Mac OS X Leopard

[texasranger]

Leopard comes out today. Just like any other mac freak, I'm going to wait in line at the store.

Poll: Is it good, or is it whack? You decide.

[artdutra04]

From all of the videos and demos that I've seen of Leopard online, it looks very impressive. The new Time Machine with automatic file backup onto an external hard drive looks like a great feature, as well as Coverflow and "live" thumbnail images for every file in the Finder.

The Stacks look to be a great space saver for the desktop and the dock, and all the new features and cross-integration between Mail, iCal, iLife, Chat, and the rest of the Mac programs looks amazing.

And while I may not be standing in line to get Leopard tonight (my G4 Mac Mini is barely above the minimum system requirements, and my PowerMac G4 is still running Panther*), I am planning on getting a new iMac within the next 3-6 months, and dual booting it into Leopard and XP Pro. (My Dell laptop doesn't take too kindly to intense CAD work.) And since Leopard is now fully UNIX-compliant, I'm hoping that I'll now be able to run a UNIX workstation version of Pro/ENGINEER through x11 natively in Leopard (SSHing into their UNIX terminal server works too), without having to dual boot. I'm keeping my fingers crossed there.

Now while I will wait until I get to actually use Leopard for a while before I make a final decision, I'm cautiously optimistic that it certainly does look like Leopard will be a much more powerful [and IMHO better] operating system than Windows Vista.


* I'm planning to upgrade the RAM, install several USB2/Firewire PCI cards in it, and plug in several hard drives to use as a network file server at my home. It's just too beautiful of a computer tower to throw away/recycle.

[Billfred]

I intend to upgrade to Leopard, just not today.

I have tracked Apple long enough to know that there will likely be some small-but-irritating issue once they loose Leopard on the masses. I am more than happy to let y'all find them while I hang back for a while on 10.4.10. I figure I'll upgrade sometime in November.

[texasranger]

I installed Leopard on my 24" iMac and boy is it nice! I haven't configured time machine yet because I don't have a backup hard drive, but I recently got the new Xcode developing tools and DashCode, which lets you create widgets for web and for Dashboard on the Mac. XCode has a big library with all types of code that you can search. It's really neat.

If you wanna see any pictures of the wait at the apple store click here

I was second in line, and waited for three hours. But I got leopard and a free cool tshirt.

[Kyle Fenton]

Leopard is indeed impressive. I played with it @ the Providence Place Mall after waiting an hour to get in.
But one thing consumers should know is that it breaks many third party applications. More than any other OS X release to date. Apparently in order for them to get the speed and security features in Leopard they deleted several "older" frameworks (API, Libraries, etc). Check to see if all of your essential applications support Leopard before upgrading.

Some applications that won't work

* Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0
* Miglia AlchemyTV
* Filemaker (????)
* Shapeshifter
and many more

If you really modded your system than you should go and perform an archive and install instead of an upgrade path

[texasranger]

Originally Posted by Kyle Fenton

Leopard is indeed impressive. I played with it @ the Providence Place Mall after waiting an hour to get in.
But one thing consumers should know is that it breaks many third party applications. More than any other OS X release to date. Apparently in order for them to get the speed and security features in Leopard they deleted several "older" frameworks (API, Libraries, etc). Check to see if all of your essential applications support Leopard before upgrading.

Some applications that won't work

* Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0
* Miglia AlchemyTV
* Filemaker (????)
* Shapeshifter
and many more

If you really modded your system than you should go and perform an archive and install instead of an upgrade path

Yeah, I just saw that in a mac forum recently. One of those users who liked installing freeware applications on his computer (most of them he probably didn't even use) and his installation of Leopard failed because of these apps. He was complaining that apple should give him his money back (I guess he couldn't let go of AntPoker).

[whlspacedude]

To start off i have never used leopard but with my past experiences with operating a mac id have to say that the mac in general is cumbersome and finicky. I currently use Ubuntu 7.10 and have had minimal problems (mostly user error) and am quite content with it. I however would like to know about leopard (not saying you'll convert me) and its GUI and eyecandy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtZKp8_jOHo

[Bharat Nain]

Someone at my college got Leopard recently and I played with it for more than 4 hours (because he was in class and let me borrow his). It is absolutely amazing. One of the most user-friendly OS's I have ever used. I also like how all the applications are very focussed on the convenience of home and business users. Some people like to be very technical so they probably would find XP or Linux more of their type but for me.. I'll take the mac. Now.. I need to save up so I can buy one of those.

[artdutra04]

Actually, it looks like I'll be upgrading my Mac Mini very soon to Leopard. One of the kids on my dorm floor bought a family pack of Leopard for $200 (since there's about a dozen or so Macs on our floor of 60 people). So far, a bunch of of the people who've upgraded to Leopard on my floor say that their computers seem to run faster with Leopard than they did with Tiger.

My G4 Mac Mini is barely above the minimum specs, but someone on the floor above mine upgraded their iBook with lower specs (867Mhz G4, 512Mb RAM) than my Mac Mini, and after seeing it in person, it runs practically as well as Tiger did. (They report about 15 seconds longer to turn on, and nothing much else.) Now I have no reservations about upgrading my Mini.

That's another reason why I like Macs; the useful lifespan of their hardware is about double that of the average PC.

[synth3tk]

I got an old iMac through my online school, and I might upgrade it to Leopard. I do wish to buy a MacBook Pro sometime in the near future.

[ben_0614]

I should be getting my copy of Leopard this week. I got a new 2.4 Ghz 24" iMac on the 21st, and they let me have a copy for 10$. Tiger is awesome already, a big jump from Windows ME. Leopard should be even better. I plan to get VMware Fusion and install Vista, or just use Boot Camp...