O/T: Just got Leopard OS X 10.5

[Tim O'Sullivan]

hmm, I'm still debating if I should get a mac or just build a comp with vista ultimate. I've just been looking at the specs and for the price its a bit much. I guess I will have to go to a apple store and check it out.

The only problem with Apple is the hardware is very pricey compared to the equivalent in the PC world. That said, I am writing this on my Powerbook G4 as my PC blew up on Saturday!

I wonder if I get Tiger if it will run properly on my 1.67ghz G4 with a gig of RAM?

 

[Larry]

hmm, I'm still debating if I should get a mac or just build a comp with vista ultimate. I've just been looking at the specs and for the price its a bit much. I guess I will have to go to a apple store and check it out.

I have a custom PC I build about 4 months ago just sitting collecting dust

EVGA 8800GT
AMD 64 X2 6400+
Vista Ultimate 64 bit
4gig Corsair ram

and honestly my MacBook just "works" better...

 

[pjc812]

Haha I think switching from PC to MAC is like switching form "other" guitars to Music Man!

I got addicted to Mac's by working in the recording studio while I was in college. Between my wife and me we have three old and decrepid macs. That being said, they ALL work better than the crappy PC's we have at work. My desk top mac is a jerry-rigged deal I got off of Ebay less than $400 for the whole deal. Does all I need even though it doesn't have all the latest gizmos. Still running 10.3.9 cuz it's all I need but I think I did prefer OS9. It was more basic and easier to trouble shoot IMO. Not that it needed trouble shooting often I just liked it better.

 

[JohnnyD19]

im planing on switching over this Christmas.

 

[NorM]

Proud to be a Mac user!
I wanted to do a windows bashing (Breaking) post but then I realized that's not what we do here. So, Again I say...
Proud to be a Mac user!

 

[rickjohns]

I have been using Leopard since Friday, have had only two problems. I went to try to add my Kensington Bluetooth mouse, and the bluetooth wizard locked up. Had to restart, but hey what do you know, the mouse came up and worked! Today the band was writing some new tunes, and I was working in Live 6. After a take, the audio got really distorted on playback, so I saved and closed and re-opened the program. Didn't have another problem all day today. I have to say I'm happy with Leopard so far, quicklook is by far on of the best features I have really used so far. Being able to open old audio files with out open the app to play them while searching thru my music folder is just awesome. So far so good!

 

[Larry]

The stacks are one of my favorite features as well as Safari 3

 

[the24thfret]

Sounds good to me!

 

[Phrat]

BP I'll let you try it here if you bring me something from the vault to try ... On a side note. I bought the VGA adapter for my MacBook when I was at the Apple Store buying Leopard... What a difference My 22" Samsung monitor running at 1680x1050 makes Its like a whole new computer. Can't wait for my 2gigs of memory to come from Crucial either.

/end nerd rant

Maxing out the memory on my MacBook to 2gb turned it from a slightly sluggish but very annoying machine to a superfast MEGAcomputer!

Been a MacUser for a few years now and will never go back to the dark side. Havent upgraded to Leopard yet as i will nab one of the family licences from my mate who no doubt will have it on order and owes me a few favours!

 

[roburado]

The only problem with Apple is the hardware is very pricey compared to the equivalent in the PC world. That said, I am writing this on my Powerbook G4 as my PC blew up on Saturday!

I wonder if I get Tiger if it will run properly on my 1.67ghz G4 with a gig of RAM?

Tiger should. Leopard seems like it will from what I remember of the System Requirements, but don't quote me.

 

[Big Poppa]

I think that MAc's are great and I do understand the comparision to us. I also think that Apple is starting to act a little "Redmond" like with some of the newer policies and attitudes........

 

[Norrin Radd]

Haha I think switching from PC to MAC is like switching form "other" guitars to Music Man!

Maybe EBMM should do some of those switching commercials with those 2 guys from the apple ads - that would be cool!

"Let me get this straight, on your "custom shop" guitar you have to take the neck off of it to adjust the truss rod?!?!?!!"

hehhehee.......

 

[phatduckk]

i got leopard this weekend. its cool - but its really not that big of a deal. im a huge mac fan so im not trying to smack em down or anything like that.

here's my main impressions:

1) the terminal is finally good. it has tabs and other customizations you'd expect. its better than iTerm

2) quick look is awesome

3) spaces is a let down... specific gripes: a) cant use the fn key as a hotkey modifier and apple+tab behaves a bit strange if youre tabbing to an app thats not on your current space

4) the notes and todos in mail are cool. if you use your mac for business stuff this alone is a reason to upgrade

5) the upgrade killed my apache configuration. backup httpd.conf if you use the web server!

