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PC Mag says 10.5.2 BEST OS on the planet!

Maxintosh

By Maxintosh,
in Reader News and Reviews

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Maxintosh
Maxintosh
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Posted

Here is what PC Magazine says about OS X 10.5.2:

 

"After three months with Apple's Mac OS X Leopard Version 10.5, I have three main things to say about it. First: Despite minor problems, it's by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers, with dozens of new features that have real practical value—like truly automated backups, document and spreadsheet preview images in folders, and notes and to-do lists integrated into the mail program,"

 

"For the average user, Leopard is the most polished and easiest to use OS I've tested. Second: Leopard started out with a generous share of first-version glitches, but almost all of them have now been resolved by the second of two automated updates, which brings Leopard up to version 10.5.2".

 

"Leopard again raises the question of whether to switch from Windows to a Mac. I've found Vista to be a major disappointment that tends to look worse the more I use it. I still use Windows XP for getting serious work done in long, complicated documents. But OS X is easier to manage and maintain and I vastly prefer OS X to Windows for Web-browsing, mail, and especially for any task that involves graphics, music, or video"

 

 

"Leopard performs all such tasks even better than previous versions did—and Leopard is the only OS on the planet that works effortlessly and intuitively in today's world of networked computers and peripherals. Leopard is far from perfect, but it's better than any alternative, and it's getting harder and harder to find good reasons to use anything else"

 

Well, at least they're honest :lol:

~pcwiz
~pcwiz
Posted
Posted

No offense, but you left out all the not so good things that were said in the article:

 

After living with Leopard for a while, I was slightly disappointed to find that Spaces doesn't work smoothly with all applications—with Microsoft Office as the most serious exception

 

With the initial release, however, I (like many other users) encountered persistent flakiness when trying to network with Windows machines. Leopard sometimes didn't see my Windows machines until I logged out and in again, and then would instantly connect to one Windows machine but report "Connection failed" with another, and I needed to restart the Mac before networking sorted itself out again. With the 10.5.2 update these problems are drastically reduced, although not entirely solved

 

As I soon discovered, Time Machine gets sluggish when backing up large-sized files that change often—which means that it doesn't work well with the large database-style message stores used by Microsoft Entourage

 

For example, one of the new features in iChat lets you use custom backgrounds in video chats, so you seem to be setting in front of the Eiffel Tower or the surface of the moon. This effect works perfectly when someone demonstrates it in the Apple Store, but may not work as well at home. The wall behind me when I sit at my desk is filled with books, and the mix of colors on the shelves left iChat totally confused when it tried to mask the bookshelf, with the result that random blank rectangles appeared across my face. I didn't appreciate what this did to my looks. The update doesn't fix this problem, and it may take a few more years of technological advances to get it right.

 

Among other minor glitches, the Cover Flow and thumbnail-preview feature was surprisingly clumsy when listing files on Windows machines, because it didn't recognize many standard file types. For example, Leopard identified both a Windows Address Book export file and a Word 2003 backup file as "Unix executable files" and displayed a generic Unix-file icon for each. This didn't do any harm—and the problem is almost entirely fixed by the 10.5.2 update—but it didn't inspire confidence in Apple's testing procedures. Another, temporary, glitch occurred when Leopard simply stopped showing thumbnail images for newly-created files, and simply showed generic icons instead.

 

Regarding my third point—Leopard's excess eye-candy—your opinion may differ from mine, but I think it is just little too much flash. Apple seems to load OS X with graphics effects for the same reason it ships its computers with the screens set to maximum brightness—because it's easier to sell bright-looking objects. Back at home, the excess brightness gives me a headache, and the glut of graphic effects are distracting when I'm trying to get anything done. I found Leopard's new reflecting-glass 3D Dock fun to look at for five minutes, but Leopard didn't offer me the option to get a less distracting no-glass 2D dock—unless I moved the dock to the side of the screen, where it automatically switched to the more sober 2D display.

 

There's a similar 3-D reflective effect in the Finder's Cover Flow preview display. Apple insists that this doesn't affect performance, and, as far as I can tell, Apple seems to be right. None the less, I would prefer to turn off the distracting mirror-images that appear on the "shelf" below preview images, but there doesn't seem to be any way to achieve this—at least not yet.

 

Most of the article praised Leopard, but I'm not trying to be a Windows fan or anything and I'm not saying Leopard is bad either because it seems to be excellent, I'm just saying that you have to look at both sides :lol:

Headrush69
Headrush69
Posted
Posted
I'm just saying that you have to look at both sides :)

Why? :lol:

 

Regarding my third point—Leopard's excess eye-candy

When I first saw the GUI changes coming to Leopard I thought the same thing. After using it for some time can't say I even notice the Dock changes anymore.

(Which was my biggest beef)

Having run Vista now for a few months I can say I think OS X is pretty neutered compared to eye-candy introduced in Vista and hence XP has replaced it.

~pcwiz
~pcwiz
Posted
Posted

Because, rumor has it that if you start thinking about only how awesome your OS X is and nothing else, Steve Jobs will come down and change your insides to Mac hardware :lol: It seems to have happened to Maxintosh already, because his posts sound like AppleScripts.

 

jk jk Sorry I know that was random

macmaniac
macmaniac
Posted
Posted

10.5.2 is an awesome update. I couldn't be happier.

 

10.5.2 runs extremely well on my hack(s). Very smooth. Quick. Stable.

 

The hackintosh experience was always a little substandard to the real thing. But not now.

Maxintosh
Maxintosh
Posted
  • Author
Posted
I'm just saying that you have to look at both sides

Yes I agree, but we weren't trying to post the entire article here. That's what the link was for :)

 

BTW- is it just me or do other people notice that more and more top ranking PC people are starting to praise OS X and jump ship on vista. I've read several other windows magazine articles today that almost sounded like they were written by Steve Jobs ;) I'm not complaining, and I'm glad they are waking up as that's how things get fixed, but I do find their honesty surprisingly refreshing :)

SpeedfreaK
SpeedfreaK
Posted
Posted

i use 10.5.2 and it's the best os i ever used!!

but i think it's still a bit less stable than tiger. but i'm sure new updates will make leopard even more stable

 

 

and i have transluctend menus in 10.5.2, i don't understand why a lot of people don't have them :s

The Master
The Master
Posted
Posted

The new ones are fine with the opaque menu bar, but they look jarring and out of place with the transparent one. Also on my primary monitor it is very difficult to perceive any transparency at all.

 

It would have made far more sense to tie the translucency to that of the menu bar.

macgirl
macgirl
Posted
Posted
i use 10.5.2 and it's the best os i ever used!!

but i think it's still a bit less stable than tiger. but i'm sure new updates will make leopard even more stable

and i have transluctend menus in 10.5.2, i don't understand why a lot of people don't have them :s

Because they don't read, they just whine at everything.

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