Well, technically its 5 days with Leopard but it didn’t sound so good. I of course don’t mean I’ve jumped into a cage with a Leopard but actually I’ve been using Apple’s latest big cat. The nice people at TNT delivered it while I was at work so once I made it home I was ready to crack on.
Installation was fairly quick and painless. Pop the DVD in click install, watch the computer restart, select a couple of options, click install and go make a cup of tea. 45 minutes later one upgraded OS X. Log on and well time to play spot the difference.
The things you can’t fail to notice are the new dock which has gone all 3D and, if your computer supports it, the translucent menu bar. Other than that it appears all the changes are superficial. System Preferences has a new icon and iCal now shows todays current date.
However once you dig under the surface the power of Leopard really shines through. Everything has the iTunes 7 look and feel which creates a lovely consistency running throughout the OS. Apples inclusion of Cover Flow directly into the OS has made for a revelation - hit space and Quick Preview opens. So far I’ve not found a file that it won’t deal with.
What else is good? Well, I’m really liking the revised iCal. It is both deceptively simple and astonishingly powerful. Networking is improved; computers and servers you can connect to now show up in Finder and I particularly like the icon that Cover Flow shows if its Windows computer - It’s the Windows blue screen of death. Ahh…Irony, it tastes good.
Most pre-Leopard programs run fine though there will be updates. Already Elgato’s EyeTV has been taken to version 2.5.1 to fix some reported bugs. My biggest problem is address book syncing utility Plaxo which will not work with Leopard.
I was concerned about it’s performance with only 1Gb of RAM but, so far, I’ve been impressed with performance. Shut down takes a little longer than previous cat Tiger. I get the occasional graphics glitch on my Macbook but I suspect that this is more down to the Intel GMA950 chip set than Leopard.
Is it necessary to upgrade? Well, not at the minute. It’s a more finished product than Vista was when that was released but there are a few issues still to be ironed out. Wait till it reaches it’s 1st or 2nd revision (10.5.1 or 10.5.2). Tiger is about to be updated it’s 11th revision (10.4.11), this will be the last release but you can guarantee it will be stable and secure. Something that Leopard has a little way to go.
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