Is Apple's Leopard in your future?

I had thought that by now I would have a system running Vista if for no other reason than to see if it offers any advantages in my real estate world.

That hasn't happened.  The real estate market as you can tell by many of my real estate posts has not exactly been conducive to new hardware purchases.  It has been more on the order of, I need to sell something to make my own mortgage payments.

So as I watch Leopard get close to announcement, thoughts are going through my head as to whether or not I need this latest operating system.

The last time I upgraded was to 10.4 in May 2005. Then I was also using Suse Linux.  I did an upgrade on Suse and compared it to my my OS X upgrade in a post.

As much as I liked Suse, every time that I did an upgrade, something broke.  For that reason I moved to Ubuntu for my Linux needs.  I was really happy with Ubuntu, but I have to admit that I was a casual Linux user.  I used Linux more to watch it progress and see how I did with it than for any other reason.

Mac OS X is what I have used for my real work since the first public beta.

Unfortunately for my Linux, I had a power outage crash that hosed the hard drive which had Windows & Linux on it.  I haven't had time to get another one or more correctly I don't want to wrestle with the case of the Dell Dimension so I'm Linux-less for the time being since I can't seem to get it to install on the remaining Windows drive.

If I still had Linux I would likely be happy with playing with the latest free upgrades and hide my head in the sand on Leopard.

A while after Tiger came out in 2005, I asked some of my Apple SE friends for a list of applications that would give me good reasons to upgrade.  I didn't really get anything memorable back from them.

For that reason I left my wife's white half-moon iMac at OS 10.3.9.  She hasn't complained, and the few times I use it aren't enough to convince me to move her.  All the software just works on it.

One of the reasons I moved to Tiger in 2005 was that my new Nokia 6620 wouldn't sync with the previous OS.  The Tiger upgrade fixed the problem, but opened some other challenges like mail not being able to send.  My post, The ultimate irony for Apple, details that interesting situation where Apple's Mail wouldn't work but Entourage would.  Some advice from readers of Applepeels rescued me when my Apple SE friends had no suggestions.

Tiger also give me a serious problem with Imageprint, the raster image processing program, which I use in my little business that sells a few landscape prints done on my Epson 4000.

I also had a few problems with OS X in January 07 which caused me to write the post, OS X certainly not perfect.

Since then I have had remarkably few problems with my MacBook or my Dual G5.  The one exception continues to be ImagePrint which I have had to reinstall a couple of times.  I'm going to blame that on my cheapness and refusal to upgrade Imageprint.

I have briefly looked at the features of Leopard.  I use Mail more than anything besides a browser or iPhoto.  I don't do Safari so that isn't a reason to upgrade. I just upgraded iPhoto, and I am still debating whether I like it or not.  I have kept the old version on my MacBook.

Mail templates aren't very interesting to me, and this RSS feature isn't exactly leading edge.

Subscribe to an RSS feed in Mail and you’ll know the moment an article or blog post hits the wire. Even better, you can choose to have new articles emailed to you.

My mail provider Webmail.us has had that available since late 2005.  I found that I didn't use the feature anyway, since I like NetNewsWire.

I know there are other features which might matter a lot for some users, I just don't see any for me at this point.

Everything is working well.  I don't have any applications demanding to be upgraded. I don't have any hardware waiting for the latest OS upgrade.  Also experience has taught me and most readers that jumping on a new Apple operating system right out of the gate can be a little frustrating as the first batch of bugs are solved.

Given all that I just might wait.  Now if Apple shows up with this Mac Nano and includes Leopard, all bets might be off.

It would be interesting to see if the Leopard upgrade ends up being the Apple OS upgrade which is driven more by new hardware sales than by existing customers wanting to upgrade.

That is obviously what has happened with Vista. I certainly hope Apple doesn't see any users wanting new hardware with the old OS like the Window's vendors are seeing.

Apple now has a huge opportunity to boost hardware sales with an upgraded OS and some sorely needed hardware redesigns.  I hope they make it happen.  Since they control the OS and the hardware they are in the driver's seat on this.  If it doesn't work, I don't think it will sink Apple's ship.  There are too many iPods keeping it afloat, but it was a real missed opportunity.

I'll certainly be listening to what some of the serious Mac users have to say about Leopard, especially since I likely won't be trying immediately.

I hope Leopard is a serious improvement in speed and other areas which are more important sometimes than new features, since we already have enough digital chaff in the world.

Whatever happens it will take a while to filter down to the Crystal Coast.  We are more on the trailing edge of technology than the bleeding edge.  The closest Mac reseller is over two hours away.  I guess that is the price we pay for the great weather and the beautiful sunsets.

Well it is time to find that great local Pizza spot, watch some football, and stop worrying about operating system upgrades.

Comments

[JonJ]

Definitely -- wait on Leopard until most of the bugs have been squashed and some convincing reasons for moving to it have appeared. I don't see any features in it that look compelling. It seems to be more cosmetic than real.

Possibly, some new apps or new versions of old apps will appear, at some point, which have amazing capabilities that only Leopard will give us. Until then, save your shekels.

[Lucky13]

I won't be *upgrading* my only Mac - an iBook G4 running the Tiger version of OS X.

The hardware requirements will most likely put my machine very near the minimum level...not a good thing. Also, based on what info is available now, the new elements of Leopard just don't thrill me all that much. The term "eye candy" has been tossed around, and I have to agree with it. When is enough, well, enough?

Does my backup utility really need a 3D, graphics heavy, multimedia extravaganza? It requires more horsepower and gobbles up ever more screen space. What's the point? I feel the same way about Cover Flow. I tried it in iTunes and the novelty wore off in very short order. Expose is seldom used and the new Spaces would probably see even less use.

If I decide to buy a new Mac, next year, then Leopard will come with it. Otherwise...

[Czar]

For goodness sake, yes, of course I'll be upgrading to the new OS. I beta tested OS X originally. There will be new bugs to work out, but the new system will be a joy with which to work and savor.

I have many PC friends who are awaiting this new OS to switch over to Mac OS. This is going to be an exiting upgrade. Every new OS from Apple is something to which I look forward.

I'll be purchasing the family edition - it is really complimentary and means every Mac I own will have the latest OS. Yeah!