I personally bought Leopard and I love it. I do however agree with quite a few of the points he brought up. My biggest complaint is how the finder doesnt remember window sizes. When you open up the HD say you only have 4 files the window is that big then you click on applications and theres a lot more but the window is the same size. So you make it bigger, close it and bam next time its back to the small size. I sure hope they fix that in an update sometime soon. There is also a lot of things I love about Leopard, my favorite being spaces. It really helps you keep control of a bunch of different windows without having to minimize 1000 things to find what your looking for or use expose where you have to pick out the window.
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Things that are bothering me about Leopard. You all should know.
- Thread starter TheSpaz
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Bear with this first newbie post.
I just bought my first mac, which is scheduled to arrive next week. I'm one of those rare breeds who uses a PC at home and a mac at work (go figure!), but that'll change.
I've been using/building PCs for 20 years and have gone through many OS upgrades (I'm diverting before Vista). I hated windows when I began using it because so many things are just so much faster with a command line, plus I've never been huge on eye candy for the sake of eye candy. I now rarely use the command line, but am still obsessed with personalizing my computer to my efficiency quirks. That is where windows explorer and the finder consistently let me down. I want my data organized in a way that makes accessing it more efficient, not less.
I was thinking earlier today about new-OS hating. I disliked XP when I began using it and wasn't even sure why to bother with the new OS, but looking back on win98, I'm glad I'm using XP--I modded away most of my annoyances and accepted the positive upgrades whole-heartedly. We'll see how the move from Tiger to Leopard goes.
I have not used Leopard yet, but I feel for the OP's complaints. They ring true to me in the experiences I've had. I still don't understand why stacks are anything but a regression.
As for those harping on the thread title--geez! note the punctuation. It changes the meaning.
Thanks for the sharing, TheSpaz.
I just bought my first mac, which is scheduled to arrive next week. I'm one of those rare breeds who uses a PC at home and a mac at work (go figure!), but that'll change.
I've been using/building PCs for 20 years and have gone through many OS upgrades (I'm diverting before Vista). I hated windows when I began using it because so many things are just so much faster with a command line, plus I've never been huge on eye candy for the sake of eye candy. I now rarely use the command line, but am still obsessed with personalizing my computer to my efficiency quirks. That is where windows explorer and the finder consistently let me down. I want my data organized in a way that makes accessing it more efficient, not less.
I was thinking earlier today about new-OS hating. I disliked XP when I began using it and wasn't even sure why to bother with the new OS, but looking back on win98, I'm glad I'm using XP--I modded away most of my annoyances and accepted the positive upgrades whole-heartedly. We'll see how the move from Tiger to Leopard goes.
I have not used Leopard yet, but I feel for the OP's complaints. They ring true to me in the experiences I've had. I still don't understand why stacks are anything but a regression.
As for those harping on the thread title--geez! note the punctuation. It changes the meaning.
Thanks for the sharing, TheSpaz.
Agreed.
I posted the same exact thing above but it was mysteriously "deleted" for some reason. I hate seeing a checkmark next to a thread I've posted in, only to find that my comment is gone.
The Spaz makes some good points and has a right to express them.
For all who have issues with Leopard apart from posting on boards like these, you should send feedback to Apple. They need to hear this stuff so that they can form a picture on what they need to do to make the OS better. Remember they can only develop the software within a finite framework due to deadlines that must be imposed for marketing reasons. Leopard can easily be tweaked to really make it great.
Overall I think Leopard is a great system and would not go back to Tiger. Yes at the moment 10.5.0 is a little bit slower than 10.4.10 starting up my Mac with all the login items that I have selected but Tiger only got this speedy at 10.4.9. Before that Tiger was much slower at startup than Leopard at the moment.
I upgraded to Leopard with the full expectation that it would not be fully polished. Yes there was one big bummer, Photoshop 7 stopped working for me, but what the ... It was probably time to go and get CS 3.
Apart from all the UI changes that can be easily rectified there are two that Apple could improve/reinstate. The Spaz mentions them.
Leaving out the Search view in the Finder for searches and smart folders is a bit of a regression. Whatever about dropping the Show All alternative Spotlight window not been able to see files in an easily categorized grouped views is remiss of Apple. This was one of the most attractive features of the new Spotlight paradigm introduced in Tiger and I would rank it ahead of speed. The search view replaces column view in searches and smart folders and the view controls in the Finder tool bar reflect this in Tiger. Maybe the feature did not migrate well to Leopard and there was no time to iron out bugs?
