It's not like we really expected scathing, Apple-coring criticism from the likes of the same motley crew
Apple supplied pre-release iPhones to (namely: Walt Mossberg of WSJ, David Pogue of NYT, and Ed Baig of USA Today, but where's Steven Levy?), but there's little doubt that if you don't have a distaste for all things Apple you're probably interested, if not pretty stoked about Leopard. (As it turns out, the landslide majority of Engadget readers are
right in tune with that sentiment.) The gentleman's club agrees on a few key positives (Time Machine is like, zomg, so rad; Quick View and Spaces are great, and it's nice not to have to upgrade hardware to make the most of the new OS) and negatives (the new translucent menu bar disappoints, the four month delay in shipping Leopard was a bummer), and, of course, the bottom line that Leopard seems to be Apple's strongest OS to date -- and why shouldn't it be? This stuff isn't supposed to get
worse with time, remember?
Read - Mossberg (thumbs up): it is an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, release, I believe it builds on Apple's quality advantage over Windows.
Read - Pogue (thumbs up): Leopard is powerful, polished and carefully conceived. Happy surprises, and very few disappointments, lie around every corner.
Read - Ed Baig (thumbs up): These and other features should satisfy new and old Mac fans. Leopard is one cool cat.
Read - Technology Review (thumbs up, kinda): "... people who are thriftier than I would probably do better to hold off on this update."
posted October 25th 2007 2:07AM
Oh please. Microsoft would never release these features in a service pack. Leopard is giving you:
Time Machine
Stacks
New Finder
New iChat
Quicklook
Spaces
Coverflow in Finder
No, Microsoft would release these in a new operating system.
Interesting list of features... several of them *were* free upgrades:
New Finder (IE4 replaced Windows Explorer)
New iChat (Windows Live Messenger has always been free, even upgrades, and its even available for the Mac!)
Spaces (MS had a free PowerToy that gave Spaces-like functionality, sort of)
The other interesting thing about that is that a majority of the features like those mentioned by Apple are usually considered "no big deal" and aren't even worth mentioning as part of Windows upgrades. More of a "oh, by the way" kind of thing.
Apple has just taken a different approach to OS upgrades... every year or two release an "incremental" upgrade at $129, instead of a $200 upgrade (Vista Business, just as an example) after five years. Some people prefer the former, other the latter. Dollar-wise Apple is charging its users more than MS does if you keep up to date: If you purchased every version of OS X, you've spent $645, plus been forced into at least one hardware upgrade along the way. If you buy all of the versions of Windows released in the same time period (XP Pro OEM + Vista Business upgrade) its $398. Sure the $129 upgrade price seems like less, but in the long run you spend more because you do it so much more often. I'll give it to Apple, though, for only having one desktop OS release; having so many Vista options is frustrating.
As a developer, I prefer having a more consistent platform to write for; the software I write for Windows works on everything from 98 through Vista without code changes. Worrying about what features are or aren't available in last year's Mac OS (which many many Mac owners will still run) is a development headache. You can guarantee that a lot of apps that ran on 10.3 won't work on 10.5, for example.
Great post in regards to development environment doug. I feel your pain.
Also, don't forget the "time machine" funcionality - while not being done in core animation, the feature is there in vista. Vista constantly ghosts files on your disk while also keeping copies of versions along a period of time.
You can also use system restore to restore your pc to a given restore point in the past.
The only thing I see wrong with leopard is that they're charging for it. This really seems like a $129 service pack.
Macs crash more than XP or Vista for me. actually, im quite happy with vista and im not even on that great of a computer (old pent4 2.6, 1 gb ram, 6600 not GT). i didnt have to upgrade at all to run vista just fine(with full aero). and no wonder OSX never requires a hardware upgrade, its running a near identical GUI it was running roughly 6 years ago.
sure leopard is a service pack just like vista was to XP, in your dreams buddy, lol, just that leopard its about 10x better and cheaper too, i really dont understand microsoft fanboys sometimes they make things up and talk about things with out even trying them, like if they where getting the things for free, i could care less if apple of microsoft see daylight tomorrow, but microsoft should start getting things straight because 2 year ago they where 20x bigger than apple, and today apple is worth less than 1/2 of it, and let me tell you its nearly impossible for a user to come back to windows once they leave there gone forever, i try and a few times an my friends too and just keep coming back to mac, its like you can only take so many crap sometimes you know
Just trying to read your post gave me a headache...
