Looking Into Leopard
Today's column takes a look at Apple's new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system. In the space available, I had to focus on the features I thought most users would encounter--which meant I wound up glossing over many other interesting new things in Leopard (300 in all, going by Apple's count).
Fortunately, I have this space to talk about those details:
* Upgrading from Tiger to Leopard took about an hour on two Intel-based Macs, an iMac and a MacBook. A good chunk of that time was taken up by the Leopard DVD's own self-test--it checks for any defects on the disc before starting the install itself. I did not experienced any software-compatibility glitches; the only serious one I've heard of involves a third-party system hack, Unsanity's Application Enhancer.
* Since so many of you asked, I put Leopard on a computer that barely met its system requirements--a Power Mac desktop with an 867 MHz G4 processor. (A sticker on the back reported that the Post bought it on July 10, 2001.) Here, the install took almost two hours--but the computer was surprisingly responsive afterwards. Leopard did shut off some of its flashier visual effects, though; for example, the background of the Time Machine interface was a static picture of stars instead of the usual animated starfield.
* Leopard doesn't seem to need much more memory than Tiger. Apple's Activity Monitor utility showed 374 megabytes of memory in use on a just-rebooted Intel-based iMac running Leopard; on another freshly-rebooted Intel iMac running Tiger (plus a set of HP printer drivers), the figure was 385 MB.
* About that Time Machine interface: I've spent years looking at new front-ends for software, but I still blurted out "whoah" the first time--and the second time--Time Machine whooshed into view. Looking at it, you'd think George Lucas ran Apple instead of Steve Jobs.
* Leopard brings some overdue order to the Mac user experience. Instead of the three competing window styles of Tiger--the brushed-metal toolbar of Safari, the pale gray sheen of Mail and the faint pinstripes of TextEdit--almost all of the programs included in Leopard use the same, medium-gray theme.
* Many of these programs, in turn, bear a strong resemblance to iTunes: a unified toolbar and title bar, toolbar buttons for everyday actions and a search field in the top right corner. The Finder owes the most to Apple's music program--it even has a "CoverFlow" view that lets you flip through the contents of a folder, one at a time.
* As in earlier Mac OS X releases (see, for example, my review of Tiger and the e-letter that accompanied it), the applications bundled with Leopard have also received some noteworthy upgrades. The Safari Web browser exhibits fewer display glitches with Web sites and finally includes a find-in-this-page search to match Firefox; the Front Row media-playback interface adopts the look and feel of the Apple TV's software; iCal runs faster and requires fewer contortions to edit an appointment.
* A lot of techies have been enthused about Spaces, the feature that lets you switch among multiple virtual desktops in the way that Linux has allowed for years. I didn't even mention it in the review: It's disabled by default, and in practice I find that Expose is a more elegant way to keep from being swamped by overlapping application windows.
* Providing tech support to other Mac users in the family may get a lot easier with Leopard's Screen Sharing option; it lets you log in remotely to a Mac (either across a local network or, with a .Mac subscription, across the Internet) and run the entire computer inside a window on your screen. Screen Sharing is built on an existing standard, VNC, so you should also be able to share a Mac's screen with a Windows or Linux machine--but I haven't been able to get that to work in my own limited attempts. (Any suggestions?)
* Of the two biggest items on the new-Mac-setup checklist I wrote a while back, one has been fixed: Leopard automatically downloads important software updates for you, though you still have to authorize their installation. The other remains unfixed: Leopard's firewall is inactive by default. Remedy that oversight by opening System Preferences, clicking on Security and then clicking on "Set access for specific services and applications."
* This last item is a little silly, but it's fun: Leopard includes a new speech synthesizer that sounds far more human than Apple's previous attempts. You can hear this "Alex" voice reading aloud a paragraph from a recent Post story in today's podcast (MP3).
If you'd like more detail, check out the first-look assessment at MacInTouch; if you want to know ever single chapter and verse, clear out the next hour to read John Siracusa's in-depth evaluation at Ars Technica.
You can also quiz me about Leopard during my Web chat at 2 p.m. today. The phone lines are already open... metaphorically speaking.
Meanwhile: Have you installed Leopard? How's it gone so far?
