about 24 hours after the first. So long as nothing major pops up my guess is within the week you'll have your update, and within a month or three 5.3 will be released which is largely new code.

Charles

So I am posting because I am now seriously considering selling my library to invest in resources in Accordance. But if there is a new version that is really going to finally work smoothly I would love to know.

I too have been a Logos user going back to the days of floppies and the old Logos Library System and have run Logos in Windows and now on our iMac. I'm not a "power user" by any means, however, I have not experienced what you have. Perhaps it's because I'm running Logos on new hardware but I also ran it on an older 2008 MacBook for awhile before getting the iMac for our ministry. And it ran well on the MacBook, albeit slower, but very useable.

Accordance is a great program and certainly would meet the needs of your ministry, however, I really think you should not give up on Logos until you have had a chance to use the new 64 bit version for awhile.

In Christ,

Charles

mab

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615273#Comment_615273

Logos is always a work in progress. Logos 5 is vastly better than Logos 4 when Logos made a real commitment to the Mac. To get all of Logos' potential, you do need good hardware.

A lot of Mac users seem to think that everything just works on their platform. That's mostly true, but it's not always the case. I'm very happy with my Macmini i7 but Logos didn't really fly until I went to 16GB RAM.

Rob

Hi Rich,

Can you tell us about your system OSX version, cpu, ram etc? Do you run other programs at the same time? Do you allow your program to search resources on line?

It's try that Logos can take a while to search the library but the only time that I've experienced crashes is when I leave Logos running for days on end. It may crash when waking my computer wakes up. Other than that I haven't had any problems, but then again, perhaps my usage is not very sofisticated.

I use a Mac all day at work and they do become overwhelmed when a lot of resources are in demand. For example simultaneous using MS Word, Thunderbird (with 100,000+ messages in it's file system), browsers open with lots of tabs open at once (20+). Google maps (the system killer).

Rob

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/615292#Comment_615292

People always under estimate the importance of RAM. You can't accept the minimum resources that Apple or Microsoft recommend. Those specs only serve to keep the price down. Look at the specs that Logos lists. 2GB for Snow Leopard and 6GB for Mavericks. I would;t run Snow Leopard with less than 8GB and Mavericks 16GB!