Why do our applications crash?

Question

We have a newspaper to publish.
multiple Macs, couple of Windows XP boxes: Editorial staff use Mirrored Drive Door G4s. Designers use G5 iMacs and Prepress is done on a Dual 2.5 G5.
All run 10.3.9.
An XServe running OS 10 Server 10.3.9 carries a Foxbase application as well as SQL app for managing sales/ad booking, publishing workflow and circulation.
An XServe running 10.4 is running as an everyday file server for graphics and page layout files, as well as backups of work folders, templates, etc.
Lately (3-4 months) many apps, but especially QuarkXPress and Adobe Acrobat have been crashing a lot -- immediately upon launch and at other times as well. Different workstations will have more trouble than others at times.
Because we use Quark and Acrobat the most, they could only seem to have the most problem -- again, there are crashes with other apps, but we don't see those as much.
Basically, the only thing changed in the last six to eight months has been security updates to OS 10. Could that introduce a problem in something all apps try to access?
No techies here. We're designers, writers and salespeople, and one prepress geek trying to keep things running.
Any suggestions?
Thanx.

Answer 1

Hi Cliff,
re: "Basically, the only thing changed in the last six to eight months has been security updates to OS 10. Could that introduce a problem in something all apps try to access?"
When updating Security Updates to the machines was Repair Permissions run using Disk Utility on these machines?
Security updates in particular seem to wreak havoc on 10.3 unless Repair Permissions is run before and after the updates.
I definitely would suggest trying to Repair Permissions on the machines and see if you notice any changes. Look for repairs that may alert you to some problem other than spurious repairs that are normal for 10.3 that are listed here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607267
Sorry, I can't suggest more but wanted to let you know that that can be a problem.....
good luck,
littleshoulders [:-)