By Rob Pegoraro |
November 1, 2007; 10:10 AM ET
| Category:
Mac
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Posted by: Neil | November 1, 2007 12:59 PM
Hello Rob
iBook G4 here purchased in Aug. 05. I have a super drive so I knew I would meet the system requirements. Although the Apple store rep couldn't simply look it up on the web. I mean there are those macbooks you can play with right in the store!
It took about two hours for me also. I have a lot of non-Apple products on there but everything seemed to go well, at first. Now apparently I need to be constantly logged into .Mac or I have no mailboxes on mylaptop. I won't have time until this weekend to call Apple or check the discussions forum. Secondly, the sound preferences simply went away. No, way to change the sound, and the system said it couldn't find the internal speakers. Now it appears to be OK, except that it took a good while to verify the preferences and check out the disk. (Hopefully, OnxY will be back soon.)
I watched the video guide on Leopard, but for some of my questions, I was slightly disappointed with Apple. Snycing is kind of a problem. I had to reset and restore my iPod. I've had to re-sync everything. Now iTunes reloads the Library each time I open it. And the Backup update must have been ready to go on Thursday. More about what to expect would have helped.
Safari? Hmmm... after using Firefox for a few years now, I guess I will purchase OmniWeb. They really did nothing for Safari. Now, neither Inquisitor nor SafariBlock works for me because the InputMangers is kaput.
All in all, it wasn't a particularly troublesome update. Everything did remain in place, all my icons for folders even stayed put. Thanks for the reminder to turn the firewall back on. I use LittleSnitch, but you can't go wrong with the firewall.
Posted by: umm.huh | November 1, 2007 1:25 PM
This is to return the favour to drive-by Mac users who routinely appear on Microsoft news related websites and say "if you dont like Vista, go buy a Mac". Here's a comment for all those new excited users of the new Leopard system - Yay! Leopard is out. Now Apple's market dominance can dramatically increase from 4.0% to 4.01%. Great "Job" Steve.
Posted by: StanUser | November 1, 2007 1:43 PM
Rob,
Your comment here about success with an older G4 contradicts your "3 year old" comment in the article. I have a 2x1.25 GHz G4 from 2001... so which is it? Recommended or not?
Posted by: Pat | November 1, 2007 2:18 PM
Alex isn't "silly" if you cant see
Posted by: Dave | November 1, 2007 4:22 PM
Per your VNC request, try "TightVNC" if you haven't already on your Windows machine.
TightVNC seems to be more permissive than some of the other flavors of VNC and may work for you:
I have no affiliation with TightVNC -- I've just found that it works best for me.
Posted by: Jeff G. | November 2, 2007 1:21 AM
Maybe you should read this thread about more leopard issues. Perhaps the one about hosing my machine with blue screen because of time machine is worth mentioning. I am no MS or Apple fanboy, I like what works, but it's silly for you just to focus on the positives with Apple, and the negatives with MS.
Posted by: mr.p | November 2, 2007 7:38 AM
Just a quick correction to StanUser: Vista's adoption rate has been slow, and the reasons are well documented. In the second quarter of 2007, Apple's new computer sales market share in the USA was 15.8%, and growing faster than the overall market. That's impressive. [www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/22/technology/22apple.php]
By almost all objective analysis, Apple has introduced many very compelling innovations and Microsoft is playing catch-up. In the least-biased view I can muster (yes, i use both OS every day), I find that the stability, efficiency, and user experience on Mac OSX really is a step ahead.
Just as every car purchase should involve test driving many makes and models, you should absolutely cross-shop Mac and Linux machines for your next PC purchase. It's not that Vista is a huge step back, but Mac's cat leapt ahead again - so why wouldn't you at least visit an Apple store to try it?
Posted by: Mac & PC User | November 2, 2007 12:40 PM
Rob: I came across this fix for the Leopard Boot Camp XP install problem and would like to share it with your readers
http://www.macmaven.net/archives/61
Using this tip, we won't have to wait for Apple to come up with a fix.
Posted by: Richard Orlin | November 2, 2007 1:22 PM
I own a fairly new Intel IMac I bought in May 07 and just bought the Leopard upgrade with the expectation it would be a seamless and easy installation. The installer wants to wipe my hard disk and erase my data before proceeding (this is not acceptable); now I'm in queue for tech support and trying to find the solution online. You would think that Apple would have thought of this first. This is disappointing and just like a new Windows upgrade.
