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Leopard: Is it really that bad?

rjcalifornia

rjcalifornia

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 4, 2012
668
7
El Salvador
Leopard. Once 'The most Advanced OS in the world'.

I don't think Leopard is that bad. I know it is outdated and 6-7 years old, but it is not really that bad, I mean we were stuck with XP for a long time and people are going to stick with Windows 7 for longer time. Even though they get security updates, most people decide not to apply those and have not faced any kind of attack.

So, do we really have to look for a Linux alternative? Can we still stick with Leopard for 4-5 more years? Is it Leopard really that insecure?

BTW I cannot remember how many times I had to fix windows pc with virus.

I know there's a SL build for PPC, I want to believe there is one...
 
rjcalifornia said:
I know there's a SL build for PPC, I want to believe there is one...
Click to expand...

Maybe locked away in Apple HQ, but most likely not.

It's an entirely different architecture - and since OS X isn't open source, no one can go through and translate SL for PPC.
 
rjcalifornia said:
Leopard. Once 'The most Advanced OS in the world'.

I don't think Leopard is that bad. I know it is outdated and 6-7 years old, but it is not really that bad, I mean we were stuck with XP for a long time and people are going to stick with Windows 7 for longer time. Even though they get security updates, most people decide not to apply those and have not faced any kind of attack.

So, do we really have to look for a Linux alternative? Can we still stick with Leopard for 4-5 more years? Is it Leopard really that insecure?

BTW I cannot remember how many times I had to fix windows pc with virus.

I know there's a SL build for PPC, I want to believe there is one...
Click to expand...
I can do all the things I normally do on Leopard. None of the apps I use are all of a sudden going to stop working because Leopard is too old. And I'm really not a Linux fan (although OSX is Linux based). So, at least in my case I have no plans to use anything but the last available OS for my Macs.

Now, if your supposition that there is an SL build is correct I may try that. But I've not heard anything about that.
 
Leopard is still very usable. Its security comes at a cost of its limitations. Namely the PowerPC architecture. Just like Tiger, Intell Leopard is not very secure and should not be used. Mostly because of the plugins. But without plugins, Mac OS X in general is extremely secure no matter the architecture.

eyoungren said:
(although OSX is Linux based)
Click to expand...

OS X is UNIX based, BSD in particular. Linux is an UNIX-like OS because of if being an unauthorized clone of Bell Lab's UNIX.
 
Intell said:
OS X is UNIX based, BSD in particular. Linux is an UNIX-like OS because of if being an unauthorized clone of Bell Lab's UNIX.
Click to expand...
Thanks! :)

I appreciate the correction (I mean that, no sarcasm) as I don't enjoy looking like the fool who doesn't know what he's talking about! :D
 
For everyday use Leopard is fine - unfortunately when it comes to new software, you're out of luck. But then again, most people here have a pretty concrete workflow already and are perfectly happy with the toolset they have.
 
eyoungren said:
I can do all the things I normally do on Leopard. None of the apps I use are all of a sudden going to stop working because Leopard is too old. And I'm really not a Linux fan (although OSX is Linux based). So, at least in my case I have no plans to use anything but the last available OS for my Macs.

Now, if your supposition that there is an SL build is correct I may try that. But I've not heard anything about that.
Click to expand...

OS X is Unix based not Linux based.

Edit: Beaten to it by Intell.
 
rjcalifornia said:
Leopard. Once 'The most Advanced OS in the world'.

I don't think Leopard is that bad.
Click to expand...

Neither do I. In fact, Leopard and its arctic relative are my "all-time -favourite" OS X's (yeah, I'm a luddite).
In fact, for 6 years old hardware, 6 years old software(s) and 6 years old usage , a 6 years old operating system is probably a perfect match. The problems start cropping up when you venture outside those boundaries...

RGDS,
 
Leopard is a fine OS! If we think about it as XP vx. Leopard, Leopard still has the UI of a very modern OS. Except for a tiny Dock change, a Leopard Mac looks alot like a Mountain Lion mac! :cool:

Even though its old, it still works. Being stuck at Leopard isn't too bad. If PPC users were stuck at Tiger however, it would be worse.
 
Wildy said:
For everyday use Leopard is fine - unfortunately when it comes to new software, you're out of luck. But then again, most people here have a pretty concrete workflow already and are perfectly happy with the toolset they have.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah. Linux in my case is not an option. It just doesn't have the tools available.

Not only that, watching youtube videos is not very easy. With Leopard you can at least use HTML5, which is not that bad.

Overall, the apps I need I have 'em, such as Adobe GoLive, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements, Komodo IDE (for programming) and etc. I want to stick with Leopard/PPC as long as I can...
 
I actually resisted upgrading to Leopard when it came out because I didn't much care for the UI changes Apple made. Now, I love it. It runs on more of my Macs than any other OS. I was first unimpressed by how slow it felt compared to Tiger, but things like Time Machine really were game changers. Had there been a PowerPC build of Snow Leopard that removed all the Intel code and was optimized for G4 and G5 chips I would have been thrilled having seen the performance boost my MacBook Pro got when the OS was slimmed down, but that wasn't meant to be I guess.
 
rjcalifornia said:
Well, yeah. Linux in my case is not an option. It just doesn't have the tools available.

