Five Reasons to upgrade to Leopard Today
In contrast to my last Leopard post, “Five reasons NOT to upgrade to Leopard,” it’s only fair to offer the other side of the coin. As I said, I already have a love/hate relationship with Apple’s new OS, and have now spent a little more time with it, so here are five reasons to upgrade immediately.
1. The Finder. With Tiger, many’s the time I have sat in frustration as the finder locked up looking through large folders, seemingly unable to cope with that much information. Not with leopard. Apple has completely rewritten the finder application and it’s now one of the fastest, best-looking file managers ever – bar none. Quicklook allows you to scroll through the contents of a folder with a stunning preview of what the files’ contents are. Photos, movies, text documents, everything is shown as a quick preview. The view is good enough to read text on a word.doc or see the opening frame of a movie or a photo preview. Absolutely amazing.
2. Time machine. Minimal fuss, work or trouble to have full backups at the click of a mouse button. This is currently my favorite feature. The interface is like looking down a time tunnel, which a series of FULL backups spreading out into the distance.
3. Spaces. This new desktop management system allows an almost inconceivable amount of windows to be open at the same time, switching effortlessly between several desktops. A major time saver for fools such as myself who tend to have way too many windows open at the same time.
4. Spotlight. Spotlight actually works now. WooHoo, throw in a few Boolean search terms and you really get a decent response. Way to go Apple.
5. Screen sharing. Connected to another mac, it is possible to “share” screens with someone, so rather than telling them what you are doing, you can actually show them. I have tried this long distance and it works a treat.
