Leopard running free across the internet?

Although those of you who enjoy remaining law-abiding citizens probably won't be all that interested in this particular development, the anxious and morally nebulous of the Mac community will be happy to learn that Apple's brand-spankin' new version of OS X has already found its way onto the internets -- well, a beta version, at least, presumably the one they handed out at WWDC 06 (no, we didn't get a copy). Not surprisingly, early "testers" reportedly claim that the software feels "incomplete." This is obviously not the first time an Apple operating system has leaked out before its intended release (tsk, tsk to those unscrupulous developers responsible): both the Tiger and x86 versions of OS X were being torrented around well ahead of their appearance on store shelves. Now we're not willing to risk the wrath of his Steveness in order to verify the truth behind this supposed leak -- that's what you readers are for. So if you happen to be a friend of a friend of someone who's successfully installed the unreleased OS on his/her machine (or have any other, um, links information to share), please feel free to inform your fellow Engadget reading pals in the comments section.

[Via Download Squad]

[bradskins @ Aug 15th 2006 3:21PM]

check a.b.osx.apps. You will be looking for a pair of jeans (levis)

[Tim @ Aug 15th 2006 3:25PM]

LOL... with possibly the exception of Jaguar all Apple's systems feel incomplete these days.

[Julian @ Aug 15th 2006 3:28PM]

A good place to start would be like spying on torrents.

[blackout @ Aug 15th 2006 3:30PM]

17.0kb/s for the last 2 days :]

[Frederik @ Aug 15th 2006 3:34PM]

It seems like people are pretty scared to share this one, probably because of the lawsuit after Tiger was shared. But if you know where to look, getting it won't be hard.

[Joe V @ Aug 15th 2006 3:38PM]

No doubt it feels incomplete because of all the super-secret features Steve alluded to that won't be announced until later.

[Travis Bell @ Aug 15th 2006 3:39PM]

http://v3.newzbin.com/browse/post/2061890/

It's all you need for a nice, 700KB/s download.

[Fred @ Aug 15th 2006 3:56PM]

4.2 GB torrent at a low,low speed or pay for the chance to download beta software (which in this case is illegal). One for the die hard pirates perhaps. Me, I'll just wait for the official release, it's cheap eough with educational pricing not to bother me.

[Useful Guy @ Aug 15th 2006 4:08PM]

As for the torrent, The Pirate Bay is a good website to investigate.

[Toulouse Le-Plot @ Aug 15th 2006 4:14PM]

"a friend of mine" installed it today and it's O.K. seems like a minor update. just tiger with a few extra apps (time machine, exposé is now an app, spaces. etc) there is a few more options in finder and contextual menus but, over all, it's Tiger with a bell and a whistle.

time machine and spaces are pretty cool though.

[Joe @ Aug 15th 2006 4:19PM]

I managed to get a copy and it was a pain in the a$$ to get it to install. But the Leopardy goodness was worth the trouble. I think it actually runs faster than Tiger on my G4 Powerbook.

[Chris Thomas @ Aug 15th 2006 4:31PM]

I installed it completely without a hitch using the OSInstall.pkg shortcut, installing it on my external firewire drive. The OS is slow to load (I expected this), it runs fine once booted. You cannot upgrade from an existing OS and I do not recommend using it as your primary operating system.

The Pros:

Spaces works much like Exposé and smoothly integrated. Time Machine requires an additional hard drive or external backup (they fail to fully outline this), but once a destination is selected it's mind-numbingly simple; and iChat 4 is delightfully well-integrated with (sic) Remote Desktop Express and integrated Photo Booth features - which I then used to prank half my buddy list with videoconference capability.

The Cons:

I get zero sound out of my unit (a black MacBook). Haven't extensively tested to find out why. iChat's new integrated tabs are on the left side like AOL, not below like Adium/Chax or above like Safari. This is BAD, and takes up a ton of screen real estate.

A fun toy to tinker with, but definitely not ready for full time. Also, iChat 4 uses the new Unified Interface but that's the only program that does. Safari, Finder, iCal and Address Book remain untouched in that regard.

[Dustin @ Aug 15th 2006 4:37PM]

yeaa i found an ftp server with 280k/s dowonload speed that has leopard. installin now

[bill @ Aug 15th 2006 4:39PM]

got it, works pretty well but it is unfinished. Having said that if I could have installed PHP on it i'd even work on it for longer than the couple hours I tinkered with it. Spaces is a godsend though.

