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Well, the actual install was a bit of an anti-climax in the sense that is went absolutely smoothly.
Leopard is up and running on my G4 PowerBook, and so far it rocks, at least for the most part.
I really like the new interface look, and I'm even partial to the revised Dock's appearance, which I think I like better than the old OS X Dock aesthetically.
What I don't like about the new Dock is the lac of support for conventional folders in the Dock. Stacks just doesn;t do it for me, and I'm going to have to revert to aliases on the Desktop for some frequently referenced folders that have a ton of files in them.
However, the most jarring thing about Leopard for me is that Windowshade X doesn't work. I knew about this, but hoped that Unsanity Software would have a patched version of its Application Enhancer that plays happily with Leopard out by the time I upgraded. No such luck.
It's almost enough to make me go back to Tiger. Windowshading has been intricately integrated with my work habits since the feature was an add-on third-party hack for System 7. I'll neve forgive Apple for leaving it out of OS X, because there is nothing - absolutely nothing - that even comes close as a substitute.
Consequently, I'm getting my baptism in Leopard's Spaces early on, and I really like Spaces. Takes some getting used to, but it's really great. It helps with the Windowshading deficiency, although it's not a panacea. For example, the way I use Eudora is to keep the In and Out and Personalities windows, plus usually a couple of others, open and windowshaded all the time. Even with Spaces, this just doesn't work gracefully without Windowshading. I'm greatful for the expansiveness of this 17" display.
It's early days. Everything seems to work so far, and I haven't installed the 10.4.1 updater yet. Will get to that in the fullness of time, but for now, Moore... out.
Update 1 - Wednesday morning November 21:
Well, things didn't go quite as I had hoped yesterday. I got home later than I had expected, although on the road trip I was able to drop by a WiFi hot spot and download the 110 MB OS 10.,5.1 updater, which would have taken in excess of 12 hours over my office dial-up connection.
I didn't get to addressing the Leopard install until the wee hours of the AM today. I ran AlSoft Disk Warrior to check for and repair any directory damage. Only a couple of minor issues were detected, but it's reassuring to know that the Directory is in top shape. I then ran Repair Permissions and the chron maintenance scripts using OnyX. At that point it was 3 AM, so I decided to pack it in.
It should be good to go for the install, and I'll get back to it later today.
I did get around to opening the Leopard installer package - a much more modest box than Tiger came packed in 2 1/2 years ago. More green-conscious packaging, I guess. It's not an issue for me, but I have to say that the installation instructions in the tiny Leopard user manual pamphlet are sketchy in the extreme. A well, David Pogue has an "OS X 10.5 Leopard: The Missing Manual" book in the works for release next month. A pertinent last-minute Christmas gift suggestion for Leopard-users on your list.
CM
My install DVD of OS X 10.5 Leopard finally arrived here yesterday, some three and a half weeks after I ordered it from Amazon,com in the U.S.
I would have had it much quicker had I just ordered from Apple Canada for Can$129.00, but I had a gift certificate on hand from Amazon USA that was closing in on its expiry date, so I decided to take advantage of Amazon's discounted Leopard price of $109.00.
Unfortunately, Amazon.com USA won't ship software or electronics cross-border, so it was necessary to have Leopard delivered to a friend in the U.S. and get him to forward it, which he did the day after it arrived at his door in California.
The holdup was presumably the massive logjam at Canada Post's Canada Customs clearance points due to Canadians taking advantage of the soaring value of the Canabuck vis a vis the Greenback combined with the annual Christmas rush. The Canadian Dollar peaked (so far) at just over $1.10 U.S, a couple of weeks ago, although since then it has faded back to just over US$1.01 yesterday. Slowdowns of up to four or five weeks to clear customs have been reported, so I guess three and a half weeks isn't too bad.
Had it not been for the gift certificate that I already had in hand, I wouldn't have really saved any money by buying Leopard stateside. The software was $109.00 plus $5.00 shipping to the California address. My friend bought s shipping carton for $2.00 and the U.S. Postal Service wanted $18.00 to ship it to Nova Scotia, so that came to U.S.$134.00. Then Revenue Canada nicked me for Can$22.00 Harmonized Sales Tax at this end, so the Leopard install DVD on paper cost me about Can$155.00.
If I had ordered from Apple Canada, the grand total would have been Can$129.00 (free shipping) plus 14% HST for a grand total of $147.06, so bottom line, it was about eight dollars more to buy it at a discount in the U.S., not to mention the three and a half week wait.
The advantages of cross-border shopping can be illusory, even if the prices Canadians pay in the U.S. are nominally cheaper. I just shake my head at the number of Nova Scotians these days who pile into cars and make a six-hour drive (not counting a probable hour or more delay at the border both ways) to Bangor or Freeport, Maine to "save money" doing their Christmas shopping at U.S. prices and with cheap U.S. dollars. By the time you factor in fuel costs, accommodation (even with car-pooling and sharing a motel room), restaurant meals, and probable customs duties, it makes for some mighty expensive "bargains", not to mention the time expended.
Anyway, Leopard is here. In my usual, plodding, stick-in-the-mud fashion that used to drive my kids nuts, I haven't yet cracked the shrink-wrap on the DVD case, preferring to proceed methodically. I want to run a set of system maintenance routines with OnyX and perhaps check and optimize the hard disk partition before upgrading one of my Tiger systems on my 17" PowerBook G4. Also do a comprehensive global file backup as a foil against unlikely but possible troubles.
I hope to get to some of that later today, but a short road trip is on the roster first. It's going to be a new leg of the Odyssey. I've waited nearly a month for Leopard so far. Another day or so won't hurt.
Stay tuned.....
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Blogs ď OSX Odyssey ď Hot Topics ď
> Well, the actual install was a bit of an anti-climax in the sense that is went absolutely smoothly.
that’s _exactly_ everything in the world you would ever hope for in an operating system update ...
... anticlimax
/guy