Upgrading OS X

3 weeks is unlikely. Think June-ish.

OS X upgrades always offer new, unique functionality. Leopard may be particularly interesting because there's a secret goody-bag of features not yet announced.

Upgrading for me has always been flawless (since 1997, every upgrade available). However, new OSes can break some program's functionality (at least temporarily), so immediate upgrade is a personal choice. There have been some critical bugs to some upgrades, but I've never been affected.

As a rule, buy it if you want it/need it. Otherwise, wait. Depends if 3 months is worth $150 bucks or so...

Happy choosing.

 

I agree with everything posted above by ricksbrain. I would get it now and then upgrade in the fall after a few bugs are worked out. I personally can survive without a new OS for quite a while- although it will be hard as I really like "time Machine" and a few other things. I will wait at least a month after release to be sure there are no critical problems with the new OS like the last one with File Vault. Although I didn't use File Vault that was a pretty serious issue I guess.

Good luck!

 

I have only done two upgrades; Panther and Tiger. I did not hesitate at all and was rewarded by fantastic OS's. I have FCS (It was FCP), Adobe CS/CS2, Office:Mac, and Macromedia Suite. I have purchased, or upgraded iLife and iWork immediately as well. The only issue of consequence I have had was with a plug-in for FCS, Magic Bullet v2.0. That was not a problem with OSX though. When they begin taking advance orders for Leopard, my wallet will be out! Do you have more than 1 Mac? If so, the family packs for OSX, iLife and iWork are a great deal. You can license 5 computers in the same location for $199 (OSX), and $99 (iWork or iLife). That is a big savings.

 

As others have said, it is often beneficial to wait for a few months after a new release for the kinks to get worked out. So if you want a MBP before Fall, then grab one now. iLife tends to be more stable at release because it's not as in-depth as OS X, so that is okay to purchase as soon as it comes out. iLIfe does not come with OS X, but does come with every new Mac purchased. If you buy now, you will need to purchase the new iLife when it comes out if you want it.

 

iLife typically only comes installed when you buy a new Mac. If you buy a system with Tiger now, it will come with iLife06 installed. If you subsequently buy Leopard, it will likely not include iLife07 so you will need to spend some more for the iLife update.

If the Leopard upgrade is anything like the Tiger upgrade (which of course it may not be) I upgraded one of my systems with a clean Tiger install, and just did an update install on the other. Both systems worked fine afterwards. I seem to remember there were a few applications that needed an update from the developers to work with Tiger, although I can't recall which, but I don't remember that this was a big hassle.

In any case, a SuperDuper or CCC full backup is highly recommended before you do an upgrade.