[Benjamin Ellis @ Aug 15th 2006 4:56PM]

can some on tell me where to find these fast downloads

[e-mail]

[Raider @ Aug 15th 2006 5:02PM]

Of course it feels "incomplete", it is missing a bunch of key features that won't be divulged until MacWorld 07. Oh yeah, it's also a beta only meant for developers to get a sense of the new programs announced. Mainly Core Animation and Xcode 3.0.

A new version of OS X actually never feels "complete" until the .2-.3 stage. It was the same with Panther and Tiger. Tiger didn't feel as polished until it hit 10.4.2 and especially 10.4.3. So expect Leopard to be a little rough around the edges (for the new additions), until 10.5.2 or higher.

[John @ Aug 15th 2006 5:04PM]

Hey Dustin would you mind sharing an actual link? Bittorrent is sucking!

[Dustin @ Aug 15th 2006 5:13PM]

john go here: http://djh.homeip.net/leopard.png

[Cal @ Aug 15th 2006 5:13PM]

Is this legal? cause if it is bring it on!

[Dustin @ Aug 15th 2006 5:18PM]

(use transmit or other ftp client wiht those settings. then copy all and open the .rar file not any of the .rar# ones. bea ware this is too big for a 4.7 gb dvd and will need to be burned to dual layer if u plan on booting it up)

[John @ Aug 15th 2006 5:36PM]

Thanks Dustin!

[Dustin @ Aug 15th 2006 5:41PM]

no problem. i can be reached on ichat or aim at djh816 if u need help. realize though i am jsut passing on information i am not the one providing the download.

[Zac @ Aug 15th 2006 5:43PM]

Any word if the safari-linked widget maker is part of this test run? Assuming it can be used on Tiger, anyone feel like leaking? The one made as a proof of concept wasn't very good.

[vision77 @ Aug 15th 2006 5:45PM]

The problem is that this version of Leopard is buggy as hell. It ain't worth the trouble just yet.

[billy @ Aug 15th 2006 5:56PM]

Downed it and it is good, yes buggy but what do you expect, it has another 6-8 months in development! I can't figure how to install PHP on it though which is why I went straight back to Tiger.

BTW the widget making safari feature is part of the release, as is all the stuff previewed at WWDC. Spaces rules though!

[Dustin @ Aug 15th 2006 6:08PM]

connections are being refused now i dont know why. jsut try later.

[James M. @ Aug 15th 2006 7:17PM]

Anyone try to run spaces and ichat in tiger?

[CLK @ Aug 15th 2006 8:31PM]

"Is this legal? cause if it is bring it on!"

I'm pretty sure it's not since the cat is already out of the bag, no pun intended.

Apple won't sue you for downloading the code, but they might if you own the website.

[AJ @ Aug 15th 2006 9:21PM]

Is Leopard a Universal Binary? If so, has anyone gotten it running on non-Apple hardware/VMWare?

[keith waddington @ Aug 15th 2006 9:54PM]

this is not the OS they will ship, so why steal stuff and illegally install it? I'm a mac user and I hope it destroys all your photo albums! Nah, I'm not that mean, but you people are pretty stupid and should go back to Windows if you love to tinker and screw up your machines.

waddo
http://www.waddo.net/

[stens @ Aug 15th 2006 10:29PM]

Eek! What kind of attitude is that? Why do you read engadget?

If an OS is working flawlessly, no matter what the OS, it MUST be time for a new OS! Bring on Leopard...okay, bring on a gold master copy...I'm too chicken to play with a beta OS....:-( But I admire people willing to mess with the guts of their OS.

[Jon Doe @ Aug 15th 2006 10:40PM]

Anyone who calls it the internets should be shot. >:-O

[Julian @ Aug 15th 2006 10:53PM]

Some stuff doesn't work. It looks WAY faster than Tiger, I screwed my machine trying it, and had to recover the whole iPhoto collection from backup, in Leopard and in Tiger. Leopard raised the CPU a lot, but was probably 10 times faster than Tiger. On the other hand (and this I went back for), samba sharing doesn't work yet in Leopard. It is a beta, and it is quirky. I wish they distributed it like Vista, though.

[Karl Viklund @ Aug 16th 2006 12:17AM]

I hope they sure the shit out of the one leaked this release.

[Stop Pirate OSX! @ Aug 16th 2006 12:25AM]

Will engadget remove links to the torrents please?