Posted by: R Hammond | November 2, 2007 3:58 PM
mr.p: You're pointing to an overall list of message-board topics, not any specific thread. It would also help if you explained exactly what happened with your Mac.
Mac & PC User: That 15 percent figure refers to Apple's share of the PC market's total revenue, not unit sales (8.1 percent, going by the Gartner figure cited in that story).
Pat: There's a difference between what's possible, what's practical and what's desirable. That six-year-old PowerMac was one of the most expensive models Apple sold at the time--though not as high-end as your dual-processor unit--and thus not a fair example of what most potential home users of Leopard would be running. And although that PowerMac was usable, I wouldn't want to use it for much more than Web browsing and e-mail--and it's hard to justify spending $129 on new software for such a lightly used machine.
My "no older than three years old" advice is just my own sense about what consumer-level Macs would be both capable of running Leopard and capable of delivering significant real-world benefits.
Jeff G.: Thanks for the suggestion. I think I tried TightVNC and didn't get anywhere--but I'll have another look at the firewall settings on that laptop. Wouldn't be the first time that a third-party firewall stomped all over an innocent networking program.
- RP
Posted by: Rob Pegoraro | November 2, 2007 4:03 PM
R Hammond - There is no way the Installer wants to wipe your hard drive clean without you selecting that option, i.e., wipe the hard drive is NOT the Default option. You selected that option.
Having said that, I have a cautionary tale, and hopefully unique. I installed Leopard on my Son's laptop (a Core Duo) without a hitch, but it did take 1 - 2 hours (went out to dinner so I didn'tR Hammond hang around to watch it). I then installed my Family Pack version of Leopard on my MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo). It took significantly less time (~1 hour), but when I went to check for Software Updates, and tried to authorize it, I found Leopard had changed my password!
I have been using computers since 1969 & have been a Mac user since 1985, but an arbitrary password change was something I had never heard of, let alone experienced! Fortunately, despite being in a foreign city (Phoenix) it had an Apple Store with a true Genius Bar worker, "Gabe" who despite never having heard of the problem, was able to fix my problem after 2.5 hours of work and using the store's "Unix Guru's" advice. All for FREE!
Sad story with a nice ending, that I hope no one else has happen to them, if only due to the anxiety and waste of one's time. Fortunately, I had backed up my hard drive, but it was in the DC area, not Phoenix, Arizona. The moral of this story is at the minimum, BACK UP YOUR HARD DISK before any major installation, such as a system upgrade. Even a usually 'brainless' Apple upgrade can go awry!
Posted by: Bruce | November 3, 2007 10:15 AM
I have a Mac Pro that I purchased in April of this year. As with the previous respondent Leopard will only install if I format my hard drive. After a week of waiting to speak to someone from Apple the tech rep that I finally manged to get through to said that there was no other alternative but to erase my current Mac hard drive and do a clean Leopard install. I run Parallels with Vista deluxe home edition. He wasn't sure if this is the reason for the necessity of this clean install. This is very disappointing.
Posted by: R Materazzi | November 3, 2007 3:04 PM
Rob,
If you scroll down on this page you can see the 580 pages of support issues with Leopard.
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235
I am currently on paged 245 if you are interested in my problems. It's just a shame on the amount of compatibilty and instability issues with Leopard.
Posted by: mr.p | November 5, 2007 10:22 AM
I can now endorse Jeff G.'s recommendation for TightVNC--I got it to work once I followed Lifehacker's tip about changing one setting in Leopard's Screen Sharing feature.
- RP
Posted by: Rob Pegoraro | November 9, 2007 5:31 PM
Really a question. Can I install i Life 08 on a Tiger
System or do I have to also install Leopard first?
Posted by: MIMI06614 | November 19, 2007 1:09 AM
MIMI06614: Yes, you can install iLife 08 on Tiger and it works well.
In fact, given my personal experience with 3 Leopard upgrades (1 OK, 1 Odd, & 1 Disaster), I would wait until Apple polishes (sorry for the Pun!) Leopard from a Microsoft quality Beta quality version 1.0 to its usual finish.
Posted by: Bruce | November 29, 2007 12:41 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Rob...
Don't forget that while the new Alex voice is silly and fun for you, it's pretty serious stuff for those who have to use it to interact with their Mac. Screen reader users (Voiceover, in OS X) really appreciate a good voice, since they have to listen to it almost constantly.