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.

Apple has jumped the gun with the release of their new Operating system, Leopard. My sources at Apple (who will remain nameless) tell me there are two reasons for this. One, the software engineers responsible had been “stolen” to complete the iPhone firmware updates in Apple’s ongoing battle with the hackers, and Two, the OS had already been delayed for too long and it was felt that Leopard should be let out of the cage without further delay, even though there were known issues. Here are five reasons to wait for 10.5.1

1. Installation problems. Despite many naysayers accusing people of creating problems where there are none, a good proportion of upgrades did not go well, and even Apple is admitting there is a problem. According to Apple, “After completing an upgrade installation of Leopard and restarting the computer, a “blue screen” may appear for an extended period of time.” The solution? “Reinstall Leopard (recommended)”
2. Disk utility issues. Despite doing a clean “erase and install” many people are reporting slow or non-existent reformatting.
3. Printer drivers. Due to a late alteration to Leopard’s print utility, many manufacturers were caught on the hop and are rushing to redo their printer drivers. There are known issues with certain Lexmark, Epson and HP printers, either with direct connections or through Airport Extreme.
4. Firefox. Firefox 2.0.0.9 is not fully functional. Mostly minor bugs but some embedded media will fail and no drop down menus at certain sites. According to Firefox, it’s “Nothing to lose your sleep to, but in this case the fix won’t come until Firefox 3. Think 2008.”
5. Photoshop. Older versions of Photoshop will not work, and a fix is unlikely.

Me, I think it’s well-named, a big pussycat with a temperamental nature. I’m already having a love/hate relationship with Leopard, so look out for “The Top Five Reasons to Upgrade to Leopard Today.”

Installing Apple’s new operating system, 10.5.0 or Leopard, should be a painless experience. “Should,” being the operative word. It seems that Apple have managed to bend time with their new application, “Time Machine,” because the phrase, “Less than one minute remaining,” lasts a damn sight longer than a minute.

Let me be the first to put my hand up and say, “OK, I should have backed up first.” In my defense, I have used Apple computers for years, have upgraded successfully all the way from 9.1 through to Tiger and NEVER had a problem.

The Leopard install did not go well. The first obstacle I came across was, on inserting the disc, there was only one option available to me: “Erase and Install.” No, I do not want to erase ALL the information on my computer. Why on earth would I want to do that? OK, no problem, I will back out of the installer, save the information I need to keep and start again. Right?

Wrong. Hit the restart button, pick the disc I want to start from (my original hard drive)- Nothing – Just Apple’s version of the blue screen of death. Hmmmmm, that can’t be right, OK, I’ll just restart.

No go. The computer starts to boot up, then dies. OK, no problem, I’ll start in safe mode. No I won’t – same thing, dies on startup. OK I’ll try starting up with the c button held down. Great, it started. Not great, my only option is to erase the disc and install from scratch again. I do not want to do that. Not only that, but the disc utility is telling me that the hard drive cannot be un-mounted, so I can’t do any repair work on it.

OK, no problem, I’ll take the disc out and try again. Reboot with the track pad button held down. Nope. OH SHIT, I’m starting to get worried now. It won’t reboot in any mode, I can’t get the disc out and I’m miles from the nearest Apple store, I am in France and seriously doubt my ability to explain to the bored technician what the problem is in French. I see myself lamely pointing at my MacBook Pro, shrugging helplessly and offering a large pile of money saying, “S’il vous plait.” It is now one ‘o’ clock in the morning and Mark is not a happy bunny.

I’m getting desperate by this time. I have already wasted a good three hours when I should have been working. So, I decide to look at my options. They seem slim. I can’t restart, I can’t get the disc out and I do not want to erase all my data.

Aha, I say to myself, I can install Leopard on my external hard drive, recover the data from my MacBook Pro’s hard drive, erase the disc, install Leopard on the MacBook and migrate the data back. A solution. After four more hours looking at this screen the problem was finally solved.

If you are thinking of upgrading to leopard in the near future, unless you own a real time machine, I suggest doing it this way until Apple get their act together. In my next post I will take a look at the more positive aspects of Apple’s new OS. Leopard. In the meantime, here’s a quick look at my new desktop. Thank God for the migration Assistant. In the meantime, Mr. Apple, you owe me 7 hours work. You know where to send the check.