And people stop post links on Engadget please. Want to run OSX? buy a Mac. Isn't Windows good enough? Hah, thought so.

[Shunnabunich @ Aug 16th 2006 1:00AM]

Uhhh..."Stop Pirate OSX", maybe you're commenting on the wrong post. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with running Mac OS X on generic PCs. If you're installing the Leopard developer beta, you already HAVE a Mac.

[Danny Trinh @ Aug 16th 2006 1:05AM]

Gah, don't pirate The Big Cat. At this point its only a developers preview - I'm sparing my first impression until its actually complete.

Its common knowledge at this point that piraters swim in the bay. Looking for the big cat. :)

Still - spare yourselves the trouble and wait. SPRING 07? NO WAI! THATS TOO FAR!

[mike @ Aug 16th 2006 2:01AM]

shunn,

um, pirate... as in steal?

what, do you think you're clever or something? Stealing software is illegal.

DUHHHH!

[ethana2 @ Aug 16th 2006 2:10AM]

Twisted intellectual property dependencies strike again. Boycott Appleware! GNU all the way! Oh yeah. Don't forget seagate, AMD, nVidia, and all of our other modular freedom and flexibility providers.

[Joel @ Aug 16th 2006 3:17AM]

Looks like we've got the attention of Apple. Lolage.

[matthew @ Aug 16th 2006 6:09AM]

' "a friend of mine" installed it today and it's O.K. seems like a minor update. just tiger with a few extra apps (time machine, exposé is now an app, spaces. etc) there is a few more options in finder and contextual menus but, over all, it's Tiger with a bell and a whistle.

time machine and spaces are pretty cool though.

by Toulouse Le-Plot [ ! ]>

One problem toulouse, if mac went ahead and showed there GUI (and there will be a new one) every lil tom, dick and harry at redmond would be copying it, slapping a windows logo on it and calling it there own.

[matthew @ Aug 16th 2006 6:13AM]

also isnt it a bit off that when an app (say for windows!) is brought out illigaly this site likes to play the happy little DONT PIRATE bunny but when mac comes out they seem first to either slate or offer a chance to rip it off.

this is not against the site, far from it (it could be as bad a the register {mac hating fools!}) but please be a bit more consitent with your 'pirate hugging'

smiles :)

[Dustin @ Aug 16th 2006 6:46AM]

looks like that ftp server is back up. look at my image in above posts for info.

[matthew @ Aug 16th 2006 8:31AM]

just for giggles i am gonna try this. a tri boot 1.66Mhz mini, running tiger, boot camp XP and leopard beta. i have 2 external HD's so i am gonna test out a bit of time machine and its back compatability with tiger. any other nice little tests any one want with the trio (i am going to install all 3 internaly on 27.5gb partitions)

[Jayskie @ Aug 16th 2006 8:45AM]

Of course it's only illegal if you get caught:

InfoWorld-
"Attendees at last week's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) received copies of the beta ware of OS X (Leopard) and had to sign legally binding agreements not to let Leopard stray onto file-sharing networks."

[matthew @ Aug 16th 2006 8:56AM]

YAY, just spoke to three people at my apple store and all of them are using this beta in the back! they will not offer over the counter support but a bit of back hand knowledge could come my way! any ideas to test the tri boot yet?

[zoara @ Aug 16th 2006 10:29AM]

Engadget, I am disappointed. That was irresponsible.

[tucker @ Aug 16th 2006 10:53AM]

engadget, that was irresponsible, i love you.

[ryantv @ Aug 16th 2006 12:26PM]

I think i'm going to wait till this is actually released... just break down and buy a new MacBook Pro at that point. I'm sick of people pointing and snickering at the airport when i pull out my G4 PowerBook. It makes baby jesus cry.

when is Leopard expected to drop?

[shidoshi @ Aug 16th 2006 1:25PM]

waddo, Stop Pirate OSX - I seriously doubt that most people are downloading this in order to pirate OSX. What point would there be in downloading a half-complete, beta version of an OS to use and run on a daily basis to avoid paying for OSX? Almost none.

I think most people downloading it are big Mac fans, and are simply curious to get their hands on the beta preview of Leopard so that they can try it out themselves. Time Machine, Spaces, the new iChat, and so on, we're all really curious to give them a test ourselves. Some people would rather wait for the final release, but some of us get antsy and if we get the chance to check it out, we want to. It has nothing to do with just wanted a free copy of some software.