The only reason I'm upgrading to Leopard is so that my Bootcamp will keep running -- if you don't upgrade Bootcamp will quit functioning later this year.
Most of the upgrade features don't interest me, or won't work with my Mac. Time Machine, for example, is next to worthless unless you have a Mac Pro or are always hooked to an external hard drive (it requires at least two hard drives, something that Win2003/Vista's Previous Version feature doesn't). Other new features are just goofy... Transparent dock? Who cares.
Thats not enitrely fair calling the new dock goofy, I mean its the glossy eye candy features that make modern computers way better than the old style everything-is-grey OS's.
It's like saying having a good photo for a desktop background is goofy because it improves the look.
Comments like yours give Mac users a bad name. And leave a sour taste in people's mouths. I didn't get my Mac until a year ago because I hated Mac users attitude so bad. (That still hasn't changed, BTW.) OS X will never get a fair chance at any serious market penetration until the "Mac User Supremacy" attitude goes away.
WOW I cant wait for this to get rebuilt to run on Hackintosh!!
I've used MS all my working life, software and hardware. I've walked past the Apple displays in PCWorld many, many times and looked at their hardware/software as well designed, good-looking oddities. Now my PCWorld opened up an Apple shop in store and for the first time I felt confident enough to approach one of the Apple-Mafia. The Apple guy showed me the new iMac, showed me the features of the hardware and software, he explained Boot Camp and how my grand’s worth of PC software wouldn’t go to waste. I saw duel HD monitors running at once with the inbuilt software (I know you can do this with a duel output graphic card but this just seemed some much better). Built in Bluetooth and Wifi which just seemed so much more integrated and ‘part of the whole’.
To cut a long story short my MS Windows set-up just seems so old fashioned now, clunky, bloated and bland. That Mac had real style. I used to think all the effects Mac uses to bounce icons and drop windows were unnecessary in a working environment but having had a go I can see they reduce screen fatigue and make for a flowing transition between jobs, I was gob smacked.
Now with this Leopard coming out tomorrow I would think Apple is probably more than 10 years ahead of MS. God I need to start saving my pennies.
Right on, man.
I'm guessing you think all the people walking around using iphones just "look cool" too right?
And people who pay more than $5 for a pint are just way better.
Oh yeah, and organic is the the only way to buy produce. Whole foods are just so much better.
Yuppies.
Don't get me started on the iPhone, £35 a month ain't cool. I'm from the UK $5 is a cheap pint, trust me an expensive pint is $8+. No, I like a bargain as much as the next man, I hate ‘cool’, and Apple seem reasonable to me for what you get. I’m sure the ‘cool’ crowd do buy Apple because it’s like ‘I use Mac’, these people are probably yuppies for sure, but me, I just like to make money out of what I do in the least stressful environment possible. Choppy software and hardware mixes doesn’t help me make money, if I just did the web, email and gaming stuff I be ok with it, but sitting at a screen for 8 hours a day is not healthy at the best of times, anything that can help is good for me.
Waitammint!! Isn't the "X" supposed to have fur on it?
The "X" is in space: The kitty died
"Quick View" Haha.
I can't wait to get my hands on Leopard! :D
How is 46.5% of Engadget readers the "majority" that "are right in tune with that sentiment."?
Did somehow
woahh.... that's a nice little bug there... (if you open a carrot it screws up your comment)... anyways
Did somehow LESS THAN 50% become the majority?
Uh... I thinks its the majority...because it has the highest percentage of votes.... if there were only 2 contenders
Okay well there's 53.5% of people who voted against Leopard., making the majority not in favor of it. Nice try though.
@wireless.nemo
I just looked at that pole and 30,000+ voted for Leopard and 20,000 voted for MS (XP, Vista). I would say thats the majority since the rest were just dumb anyhow. I mean come on puch cards??? DOS??? Please we as a people are suppose to evolve not go back in time. Except in Leopard with Time Machine XD!!
Crap my comment got cut off...freaking internet.
Let me finish my thought:
It wasn't everybody against leopard. Taking out funny ones, let brake it down:
Apple's OS X Leopard
30237 (46.5%)
Screw Leopard, I'm sticking with Tiger
1675 (2.6%)
Microsoft's Windows Vista
8429 (13.0%)
Screw Vista, I'm sticking with XP
12602 (19.4%)
Ubuntu's Gutsy Gibbon
6285 (9.7%)
Apple with its 2 OSes has 31912
Microsoft was its 2 has 21031
As you can see, the majority of people are using, or upgrading to an OS X OS on engadget. It would be dumb to pit every option against leopard. SO THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO UPGRADE TO LEOPARD ON ENGADGET. Its not really rocket science. It doesn't mean its better, it is just a poll...I don't get what is so hard to understand...
