p2pnet - rss feed: Apple Leopard: ROAR! or meow?
p2pnet news | Product News:- Apple’s latest cool cat or Leopard release makes crowds roar across the country or Rain, wind don’t deter NYC’s Leopard hunters.
The headlines are all inspired by the launch of Apple’s newest operating system - Leopard - seven months late and costing between $80 and $200, depending on the version.
Asks another, What’s Leopard really worth?
That’s from Macworld, which has Andy Ihnatko answering:
I think the way to sum up the correct level of anticipation for Leopard is to compare it to a movie that stars Gene Hackman or Michael Caine. You know that it’s going to be worthwhile… but the coin’s in the air as to whether it’s worth seeing right away.
That’s because Leopard, unique from all previous major releases of Mac OS X, lacks that one sledgehammer feature that absolutely insists that you park your butt in front of the Apple Store and subsist on a diet of Orange Julius and Cinnabons all day to ensure that today is the first day of the rest of your Leopard life.
But, “Will ‘Leopard’ change spotty Mac sales?” - wonders a Marketplace podcast featuring Bill Fearnley, jr.
Apparently, the Big Deal is: “You can install Windows on your Macintosh. You can install that application on your Macintosh, and you can switch between Windows and you can switch over to Macintosh.”
Wowee. He doesn’t explain why anybody would ever want to be able to do that but anyway, “That’s key,” says the story, “because it’ll make it easier for customers to switch between home and work computers.
Fearnley: It’s making more people, or encouraging more people, to consider the Macintosh.
That’s important, because despite its record earnings and a cult-like following among users, Macs make up less than 10 percent of computer purchases.
But will Macintoshes rule the world? They probably won’t.
And the Baltimore Sun’s David Zeiler issues a warning, to wit:
Although Leopard is the sixth version of Mac OS X, it has changed significantly and could break software – particularly utilities – that people depend on. Wise Mac users will wait for the early adopters to suffer through the early days of finding out which things break while the companies that make the software scramble to get out patches to fix the problems. Usually all such issues get straightened out within a few months of the release of a new version of OS X. Trust me, your patience will be rewarded.
I realize all this advice will fall on deaf ears among those can’t resist the pull of having the new OS on their Mac right now. Just remember: tempting as it is, upgrading an operating system always entails some degree of risk.
The good, says ZDNet is:
Elegant backup via Time Machine; Finder offers powerful navigation tweaks; novel workspace customization through Spaces’ virtual desktops; integration with Web data and applications; Cover Flow visualizes file browsing; iChat Theater offers green-screen backgrounds and lets users access each others’ desktops; Bootcamp included.
The bad: Some new features, such as geotagging, aren’t obvious to find; users with older Macs can’t run Leopard.
The bottom line?
“The grace of Leopard’s interface enhancements makes productivity more pleasurable with a Mac, as more than 300 functional and fun features top off this update.”
Also See:
Macworld - What’s Leopard really worth?, October 26, 2007
Marketplace - Will ‘Leopard’ change spotty Mac sales?, October 26, 2007
Baltimore Sun - Apple a Day, October 26, 2007
ZDNet - Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, October 25, 2007
Wowee. He doesn’t explain why anybody would ever want to be able to do that but anyway, “That’s key,” says the story, “because it’ll make it easier for customers to switch between home and work computers.
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October 28th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
It’s still proprietary software, no matter how you slice it. Linux and/or BSD variants will be the way of the future, especially with the modern trends in proprietary operating systems and supporting products.
Interesting list of *minimum* OS requirements, edited to fit your screen:
Vista = 800 MHz, 512MB (1/2 GIG) RAM, 15GB HD available, and a DirectX 9 video card
Leopard = 866 MHz, 512MB RAM, 9GB HD available, Apple-supplied video card, FireWire
Ubuntu Linux = 300 MHz, 64MB RAM, 2GB HD (recommended 500 MHz, 192MB RAM, 8GB HD)
It seems pretty clear who is writing smaller code, at the very least. XP’s minimum requirements were almost identical to Ubuntu’s when it was released. Vista makes it clear that a clean OS from Microsoft is no more, and the same kind of bloat can be seen in Apple’s Mac OS X as it gains revisions as well.
Honestly, Linux has a long way to go before it can hope to scrap Windows and OS X from the common user’s desktop, but given the progress I’ve seen just in the last two years on the Linux front, it’s not a question of if it will kill proprietary operating systems, it’s a question of when.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:11 am
For the life of me I’ll never understand why Mac users are “cult” like yet it’s Windows users who have put up with illegal activities and shoddy software and who show just plain head in the sand worship.
Is it because the Mac people are more vocal?
November 4th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
An OS can be best described for the knowledgeable in an old maxim “Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar” … and the same goes for the operating systems on most of the worlds computers …
The truth be told (and it is the truth) … most computer users know little beyond how to turn their machines on & off, use their email and surf the web … I sort of like the names the people at Apple and Microsoft come up with but I have to bow and doff my fedora to ‘Ubuntu’ — Just sounds so exotic/alien … Chuckle