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My review of 10.5 Leopard

Guest Ramm

By Guest Ramm,
in OS X Leopard (10.5)

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Guest Ramm
Guest Ramm
Posted
Posted

I managed to ...obtain a copy of the WWDC Leopard. Here is my humble review of the good and the bad.

 

Pros (Good)

  • The new desktop interface
    • Most people were complaining about the new desktop, specifically the new menu-bar. I must say it is not what you think. The menu-bar is VERY nice when it is transparent, and I see no reason to remove it (there are 3rd party apps to do this ...they make it look a lot worse). The new dock, doesn't get in the way, either. The only problem with it is that it is hard to see what's open because of the little, tiny, glowing dots that are under an open application. The new matte grey color is very nice.

    [*]The new finder

    • The new finder is actually very nice. It makes it easier to navigate. Also, coverflow is included (which honestly has no point other than to look pretty ...trust me, it does).

    [*]Spaces

    • Spaces are really great for organizing your cluttered windows. They are a must have for multi windowed apps such as Adobe Photoshop.

    [*]Stacks

    • Stacks are very good. They look nice, and are extremely functional. They save time and space (especially the download stack)

    [*]Xcode Tools 3

    • A new Xcode, some new Xray app, a new interface builder …it's all nice. And how could we forget Dashcode?

Cons (Bad)

  • Sometimes (I assume because this is beta) apps just ...close. Instantly.
  • Time Machine
    • Time Machine doesn't even work for me. It may be unreproducible, but still...

Spaces.png

Stacks.png

Menubar.png

FinderSidebar.png

Coverflow.png

That's about it. Ask me for anything else you want to know about.

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MacVertigo
MacVertigo
Posted
Posted

I really like the new Mail. Its MUCH faster. I think it also solves the problems I was having.. people were getting weird characters on there messages from me, and missing attachments.. so far so good.

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Sabr
Sabr
Posted
Posted
I wrote a review on the WWDC06 build and it never got published due to legal issues.... How come yours does? :P

 

Yours was gonna be on the front page though :P

 

Thanks for the miniature review Ramm - how easy was it to install? Just plop the disc in and away you go?

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ramcosca
ramcosca
Posted
Posted

:thumbsup_anim: Nice to see someone has it and actually talks about it. I've only read one other review!

 

I can't wait for October to come! Just can't wait! Less than a year since I bought my Mac and now a fully-updated operating system launch! I had been following Apple for about five years now, but hadn't decided to take the plop and buy one.

 

Anyways, back on topic.

  • How does Web Clip work for you?
  • Have you gotten the chance to try out all the new features in iChat?
  • Photo Booth! I know you can't post pictures and all of that (the ninjas might get to you) but how does it work? How different is it to Photo Booth 1.2 (the most recent version)? How many different effects are there?
  • Safari 3 on Leopard: does it crash from time to time as Tiger's/XP's does? Is there a "create new tab" button to be found?
  • Is Resolution Independence working alright?
  • Any incompatibility problems that might have surfaced while working with 10.5?

Wow, I feel like such a total n00b, asking so many questions!

 

I hope you've enjoyed your time with Leopard! Thanks in advance!

 

[Edit]

Oh, one more thing! Front Row 2.0: is it good? Does it (finally) have album covers when you browse your music through it, à la iTunes' Cover Flow?

 

By the way, I love this new BB style, all AJAX-y and stuff. Nice.

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Guest Ramm
Guest Ramm
Posted
Posted
Nice to see someone has it and actually talks about it. I've only read one other review!

 

I can't wait for October to come! Just can't wait! Less than a year since I bought my Mac and now a fully-updated operating system launch! I had been following Apple for about five years now, but hadn't decided to take the plop and buy one.

 

-Anyways, back on topic.

-How does Web Clip work for you?

-Have you gotten the chance to try out all the new features in iChat?

-Photo Booth! I know you can't post pictures and all of that (the ninjas might get to you) but how does it work? How different is it to Photo Booth 1.2 (the most recent -version)? How many different effects are there?

-Safari 3 on Leopard: does it crash from time to time as Tiger's/XP's does? Is there a "create new tab" button to be found?