Not only that, watching youtube videos is not very easy. With Leopard you can at least use HTML5, which is not that bad.

Overall, the apps I need I have 'em, such as Adobe GoLive, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements, Komodo IDE (for programming) and etc. I want to stick with Leopard/PPC as long as I can...
Click to expand...

You can use HTML5 in nearly ANY browser on ANY platform/architecture and ANY device, Komodo IDE has a Linux port, there's a few good video editors that are simple and better than iMovie(Openshot) and I'm sure there is replacements for the Adobe suite too. I still prefer OS X over Linux though especially Leopard and Snow Leopard :eek:
 
rjcalifornia said:
I know there's a SL build for PPC, I want to believe there is one...
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I seriously doubt this. The whole point of SL, and the source of its speed improvements, was by stripping out all the universal and PPC code by making it all Intel native/optimized.
 
Leopard is a fantastic OS. It came with my old MB and is installed a friend's G5 that I'm interested in acquiring.

On a PPC it is a secure and safe OS. Most mac exploits are for Intel based macs, and the ones that aren't are that old that they aren't in the wild any more.

You're issue is going to be software.

If you don't mind running old versions of most software then you'll be fine.

As far as the browser goes, then use TenFourFox http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37761/tenfourfox, it is HTML 5 compatible and uses all the security patches from FireFox 17.0.3 Just be warned it doesn't allow plugins. But that is no bad thing in reality.
 
When it comes down to it, Snow leopard is the greatest os in the world and mountain lion is a piece of garbage, leopard is a close second to snow and as long as it meets your needs then there is really no need to upgrade. But now that my needs have changed drastically since last summer when I was happily rocking a sawtooth. My job now requires at least quad cores 16 gigs of ram and over 4000 gigs of storage the g5 just doesn't do it anymore
 
cjmillsnun said:
Leopard is a fantastic OS. It came with my old MB and is installed a friend's G5 that I'm interested in acquiring.

On a PPC it is a secure and safe OS. Most mac exploits are for Intel based macs, and the ones that aren't are that old that they aren't in the wild any more.

You're issue is going to be software.

If you don't mind running old versions of most software then you'll be fine.

As far as the browser goes, then use TenFourFox http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37761/tenfourfox, it is HTML 5 compatible and uses all the security patches from FireFox 17.0.3 Just be warned it doesn't allow plugins. But that is no bad thing in reality.
Click to expand...

This is a good point. You're quite safe provided you use a secure browser (I actually recommend Aurorafox over TFF for speed and other Leopard optimizations), if only because there weren't that many attacks targeting Macs at the time (due to low market share) and are even less/none now (given obseletion, and thus even lower market share).
 
In my experience, the performance of Leopard has been a lot worse than Tigers on both PowerPC and Intel. The problem was fixed in Snow Leopard but that was Intel-only.

You still have a lot of great apps on Leopard for Intel (Office 2011, for starters) but nobody should run it on an Intel Mac since the improved Snow Leopard is available. Application support for Leopard on PowerPC isn't a lot better than Tigers.
 
Lil Chillbil said:
When it comes down to it, Snow leopard is the greatest os in the world and mountain lion is a piece of garbage, leopard is a close second to snow and as long as it meets your needs then there is really no need to upgrade. But now that my needs have changed drastically since last summer when I was happily rocking a sawtooth. My job now requires at least quad cores 16 gigs of ram and over 4000 gigs of storage the g5 just doesn't do it anymore
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far. I happen to like Mountain Lion, sure it isn't as good as Snow Leopard (which sadly won't run on my rMBP), but I would consider it to be roughly on a par with Leopard.

Now Lion, that really is a piece of crap.
 
Lil Chillbil said:
When it comes down to it, Snow leopard is the greatest os in the world and mountain lion is a piece of garbage, leopard is a close second to snow and as long as it meets your needs then there is really no need to upgrade. But now that my needs have changed drastically since last summer when I was happily rocking a sawtooth. My job now requires at least quad cores 16 gigs of ram and over 4000 gigs of storage the g5 just doesn't do it anymore
Click to expand...

What "Job" is this?
 
cjmillsnun said:
Now Lion, that really is a piece of crap.
Click to expand...
For about six months it really was terrible (you couldn't even connect to the university WIFI with it, which was noticed by an entire auditorium when a professor asked me to look something up for her on my Macbook), but the last versions aren't too bad. In fact, the difference with ML is hardly noticeable.
 
Thanks for the input guys!

Even so it has been pointed out that Linux have ports of some applications, it is not the same.

Up to date doesn't mean good (cough) Vista (cough) So overall, Leopard seems to be in really good shape.

Although a surprising security update from apple would be really good, it doesn't change the fact that Leopard is useful.

As far of apps goes, Office 08 is good, old apps still work, Photoshop CS3 is still useful, etc.

TweetDeck is now available from the web browser, and it is pretty fast!
 
Adium still works too. If I am going to Tweet (very rare) from my computer I'll use Adium. Adium covers just about everything IM.
 
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