Mountain Lion Problems

[Wim]

I agree with you all... if I was in your position I would also be frustrated.

We have a 1.8.1 beta, but it doesn't address many of the issues that have been raised about Mountain Lion. If I released it, I would give it a few hours before it was ripped apart as not a solution. And it needs bug changes to 1.8 to work around the OS bugs causing the issues.

We have to get our v2.0 software out. We're whipping the dev team as hard as we can to get this done, but they're already rowing as fast as they can.

V2.0 development is going better than expected and we should be able to deliver a preview before the end of the year. But it is not ready yet, so can't just magic something up.

Wim

[cmwade77]

Originally Posted by Wim

I agree with you all... if I was in your position I would also be frustrated.

We have a 1.8.1 beta, but it doesn't address many of the issues that have been raised about Mountain Lion. If I released it, I would give it a few hours before it was ripped apart as not a solution. And it needs bug changes to 1.8 to work around the OS bugs causing the issues.

We have to get our v2.0 software out. We're whipping the dev team as hard as we can to get this done, but they're already rowing as fast as they can.

V2.0 development is going better than expected and we should be able to deliver a preview before the end of the year. But it is not ready yet, so can't just magic something up.

Wim

Well, then stop ALL work on 2.0 and get 1.8.1 stable and out, bottom line is your competitors have caught up and passed you. They are offering Mac support for USB 3.0 devices, even on Mountain Lion. Are their drivers perfect? No (if anyone claims a driver or piece of software is perfect and cannot be improved, I would worry about them), but they work and don't cause all of these crashes.

So, unfortunately, from our (the customers) point of view, it shows that you are not trying hard enough to get a fix out. I know that may sound harsh, but it's the honest truth.

I think it may be time to start a Twitter/Facebook campaign to warn everyone about the lack of Mountain Lion support for Displaylink devices, so that they aren't suckered into thinking that they will work.

[r8r]

I couldn't care less whether you call it a 1.8.x or 2.x release. I just want to be able to use my 3rd screen again. If you don't come up with a solution soon I will never find out what magic unicorn things v2.0 will do, as the displaylink adapter long will have been chucked by then.
Apart from the fact of this somewhat ridiculous support, I think your problem also is, that your user base consists of a fair share of developers and we all know how to not approach upgrade issues; mountain lion has been released for developers months and months ago and you've had plenty of time to release a working driver. Take off the note on your driver page at least, that its supposed to be working on 10.8.
Last but not least, the statement, that you're "whipping the dev team as hard as you can" gave me shivers; I'm glad I don't work for displaylink.
Don't get me wrong: I am a development shop owner myself and know how devestating Environment changes can be to resource planning, but I don't understand why management doesn't have the guts to take responsibility and officially address this issue.

[Carlo]

Originally Posted by r8r

I couldn't care less whether you call it a 1.8.x or 2.x release. I just want to be able to use my 3rd screen again. If you don't come up with a solution soon I will never find out what magic unicorn things v2.0 will do, as the displaylink adapter long will have been chucked by then.
Apart from the fact of this somewhat ridiculous support, I think your problem also is, that your user base consists of a fair share of developers and we all know how to not approach upgrade issues; mountain lion has been released for developers months and months ago and you've had plenty of time to release a working driver. Take off the note on your driver page at least, that its supposed to be working on 10.8.
Last but not least, the statement, that you're "whipping the dev team as hard as you can" gave me shivers; I'm glad I don't work for displaylink.
Don't get me wrong: I am a development shop owner myself and know how devestating Environment changes can be to resource planning, but I don't understand why management doesn't have the guts to take responsibility and officially address this issue.

Some really good points here, thank you r8r.
Yes there has been a lapse in communication, nobody could ever deny that. We should in hindsight also have tested more use cases on more platforms as the changes in the undocumented and unsupported parts of the OS we interface to (you are a developer: try to find the graphics DDK for OS X) have been much more than what seemed at first sight.

On the other hand, if a software is resulting in an atrocious user experience with version 10.8.0 of the OS and exactly the same software has a much better user experience with 10.8.2 (5 critical OS bugs fixed up to now, 6 to go), how shall we define its quality? On my system I have only 1 issue left for example and I know it's another OS bug.
You also have to consider that the same exact issues are also reproducible (on the same systems) even with the other Miracle Devices often mentioned on the forum.
I think I'll write a separate post about the whole ML user experience.

