BackgroundSince I have a Macbook last year, I am very impressed with Mac OS X 10.4.8 Tiger, it is a fantastic OS and I think it is sightly better than M$ Windows XP Pro. Even after Windows Vista came out in the new year, after a trail of Windows Vista, I still think Tiger is a bit better than the new OS Vista even-known Tiger is a 2-year-old OS, that is consider to be an old OS in technology. After the preview of Leopard, I am full of confident about the new OS of Apple which is released on 26th October.
I have a short trail of Leopard today in Apple Shop in Cardiff. And this is my own review afterward.
Finder, Quick Look and StackTo start with, like many people, a start with Finder, which is like “explorer” in windows term. The new 3D-looked dock do give me quite a surprise although many people found it is annoying and ugly. To be honest, I am quite uncomfortable about the new blue spot under the running application instead of the old black little triangle. (See image(s) below)


Top is dock in Tiger; Bottom is dock in Leopard
However, the 3D-look dock is acceptable, what really annoy me is the new folder icon. It does not look better than the old icon in Tiger at all, in fact, I am very disappoint about Apple, as Apple is a well-known company which have a nice design. (See image(s) below)


Top is folder icon in Tiger, Bottom is folder icon in Leopard
But I don’t think it will be a great problem, as these icons can easily be replaced. So I carry on to explore the Finder, the new Cover Flow view work prefect with Quick Look. I have to praise Apple about the introduce of Quick Look, Quick Look is a great addition of Leopard. Quick Look is as it is named, really quick to response in various types of file, for example, pdf file, word document, powerpoint, keynote, excel or number file. Quick Look also support image and video preview, like quicktime file and JPG file. What amaze me is Quick Look can even remember the position of video you have preview previously. To give you a impression of how fast Quick Look can be, I can give you some figure, to open any types of file listed above, it is less than a second to preview after you press space (which is the Hot-Key of Quick Look). Just blink your eye, the preview will be there. And I am surprise after trying Quick Look without Cover Flow view.
I am not going to comment a lot for Stack, but I am confused about adding new Stack in the dock. I try to add a new Stack for my Application folder, but I can’t until a make a new short-cut in the desktop. But to be honest, I don’t find Stack very useful at all, because the new Stack is only like finder, it doesn’t do anything for me at all.
The new menu bar is alright for me, although it has been criticised by many review. But in general, the new look of finder doesn’t impress many people, including me, but I am enthusiastic about the addition of Quick Look, and this is one of the reason to drive me towards Leopard.
SpaceSpace is a new feature in Leopard, and is promoted as one of the important new feature of Leopard. I agree with many people, Space did change the way we open application and again Space work in a very impressive speed. However, as with many user, I am not some sort of person who like to open lots of applications and multi-tasking a lot in the same time, so even-know Space is a great feature, but in practice it will not help me very much as Apple expect. And consider that opening a lot of application, especially application which use up a reasonable amount of RAM, using too many space is a waste and could effectively slow the computer down when you try to multi-tasking in the same time.
Time MachineTime Machine is also a key new feature promoted by Apple. Yes, it is sure that Time Machine works great, but not with the speed that is being shown in the guide tour or the keynote in the WWDC event when it is first published to the public in summer 2006. I accept that the fact that Time Machine need some time to load, and to be honest the speed in acceptable in Windows OS, but compare to the speed in Mac OS X, the speed is rather take quite a long time to launch.
Tactically, Time Machine is not a back up programe, but it works in a similar way. I do find it quite tricky as Time Machine only back up your file in an hour or longer, that means any files that is create thought out an hour, and lose accidently will be lose completely as Time Machine haven’t be able to back up the file yet. But, as I say, if it is the case, you just have to think this is not your day today, as I don’t think any back up programe can do any better that this.
Safari, Mail, and other ApplicationsSafari 3.0 is very quick, it takes about a half of the time to launch compare to the previously version that is in Tiger. Yes, it is quicker to launch but I am hardly find any great different with previous version that I am using now. This is great but also a weaknesses. One new feature that is point out is now you can clip a web page and browse it in the dashboard, but it is not a very useful feature and I find that is a waste of time to do that.
Mail 3.0 is also a new feature, but I didn’t have enough time to try it, as it is a public computer. But it is not as easy as Apple describe to set up, as I try to set up my Hotmail.
Photo Booth, a new feature of Tiger. It is a let off that Apple didn’t update the effect of Photo Booth. But I have no time to try the new feature of Photo Booth such as video recording. But overall, I am quite disappoint with no new effect add in, as in the WWDC event has shown a new cool star-war effect.
Dictionary is now feature Wikipedia as a type of dictionary, the speed to load Wikipedia is acceptable, but I think it is depend on the speed of the internet. Other new direction like Apple Dictionary is also a welcome feature, as now word like iPod, Mac, iMac, Macbook and iPhone is no longer a new word for dictionary.
OverallYes, although there is some let off the design of the new look in Finder, especially of the new icon, consider the number of new features of Leopard (Apple promoted more than 300 features have been updated) and the great addition of Quick Look, Space and Time Machine, Leopard is a must-buy OS. Compare to Windows Vista, which have a complete new layout, and is promoted as the new 2007 OS, Leopard is not a 2007 OS, it is a 2009 or even later OS as I think Windows will take at least 2 year to catch up the technology that Leopard is shown.
Once again, Apple do what Steve Jobs is describe Apple is like when iPhone is published, “Always 5 years or more above the current technology”. Leopard and Vista represent a new revolution of new technology, and in the mean time, Leopard seems be ahead in the race of technology. However, Apple Mac itself has only have 6% market share in USA, and unlike Windows, the lack of support software for third-party company is a major weakness. The lack of entertainment like games is also a very big challenge which Leopard will face when comparing with Windows.
Rating: 8 out of 10