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OS X Leopard review
- Thread starter dragonsrock
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Agreed. I quite like the 3-D dock "stage" or whatever it's called, but it really lacks the current one's simplicity.
The glowing dots are horrible, though, from what I can see here (and in other pics). Overall I just think this interface looks tacky. The problem is, although I absolutely love Tiger's look, as soon as you see the Leopard interface you know that it's the future of the OS and Tiger takes on a more "classic" tone (not OS9 classic, just classic in the regular sense).
I'm pretty unconvinced and underwhelmed by Leopard at the moment. Truly, the only feature I think is really quite smart and "innovative" is the Safari-Dashboard-Widget integration. That seems very clever, but how useful it is in the real world remains to be seen.
To most people, the rest of it might as well be a new skin, (which, dare I say it, was a key complaint about Vista over XP).
Ummm............... I gave people the wrong impression. I dont have leopard and i didnt make that pic, i merely reproduced it - originally it was on an appleinsider forum thread [picture, but not thread, since removed]. I posted it to show that it looks like it is possible to change the dock. Im no artist so i cant say if its photoshopped or whatever. I do like it though. Even if it is 'amateur'
EDIT: made it clear only picture removed from appleinsider thread, thread still active
The most impressive thing I have gleaned from reviews of Leopard so far is the increased use of multi-threading in the OS, apps and Finder. It appears to improve the responsiveness of the OS in most cases. Some G4 users claimed it felt faster than Tiger. Eye candy I can leave to Bill and Co.
But would any G4 users really be able to tell, since there's no G4 dual-core machines that can take advantage of most of what Leopard offers over Tiger?
Also, some people will always claim something feels "snappier".
Unfortunately, and without using it myself, on the surface eye candy seems to make up a lot of it. I think this says more about how good Tiger is (and previous versions) over how unimpressive Leopard is, but still.
And lastly, I'm sure that with the advances made under the hood (64 bit, multi-threading etc), as Leopard matures we'll really start to see some fireworks with it. But at the moment, and with the 2007 keynote re-hashing much of what was in the 2006 keynote, I really hope there is a lot more to come.
I'd really love to know how Leopard runs on a g4 lower than 1ghz with plenty of RAM. I definitely don't need any ripple effects or anything of the sort. I'd love to run spaces, time machine, the new finder, ichat, and the new mail. They don't have to have gorgeous effects. I would preferable like to turn off any effects just to not bog down my cube.
I could upgrade the processor to 1.8ghz and add a core image video card, but don't feel like investing in that just yet. I just want to keep the cube as my desktop to do web browsing, itunes, viewing photos, and writing documents for quite some time. I have a nice macbook for any real processor intensive tasks.
I could upgrade the processor to 1.8ghz and add a core image video card, but don't feel like investing in that just yet. I just want to keep the cube as my desktop to do web browsing, itunes, viewing photos, and writing documents for quite some time. I have a nice macbook for any real processor intensive tasks.
But would any G4 users really be able to tell, since there's no G4 dual-core machines that can take advantage of most of what Leopard offers over Tiger?
Also, some people will always claim something feels "snappier".
Unfortunately, and without using it myself, on the surface eye candy seems to make up a lot of it. I think this says more about how good Tiger is (and previous versions) over how unimpressive Leopard is, but still.
And lastly, I'm sure that with the advances made under the hood (64 bit, multi-threading etc), as Leopard matures we'll really start to see some fireworks with it. But at the moment, and with the 2007 keynote re-hashing much of what was in the 2006 keynote, I really hope there is a lot more to come.
You don't need more than one core to take advantage of multi-threading although multi-cores are even more helpful. I agree that most of the attention has been on the candy and I find that a little worrying.
I agree that Leopard is showing too much eye candy. It would be great if it can be turned on and off depending on how the user feels if that makes sense. I guess we'll have to see.
I just noticed a nice little bonus for late-model iBook owners (and Powerbook owners I would assume) with Leopard... Apple enabled the use of two-finger right-clicking on the touchpad! My iBook is a last generation model (Summer '05), so I don't know if it will work on all iBook/Powerbook models or just those that came with two-finger scrolling.
I thought it would be a cool idea if there was a way to change the skin in OSX to the various UI changes that OSX has gone through. That way, if you don't like the interface of Leopard, you could change it to the Tiger skin, but still have all the features of the new OS.
But would any G4 users really be able to tell, since there's no G4 dual-core machines that can take advantage of most of what Leopard offers over Tiger?
Also, some people will always claim something feels "snappier".
Unfortunately, and without using it myself, on the surface eye candy seems to make up a lot of it. I think this says more about how good Tiger is (and previous versions) over how unimpressive Leopard is, but still.
And lastly, I'm sure that with the advances made under the hood (64 bit, multi-threading etc), as Leopard matures we'll really start to see some fireworks with it. But at the moment, and with the 2007 keynote re-hashing much of what was in the 2006 keynote, I really hope there is a lot more to come.
From what I've seen and heard, Leo is very snappy on both Intel and PPC machines assuming you have the ram. It's also beta but with Tiger, you could get away with 512.. with Leo you're really gonna need 1GB min. I didn't have the chance to play with it on a dual processor PPC machine but I can't imagine running it on a G3.
my view of leopard is that it does have many advantages over tiger.
Firstly, a topic of much discussion, the dock and appearance.
My opinion is that it is a welcome change. They needed to do something to the dock, spruce it up a little and bring it into the 21st century.
agreeably the glowing blue dots (shown in my screenshot above) are rough around the edges and aren't as easy as the simple black triangles of tiger, but i'm sure this will change before october. But stacks and the grid view are pure genius and are very efficient, i find it great to leave my videos and wallpapers folders in the dock as i use them regularly and i leave my applications folder there too.
