CNET reviews Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: ‘Excellent’

“Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is Apple’s first major operating system upgrade since Tiger more than two years ago. The changes include more than 300 new features which, while not earth-shattering, further streamline the experience of using a Mac,” Elsa Wenzel reports for CNET Reviews.

“Should you pay for Leopard? If you’re happy with the way Tiger works, then maybe not. If you need Bootcamp, however, then you must have Leopard. And if you’re considering the purchase of a new computer, Leopard makes Macs more enticing than Tiger did. Plus, Leopard makes it far easier to find documents and applications than Windows Vista. Leopard’s interface niceties made the daily mechanics of using the computer more pleasurable. Mundane chores, such as finding files and backing up data, become a visual treat,” Wenzel reports.

“The grace of Leopard’s interface enhancements makes productivity more pleasurable with a Mac, as more than 300 functional and fun features top off this update,” Wenzel reports.

CNET Reviews give’s Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard a score of 8 out of 10, “Excellent.”

Full review here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Island Girl” for the heads up.]

35 Comments

  1. It would be a 10 out of 10 if Time Machine could backup to a NAS or something other than a HFS+. Geeze, can’t even backup to Airport Extreme………And iPhone notes/memos……

    Apple messed up there. Two point deducted.

  2. But does it randomly reboot for no reason like Windows Vista? Does it inexplicably start reversing all text inputs like Widows Vista? Does it fail to connect to my wireless network intermittently like Windows Vista? Does it contain basic english grammar mistakes in its dialog boxes (“Do this for the next 1 conflicts?”) like Windows Vista? Until Apple can match these features, I’ll stick with MS.

  3. If you really look at thaose so-called user ratings, you’ll see that for the most part, the most current ones are 9 and 10 out of 10s. Now, how many of those people actually have a shipping copy is up in the air.

    If you drill down through all of the customers opinions (they are definately NOT reviews), you’ll find a lnumber of 1 and 2s. They are mostly from obvious Doze fanbois and most pathetically of all, opinions on early BETA versions of Leopard.

    CNET is still a POS website, even with a decent but not great 8 of 10 review.

  4. Installed here-no problems to report.

    There are some very neat minor things included, ie. playback of media files in the cover flow view in finder.

    They still included safari?
    Wow, did not even notice since I use firefox.

  5. Installed 10.5. Wonderful. There is one tip that I learned from Apple Wireless Support.

    I use a closed Network but using the weaker encryption WEP Methods because my Sony PSP will not work with WPA2.

    The new OS does not support WEP with a Closed Network. According to the Apple Care Rep. The new OS gets confused. Anyway, he urged me to get rid of WEP as it can be hacked within a minute. So, I upgrade the Encryption and voila. Works beautifully.

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