Mac OS X Leopard Reviews: NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today

[Stella]

Sounds like solid reviews.

Maybe 10.5 isn't the upgrade that others have been, but still, we'll see the full benefits in the future as developers start to utilitise the new set of API that 10.5 offers.

Glad to hear its ( probably ) not the disaster of Vista...

 

[chelsel]

How could he say there are "no more ways to organize photos"... I can't wait for automatic tagging based on content... you know, when your Apple recognizes the picture of your dog and automatically categorizes, Dog, Fido, Pet, etc.

That's an advancement... see through menus, bah

 

[irahodges]

He's talking about this I believe. Which exists in Tiger, but perhaps to a lesser degree.

I know it is more translucent, but I believe it appears much more translucent than Tiger because they got rid of the pin stripes.

EDIT: After looking at Tiger's menu for a while, the horizontal pinstripes definitely help to direct your attention back to the text.

 

[mrtekkid]

I had a question, I am a bit hesitant to do an Archive and Install for Leopard due to some of the issues I have seen with Garageband and loops not working and Pro applications stop working. If I do a good ol' update I will be good with 64-bit correct??

It was reccomended that I do the ARchive and Install cause all my applications will still work ...but having to reinstall software like the Pro apps and things like Garageband are a good reason why I am hesitant to archive and install....

what's your opinion?? what potential issues could i have with an archive and install?? which to you reccomend?? that or just the regular upgrade??

 

[cohibadad]

Well, yeah, imagine reading a book that is translucent... What a dumb idea.

Watch out what wallpaper you put up!

It does depend a lot on what wallpaper you put up. On most the menus appear completely opaque but if there is a lot of contrast between the app window and a dark background you can clearly see the translucency but I haven't found any that make it difficult to read at all. I guess if I was reading the menus like a book for hours I could see it being a problem but for the average quick glance to activate a menu or even longer? no problemo.

 

[mklos]

I hate these moron critics that trash the software. Us die hard fans can't wait for this. We all know it won't be a disappointment to us loyal fans. What these critics don't understand is how much it will help us Production Editors with Leopard using 64bit and all 8-cores... Morons. Hate critics who don't know crap.

Did you even read the reviews? Where exactly did they trash the OS? No OS is perfect and they were simply stating their opinion on the downfalls. Ironically, they all had the basic downfalls (ie. translucent menus). This has actually been a complaint since it was debuted at WWDC '07.

The articles are leaned toward professional users, but rather regular home customers. Those people could care less about 64-bit support and most people except professionals will never utilize the 64-bit support.

What's worse than a little criticizing is Mac fanboys who can't accept a little Mac criticism. The Mac and Mac OS X isn't perfect and never will be. Some people just can't accept that.....

 

[Marvy]

He's talking about this I believe. Which exists in Tiger, but perhaps to a lesser degree.

Wow, I never noticed that in the screenshots before: Is it just the image compression, or is the background behind the menu actually blurred out? No wonder Leopard requires a powerful mac. Looks cool though.

 

[cohibadad]

I had a question, I am a bit hesitant to do an Archive and Install for Leopard due to some of the issues I have seen with Garageband and loops not working and Pro applications stop working. If I do a good ol' update I will be good with 64-bit correct??

It was reccomended that I do the ARchive and Install cause all my applications will still work ...but having to reinstall software like the Pro apps and things like Garageband are a good reason why I am hesitant to archive and install....

what's your opinion?? what potential issues could i have with an archive and install?? which to you reccomend?? that or just the regular upgrade??

I would upgrade if I was you. Much more likely to just work. With archive and install I would bet you would end up just reinstalling it all to make it work right.

 

[cohibadad]

Wow, I never noticed that in the screenshots before: Is it just the image compression, or is the background behind the menu actually blurred out? No wonder Leopard requires a powerful mac. Looks cool though.

it is blurred behind the menu. If you look close when you close a menu the image behind it stays blurred for a split second.

 

[irahodges]

Did you even read the reviews? Where exactly did they trash the OS? No OS is perfect and they were simply stating their opinion on the downfalls. Ironically, they all had the basic downfalls (ie. translucent menus). This has actually been a complaint since it was debuted at WWDC '07.

