Apple releases Leopard, or OS X 10.5, tomorrow, and already there are reviews galore. David Pogue in The New York Times does a good rundown of features (and undoubtedly will soon issue a weighty tome on the operating system) and Steven Levy has a chaotic video review (not embeddable, sorry) on the Newsweek site which proves he should probably stick with print.
These early reviews are mostly promotional, of course. Reviewers aren’t supplied the software (which is usually pre-release, remember) far enough ahead to provide time for a thorough treatment, a practice aimed partly at preventing them from finding a real bug or gotcha. For a real hoot, go back and look at the early reviews of Windows Vista, compared with the universal disdain today.
Whereas you’ll be able to buy the system tomorrow, I’m told at various outlets that you will not be able to purchase Macs with pre-installed Leopard tomorrow. Instead, there will be a three-week (or so) waiting period while Apple sells off remaining computers with the old system. Of course, this is pre-sale information. Apple has a knack, courtesy of the Barnumesque genius of Steve Jobs, for popping the unexpected on a product rollout.
What may happen is this: A new line of re-upped notebooks, Leopard-optimized, at prices slightly higher than their existing, non-Leopard counterparts. You decide on price. That accelerates both ends. Gotta-have types who want the new system will pay the premium, but people who figure hey, I can install it myself, will go for the suddenly “bargain-priced” units.
I’d go further and say this might be the time to bring out the long-rumored Apple “flash” Mac (in whatever configuration) — the diskless (that’s right, no CD or DVD) cross of the iPod with a full-keyboard Mac. But it may be too early for that, and in any case such an announcement would be a blow-off-the-doors coup that deserves showcase treatment rather than a Leopard-rollout afterthought.
I’ve been looking forward to the rollout, but will have to wait until FileMaker issues a compatibility patch. :-(
Sighhh!!!!
I did not expect to see the religious wars here.
One issue to watch, few appas have been tested on Leopard but the apps proably run better under Windows anyhow (assuming parallels will work under Leopard).
Oh well, I do not want to engage in blasphemy or contribute the long tradition
of orthodox Mac vs liberated PC,of strife between these two religions.One thing though, has nayone surveyed the choices of computers amongs religious fanatics? Do the rad right righteous Christians are Mohamud Obsessed Muslims choose PCs or Macs?
Actually, if you buy a Mac less than a month before a major system release, Apple has a program called Mac Up to Date (found in five seconds using Google, which you should try) where they’ll give you the upgrade for $10. Any new Mac (not refurb’d) sold since 10/1 qualifies in this case.
Universal disdain for just Vista?
I’m disappointed. The number one computer problem that I find is on when computer are installed with a windows product.
Thanks Dennis @3, but what makes you think I didn’t know that? I was talking specifically about buying new Leopard-optimized Macs — with Leopard installed. I think if you’re buying a new Mac right now, you shouldn’t have to pay a dime to get Leopard, but Apple knows there are a lot of suckers out there. Leopard isn’t worth a $129 upgrade imho either but yeah, I’ll be ponying up…
Apple makes gorgeous machines which are perfect to put on your desk at home. Email? Web publishing? Sorting pictures? Running Photoshop? Gotcha covered.
If you were in the position of managing 60 Macs on the floor, like the God who truly hated me forced me into on my last job, you will scream at Apple. Their enterprise offerings are poor, to say the least. I am forced to conclude that Apple has made a business decision to ignore corporate IT in favor of end users.
Microsoft, on the other hand, LOVES big IT shops. They will fly Alpha IT geeks to Redmond, wine them, dine them, take them out to ball games, etc. And big IT shops love them back. Why? MS products create job security! Talk to the manager of a Windows shop, and you are talking to someone who is never at a loss for things to do. Security patches, software compatibility troubleshooting, daily system reboot schedules. The fun never ends.
* sniff * I love my Linux box. It’s my friend. And there will be some apps to run on it real soon now, I just know it!
Well, aside from the twenty years I spent reading your inktrails in the Times, it was implying that people would have to pay $129 instead of $10 gave me just a bit of a clue that you might not be fully informed, or possibly just not all that committed to fully informing your readership. Hence my posting. Ah, the honor of contributing my minuscule scraps of occult unGoogleable knowledge to the altar of my journalistic betters — it really chokes me up.
If I needed any more proof, the attitude expressed in your reply (people who buy Apple are “suckers”, Leopard isn’t worth it but you’ll buy it anyway) offers small likelihood of your opinions being worth the electrons they’re printed on, at least on this subject. Not that there’s anything wrong about that, I’m sure you’ll do fine at, um, whatever it is you’re doing here. Goldy can run his blog any way he likes.
(Former reporters trying to “cross over” into being bloggers are like Senators trying to be President, and about as successful for similar reasons — they don’t begin with a clean slate, and their old rules don’t fit the new ones at all.)