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Is it worth it to upgrade to Leopard?

R

RCGMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
This may have been asked in the past but with the recent 10.5.2 and the upcoming 10.5.3 update is it worth it to spend the $129 to upgrade to Leopard. I have a Macbook with 10.4.11 on it. It does everything I need, so is there any reason to drop the cash to upgrade? Thanks for any advice!

🙂
 
RCGMac said:
This may have been asked in the past but with the recent 10.5.2 and the upcoming 10.5.3 update is it worth it to spend the $129 to upgrade to Leopard. I have a Macbook with 10.4.11 on it. It does everything I need, so is there any reason to drop the cash to upgrade? Thanks for any advice!

🙂
Click to expand...

If you need the functionality in Leopard, upgrade. If you're happy with Tiger, don't.

Easy.
 
I personally think it's worth it for the Mail, iCal, and Spaces updates alone, but that's just me. If you're not missing them, then it's no big deal.
 
Are there any features that are 'must-haves' or that make it worth it to upgrade from Tiger. The features that I have seen seem more like eye-candy, but some of articles I have read say some of the features are useful.
 
If I used my computer for work or necessary things I would not have upgraded the OS yet. My computer is a toy, a hobby and makes my life easier. I decided in october to apply that $129 toward a new notebook with Leopard. In march I finally got a new MBP and I'm loving the new OS more than the new hardware.
 
RCGMac said:
Are there any features that are 'must-haves' or that make it worth it to upgrade from Tiger. The features that I have seen seem more like eye-candy, but some of articles I have read say some of the features are useful.
Click to expand...

As I said, I think Spaces is really useful when I have a bunch of documents or apps open. And also, I love the RSS feeder in Mail, and the fact that Mail syncs with iCal automatically, so I don't have to keep creating new events...Mail does it for me. But, I can see why you'd say a lot of features are just "eye candy."
 
There's no short answer to this question, though I've seen it posted a lot on the forums. I still have Tiger but plan to upgrade after 10.5.3 comes out. However, I have had a chance to play around on Leopard. Here's what I think:

1) Does Leopard offer you anything that you need?
2) Are you willing to endure some glitches and bugs in Leopard as opposed to the finely-tuned Tiger?
3) Is there 3rd-party software that you need that only runs on Leopard?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, it's time to upgrade. Otherwise, sit tight and enjoy Tiger. You can always re-evaluate your situation next week, next month, etc.
 
I personally think Time Machine alone is worth the $129 upgrade.

Along with Spaces for organization, faster Spotlight for searching, unified UI for the eyes, etc.
 
RCGMac said:
Are there any features that are 'must-haves' or that make it worth it to upgrade from Tiger. The features that I have seen seem more like eye-candy, but some of articles I have read say some of the features are useful.
Click to expand...

How are you about maintaining regular backups? If the answer is 'meh' then Time Machine is for you. 🙂
 
gauchogolfer said:
How are you about maintaining regular backups? If the answer is 'meh' then Time Machine is for you. 🙂
Click to expand...

My point exactly. I don't have the time nor the ambition to regularly update my computer, though I know it's a big mistake.

I'd MUCH rather have Time Machine do it for me.
 
I haven't done it on my MB.

1. it offers no significant thing I need

2. It might break my illustrator, photoshop CS2, and I know there are some small apps I need that it indeed breaks

3. It probably will slow down my MB with the amount of my memory being the same.

4. It asks for too much HDD space which I probably can't afford (I have a 60G HDD that only has 5G free now)
 
iFizz said:
There's no short answer to this question, though I've seen it posted a lot on the forums. I still have Tiger but plan to upgrade after 10.5.3 comes out. However, I have had a chance to play around on Leopard. Here's what I think:

1) Does Leopard offer you anything that you need?
2) Are you willing to endure some glitches and bugs in Leopard as opposed to the finely-tuned Tiger?
3) Is there 3rd-party software that you need that only runs on Leopard?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, it's time to upgrade. Otherwise, sit tight and enjoy Tiger. You can always re-evaluate your situation next week, next month, etc.
Click to expand...

That is what i am thinking, I have yet to run into a situation where I need Leopard, I have my computer I use at work, which is sadly a Windows machine. I used my Macbook when I was a student, but now that I am in the working world, my Macbook is used for internet and sits at home during the day when I am at work. If I was still a student, it would be no question about upgrading. No if I could only figure out a way to use my Macbook at work, lol. I am thinking I may sit it out and wait, I was just wondering since I actually have a bit of extra cash to spend, and I like new things on my computer, haha! 😀
 
gauchogolfer said:
How are you about maintaining regular backups? If the answer is 'meh' then Time Machine is for you. 🙂
Click to expand...

I am VERY bad about backing up my stuff, I was much better about it when I was a student, keeping my documents on a flash drive as well as an online server. Now that my home computer is more for pleasure and a few items like my finances, music, movies I back up everything on DVD's.
 
RCGMac said:
I am VERY bad about backing up my stuff, I was much better about it when I was a student, keeping my documents on a flash drive as well as an online server. Now that my home computer is more for pleasure and a few items like my finances, music, movies I back up everything on DVD's.
Click to expand...

If you are _very_ bad about backing up, then you should get Leopard for Time Machine, plus a cheap external USB hard drive.
 
RCGMac said:
That is what i am thinking, I have yet to run into a situation where I need Leopard, I have my computer I use at work, which is sadly a Windows machine. I used my Macbook when I was a student, but now that I am in the working world, my Macbook is used for internet and sits at home during the day when I am at work. If I was still a student, it would be no question about upgrading. No if I could only figure out a way to use my Macbook at work, lol. I am thinking I may sit it out and wait, I was just wondering since I actually have a bit of extra cash to spend, and I like new things on my computer, haha! 😀
Click to expand...

Yeah, I feel you. Maybe you could use that extra money to buy a 3G iPhone when it comes out? 😉
 
Yeah, I've been pushing Leopard on my clients for the mere reason that most of them are helpless about backing up their machines and Leopard provides such an easy way for them to do it without maintaining it themselves.

Other than that, Safari deoes seem a bit zippier and I quite like Spaces.
 
How long after Tiger was released were the system requirments for apps. changed to 10.4 or above, i.e. no Panther allowed? Just trying to figure out if future updates to my applications are going to force me to upgrade.
 
forafireescape said:
I personally think it's worth it for the Mail, iCal, and Spaces updates alone, but that's just me. If you're not missing them, then it's no big deal.
Click to expand...

iCal has been destroyed in Leopard. They degraded it terribly, pulling a vista by trying to simplify it but doing a bad job and making it more complicated in the process. Mail is greatly improved, though.
 
spotlight is faster, but it can't find things based on file name anymore without jumping through major hoops over and over. i guess they figured that nobody would want to find a file based on the name of the actual file, so why bother showing us all the results, or giving us a system preference checkbox to enable it?

i've been regretting my switch to leopard AGAIN this entire week.

first time i installed it, the broken wifi and stacks made me upgrade to tiger.

i'm wondering if i won't have to do that again. I'm going to wait for 10.5.3 and see what happens.
 
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