6) the stacks on the dock arent that big of a deal. why? the icon for each stack is determined by first app in that stack. so its gonna change a lot depeneding on what you have in the stack. if you use the default "downloads" stack, every new download will cause the stack's icon to change. to me this is stupid. its intended to be an easy way to get to stuff but they keep changing the icon on you. why? now if you drag your applications folder to the dock you get an apps stack. the icon is the icon of the first item in the stack... for me thats my address book. visually that's annoying as hell. when i wanna click on my stack i wanna see my apps, but the stack looks like its "saying" hey click here for your address book. another gripe is this: assume one of your stacks has folders in it. now your stack pops up all cute in a grid, but if you click on a folder in the stack the finder opens up to that folder. why not just chage the current grid view to display the contents of the folder?

7) spotlight has become a decent app launcher. in the prefs i set it to only show apps and preferences. so now if you wanna launch mail you can just hit Apple+spacebar, type "mail" then hit enter. no clicking thru finder or looking for icons in the dock. ive been using quicksilver for years, but if you dont need quicksilver's advanced stuff spotlight works real well. i highly recommend using this functionality. you will save 20 seconds at a time about 100 times/day. it adds up. you'll become a faster and more efficient computer user

8) safari finally has a proper search in it

9) i dont really care about time machine. as an engineer i use cvs or svn anyways so my critical stuff's already backed up and version controlled. but for regular users its pretty cool i guess. the thing is that it uses an external drive - but since i use a laptop and dont really live at a desk thats kinda annoying. i rarely plug my external drive in anyways. however for people who always work at their desk this will be a cool app for ya

10) the new dock looks cute. BUT it doesnt do the cute transparent, mirrors thing if you move the dock to the left or right of the screen. when you move it you get a different kind of look.

so here's phatty's bottom line:

this weeked i upgraded my home laptop and right now im using my work laptop and im not missing some killer app. im functioning just fine w/o any "oh man i wish i had" thoughts running in my head.

... so should you upgrade? yes. should you run to the apple store and upgrade ASAP cuz its the best thing ever? na, upgrade when u have time. i'll consider its a must have but its not a "must have right now" upgrade

 

[Jodizzle]

Arin! Where have you been?

I love my Mac, but I don't know Jack about computers. I like it cuz it's white hehe. What is the purpose of this Leopard you speak of?? Don't chastize me .. only so much knowledge will fit in Jodi's brain.

 

[wagnerite]

<---- long time mac user!

 

[phatduckk]

Arin! Where have you been?

at work! lol. slept her etc. just work. lol

I love my Mac, but I don't know Jack about computers. I like it cuz it's white hehe. What is the purpose of this Leopard you speak of?? Don't chastize me .. only so much knowledge will fit in Jodi's brain.

leopard is the new version of "os x", the operating system. more info: http://www.apple.com/macosx/

 

[DT1607]

nice review phat, I will probably get a mac around christmas time.

 

[Chewie]

That's too bad, I was looking forward to Spaces. That's probably the thing that drives me nuts most about Macs is the lack of virtual desktops and being able to hotkey thru them. I like Macs, but I spend most of my time on Ubuntu/Solaris and I am a virtual desktop addict. Sounds like the upgrade to Leopard is filled with as much hype as when Ubuntu 7.10 came out the other week. Cool new features, none that are absolute must haves. At least it sounds like it works. I heard there are some install problems with some systems. Couldn't suck as much as a Vista upgrade though even if Apple tried.

 

[NorM]

I wonder if Google has thought about developing an operating system and then giving it away to anyone for free.

Wouldn't that be a well deserved kick in the head.

 

[phatduckk]

That's too bad, I was looking forward to Spaces. That's probably the thing that drives me nuts most about Macs is the lack of virtual desktops and being able to hotkey thru them. I like Macs, but I spend most of my time on Ubuntu/Solaris and I am a virtual desktop addict. Sounds like the upgrade to Leopard is filled with as much hype as when Ubuntu 7.10 came out the other week. Cool new features, none that are absolute must haves. At least it sounds like it works. I heard there are some install problems with some systems. Couldn't suck as much as a Vista upgrade though even if Apple tried.

spaces is decent, dont get me wrong. my grip may be due to me having adjusted to the freeware virtual desktop software i was using on tiger (creatively names "desktop manager" from: http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/). this freeware is pretty ok. its got hotkeys etc.

spaces is better than Desktop manager in a bunch of ways:

1) its 2D - so you can have desktops above or below others
2) the f8 key gives you a cool view of all desktops and u can drag windows around
3) you can assign apps to desktops
4) you can assign an app to follow u to any desktop u go to (i set it up so that IM is on every desktop etc)
5) if an app on another desktop throws an alert it will show u the alert on the current desktop instead of you having to hunt down the alert

my ONLY grip is:

when you apple+tab to an app that's not on the current desktop it will bring a window from that app to your current desktop. Id personally rather it activate the app w/o bringing over a window and ill then manually open a new window. this is how ive gotten used to using multiple desktops. i stagger different sets of open browser windows on different dekstops and its annoying for me that spaces just brings the window over.

all in all leopard its a great upgrade... but i wouldnt wait in line for it

+ as a geek im sure youd be stoked that the terminal is way better now