As mentioned in a previous post, I ordered 2 gigs for RAM and OSX 10.5 from Amazon.com. The RAM came before OS X did, so I had a few days of blissful Tiger running on almost 5 times the minimum required RAM. To be clear, it was speedy. I opened all of the applications on my dock at the same time just because I could. With 512megs (the default amount), I have to be responsible and prioritize which application I really wanted to have running. No more! There's really no downside to having more RAM. A new OS, however...
Leopard arrived at my door last Monday, three days after it's release. From what I had read on message boards and in reviews online, it seemed great. Sure, there was talk of the little 'Leopard BSOD' incident, but I threw it in the back corner of my mind, where it splattered against the wall.
Two hours after I had begun the install, and I was staring at a very bright blue screen. I had mouse control, but that was about it. No keyboard, no CD drive, no nothing. I grabbed a nearby laptop to see what was the matter. Upon a quick Google search I found myself at Apple.com's support pages. One clearly hastily thrown up page told me that I had an issue with my ApplicationEnhancer plugin (which I had indeed installed). The site told me to reboot into Single User Mode (a 'feature' which happened to have locked me out of my computer on the flight over - my fault) and type in a few lines of code to delete the file bundle, which I did. A quick reboot and Leopard was now ready to go!
The install overall was the smoothest install I have ever had the pleasure of sitting through. Granted, all the previous install I had done were with Windows, but still, Leopard was amazing. Macs are set up so that the system folder is completely separate from the applications and other data folders, so a new OS install leaves everything else perfectly intact. This is unheard of when using Windows. I plan to install Mac OS 9.2 onto my G4 Powermac soon, so I'll get to compare the experiences soon enough.
Now for a basic run-down of the pros and cons I have found with Leopard so far.
PROS
-User interface is gorgeous
-The ability to lock folders to a certain view option is much appreciated. I use List for Apps, Grid for Movies, etc.
-Spaces is brilliant
-The new iChat is awesome
-The new backdrops in Photo Booth are nice
- I can finally record video via built-in iSight from Photo Booth - I no longer have to open iMovie
- Cover flow is a nice addition to Finder, especially in the Photo and Documents folder
-The predefined spotlight searches for Today, Yesterday, This Week, etc, are nice
CONS
-Takes an additional three gigs of space over Tiger
-Time Machine wants to re-format my external before it can use it. That will not be happening.
- Stacks are no so cool. In fact, they get rather annoying.
-My Cocktail app doesn't work with Leopard yet.
Overall, I enjoy using Leopard a lot. However, seeing as Spaces alone takes up probably 200megs of RAM, I wouldn't recommend using Leopard on any machine sporting less than gig or RAM.
No comments:
Post a Comment