Comments on: Your Leopard Love Affair

By: Warren

Warren — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:26:05 +0000

Wait to see what bugs come up? This isn’t a microsoft product. They actually take time to fix bugs before releasing it. And it helps that there are not two dozen different versions of the operating system to cause problems.

By: Billy Halsey

Billy Halsey — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:34:25 +0000

@Lordmike -- Be sure to take a look at Jason Terhorst's How to: Upgrade to Leopard for more information on these questions. I personally recommend SuperDuper! and iBackup. SuperDuper! is great if you need bootable backups; iBackup doesn't support them, but does have a more modular way of backing up your file and preferences. Which to use depends largely on your need to boot from your backup.

By: Lordmike

Lordmike — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:15:11 +0000

@Billy Halsey
Well since I have first generation of macbook pro 15″ and a lacie firewire hdd which I haven’t had any problems with (except noisy fans and heat problems) I guess most things will work smoothly.

Thanks for the information!

Backup: what do you recommend that I use as backup programs? Most things I want to backup is photos and movies of my family which is already on my lacie drive (I think). Oh well will see once I get my hands on 10.5 :)

By: Billy Halsey

Billy Halsey — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:52:42 +0000

@ Lordmike -- I'd hesitate to say that everything will work perfectly, but I wouldn't expect it to be anything like a Windows upgrade, either. Some things, like drivers, might have a few issues (most drivers are already part of OS X anyway), but most of the software you're using should already be Leopard friendly (or will be very shortly) since developers have had access to the Leopard betas for some time now. For the specific apps you mentioned: Quicksilver has a prerelease version that Leopard users should download. According to Mozilla, Firefox 2.0.0.8 is supported but there are a few known issues. For office programs, iWork '08 is definitely supported. Office 2004 should be supported, but I can't find anything definitive. NeoOffice 2.2.2 also works in 10.5. The only area where I'm anticipating problems is the driver for my HP All-In-One device. (HP lists the driver as 10.3 and 10.4, with no mention of Leopard. Considering it took me a day and a half and three system reinstalls to get it installed the first time, I'm not expecting this to be easy.) I'd recommend doing a full, bootable backup to an external drive and then a fresh install. It's the method I will be using on Friday afternoon. I personally won't even do the migration option, but instead copy over my data manually. That may be overkill, though, unless you're a control freak like me.

By: Lordmike

Lordmike — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:12:39 +0000

This is my first upgrade, so what should I expect? Is it such a big difference from like windows xp to vista and most programs and drivers wont work. Or can I expect that quicksilver, firefox, variations of office programs will work out of the box? Should I do a clean install or just install over 10.4?

By: Mark Eagleton

Mark Eagleton — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:25:03 +0000

Time Machine is pretty huge for me, for no other backup solution I’ve used is remotely as easy to restore from as Time Machine appears to be.

The system-wid PIM improvements (to-dos and calendar) is probably #2 for me.

TextMate 2 is a Leopard-only deal. I will be upgrading in the parkinglot at the Apple store Fridayeve.

By: Leopard, hey!

Leopard, hey! — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:46:54 +0000

I'm excited about Leopard, but I believe that is because I'm not the ordinary mac user, but a programmer. Most of the really cool new features cater to my group. Not that there aren't any significant end user features. For one, it seems that they finally fixed the f***** finder. But the end user side of things is not that significant compared to the goodies that Leopard brings to programmers/unix geeks. I have compiled a list in order of importance down at my blog.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:29:37 +0000

Well, I will be getting my first Macbook in a couple of weeks, so that is when I will “upgrade”. Currently, I mooch off my brother’s G4 which is still running 10.3.9 like a champ!!
I’m looking forward to the new Finder, and Spaces.

By: jh

jh — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:15:41 +0000

1) yes.

2) time machine and quicklook. i would do it for time machine alone.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:12:39 +0000

Definately upgrading as soon as I get it. I heard that you can get Leopard for free if you have bought a new iMac within a month before the release date of Leopard. Which I did, so I might get it for free. If not I’ll just buy it anyways. Looking really forward to do!

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:13:01 +0000

Well, since I just ordered a new mac, I’ll be getting the Leopard up to date for $10! If I was not getting a new mac just now, I’d probably wait untill 10.5.2, just to be sure that Leopard had been field tested well

By: Aashish

Aashish — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:13:00 +0000

I don’t think I will be upgrading to Leopard immediately, but the two features I’m most looking forward to are quicklook and time machine. Quicklook is a lifesaver 8)

Why can’t some smart dev come up with Quicklook for Tiger? Anyone ;)

By: Akshay

Akshay — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:46:55 +0000

I`m upgrading asap.
THe 2 big things for me are -
1> DTrace
2> Ruby is now a first class citizen for doing cocoa development.

By: Billy Halsey

Billy Halsey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:59:19 +0000

@ Larry Wigren -- You echo a sentiment that I heard quite often when I was a field engineer with a hardware/software vendor. My customers were very hesitant to install upgrades (or even patches) until they had steeped -- fermented, even -- for a good, long time. Some would even stay two revs back on patches just to keep from being bitten. I can understand not wanting to be on the bleeding edge, but that's like installing 10.4.9 the day that Leopard drops. In a production environment, it's best to be judicious (no betas!), but there's a point where that turns to absurdity. Don't you agree? @ Kyle Hayes -- Preordering through apple.com will deliver on the 26th, not ship on the 26th, according to the Apple online store. Other online preorders may or may not deliver on the 26th.

By: Yong Hwee

Yong Hwee — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:21:13 +0000

I’ll wait a couple of weeks before upgrading as work is taking up most of my time.

I like the minor enhancements in general.

By: Don Parr

Don Parr — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:33:17 +0000

Family pack on order. I’m looking forward to all the enhancements, but the 2 that stand out for me are Finder and Mail :).