That's not a majority, it's a plurality. Check the dictionary if you have to, but there's a substantial difference between the two concepts. Majorities require >50% of something, whereas pluralities require only that they have more than everyone else, which may not be at least half of the whole.
If you're going to try to make a point, learn what you're talking about first.
10.5 is now 64bit from top to bottom for the 64bit systems of the world, no longer have to run 32bit code for system functions. So it is not a point release, also they have added ZFS so the transition to faster and larger file system with larger drive support is now possible. This is like when we made the final transition from 16bit OS's to 32bit OS's and look what kind of technology was possible. This OS is the first step to a new world of computing. We will look back sometime in the future when we transitioned from 64bit to a 128bit OS and remembered how leopard changed how we did computer processing. This is the being of a long road of cool technology that is now possible with a full 64bit OS. Ahh still remember building my Heathkit 8bit computer and had a whopping 16k of memory. Things change and get better.
actually if you look around the OS is out on some usent sites, it has been there for a day or two, no not the Beta the real deal, so anyone resourceful enough can grab a copy instead of whining for Engadget to give you one???
10.5 is slick and it goes in well. Took about 52 min on G5 but almost 1.5 hours on Macbook which is strange. It also has a tendency of hanging upgrades so back up people and do yourself a favor and do a clean install. Also upgrade takes far longer than a clean reinstall. .....or so I hear.
I use both OS's. But I think that it's a real joke when Windows Zealots complain about Mac Zealots, then go on to do the same thing they accuse of the Mac Zealots. Get a life people. I am sorry to complain, but there are a lot more important things out there post about. Did any of you posters protest some of the disgraces of our times, or do you just want to whine about how your OS is better than the other OS? Why don't you put that OS to work and help the community? Hi, I'm Bill and this is your wake up call. I will be moving on to other sites to spread the word. See ya.
s a Maccie (is there a word that covers being a rather satisfied user/fan?) I do not appreciate MS. Not only for the troubles with Vista, that is talked about very much. My reason of bashing MS is the arrogance as displayed in the WOW-campagne they launched, introducing a system they worked on for 5 years but is needed to be fixed on their monthly Tuesday in order to keep things working properly.
If MS would have been more modest, wouldn't rely on the creativity of Apple (read: being a copycat), the problems with the 3 (!) Vista-programs would have been accepte more. In my eyes, that is. Oh, and it's rather funny being member of a Apple community, having a subscription on Macfan (Dutch Mac-azine), being a member of Klokhuis, a club of dedicated users. I even eat more apples (as in fruit), really. Don't worry, I have rather a lot of friends who do not own an Apple. Some not for long, I guess.
Ever since I owned a Mac I have not encounterd nothing but very little problems. And besides that my iMac has this beautiful design, I like to look at it. Call it a fashion statement, whatever you want to call it. And tonight I probably buy the new OS at the Leopard Launch Party for its gadgets, fun things and...Danisch translations. It a wannahave. Who cares? Purrrrrrr
In my comment today (see forum) some words are not typed right. To my teacher who taught me typing: my sincere apologies. LOL
Anyway, tonight I bought the Leopard and it seems to have made my iMac a little slower. Or I should be more patient, so less eager, in opening and using the programs. That's another explanation too, pherhaps. Back to the moment of buying the O.S.: after being handed over the bag with the Leopard, there was this introduction by one of the guys who work in the shop (iFactors). While drinking a, er, two glasses of champaign which they served during the launch party, Maarten informed and showed us what has changed. Although his preptime was rather short (he got the demo last night, he gave us a rather good insight of the new O.S.
I have to get used to the enhanced O.S., just had the hang of using the previous one. I guess it's a matter of reading the booklet that came with the O.S., practicing and get used to it.
My first impression is that Leopard looks very nice, a doc can be found easier than before and in Mail there's this possibility of interaction with Addressbook and iCal. I do not have a mail with usable data yet to test it. Not only in iTunes there's a coverflow, almost everywhere, this can be used. Nice!
I will be back when more is discovered, unless somebody else reviews the Leopard more thorough...
with kind regards,
Boyd
All this bickering between Mac and Visa, and trying to find ways to get cheap versions of OS or Windows. Quit killings yourselves people and download Ubuntu Gutsy and life will be so much better.
You can thank me later!
Cheers