Leopard trips

I’ve been looking forward to OS/X Leopard seriously for about three months now. After seeing it in action on our development systems it definitely gets the nod for some beautiful, eye-catching improvements that will make any Windows Vista user jealous. But is it really worth the upgrade cost of $129?

Actually, I’m a bit miffed at Apple over the whole upgrade process. We recently purchased a new iMac, qualifying for a nearly-free upgrade to Leopard. Unfortunately, getting the upgrade seems to be a bit of a chore for a few people—in our case, we were told to drop by the Apple store to pick up our $9.95 upgrade DVD… and were turned away and told to visit the Apple web site. After two days of trying the web site and not being able to load the upgrade form, I resorted to customer service and was told that there was absolutely no way they could help me—I’d have to use the web site. After calling back with the story that I didn’t have internet access, I was finally told that an upgrade form would be faxed to me… within 48 hours. I received six copies.

Alright, so stories about how Apple’s customer service is tanking aside, the bottom line is: There’s little to justify rushing right out and buying Leopard. First of all, you might want to wait until they get all the glitches out (yuck, the Blue Screen of Death comes to Mac) unless you want to risk a few hiccups during the update.

Business users may find the update a worthwhile purchase for two reasons: Improvements to Mail and to iCal. The newest edition of Mail essentially brings capabilities that Outlook has had for a decade to the Mac, such as HTML-rich email support and integrated to-do task management although, personally, I think we might have been better off without. And for iCal, improved support for group appointment management will be a boon to those companies using OS/X Server technology. Of course, this new technology only works if everyone in the office is in on the OS/X iCal Server, so for those of you constantly frustrated by iCal’s inability to send or receive appointments correctly from Outlook, you’re out of luck.

The only other feature that merits the price tag of $129 is Time Machine. Because of its operating system integration (e.g.: it’s ubiquitous) this is a boon to everyone that just can’t quite remember to run their nightly backups. It’s easy to use and in typical Apple style a bit over the top—but it works great. It is not, however, a corporate backup solution and truth be told there are other options available for those of us still using Tiger.

The rest is, frankly, little more than eye candy and some desktop enhancements. For example, you can manage virtual desktops with Spaces (or you can use any one of several other solutions). Bootcamp is now included, but you can just as easily download it for Tiger. Personally I prefer using Parallels for my limited Windows needs. iChat Theater is loads of fun for about ten minutes, provided you can find another iChat user—but then you’ll probably be back to Adium or Trillian (still in beta but coming soon) for your cross-platform IM needs.

One other feature worth noting is the extension of Spotlight from the desktop to the server. This means your Spotlight searches will include locally networked Macs and OS/X Servers—but, as with iCal, this is only going to help you in an all-Mac environment. Windows servers are not part of the extended Spotlight network.

For those looking to switch, consider holding off for a while. There have been numerous reports of incompatibilities with applications on Leopard, although I should point out that they are minor and relatively scattered. Even so, waiting just a month or so might well avoid some annoying snafus. And, hey, if you wait long enough you’ll probably get it for free next time you upgrade to the latest new model to hit the streets.

So what else is there? After all, Steve promised us 300 new features, right? Well, they’re in there—for instance, Spotlight no longer requires you to press the down-arrow to select the first match. Oh, and let’s not forget Geotagging—enabling you to tie photos to latitude and longitude through built-in GPS on digital cameras so you can put picture galleries on a map. I’ll probably just keep using my Flickr account, thanks anyhow. Honestly, it feels rather disingenuous for Apple to push Leopard as such a major upgrade. When all is said and done, just about everything here should have been included in 10.4.11. I think I’ll pass for now—after all, I’m sure to buy the next MacBookPro model in a year or so.