The articles are leaned toward professional users, but rather regular home customers. Those people could care less about 64-bit support and most people except professionals will never utilize the 64-bit support.

What's worse than a little criticizing is Mac fanboys who can't accept a little Mac criticism. The Mac and Mac OS X isn't perfect and never will be. Some people just can't accept that.....

you could have made your point without the last paragraph please, oh please let us not start another Mac fanboy argument...moving on

these reviews just feel like a marketing rehash of what we already know

 

[jstad]

good to see that the reviews are saying its a move forward. i agree and dont see why the top bar is now clear, seems pointless.

 

[ipearx]

Did any of these "reviews" really tell us anything we didn't already know? I guess they have to keep them simple for the masses. Are there any more detailed reviews available?

bla.st/mac/

 

[mklos]

I had a question, I am a bit hesitant to do an Archive and Install for Leopard due to some of the issues I have seen with Garageband and loops not working and Pro applications stop working. If I do a good ol' update I will be good with 64-bit correct??

It was reccomended that I do the ARchive and Install cause all my applications will still work ...but having to reinstall software like the Pro apps and things like Garageband are a good reason why I am hesitant to archive and install....

what's your opinion?? what potential issues could i have with an archive and install?? which to you reccomend?? that or just the regular upgrade??

IMO, the best thing to is of course back up EVERYTHING first! Then try doing an archive and install or upgrade. Try it for a while and see what it does. If worse comes to worse, do an erase and install. Yes, you have to reinstall your apps, and restore your home folder, but its the best time to do it IMO. Gives you a clean start. Everyone's experience with Leopard is going to be different simply because everyone's setup is slightly different. No one Mac desktop is exactly the same. So if a friend of yours is having issues with Garageband or whatever, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll have issues. He/she may have something else installed that created the issue and its totally unrelated to what you have installed on your Mac. Leopard seems be to have turned the page with upgrades from the reviews. Sometimes it causes LOTS of issues for people that just do an upgrade. I have 2 Macs and will try an upgrade on my MBP simply because its only used at work most of the time with Windows XP, and I'll do an Erase and Install on my new 24" iMac. That way I can get all of the extra printer drivers, languages, etc out. Kind of kill 2 birds with one stone. Yes, I know it can be done without reinstalling the OS.

I understand that its not always feasible to do an erase and install. It does make it more time consuming to upgrade to Leopard, but it will give you fresh start and eliminate any potential OS upgrade conflicts that may appear. But, at least there isn't 500 MB of OS X updates to install like there is with Tiger currently. So that will save some time right there.

If any 3rd party software conflicts occur then of course we all play the waiting game for them to be released. Developers have had plenty of time to get them out so I think its unacceptable to have to wait weeks on end to get them released.

 

[mrtekkid]

I would upgrade if I was you. Much more likely to just work. With archive and install I would bet you would end up just reinstalling it all to make it work right.

okay will upgrading also give me 64 bit support too??

what are the advantages and disadvantages of the Archive and Install compared to the Upgrade??

 

[cohibadad]

good to see that the reviews are saying its a move forward. i agree and dont see why the top bar is now clear, seems pointless.

The menu bar isn't clear. It is silvery looking semi transparent and varies depending on the brightness of the background. If it is a light background the bar appears transparent. If it is a dark background it appears silvery. If the background is variable it seems to lean more towards silver to make it readable.

 

[whoami]

I have a 933 mhz quicksilver running as my media server. It is older than a sawtooth, and it meets apple's requirements. What are you complaining about?

WTF are you talking about, 933 quicksilver older than a sawtooth!! lol
do you even know what a sawtooth is?
Apple clearly states that a G4 867 is the requirement.

 

[mklos]

you could have made your point without the last paragraph please, oh please let us not start another Mac fanboy argument...moving on

these reviews just feel like a marketing rehash of what we already know

It wasn't meant to start another argument. If nobody comments on it, then it won't happen. His post just simply didn't make any sense what so ever....


