First Impressions: Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard

I received my copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard at 9:30AM yesterday, Oct 26th.

Install/Upgrade:

Since then I’ve install or upgraded three Mac’s to Leopard with little or no problem. This included one clean install and two upgrades on hardware including both Intel and PowerPC Mac’s with models from a MacBook to Mac Pro’s.

The upgrades averaged from 45 minutes to over an hour with the clean install being the fastest. Of course there’s several hours of checking and changing preferences to your taste after the upgrade.

I’d upgraded my applications on the upgraded Macs to their latest version so I haven’t experienced any major application problems to date. Just a few minor ones.

I store my iTunes tracks on a NAS device so I had to make some minor changes to an AppleScript that I use to auto-mount the network volumes during boot-up. That scared me for a moment thinking I would have to rebuild my iTunes database (11000+ tracks).

Using Leopard:

OK, I hate that default background (purple space nebula) that Leopard comes with. It makes the new Dock stick out like a sore thumb. With a decent background I’ve gotten use to the new 3D Dock and may even grow to like it.

I think I’ll find Stacks to be a useful feature. I use a number of applications for downloading and so the downloading stacks is a great way to lay your hands on files you just downloaded quickly without them being actually on your desktop.

The new Finder is a great improvement. I have been using PathFinder on Tiger and I’m going to see if Leopard’s new Finder can win me over. So close but perhaps still missing a few features I would like to see.

Time Machine definitely has the WOW factor. Show it to someone and that’s what they usually say…WOW! I don’t know how much I would use it but I’m going to set it up in addition to my other backup procedures and give it a go.

Spotlight seems to have gotten a lot more intelligent with Leopard and therefore perhaps more useful. I also think that Quick Look (file previewer) will make finding things much easier.

Spaces or multiple work spaces is a nice feature and could be very useful for those who have limited screen space but like to multitask. It’s not new, Linux has had it forever, but it’s a nice addition to OS X.

The new Mail seems to work well but I’ve not had the chance to explore any of it’s new capabilities. But, you can keep the fancy stationary as it doesn’t mean anything to me.

iChat is suppose to have some big enhancements…I’m not the chatty type of guy so probably of little use to me.

I was using Safari 3.0 for a while with Tiger and it is one of the fastest browsers I’ve ever used. it also seem much more compatible then the old Safari. I’ll definitely continue to use it.

Summary, at this point:

Leopard gives the indications of being a more mature version of OS X with many improvements and new features. The user interface, while perhaps not to everyone’s taste, is more consistent then it has been in previous versions of OS X.

From the seat of my pants, Leopard seems smoother and faster than Tiger but that may just be from having a fresh and cleaner install.

Overall, a good upgrade well worth the money. Just make sure you update you main applications prior to the upgrade to avoid problems.

UPDATE: 11/04/07 – Below is the Apple Script code I’m using to mount network drives with Leopard. I compiled this script and have it executing automatically upon login.

Of course, use your own IP addresses and shared names in place of my examples.

mount volume “smb://guest:@192.168.1.9/media”

mount volume “smb://guest:@192.168.1.9/archive”

mount volume “smb://guest:@192.168.1.9/data”