The downside to the dock is its lack of customization for instance, you cant change it back to 2D mode if you dont like it and it decides automatically if a stack or grid is best (dependent on number of contained items) and it can be manually over ridden.
The new menu bar is a bit fancy looking but other than that its the same old, its not distracting as some said it might be and it looks great with every colour background.
New menu look, in leopard there are rounded corners and gradient blue hover overs, looks more smart and ..cool:
this continues in the dock:
Secondly, the new Finder.
it looks great!
coverflow helps you quickly browse photos
built in pdf and movie controls for coverflow work great!
brings your applications folder to life
and quick look helps alot too
I love the new finder, its focused on helping you find exactly what you need FASTER. Some may say that coverflow is just eye candy, (in some folders it is) but for pictures and movies browsing...awesome.
Another note to make here is that preview.app (ver 3.5) has also seen some improvements:
Thirdly, Dash-clipping
what can i say, endless possibilities and really great improvement to the weak dashboard.
Finally, Its great! honestly its a vast improvement so far. Please don't knock it until you've tried it, the eye candy doesn't slow down the speed of the computer a noticeable amount, i'm on a mac mini and everything os smooth. There are bad bits to it, but i think thats the point of beta software, to iron out those bad bits? ( such as no keyboard shortcut to quicklook? )
It'll be fantastic in october.
p.s. i just remembered to mention my favourite new feature! For any one who has used a PC in the past, when you want to delete a file you click on the file then hit delete on your keyboard, well leopard can now do that! wahey. no more dragging to the trash! im so glad they finally added this in as it got on my nerves
anyway hope my little write up helps.
Firstly, a topic of much discussion, the dock and appearance.
My opinion is that it is a welcome change. They needed to do something to the dock, spruce it up a little and bring it into the 21st century.
agreeably the glowing blue dots (shown in my screenshot above) are rough around the edges and aren't as easy as the simple black triangles of tiger, but i'm sure this will change before october. But stacks and the grid view are pure genius and are very efficient, i find it great to leave my videos and wallpapers folders in the dock as i use them regularly and i leave my applications folder there too.
The downside to the dock is its lack of customization for instance, you cant change it back to 2D mode if you dont like it and it decides automatically if a stack or grid is best (dependent on number of contained items) and it can be manually over ridden.
The new menu bar is a bit fancy looking but other than that its the same old, its not distracting as some said it might be and it looks great with every colour background.
New menu look, in leopard there are rounded corners and gradient blue hover overs, looks more smart and ..cool:
this continues in the dock:
Secondly, the new Finder.
it looks great!
coverflow helps you quickly browse photos
built in pdf and movie controls for coverflow work great!
brings your applications folder to life
and quick look helps alot too
I love the new finder, its focused on helping you find exactly what you need FASTER. Some may say that coverflow is just eye candy, (in some folders it is) but for pictures and movies browsing...awesome.
Another note to make here is that preview.app (ver 3.5) has also seen some improvements:
Thirdly, Dash-clipping
what can i say, endless possibilities and really great improvement to the weak dashboard.
Finally, Its great! honestly its a vast improvement so far. Please don't knock it until you've tried it, the eye candy doesn't slow down the speed of the computer a noticeable amount, i'm on a mac mini and everything os smooth. There are bad bits to it, but i think thats the point of beta software, to iron out those bad bits? ( such as no keyboard shortcut to quicklook? )
It'll be fantastic in october.
p.s. i just remembered to mention my favourite new feature! For any one who has used a PC in the past, when you want to delete a file you click on the file then hit delete on your keyboard, well leopard can now do that! wahey. no more dragging to the trash! im so glad they finally added this in as it got on my nerves
anyway hope my little write up helps.
Thanks adam for posting the information. Is that your mac mini + acd + speakers()? in the picture? If so nice setup looks really good.
Isn't the shortcut spacebar, at least that is what i picked up from the WWDC keynote
Do you know about cmd+backspace?
Isn't the shortcut spacebar, at least that is what i picked up from the WWDC keynote
p.s. i just remembered to mention my favourite new feature! For any one who has used a PC in the past, when you want to delete a file you click on the file then hit delete on your keyboard, well leopard can now do that! wahey. no more dragging to the trash! im so glad they finally added this in as it got on my nerves
Do you know about cmd+backspace?
In the Netherlands you can have 2GB ( ! ) for 100. It is the cheapest way to upgrade a computer. And it lifts your resale value.
Seriously, what eye candy?
Compared to the UI elements in the iPhone, which is an eye candy tour de force, Leopard looks like an unapologetic stinker. Next to Tiger, there may be small UI improvements here and there (stacks), but there are also, it appears, a lot of serious downgrades as well (iTunes 7 controls bolted on to the Finder).
For any of those who want to know, Safari is still a HUGE RAM hog. Right now with 7 tabs open it's using 600MB of RAM (that's real RAM, not virtual) .
.
A question, if you don't mind:
Does the coverflow thing in the new finder also show .psd or .ai files or just more common formats like .jpg, .pdf, etc...?
Does the coverflow thing in the new finder also show .psd or .ai files or just more common formats like .jpg, .pdf, etc...?
It does show .psd files, don't know about .ai files though, but I imagine it would since it even shows objective C header files.
dragonsrock, is there any options for iTunes 7 interface theme at least in Leopard? Do you see iTunes 7 scrollbars anywhere else in the system? I really want Leopard to have that interface.
I haven't seen any besides in iTunes, only the Aqua scrollbar. The general interface is basically the iTunes interface though.
Maybe in a later seed, Apple might change the UI from Aqua to Illuminous which has iTunes 7 scrollbars through the entire sytem.