It was cold, drizzling lightly, and windy on the corner of 5th Ave and 58th St in New York City, but that didn’t stop the Apple Faithful from congregating in front of the monolithic glass cube of the Apple Store. Because in less than 30 minutes, the store would open its doors to receive them, and they would enter to buy Mac OS X Leopard, Apple’s newest operating system.

Maybe it was the weather, but the line wasn’t as long as I expected; the lines for the store opening and for the iPhone launch both stretched all the way around the block after doubling back a few times, but this line was quite short, only extending to the side of the nearby FAO Schwartz store, about 150 people deep. But as time went on and the 6pm hour approached, it continued to grow.

In truth, the line was quite uneventful. Those in line were content to huddle up and try to get away from the biting drizzle, while the rest of New York hustled by on their collective way home. Looking down inside the store, employees could be seen loading Leopard onto the in-store Macs, and at 5:55, they assembled for a pep-talk, minutes before they would accept the throng of customers.

At last the hour came. The doors were opened, a (largely manufactured) cheer went up, and customers were allowed inside to purchase their copies of the software. For the most part, the line moved swiftly; once it began moving, no-one had to wait much longer than 10 minutes to get inside the store. Apple was giving away free Leopard Tees to the first 500 customers, and Apple Geniuses were giving short seminars and tours to anyone who wanted to learn more about Leopard.

The first people to emerge, copies of Leopard in hand, had been waiting since 2pm. “It was worth it,” they said.

See our Leopard Launch Gallery, and stay tuned for an exclusive interview with the first people to get their copies of Leopard.