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CW: Leopard After Six Months: Solid and Doubts Vanished
by , 2:55 PM EDT, May 8th, 2008
Apple's Mac OS X 10.5, "Leopard" has matured into a solid operating system, according to Computerworld on Thursday. While some thought it was released too early, and there were some early snafus, debates about Leopard as a worthy upgrade have vanished.
Right after Leopard was released, there were two notable bugs that alarmed the Apple community: the copy file bug to a server and the Blue Screen crash attributed to Unsanity's APE software. Those issues were quickly resolved, and the early debate, as is typical, centered on the cosmetics of the new OS.
One item that particularly annoyed Mac users was the deletion of a favorite way of viewing folders in the dock, as a hierarchal, text-based list. Instead it was limited to either a grid or a curved stack. Apple fixed that and returned the hierarchal list in update 10.5.2.
Another annoyance, for developers at least, has been the delay of Java 6 support (also called Java 1.6). [This week, Apple addressed that issue as well with "Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1.0" which adds support for Java 1.6.0_05, but that release is restricted to 64-bit Intel Macs.]
Now, six months after release, there are few doubts about Leopard. With Vista stumbling, not by sales numbers, but by the regard it has in the enterprise, Leopard has received newfound corporate awareness and respect. IBM caught the attention of corporate America with its own internal test to evaluate Leopard (and Linux) for internal deployment. The ability to run other OSes, including Vista and XP, while in place for a long time, is gaining more and more momentum in business circles.
"Though Apple's hardware is what so often draws a crowd -- remember when the iPhone and MacBook Air came out? -- that hardware is just a collection of parts. Leopard is the heart and soul of the Mac," Michael DeAgonia concluded.
Observer Comments
Thu May 08, 2008 4:57 pm Subject: 3rd party upgrades or updates
QuoteGuest wrote:
If someone forks over $129 for the upgrade, they are looking AT LEAST at double that, and perhaps more on the averages of 3-5 times that amount, in purchasing 'upgrades' which are "Leopard compatible".
Of the 10 people who asked me about upgrading, we inventoried their software and concluded it'd cost, on average, $500 to upgrade their software. And this cost did not include increasing RAM, which is another $120+ (including install fee).
I have yet to find a person who doesn't have to, at least, spend double the cost of the upgrade ($258 total; includes upgrade) to go to Leopard 10.5.
Gary Noter
I had to update a number of 3rd party programs, but those updates were free.
For me the only compatibility issues has been with Adobe Creative Suite 2 and then the problems have only been in Distiller and InDesign. I will probably skip the CS3 upgrade and wait to see if Adobe writes CS4 in Cocoa. In the meantime I will continue to layout in iWork's Pages and distill the PostScript files using my iBook that runs under Tiger.
I am not saying that your clients would not have to update/upgrade 3rd party programs, that may indeed be the case. Can you give us some examples of the programs that would need to be upgraded?
Thu May 08, 2008 6:47 pm Subject: In over 20 years
QuoteGuest wrote:
You have very low expectations.
Memory leaks. Mall application crashes. Kernel panics. Basic system API's that do not work as they have worked for years. Wireless networking problems. Active Directory networking problems. Problems file sharing on a Windows network. Problems with permissions after upgrading from Tiger.
I like a lot of the features of Leopard (esp. Quick Look). But the execution has been sloppy. That is why apple has a 400+MB service pack "coming soon". Which follows from the 300+MB service pack in February.
Perhaps after 10.5.3 your article will be true. Until then, it remains a brilliant product that has way too many bugs.
Leopard is solid, it may not be iridium, but it isn't lithium either. Mail doesn't crash for me, I haven't had a kernel panic since Panther and that was due to a cheesy USB light. Wireless works fine. You need to elaborate on the permissions problem you are experiencing, because I haven't seen any in that regard. As to sharing with Windows I can't comment, the only way I share with those people is to give them a PDF, RTF, or a graphic file.
In over 20 years I have never installed a "service pack" on a Mac, I have installed "Security Updates." How do you know the size of the upcoming "service pack?"
Count me in with those who haven't had to pay anything beyond the price for the OS. And I have had absolutely no problems with crashing anything, Mail.app or kernel panics. My only complaint is that sometimes the Leopard system doesn't show up on the home network. That is a pain, for sure.
Thu May 08, 2008 7:55 pm Subject: Well hell!
QuoteGuest wrote:
Somebody needs a hug.
Well hell, I need one of those and I am not even complaining about Leopard.
Seriously, the Leopard is not without its problems, the biggest is that it can not change its spots. However, it is pretty solid and I am running older, slower Macs with PowerPC chips.
Thu May 08, 2008 8:14 pm Subject: Re: You totally mi$$ the point: the upgrade cost
QuoteIt's a pity we haven't met. I paid for the upgrade for my three Macs (one of which I haven't actually upgraded yet, but only because I'm lazy). So far I haven't had to spend another, as I presume you would say, dime.Anonymous wrote:
I have yet to find a person who doesn't have to, at least, spend double the cost of the upgrade ($258 total; includes upgrade) to go to Leopard 10.5.
OK, I lie. I shelled out $NZ500 for a 1Tb drive for backups. But that was just because I could.
Fri May 09, 2008 1:35 am Subject:
I upgraded from 10.4 to 10.5. I use my Mac in a business environment. I did not have to pay to upgrade any software at all. I still use Photoshop 7 and Illustrator 10. Also Notes 7. I have not had any of the instabilities that guest mentions.
Looks like somebody trolled the web and searched for "leopard problems" and listed everything that individuals mentioned, which is not necessarily indicitive of a systemic problem.
Fri May 09, 2008 7:11 am Subject: That seems to happen a lot
QuoteIntruder wrote:
Looks like somebody trolled the web and searched for"leopard problems"; and listed everything that individuals mentioned, which is not necessarily indicitive of a systemic problem.
That seems to happen a lot when there is OSX story. This weekend we will probably have a blog full of "Guests" commenting on the matter.
Sure there has been problems, but squeaky wheels get the grease.
QuoteGuest wrote:
If someone forks over $129 for the upgrade, they are looking AT LEAST at double that, and perhaps more on the averages of 3-5 times that amount, in purchasing 'upgrades' which are "Leopard compatible".
Of the 10 people who asked me about upgrading, we inventoried their software and concluded it'd cost, on average, $500 to upgrade their software. And this cost did not include increasing RAM, which is another $120+ (including install fee).
I have yet to find a person who doesn't have to, at least, spend double the cost of the upgrade ($258 total; includes upgrade) to go to Leopard 10.5.
Gary Noter
Replace the word "Leopard" with the word "Vista" in the above post and you might have something resembling the truth.
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