Will your computing really improve with Leopard?

[Scottyfrombi]

First let me say that I am as excited as anyone about the pending release of Leopard. I love new stuff and pretty screen savers etc. I am very anxious to see what the final cut of Leopard actually looks like. But having said that, what will it actually change what I do on my computer? My images will not look any better than they can look now with the available software. I won't be able to email any faster or better, the internet will look the same and I can still recover from a loss if I have backed up properly.

OS 10.4.x is about as good as it can be at this point with most of the major problems resolved. 10.5 begins a new cycle of release and fix and release and fix cycles.

So other than some nice graphics, perhaps some things appearing a few nano seconds faster on screen and a bridge to future major changes, what will be the net gain of OS 10.5?

I am pretty impetuous and will probably jump in very quickly to upgrade and get the newer prettier OS, but I hope to hold out at least for a month or two before jumping in to prevent the inevitable problems with a 1st generation software release.

Does this qualify for the saying "be careful what you ask for"?

Please don't take this too seriously, since it is obvious that change is inevitable and progress must occur. Again, I get it but is this really as big as we have made it in these forums or is it just something we want to distract us from the boredom of our day to day routine existence?

 

[Veritas&Equitas]

Well why did you upgrade from OS 9, or Windows 98?

You can email in the same way, your images will look the same, as will the internet with both operating systems compared to current ones?

 

[Scottyfrombi]

I got swept up in the excitement and each time I upgraded, I had problems until the current version of the day was tweaked and fixed. It seems that every time they get if just right, they have to improve it and re-invent it. If memory serves, wasn't the release of OS 10 met with many people losing complete backup external drives?

It's great fun and i am a big fan of the forums and can't wait until the actual release of Leopard. Look how much we chat about something that hasn't even been released yet.

I guess the real question is not whether to upgrade to Leopard as much as when? Will you be a 1st release tester or wait to jump in until the complaints and fixes start to slow down?

 

[irishgrizzly]

I not going to see any improvement to my workflow. It will break some apps and I'll have to wait a little while for the right patches. Some of the slower machines will strain under the new finder with more demands it makes. In a few months all the bugs will be worked out and it'll be back to the productivity of 10.4.

 

[desenso]

Spaces + New Finder + Time Machine (maybe) + New Front Row + other misc improvements = worth it for me.

 

[/dev/toaster]

The new finder actually slows me down, mostly because the icons are too small. (On the left panel)

I don't see my self using spaces, as it is I have way too much crap loaded and RAM is an issue. System preferences are way more organized, which will actually help me a bit. I need to change around network configs depending on the office network speed. (We have multiple gateways, and far too many people using them)

Stacks are really sweet. The download stack is very useful. You can download stuff, and drag it right into the trash very easy. (They are so close) You might be asking, why download something and trash it ? (Well, thats part of my testing that I can't get into)

I created a Stack for screenshots. With that gamer inside me, I tend to take a lot of them. After like 30 screenshots I have found you need to move them out of there, otherwise the performance suffers severely.

The new calendar is nice, I can *finally* accept events from a mailing list or forwarded to me. I still can't believe the work arounds I had to use with tiger, it really made life hell.

The "web clip" although fun, I don't see having many practical uses. Its fun to toy with none the less.

The biggest feature for me is timemachine. I don't need to leave my laptop on all night so Deja Vu can back it up. I also don't need to worry about backups for my girlfriends laptop. I just setup a share on my server, pop in a 1TB drive and I am good to go. I don't see my self using the "go back in time" feature so much. However, the peace of mind knowing I have hourly snapshots of my data will make me sleep well at night.

I can't wait for leopard, I really like it. But I can honestly say there isn't much screaming to me that I need to upgrade. (Not the Vista way of screaming there is no reason to upgrade and/or I would regret it)

 

[cah87]

The new finder actually slows me down, mostly because the icons are too small. (On the left panel)

I don't see my self using spaces, as it is I have way too much crap loaded and RAM is an issue. System preferences are way more organized, which will actually help me a bit. I need to change around network configs depending on the office network speed. (We have multiple gateways, and far too many people using them)

Stacks are really sweet. The download stack is very useful. You can download stuff, and drag it right into the trash very easy. (They are so close) You might be asking, why download something and trash it ? (Well, thats part of my testing that I can't get into)

I created a Stack for screenshots. With that gamer inside me, I tend to take a lot of them. After like 30 screenshots I have found you need to move them out of there, otherwise the performance suffers severely.

