Mac OS X 10.5: Leopard Has its Spots

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Leopard does not disappoint. This is the most polished version of Mac OS X ever created and the best desktop operating system that money can buy. Yet, most of the reason Leopard does not disappoint is because it’s built on the solid foundation of excellence which Mac users have come to expect from Tiger. Leopard has set a new standard in the OS world, but I have to wonder whether the new additions to Leopard’s bag of tricks have been worth the wait.

Firstly, let’s talk about stacks. In the picture above, you can see a stack unstacking in the lower right-hand part of the screen. A stack is a collection of documents collected in the dock such that a single click unfurls them for easy access. The built-in stacks for Leopard are downloads and documents. While this seems like a great way to keep your desktop clean, it’s actually incredibly annoying. When I download a document, I want it available quickly. The download stack adds an extra step to accessing documents you have downloaded and takes up time as the animation of the stack unfurling occurs. Besides this, stacks are confusing and difficult to use. You can read about how much stacks suck by reading this Ars Technica review. There are a lot of people complaining about stacks and you won’t find a whole lot of sympathy for stacks here. I’d rather just have a link to my documents folder and another link that makes expose clear out all apps for a perfect view of the desktop (a la F11 maneuver).

This image highlights the new Leopard coverflow feature. Coverflow is a file preview system which shows your documents as you browse through them in the finder. Got a hundred pictures? Scroll through them visually with coverflow to pick out the one you want quickly. It’s not just pictures that work with coverflow though, .pdfs, .docs, and a variety of other files work as well. You can even start scrolling through the pages of a document right in the finder. Coverflow can be very useful. It’s not something the average user will use all the time, but it’s one of those small features implemented in a big way that makes OS X such a pleasure to work with.

I know most people are going to disagree with me here, but I think spaces is one of the most significant additions to Leopard. Basically, it allows you to run several (up to 16!) different desktops at once. Frankly, I think anymore than two is probably more than you’ll need, but two is still pretty useful. This feature has been on Linux for awhile and one of the things that has made it terrible to work with is slow transitions and difficult to use transition techniques. Eventually these were fixed in Linux and the multiple desktop in Linux is still much better than OS X’s spaces. However, this attempt is very good and definitely functional. OS X isn’t quite as quick, easy-to-use, and customizeable, but the implementation is well-done. What could make it better? Instead of making the spaces icon in the taskbar simply zoom out and then have me choose the correct space, let me click each little window in the icon to directly pick the space I want immediately. Or, let me hover over the spaces icon and then use the scroll key to immediately scroll through each space. Both of these are available in Linux and it makes switching quick and effortless.

I’ve noticed that Leopard is still a little buggy in parts, but it hasn’t had any sort of problems with stability. The disk utility has some bugs with permission repairs. Another minor annoyance is the fact that the filemenu is translucent. If your background has any dark colors, it makes the file menus difficult to read. I wish I could tell a little about time machine, but I don’t have a backup drive yet. That’s been on my list of buys for awhile and I’m checking the deals a few times a week. Maybe when I pick one up, I can review time machine.

That’s about it. I’ve bashed Leopard about as much as I can. It’s a solid update to the OS X family. People have tried to compare Leopard to Vista. There’s not much comparison. Leopard is a small update to a solid operating system. Vista is a big update to a worn out operating system. Still, if you’re not running either one, I don’t think you’re missing out on too much. This release cycle, the best operating system update is Ubuntu 7.10. OS X stays on top with the best operating system, but mostly because Tiger was solid to begin with. Vista gives Windows a needed facelift, gives more security, and includes all the Media Center goodies, but tends to be a power hog which should keep XP systems run for a long time coming. Each have their place. The past weeks, I’ve switched almost entirely over to Ubuntu. Will I be moving over to the Leopard side? Only time will tell. =)

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