It was the Monday after the official Friday night launch of Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard operating system, when I - Inspect My Gadget’s intrepid Mac guy - made my way to the Apple Centre in town. It was the first time since the release of Panther (OS X version 10.3, in 2004) that I was unable to attend a launch night. I’m jealous of those lucky souls that had undoubtedly scored themselves free t-shirts or some other such freebie along with their shiny new copies of Leopard.

It seems that the Family Packs were popular this year - by the time I arrived they’d all sold out. At $AU249 for 5 licenses, I’m not surprised - that’s less than the cost of 2 licenses! Still, at least they had some single copies of Leopard left, and so $AU158 later, this happy camper was on his way home with a shiny new box… And shiny it truly is - the purple nebula behind the ‘X’ on the front is a funky 3D hologram, while the back sports some sparse silvery highlighting. Even without the disc inside, the box is a serious bit of bling.

How does the installation go, and what are my initial impressions? 

The specifications for Leopard indicate a Mac with a G4 running at 867 MHz or faster, any G5 or Intel processor, 512 MB memory and at least 7 GB of hard drive space. Basically, any Mac as far back as four or five years can run it (I reckon even an eight-year-old G4 tower fitted with processor & AGP graphics card upgrades could run it!).

For this article, I’m installing Leopard onto a Powerbook G4. It’s old but with a 1.33 GHz processor and 1.5 GB memory, it more than meets the minimum requirements. With the contents of my Powerbook’s hard disk safely backed up onto an external FireWire drive, I’m ready to throw caution to the wind and install this new cat.

Upon inserting the DVD, I double-click the “Install” button and watch the computer restart. The installer itself is pretty straight-forward; it asks which disk to install on, and it provides a couple of buttons to Customise the installation, and to decide what type of installation you want - Upgrade the existing system, Archive & Install, or Erase & Install. I pick ‘Upgrade’ and away I go.

The installation takes about an hour or so, giving me plenty of time to go make a cuppa and do some un-nerdy things, like socialising.

Upon returning, I find a completely new-look desktop. The installation has apparently gone silky smooth; all my settings & icon arrangements are intact. Gone is the swirly aqua-blue that was OS X’s default wallpaper for many years - the new default is a stylish purple aurora/nebula set in space, to underscore the “Time & Space”  theme that seems to be the signature undertone of this new system. 

Soon I’m on my way…

I’ll be writing about some of my experiences & discoveries in Part II of this article, but for now & for what they’re worth, here are some of my initial thoughts:

• Different features will strike a chord with different people - you’re not likely to ever take advantage of every single one of the 300+ new features. But Apple have made sure there’s something for everyone, so whether you’re a full-on developer or casual home user, or somewhere in between, you’ll be sure to find something to like with Leopard. I’ve been stumbling across all sorts of interesting little minor discoveries in my first few hours of using Leopard - not earth shattering mind you, but subtle “nice to know it’s there” stuff. No doubt you’ll come across your own.
• The more I’ve seen of Leopard, the more convinced I’ve become that Microsoft really have lost touch with their customers. With Apple’s OS X Leopard, there’s only ONE version of the system (two if you count OS X Server) - no separate Basic, Premium or Ultimate editions, and no 32 or 64 bit versions. The per-license prices for Leopard are an absolute bargain when compared to Vista (or even XP), AND there’s no ridiculously restrictive activation systems in place to make you feel like a criminal. Microsoft, are you taking notes here??

Well that pretty much wraps it up for Part I of this article. Stay tuned to Inspect My Gadget for Part II of the Leopard Log…