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journal: mac
Mac OS X Leopard Part 8: Wrapup
It’s been almost a month since Leopard made its debut and I’m just now writing up the conclusion to my review. What gives, you ask? I wrote it as several parts over about three weeks. I actually planned a couple more sections, but stuff happens, time marches on, and things have to be prioritized. So it goes.
Mac users waited over two and a half years for Leopard to emerge. I wrote two articles based on the WWDC previews of Leopard (one, two), and in both, my initial response was “meh.” In 2006, Apple showed off a handful of new features, but it was pretty clear that Leopard was incomplete. Some of the new features were pretty cool, like the new iChat and Time Machine, but Apple didn’t really mention a whole lot in reality. Steve Jobs promised “top secret” features would be revealed closer to Leopard’s release.
Macworld Expo came and went back in December, and Apple said nothing about Leopard.
Spring rolled around, and in place of a release, we got a delay, with the promise of a near-final beta unveiled at WWDC 2007.
WWDC 2007 rolled around and rumors abounded. There were talks of ZFS replacing HFS+, a new user interface, built-in virtualization, among others. And then there was Jobs’ mention of “top secret” new features. The rumor mill was turned up to 11 heading into Jobs’ WWDC 2007 keynote.
What we got was a retooled desktop look and a new Finder. So much for mind-blowingly awesome new features.
I think we all know that the rumor mill can inflate people’s expectations to sometimes absurd levels. I wrote about this back in March 2006 after Apple released the Intel-based Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi to a collective groan. The rumors fueled the pie-in-the-sky expectations for Leopard, but the rumors were undoubtedly fueled by Jobs’ top secret” hype.
So how did Leopard ultimately pan out?
Pwnage or Suckage?
I’ve been using Leopard from the day it was released, and already there are a number of features I wouldn’t want to be without. Quick Look and CoverFlow have been fully integrated into my workflow. Spotlight is far faster, making it much more enjoyable to use. Safari’s new Find feature is a small addition, but welcome. Screen Sharing is awesome. And I actually use Stacks! From a feature standpoint, Leopard is great.
On the stability front, I have yet to encounter any major bugs (this bug notwithstanding). Leopard’s need solid as a rock.
We didn’t get a chance to discuss the under-the-hood details, but if the changes and additions are as big a deal as Siracusa says they are, we should expect some great applications in the future.
So by and large, I consider Leopard to be money well spent.
Okay, what about the score?
Leopard is a solid 4.0 out of 5 overall. Is Leopard a totally groundbreaking, revolutionary OS release? No. Is it an great evolutionary step? Yes. Is it packed full of new features? You bet. Would I go back to Tiger? No way.
Despite some missteps and underdeveloped areas, Leopard is the best big cat Apple has released thus far. I can’t wait to see what 10.6 brings.
Articles in this series
- Part 1: The Leopard UI
- Leopard screenshots
- Part 2: Spotlight and the Finder
- Part 3: Stacks
- Part 4: Spaces
- Part 5: iCal
- Part 6: Time Machine
- Pat 7: iChat
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| Nick | comments | views |
thinkback
Features here, features there.... I don’t want a million features, I want a usable, useful, fast and reliable computer.
I don’t say that features don’t matter but they are not as important. I don’t use Time Machine or Spaces but think the new features in Mail are pretty useful, like the ability to read RSS-feeds or making notes.....
What matters to me is that Leopard works more smoothly, is much more responsive. It’s like with the earlier versions, every new one has in practice given me a new and faster Mac.
Leopard has too many bugs to deserve a 5/5 but it will once the worst bugs have been squashed.
| Feb. 02, 2008 | |
| 3:17 pm |
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One feature of Leopard that I use all the time is mouse scrolling for windows in the background.
So let’s say you have Safari behind Word and you are referring to a Web site as you are typing in Word but you need to scroll the Safari window up a bit. Just move your mouse over the Safari window and use the scroll wheel. You don’t have to switch to Safari, scroll, switch back.
Nice touch.