The new calendar is nice, I can *finally* accept events from a mailing list or forwarded to me. I still can't believe the work arounds I had to use with tiger, it really made life hell.

The "web clip" although fun, I don't see having many practical uses. Its fun to toy with none the less.

The biggest feature for me is timemachine. I don't need to leave my laptop on all night so Deja Vu can back it up. I also don't need to worry about backups for my girlfriends laptop. I just setup a share on my server, pop in a 1TB drive and I am good to go. I don't see my self using the "go back in time" feature so much. However, the peace of mind knowing I have hourly snapshots of my data will make me sleep well at night.

I can't wait for leopard, I really like it. But I can honestly say there isn't much screaming to me that I need to upgrade. (Not the Vista way of screaming there is no reason to upgrade and/or I would regret it)

Its funny because the only thing i don't care about in Leopard is the stacks. I think its just whatever but i kinda like opening folders and getting stuff the old fashion. Also i love the new finder it doesn't slow me down one bit, and Time Machine really is my favorite feature of Leopard as well its just to easy to use. You can back up all you computer seamlessly to one drive

 

[dacloo]

Yes it will help. Leopard is a great productivity upgrade (more so than e.g Jaguar to Tiger)

The Finder. Current one sucks a big bunch. You got to love the new left pane, the sharing options.

Quick look. How often I just want to quickly inspect a media file? I do it often for work, but the current way of doing it is by opening the file.

Dock: spring loaded!

And more...

 

[Scottyfrombi]

I was sort of caught up in the whole new OS, yippie, happy days, everything is gonna be alright now syndrome. But when I started to think about it, I am not so sure it is such a great thing right now. As mentioned, there has never been a trouble free OS launched and right now OS 10.4.10 is working very well for me. I recently purchased a MBP because my old G4 12" Powerbook could not run Aperture. With the MBP, that problem is gone. I was going to wait for Leopard to be released before buying the MBP, but then I looked closer and did not see a single could not live without or really need it very much aspect to Leopard. Now I am thinking... do I really want to upgrade right away and the answer seems to be... maybe not.

As the saying goes, if it aint broke, why fix it? and for me at least, Tiger aint broke. Leopard almost certainly will be broke initially. At some point, I will definately upgrade, but for now, I have to ask... what do I gain? A lot of headaches and possibly frustration to do pretty much what I am doing quite nicely right now with Tiger.

 

[Veritas&Equitas]

Great looks like you have your answer.

We want to upgrade, you don't feel comfortable doing so because you think it might be less stable/dependable. Thanks for the input, we can go our separate ways now

 

[/dev/toaster]

Yes it will help. Leopard is a great productivity upgrade (more so than e.g Jaguar to Tiger)

The Finder. Current one sucks a big bunch. You got to love the new left pane, the sharing options.

Quick look. How often I just want to quickly inspect a media file? I do it often for work, but the current way of doing it is by opening the file.

Dock: spring loaded!

And more...

I can't wait till someone finds a way to create extra "search for" items. I would love to be able to define new items for, lets say all items with a certain color label.

Would be even nicer to be able to change the existing ones to not display system files. I just want to see what documents I have worked on today, this week, this month etc.

 

[Scottyfrombi]

Great looks like you have your answer.

We want to upgrade, you don't feel comfortable doing so because you think it might be less stable/dependable. Thanks for the input, we can go our separate ways now

I don't have very many answers and those I do really just generate more questions. So I hope we don't part and go our separate ways. I rather enjoy the discussions and sharing of ideas and contributions of those who have had experiences both good and bad.

I am not sure what my comfort level will be ultimately, but it is these forums that help and the people who contribute their time and discussion freely and accept that others want to do the same. So thanks for your input and please hang around there's more to come.

 

[seclusion]

In using Leopard up to 9A 527, I have to say the only thing that crashed on me was Safari. I migrated over from my Tiger install, which I believe was suggested not to. When Leopard is released I'll grab an extra hard drive just for it.
Leave Tiger intact, then slowly reinstall everything from scratch.
I feel that'll be the majority of the instabilities is through migrating everyone's crap over. Aside from the eye candy, it's so far been much faster then Tiger, ways of finding things are neat. The networking is greatly improved, faster connecting to other systems. Doesn't seem like everything has moved around like in Vista. I found I was slower as things got moved around. Some things were right in front of you but were blindly there.
I use my system for a DAW and it's been solid doing that.
Work flow in Logic Studio has changed in it's new revision, but really in that App, the OS isn't what I need.
It'll be fun any who.
Later