Leopard at six months: Does it live up to the early hype?

[Harbourmaster]

Though some thought it was released too soon, Mac OS X 10.5 has matured into a solid operating system

"May 8, 2008 (Computerworld) It has been just over six months since Mac OS X "Leopard" first shipped, bringing with it a slew of new features, a tweaked user interface, revamped underpinnings and -- as is often the case -- a healthy batch of complaints from users about problems. At the time, some in the Macintosh community even argued that Apple Inc.'s new operating system was released before it was ready for prime time.

Given that this was the first major update of the Mac operating system since early 2005 and that it had already been delayed once -- from April to late October -- Apple clearly didn't want to announce another delay. But did the company do a rush job in an effort to push its crown jewel out the door? "

http://www.computerworld.com/action/arti...ticleBasic&articleId=9082998&intsrc=hm_ts_head

[PeterB]

I still haven't updated to it, I've heard too many complaints and bad things, plus it doesn't seem to really add that much versus Tiger. (But then, I really didn't feel that Tiger added too much versus Panther... Panther still seems for me to be the sweet spot between bloat/eye candy and usability.)

[clay]

It came with my macpro last fall, and I've been using it on the machine since then. I've come across precious few issues (actually, none that I can think of right off the top of my head) and it does a fine job for me. There are a couple of nice features that make it slightly better than Tiger for me, but nothing that I couldn't live without.

[M A V I C]

I disagree with the article. Six months after release and it still does not work with most Adobe CS3 products.

Some of it's much hyped features are still broken. It can't even live up to the advertising, let alone the hype.

[Chupa Chupa]

Yes, I enjoy it. It's very stable and most of the new features, like being able to view a doc w/o having to open the app are fantastic. I still don't like Stacks. Apple has tweaked it a little to make it more usable. Spaces drives me nuts. I love how you can instantly plant dates and addresses from email to iCal. Overall I think you get your $100 worth easily.

[beerman]

When I first installed leopard it was problematic. I had applications that would quit in the middle of doing thing, .mac syncing stopped working, and things seemed slower. After a few "security" updates the app quitting problem went away. A memory upgrade fixed the slowness. A long arduous process got my .mac syncing again. So it took alot of effort to get things working correctly again. There are some nice features that leopard added but for me they were just that, "nice."

[M A V I C]

[quote Chupa Chupa]Yes, I enjoy it. It's very stable and most of the new features, like being able to view a doc w/o having to open the app are fantastic. I still don't like Stacks. Apple has tweaked it a little to make it more usable. Spaces drives me nuts. I love how you can instantly plant dates and addresses from email to iCal. Overall I think you get your $100 worth easily.
So two things you don't like, one thing you like, and one thing that has been around since before OS X?

[MacArtist]

Tiger was very solid.

I think Leopard was more of a WOW factor for potential switchers and the media in general (read support stock price).

Don't get me wrong; there are some nice features to Leopard but name the most important.

I like the improved sidebar showing other computers on the network.
I like Spaces.

I use Time Machine to back up my boot drive and other files. I also keep a known good working file of my boot drive on another hard drive but I like the convenience of being able to retrieve a "lost" (accidentally thrown away) file quickly. I also back up graphic files to another drive using Backup.

The doc seems like eye candy to me. The reflection and glows are going to take time to grown on me.

It is another positive step in the evolution of OS X.

[rz]

I have Leopard on my Macbook, and Tiger on my G5. Haven't found a pressing need to update the G5 to Leopard yet. And I usually tend to stay on the leading edge as far as updates go.

The only advantage I've found personally for Leopard is the VNC capabilities that are built into iChat. My sister's mother-in-law got an iMac recently, and within minutes of setting up iChat, I was able to connect to her machine. One of my other sisters got a macbook last week. She hasn't used a Mac since the Performa 52xx days (probably System 7). It'll be comforting for her to know that she can always setup an iChat with me and have me show her things from 1,000 miles away.

Drawbacks to Leopard. In order to continue to use Parallels, I have to update to version 3, which I haven't done yet. So I have to use Bootcamp instead. Not a big deal, but I also have a Ubuntu virtual machine that I can't access until I update. Even bigger deal for me is that the ability to use a smart card reader to access my work email has gone away under Leopard. With Tiger, it was built in to the OS, and just worked. Leopard broke it. Some people have had success getting it to work, but most people haven't. Apple knows about the issue, but hasn't fixed it yet. To get around it, I upgraded the hard drive, and took the old one and put it in an external case and installed Tiger on it. When I need to check my work email from home, I hook up the external and boot from it. Yeah, it's a pain, but it works.

When Leopard was first announced, I thought I would love Time Machine and Spaces. Haven't used either feature yet, other than trying out Spaces to see exactly how it works. SuperDuper is still my backup method of choice.

I know I will eventually update the G5, but not until I'm absolutely sure that all the apps I use will work. It's really not high on my priority list though. Tiger does everything I need it to on the G5.

[mattkime]

The downsides of Leopard have been greatly exaggerated.