Review of WWDC Mac OS X Leopard (10.5)

[MacRumors]

Wired posts an "unofficial" review of Apple's WWDC version of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

With Leopard, Apple has added a thick coat of polish to an already elegant operating system. The upgraded OS isn't all glitz and glam, though. Mac's core applications have been rendered more friendly by the addition of stronger visual cues, animated actions and detailed user interface refinements.

The article describes overall improvements to Mac OS X's Finder, including its new Cover Flow view. While seemingly superfluous, the reviewer found it "extremely useful for certain applications" -- such as flipping through images. The "killer feature" of Cover Flow is the ability to quickly preview certain types of documents, such as Word documents and PDFs. Apple has also made steady improvements to Mail, iCal and iChat. The reviewer found that Time Machine required over 30 minutes to set up and also required an external drive.

Since the build I tested is a preview meant for developers, I wasn't expecting rock-solid stability. However, the new features I discovered over a couple of days were enough to win me over. When it's released for real in October, Leopard is sure to be a hit among newcomers and the Mac faithful alike.

[siurpeeman]

that's good news. i'm really excited for leopard and look forward to its release.

i doubt we'll see any more features that isn't already in the developer preview since it was stated to be a "full-feature" preview. also, what's the big deal of being the first post?

[tveric]

I can't wait to download this OS.

[iPoodOverZune]

my pathfinder can also see word files. I want to preview both excel and powerpoint files as well, especially the latter. I think steve did show support for excel preview in cover flow but not for ppt files (although keynote, yes. but keynote is not that powerful yet IMO and cross-compatible with windows)

[rendezvouscp]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

The reviewer found that Time Machine required over 30 minutes to set up and also required an external drive.

That makes it sound like it takes thirty minutes of work to set it up, but it's probably the same as how Spotlight takes some time to index everything.
-Chasen

[dartzorichalcos]

The cover of Leopard DVD has a space image and the Time Machine stuff makes me believe that Leopard will probably have some cosmos and universe GUI with floating stars, galaxies, comets and the usual universe stuff.

[yzp]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

The reviewer found that Time Machine required over 30 minutes to set up and also required an external drive.

Let's hope it has been hard to set cause its still a beta :s however, time is worthed I think for that kind of magic app!!!!

[amac4me]

Overall, nice to see such positive comments from a developer preview of Leopard. Come October, the OS will be much more stable and who knows, it may have some new features added to it. At least that's my hope

[Porchland]

What was that super-secret killer feature again?

[pieman02]

Originally Posted by siurpeeman

that's good news. i'm really excited for leopard and look forward to its release.

i doubt we'll see any more features that isn't already in the developer preview since it was stated to be a "full-feature" preview. also, what's the big deal of being the first post?

VERY glad to hear that Finder has indeed been "vastly" improved. I have a pretty fast Intel machine and still get the beach ball of death when trying to do certain things...

[bdj21ya]

To all those naysayers that who opined that Leopard was not as big a deal as Tiger, I have to vehemently disagree. Leopard is greater than Tiger with a single feature--Time Machine.

Working for Dell Tech support has taught me that the plague of the average user is data loss. Their Windows machines go down seemingly without rhyme or reason and they didn't back anything up. I help them out after they stop sobbing, but I wish I could just tell them about Time Machine, and improve their lives by saying "Get a Mac".

[Sky Blue]

If Wire didn't sign an NDA how can they talk about it?

[Peace]

Originally Posted by rendezvouscp

That makes it sound like it takes thirty minutes of work to set it up, but it's probably the same as how Spotlight takes some time to index everything.
-Chasen

The first initial backup of your hard drive takes about 30 minutes depending on how much data you back up.Subsequent backups are incremental.Backing up only changed data.Thus taking a lot less time.

[theheyes]

Decent review. Nothing we havent heard about already.

The real test is how many of the new features we'll use consistently over time. Spaces sounds good. CoverFlow, although a little OTT for iTunes, I can definately see being useful scanning through a large amount of files.

Improved speed of spotlight and dashboard is also very welcome.

[Grimace]

Originally Posted by tveric

I can't wait to download this OS.

I'll hope for the sake of hoping that you mean legally. I think having a download option would be cool...maybe for $99 instead of $129 retail box?

[theheyes]

Originally Posted by Sky Blue

If Wire didn't sign an NDA how can they talk about it?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure you've just answered your own question there.

[ATG]

To all those naysayers that who opined that Leopard was not as big a deal as Tiger, I have to vehemently disagree. Leopard is greater than Tiger with a single feature--Time Machine.

Never, the reflective dock is the real killer feature

Seriously, Mail 3 has sold it to me. I hate having to keep a seperate RSS reader open, and those notes will be really really useful.

[epicwelshman]

I can't wait. Seriously.

[maverick808]

Originally Posted by Sky Blue

If Wire didn't sign an NDA how can they talk about it?

lol, that really made me laugh.

[pherplexed]

This may be retarded, but am I the only one that thinks the finder windows look TOO much like iTunes? If you have several finder windows open and iTunes (and iPhoto for that matter), you won't be able to tell a difference between them at first glance. Apps need to look like apps and finder window should look like windows.

[Sky Blue]

Originally Posted by theheyes

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure you've just answered your own question there.

If they didn't sign a NDA, then they didn't get it through ADC, so it can't be a 'legal' copy...

[smitty078]

Originally Posted by iPoodOverZune

my pathfinder can also see word files. I want to preview both excel and powerpoint files as well, especially the latter. I think steve did show support for excel preview in cover flow but not for ppt files (although keynote, yes. but keynote is not that powerful yet IMO and cross-compatible with windows)

What can PowerPoint do that Keynote can't? The only compatibility issues I have found is multi-column text (which is something keynote can do but powerpoint can't), text shadows (something else keynote can do but PP can't), and table background transparency (another thing Keynote does that PP doesn't). I have yet to find anything that PP does that Keynote can't. And even in the above instances, Keynote always handles exporting to PP quite well. It also has always handled importing from PP completely fine, every time. And yes, this is sharing with PP on a windows computer, specifically PP 2003 (I understand 2007 is very different, but I haven't used it yet and that's a whole other issue as most people will not have upgraded yet).

[maverick808]

Originally Posted by Sky Blue

If they didn't sign a NDA, then they didn't get it through ADC, so it can't be a 'legal' copy...

Wire haven't done anything illegal at all. They didn't sign an NDA, they weren't told not to install Leopard, and they are free to write about it. However, whoever GAVE Wire their copy of Leopard is definitely breaking their NDA.

[FunkyELF]

Had they went with ZFS it wouldn't have taken any time to set up.

[Cloudsurfer]

That was a nice read Sounded to me like a lot has improved. Looking forward to useing that new Finder. The report on instability on a Core Duo MacBook had me troubled for a second, but I guess they still have four months to improve whatever they need to improve.

Yep, I'm getting this on day one