Anyway, I wanted to reassure you about the work conditions in DisplayLink.
The dev team is fine, thanks, we are actually pretty excited about progress on the unicorn.
Our version of whipping has been a very successful week-end in the mountains to bond the team with a lot of physical exercise, laughter and good cooking. Unconfirmed reports say that alcohol played a role as well..
We have open positions by the way: http://www.displaylink.com/careers/job_board.php

Cheers,
Carlo

P.S. We might change our internal code name for 2.0, I think "unicorn" is brilliant.

[andynormancx]

How about at least updating this page:

http://www.displaylink.com/support/mac_downloads.php

so that it doesn't falsely claim that you support OSX 10.8, several people have pointed out this falsehood and yet weeks later the page still says that your driver supports 10.8, which it does not in any meaningful way.

People are STILL buying the various DL based products expecting them to work correctly with OSX 10.8

[fhall1]

Gotta agree with andynormancx about the note on the driver page.....while you guys are partying in the mountains, people are still wasting money on hardware that won't work.

[jdeuce77]

Originally Posted by fhall1

Gotta agree with andynormancx about the note on the driver page.....while you guys are partying in the mountains, people are still wasting money on hardware that won't work.

Agreed. It's the least I think your company can do to at least show responsibility in addressing the problem.

[andynormancx]

Originally Posted by andynormancx

How about at least updating this page:

http://www.displaylink.com/support/mac_downloads.php

so that it doesn't falsely claim that you support OSX 10.8, several people have pointed out this falsehood and yet weeks later the page still says that your driver supports 10.8, which it does not in any meaningful way.

I'm pleased to see that the page has now been updated to say there are problems with 10.8, well done DisplayLink.

However, the knowledge base article that they link to doesn't detail the most serious problems that I had with the driver, namely that it caused Finder and Skype to repeatedly crash and so rendered the machine unusable.

[ikki]

It's clear that the DisplayLink v1.8 drivers have serious problems with OS X 10.8. For instance, I am also experiencing the crash of Finder - on a brand new mac with only DisplayLink drivers installed.

Do we have any official statement from DisplayLink?
In their "Mac software releases update" post, they mention that a new version may be available on Q1 2013. Any update?

Cheers,
Luca

[cmwade77]

Originally Posted by Carlo

Some really good points here, thank you r8r.
Yes there has been a lapse in communication, nobody could ever deny that. We should in hindsight also have tested more use cases on more platforms as the changes in the undocumented and unsupported parts of the OS we interface to (you are a developer: try to find the graphics DDK for OS X) have been much more than what seemed at first sight.

On the other hand, if a software is resulting in an atrocious user experience with version 10.8.0 of the OS and exactly the same software has a much better user experience with 10.8.2 (5 critical OS bugs fixed up to now, 6 to go), how shall we define its quality? On my system I have only 1 issue left for example and I know it's another OS bug.
You also have to consider that the same exact issues are also reproducible (on the same systems) even with the other Miracle Devices often mentioned on the forum.
I think I'll write a separate post about the whole ML user experience.

Anyway, I wanted to reassure you about the work conditions in DisplayLink.
The dev team is fine, thanks, we are actually pretty excited about progress on the unicorn.
Our version of whipping has been a very successful week-end in the mountains to bond the team with a lot of physical exercise, laughter and good cooking. Unconfirmed reports say that alcohol played a role as well..
We have open positions by the way: http://www.displaylink.com/careers/job_board.php

Cheers,
Carlo

P.S. We might change our internal code name for 2.0, I think "unicorn" is brilliant.

Hmm....I don't think that a trip to the mountains is the best use of time until a fix for the problems is released. I definitely want my Pluggable device working properly on Mountain Lion. I don't care that it's only a 2.0 device, we have enough of these around the office that is an issue. I can see taking the trip after the fix is out, but not before.

Again, your competitors have these drivers out already (as well as ones for USB 3.0), which means they have obviously found a way around these "Operating System Bugs", so it is possible to do. Now, I do agree that Apple should fix their bugs, but if there are ways around them, then it is your responsibility to make your product work properly. I don't like the blame game, we don't accept it within our office and I don't accept it from those that I do business with. Bottom line is it either works properly or it doesn't.

I have started a Facebook page about these problems to try to bring public attention to the issue and help others not waste their time and/or money. For us, it was only wasted time as the manufacturer took care of us, but for many, it is also a waste of money.

The Facebook page is at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Displ...37576346278575