“The fifth major update to Mac OS X, Leopard, contains such a mountain of features — more than 300 by Apple’s count — that it’s difficult to boil this US$129 operating system release down to a few easy bullet points. Leopard is, at once, a major alteration to the Mac interface, a sweeping update to numerous included productivity programs, a serious attempt to improve Mac OS security, and a vast collection of tweaks and fixes scattered throughout every nook and cranny of the operating system,” Jason Snell reports for IT Business.
“As with every OS X update since version 10.1, there’s no single feature in Leopard that will force Mac users to upgrade immediately. Instead, it’s the sheer deluge of new features that’s likely to persuade most active Mac users to upgrade, especially since this is the longest gap between OS X upgrades — two and a half years — since the [operating system] was introduced,” Snell reports.
“It’s impossible to detail the avalanche of new features in Leopard. Screen Savers and international spelling dictionaries aside, Apple’s list of ‘300+ new features’ isn’t far off. If you use Photo Booth, Parental Controls, Image Capture, VPN, Terminal, or just about any other feature you can think of in Mac OS X, you’ll find at least some changes,” Snell reports.
“So are 300-plus new features worth $129? That answer will vary, because no single user will ever take advantage of all — or maybe even half — of those 300 features. But given the impressive value of Time Machine and improvements to existing programs such as iCal, iChat, Mail, and the Finder, most active Mac users will find more than enough reasons to consider that upgrade cost money well spent. Despite a few interface missteps, particularly when it comes the menu bar and the Dock, Leopard is an upgrade that roars,” Snell reports.
Full review, including how many of Leopard’s new features specifically address security concerns, here.
“a serious attempt to improve Mac OS security, “
Wow! No kiddin’.
How about it, MDN… is the hysteria playing out in Apple Leopard discussion forums the usual panic of things not working, not installing, not launching, blue death screen, endless spinning of gears and beach balls, etc. about normal or is it more and is more of this trouble on the way? We want a report.
I’ve not had any problems doing a straight install of Leopard on customer’s machines…just pop in the DVD, install and watch it go…just like in the guided tour.
Well, on launching Safari, Garageband and Logic Express on a Leopard equipped iMac in my local Apple Store the whole system froze – and even subsequently hitting ‘Force Qui’t froze(Garageband and LE were not responding).
I think I’m going to wait for at least 10.5.1 before I purchase.
The only downside to installing Leopard was the 45 minutes or so that it took!
300 New Features –
Be the first kid on your block to collect ’em all !!!
Tell us about your problems.
You know, we’d like to hear about your upgrading problems. Tell us how the new OS was so bad that you eventually abandoned Vista and went back to XP.
We really are interested.
Upgraded a G5 iMac, Intel Mac Mini, and a 17″ MBP 2.33, without any problems; of all the programs I tested with 10.5 – MS office ran as slow as always; Filemaker 8.5 and 9 seemed to do fine; Parallels ran great; Adobe CS3 ran fine and seemed to be faster (Acrobat downloaded an update though).
Time Machine needs more parametric controls – seems to want to do full backups every time instead of incremental and spends a lot of time ‘preparing’ every hour; Safari is a lot faster.
My .02
Filemaker? I thought it didn’t run under Leopard?
I really like the new dock. There is more info presented visually at a glance, and stacks are great. As for the menu bar, the transparency is not a problem at all. The only downside is that when my wife calls to ask me how to do something over the phone, I can’t start with “Click on the blue Apple…”
Spotlight has gone from good and useful to great and indispensable.
I upgraded my MacBook to 10.5 and everything seems fine
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So far…
These people writing in and saying that leopard is having all these problems are most likely paid employees of microsoft. I have had no such problems whatsoever. I’ve installed leopard on my 867 titanium, macbook and mac mini with absolutely no problems.
The OS is beautiful, everything works perfectly. For a new OS, it is amazing and the sharpness of the graphics has turned my titanium into a brand new computer.
Buy it, well worth the upgrade.
ron, OSX code has never been without serious security problems, some of them every bit as bad as those in Windows. We can be well pleased with ourselves and our dear Macs that nobody has yet found a way to use those flaws to gain remote access to a minimally protected system. And it isn’t as if they haven’t tried! Which means … lots of security flaws to fix – before someone does find a way to use them to gain system access.
Mac OSX – locked down yesterday and tomorrow!
Dave
I updated my Macbook pro and my G5 tower. The tower blue screened on me. However a second clean install worked. I have a problem with using the G5 for Internet sharing – it doesn’t see the ethernet port as sharable.
“These people writing in and saying that leopard is having all these problems are most likely paid employees of microsoft”.
I’m a diehard Macintosh veteran user of 20 years experience, and currently running a MacMini. I certainly don’t work for Microsoft.
I’m just honestly reporting on being very surprised on the iMac that I used today being brought down on its knees after lauching three applications together.
@CandTsmac,
Actually, Filemaker 9 runs fine under Leopard. It has two known issues as listed on the Filemaker web site:
FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Pro 9 Advanced generally run on Leopard although there are two known issues. We are targeting a downloadable update to be available on November 19, 2007.
1. The Instant Web Publishing feature does not work.
2. On Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), each language version of FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Pro 9 Advanced works only when the Mac OS System Preference “International Formats Region” is set to a specific region.
As for the Dock, too much eye candy. And the translucent menu bar: Why?
Remember, Apple: Simplicity is your friend.
@ justified
Agreed on the Menu Bar, Why transparent? Doesn’t help and doesn’t always look good either.
When I read this artical in it’s entirity, I found myself not realy liking this guy. Lot’s of little tings, but all in all I have to agree. Mac’s belong in the corporate world. Wake up people.
Still GB run’s great here, strange. We will al have to wait and see.
Sorry for the spelling in the last post. I have a screaming 6 month old and click at the wrong time. And it’s still morning for me.
Upgraded my G4 iBook.
Everything OK so far, except for Mail.
The accounts (2) were deactivated.
John
iMac G5, 1.8Mhz, 512Mb
4 Spaces defined
1-2 apps per space
TimeMachine engaged
Mail update is awesome
document CoverFlow is perfect
Simply amazing
I went last night to Manhatten Beach Apple Store. The line was too long for me (had my two small grandchildren). I was disappointed not to get Leopard last night, but I loved seeing the long line outside of one of Apple’s smaller mall stores. I’ll trip over later today.
No problems installing, running on my MacBook.
One annoyance: Between the beta of Safari and the release, my ad blocking software (PithHelmet) stopped working. I’ve had to switch to Firefox with Ad Blocker Plus to get the same functionality. I prefer Safari, but will have to work in Firefox for now.
As a note: I’m not against ads. I understand websites have to make money. I’m against moving, spinning, swirling, flashing, blinking, singing and dancing ads. I didn’t realize how bad it’s gotten over the years since I started using ad blockers. How can anyone stand to read MDN without one?
It should be pointed out that Jason Snell is Macworld’s editorial director.
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Just to be Fair and Balanced.®
http://www.macworld.com/2007/10/reviews/leopard_review/index.php
This the fastest and easiest of all of the installations of Mac SOS X !!
Do it as an archive and install. That’s always the best way.
Wow ! Leopard rocks (big time) ! BTW, I’m not easily impressed. This has to be the best and stablest intro of a version of Mac OS X yet,
Is anyone frustrated with the new Dock? You can only go layer deep into the folder!!! Drilling down several layers deep is how I’ve been accessing files for a long time. Now I have to just open up folder after folder by double-clicking them. Argghh!