-Is Resolution Independence working alright?

-Any incompatibility problems that might have surfaced while working with 10.5?

Wow, I feel like such a total n00b, asking so many questions!

 

I hope you've enjoyed your time with Leopard! Thanks in advance!

 

1) It's great. It takes a bit to load up in Dashboard, though.

2) No. I don't have a camera to use so I can't try the backdrops and whatnot.

3) Once again, I don't have a camera hooked up so I have no idea.

4) It hasn't crashed for me yet. There is no create new tab button.

5) I can't even find it (Res. Ind.)

6) Not sure. Photoshop doesn't work, because the Mazzie cracks don't work.

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ThaSoulHacker
ThaSoulHacker
Posted
Posted

Besides the default grass background, how does the dock and transparent menu look with other desktop backgrounds? Just wondering if this new look really does aid users having their own custom backgrounds. Is there an option to turn off transparency for the menu bar and make it solid like tigers menu? If not, is the menu bar good enough that most users will grow into it?

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Kallis
Kallis
Posted
Posted
How fast does coverflow work when flipping through non-graphic documents like text files, word doc, pdf, etc?
Really fast. In an instant. It is based on Core Animation :thumbsup_anim:

 

--

My micro review:

It is REALLY GOOD. Almost everything feels much better than Tiger.

 

 

Pros:

* FAST FAST FAST! Everything is much faster than on Tiger. Dashboard is much speedier.

* The new finder It is really great, and very fast too.

It automatically detects all your other computers on the network.

Connecting to other computers take only a second, it took 30 secs in Tiger. Finder does not hang if a networked drive gets disconnected.

* The new desktop and dockActually I like the menubar better than Tiger's.

 

The transparency makes you focus more on the windows you have open. While the menubar previously was dominant, now it feels like it is only there when you need it.

 

The dock is basicly just the same old thing, just a little niced up. Some small problems though, it is quite hard to spot which applications that are open and some problems with drag and drop. Apple will easily solve these problems.

 

One major update to the dock is Stacks. And it is amazing. Quite difficult to explain why, you have to experience it to understand. It basically increases effectivity a lot in a "fun" way.

 

The HUGE shadow actually looks nice and I prefer it over the old one.

* Quick Look is really quick! Select a image, tap space and you see it imidiently. Very usefull if you just want to view something fast.

 

It is also a good companion to Coverflow, which actually is quite useful when you are looking trough a bunch of images.

 

* Spaces works great, exactly as announced. One of the great things is that you can assign applications to spaces. You can configure it in such a way that all your Photo-applications automatically opens in the space you have assigned for photo-applications and all your browsing in the space you have assigned for that.

 

* Quite stable and all the important applications(finder, dock, dashboard, safari, itunes aso) haven't crashed a single time.

 

Cons:

 

Some unimportant bugs.

PhotoBooth doesn't work(known bug, I have a macbook)

 

 

Overall, I'm very happy. If everything works for a few more days, I will continue to use this beta as my main OS.

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Soündless
Soündless
Posted
Posted

can i see a picture of how the transparent menubar looks with a nonstandard apple picture?

 

can i see a picture of how the transparent menubar looks with a nonstandard apple picture?

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erbic
erbic
Posted
Posted
As long as you point your browser to the download folder, downloads automatically get added to the download stack.

 

Nice, thanks. That'll be convenient... all my downloads usually just clutter up my desktop or whatever folder I put them in. :thumbsup_anim:

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mnit
mnit
Posted
Posted
[*]Safari 3 on Leopard: does it crash from time to time as Tiger's/XP's does? Is there a "create new tab" button to be found?

 

Dunno if you know or not but in Safari 3 you can middle-click the home button to make a new tab, a la firefox et al. It doesn't focus to it automatically however, which is a bit annoying - but still, better than nothing. I'm a command T person myself.

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sev7en
sev7en
Posted
Posted

Ramm, did you test also iSync? It has been improved? I need this for my n93... anyway may you tell us more about the performance? With it is compared with latest 10.4.10?

 

 

 

 

Thanks!

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