Stacks. Stacks are great. I like stacks but, they could be a whole lot better. (Navigable) Like being able to click on a folder in a grid and it changes to show the contents of the folder. This was in one of the earlier builds of Leopard. I have seen video of this online. I would have my Home folder stacked in the Dock and from there be able to go anywhere in my Documents, Pictures, Movies....etc. Also being able to add files or folders to a stack or remove them again. Steve Jobs alluded to this in WWDC07 when he demonstrated making a stack by selecting some files in a folder (I think it was a selection of apps) and dragging them to the Dock to become the new stack. Badging a stack with an icon that visually makes sense needs to be addressed. And last but not least (even though it is something I never used) I can understand those who depended on folders in the dock who depended on the hierarchical menus to navigate to items. This needs to be reinstated. There could be an option in Dock Preferences. Place Files/Folders in Dock as Stack, Classic view or Ask. The default would be stack and with ask when you drop files/folders on the Dock a small HUD pops up with two buttons asking Stack or Classic view.
Apple needs to hear this stuff. So send feedback.
EDIT. In fact I just sent Apple the last 3—4 lines of my second last paragraph above.
For all who have issues with Leopard apart from posting on boards like these, you should send feedback to Apple. They need to hear this stuff so that they can form a picture on what they need to do to make the OS better. Remember they can only develop the software within a finite framework due to deadlines that must be imposed for marketing reasons. Leopard can easily be tweaked to really make it great.
Overall I think Leopard is a great system and would not go back to Tiger. Yes at the moment 10.5.0 is a little bit slower than 10.4.10 starting up my Mac with all the login items that I have selected but Tiger only got this speedy at 10.4.9. Before that Tiger was much slower at startup than Leopard at the moment.
I upgraded to Leopard with the full expectation that it would not be fully polished. Yes there was one big bummer, Photoshop 7 stopped working for me, but what the ... It was probably time to go and get CS 3.
Apart from all the UI changes that can be easily rectified there are two that Apple could improve/reinstate. The Spaz mentions them.
Leaving out the Search view in the Finder for searches and smart folders is a bit of a regression. Whatever about dropping the Show All alternative Spotlight window not been able to see files in an easily categorized grouped views is remiss of Apple. This was one of the most attractive features of the new Spotlight paradigm introduced in Tiger and I would rank it ahead of speed. The search view replaces column view in searches and smart folders and the view controls in the Finder tool bar reflect this in Tiger. Maybe the feature did not migrate well to Leopard and there was no time to iron out bugs?
Stacks. Stacks are great. I like stacks but, they could be a whole lot better. (Navigable) Like being able to click on a folder in a grid and it changes to show the contents of the folder. This was in one of the earlier builds of Leopard. I have seen video of this online. I would have my Home folder stacked in the Dock and from there be able to go anywhere in my Documents, Pictures, Movies....etc. Also being able to add files or folders to a stack or remove them again. Steve Jobs alluded to this in WWDC07 when he demonstrated making a stack by selecting some files in a folder (I think it was a selection of apps) and dragging them to the Dock to become the new stack. Badging a stack with an icon that visually makes sense needs to be addressed. And last but not least (even though it is something I never used) I can understand those who depended on folders in the dock who depended on the hierarchical menus to navigate to items. This needs to be reinstated. There could be an option in Dock Preferences. Place Files/Folders in Dock as Stack, Classic view or Ask. The default would be stack and with ask when you drop files/folders on the Dock a small HUD pops up with two buttons asking Stack or Classic view.
Apple needs to hear this stuff. So send feedback.
EDIT. In fact I just sent Apple the last 3—4 lines of my second last paragraph above.
There are a few issues that annoy me, like the Finder forgetting my custom folder views, activating Time machines also causes Finder to forget custom window sizes.
Spotlight Show All is pretty useless since you can't really see the name at all in icon view. And if you swtich to column then all Finder windows do change as well (previous paragraph).
The transparent menubar just look weird but i'm sure i'll get used to it
The 3d dock is now gone I always put the dock on the right side so i get the old plain flat dock (kinda..)
One thing that really puzzles me is: Leopard sees the coming of rounded corners in almost all menus and interface element. But then the rounded menubar corners are now gone. That sounds inconsistent to me. Like different groups within Apple should really sit together and decided consistently.
Apart from those little things, Leopard is great and quite fast indeed.
Spotlight Show All is pretty useless since you can't really see the name at all in icon view. And if you swtich to column then all Finder windows do change as well (previous paragraph).
The transparent menubar just look weird but i'm sure i'll get used to it
The 3d dock is now gone
I always put the dock on the right side so i get the old plain flat dock (kinda..)One thing that really puzzles me is: Leopard sees the coming of rounded corners in almost all menus and interface element. But then the rounded menubar corners are now gone. That sounds inconsistent to me. Like different groups within Apple should really sit together and decided consistently.
Apart from those little things, Leopard is great and quite fast indeed.