Maybe we haven't learned anything new, but there are people out there who don't go to MacRumors, or Apple's website to see the new features. So, when they see these articles on news websites and in newspapers all around the world, they'll be at least up to par with what we know and possibly be interested in purchasing either a new Mac, or upgrading their Mac to Leopard. I don't think the articles are meant to people like us who keep up on Mac news daily, but rather the people who don't.

 

[mrtekkid]

IMO, the best thing to is of course back up EVERYTHING first! Then try doing an archive and install. Try it for a while and see what it does. If worse comes to worse, do an erase and install. Yes, you have to reinstall your apps, and restore your home folder, but its the best time to do it IMO. Gives you a clean start. Everyone's experience with Leopard is going to be different simply because everyone's setup is slightly different. No one Mac desktop is exactly the same. So if a friend of yours is having issues with Garageband or whatever, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll have issues. He/she may have something else installed that created the issue and its totally unrelated to what you have installed on your Mac.

I understand that its not always feasible to do an erase and install. It does make it more time consuming to upgrade to Leopard, but it will give you fresh start and eliminate any potential OS upgrade conflicts that may appear. But, at least there isn't 500 MB of OS X updates to install like there is with Tiger currently. So that will save some time right there.

If any 3rd party software conflicts occur then of course we all play the waiting game for them to be released. Developers have had plenty of time to get them out so I think its unacceptable to have to wait weeks on end to get them released.

well i saw this link on the apple site that made me hesitant
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93151

 

[joseph2166]

As usual the mainstream reviews of OS X are 90% useless for people who know anything about it before going in. For example all three reviewers spend nearly all their Time Machine column space talking about what it is - and practically no time saying how good it is (or isn't!).

Guess we'll have to wait till the mac sites get their hands on it - oh wait, I'll already own leopard by then...

 

[irahodges]

WTF are you talking about, 933 quicksilver older than a sawtooth!! lol
do you even know what a sawtooth is?
Apple clearly states that a G4 867 is the requirement.

my mistake, i was thinking about the mirrored-door powermac...slipped my mind....you can continue being mad at Apple, but I would suggest getting a new computer

 

[cohibadad]

okay will upgrading also give me 64 bit support too??

what are the advantages and disadvantages of the Archive and Install compared to the Upgrade??

archive and install moves everything to a previous system folder so the the new Leopard OS won't be interfered with by problem apps. For simple one file apps you can launch them from that folder. For apps with hooks in various places you would need to move all of the various pieces to the new home manually to get them to work. An upgrade would make the app work without messing around. I cannot answer the first part of your question absolutely but I wouldn't think a fresh install would be any different than an upgrade. If you are worried then the safest thing to do is fresh install the app not archive and install. FYI if I click my garageband in my previous system folder it gives me a library error and won't start.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

If any 3rd party software conflicts occur then of course we all play the waiting game for them to be released. Developers have had plenty of time to get them out so I think its unacceptable to have to wait weeks on end to get them released.

Developers have only had beta software to test on, so the best that they can claim, is that it should work. Developers won't get their hands on 10.5 until Friday at 6:00pm, at the earliest. When they install it and test their software, and then people complain to them saturday evening at 6:00pm, they will have had exactly 24 hours with Leopard.

 

[pomus]

Well, yeah, imagine reading a book that is translucent... What a dumb idea.

Watch out what wallpaper you put up!

Err... I see what you mean but, in my opinion, you should read books on paper. Screens have such low ppi that it would be painful.

I've tried reading pdf books before, but it was a pain!

IOW, reading some words in a translucent background is really no biggie. Me Like!

 

[hugodrax]

In my opinion, I like the see-through menus. I have no idea what Pogue is talkin' about when "much is lost".

The problem with the see through menus is it makes it a little harder on the eyes when you have things behind the menus. I think they should have made them more opaque.

 

[mklos]

well i saw this link on the apple site that made me hesitant
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93151

It almost sounds like you'll be re-installing regardless of what you choose. So I guess it just depends on how long you want to spend upgrading to Leopard. Its kind of a crapshoot in a way because at this point, nobody really knows what's going to happen yet.