Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 105
 Not for Power PC Macs December 2, 2007
P. Mayfield (brookline MA)
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard [5-User Family Pack]
This may work well for Intel based Macs but is close to a disaster for Power PCs or at least for the PowerBook G4s we use in our company (1.5ghz and 1GB SDRAM). Speed has slowed to a crawl. E.g., to restart takes 10-15 minutes even after deducting for numerous timeouts. There is a pronounced delay when saving, opening files when changing applications etc. Stay with the old OS or trash the hardware and buy a new Intel based Mac.
 Great OS! October 30, 2007
J. Weiker (CHARLOTTE, NC USA)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is an amazing upgrade on my Intel Macs! I won't cover all the details as it's on Apple's website. My only complaint is that the sidebar text and icons are too small. Hopefully Apple will fix this. Remember this is 10.5.0, as soon as we have 10.5.1 or 10.5.2, I'm sure it will be great.
People who are complaining about the new features on an older Mac should stay with Tiger if you don't have the horsepower. There were many articles prior to release describing the memory and video requirements of the new features. My Intel iMac is faster under 10.5 then it was under Tiger (10.4) NOT slower!
If you don't like the menu then open an Apple desktop pattern and add a gray, white or black bar at the top. The new desktop pictures have a built in guide when you open them in Photoshop. I added a gray bar and voila, no more translucent menu. It is a quick and easy fix, so do it and stop complaining!
Wait a few months - the wait is over! November 10, 2007
D. Reno (Midwest)
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
Apparently the folks at Apple have decided to follow the lead of Microsoft - release a product that is not quite ready for prime time. Leopard is full of new features and updates, Safari 3, Time Machine and Stacks just to name a few. Some are very good (Safari 3 and Time Machine) some are just OK (Stacks). Over 300 new goodies according to Apple.
But there is one problem - wireless connectivity. Upgrade now and enjoy the plethora of new features, just be prepared to lose your wireless connection every 5-10 minutes. Thats right, there is a major bug in Leopard. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but within a week of the release message boards were flooded with people experiencing the same problem. Thankfully I limited Leopard to my PowerBook G4 only, but unfortunately that is the main Internet PC in our family.
A few weeks have passed and we are still waiting for a much needed fix. Until then, I have to warn anyone that uses a wireless connection as their exclusive connection to the Internet to avoid Leopard.
NOTE - Nov 17 - Installed 10.5.1 this morning. 12 hours later and no problems with the wifi! Unfortunately I can not increase the star rating.
Most Advanced and Useful Operating System Yet November 1, 2007
Theophilus
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Mac OS X Leopard is a feat of software engineering and usability. Nowhere else will you find an operating system that can hide its advanced underpinnings beneath a gorgeous and intuitive user interface. Here are some of my favourite features:
1. Screen Sharing
Unbelievably easy and fast. I've used Microsoft Remote Desktop, Chicken of the VNC, etc., but none compare to the simplicity of screen sharing in Leopard. Also, I am not sure how Apple has done it, but the speed of screen sharing is astounding over my Airport Extreme Base Station network.
2. Time Machine
I bought a third internal drive for my Mac Pro to use Time Machine. It is incredibly simple and useful. For example, it works not only with files, but also with e-mail. Much has been said about Apple's decision to pull network support from Time Machine (e.g., backing up to an Airport disk,) but those statements are not entirely true. You can back up over the network to any hard drive connected to another computer on the network. So, for example, I can back up my wife's Macbook to a 300 GB Firewire drive attached to my Mac Pro. Of course, it's not nearly as fast as a local connection, but it works. I suggest you complete the initial sync locally and then perform the updates over the network.
3. Stacks
Leopard's most maligned feature is Stacks, a way of seeing specified folders fly out of your dock in a fan or grid. The primary complaint has been that users cannot drill down through subdirectories in Stacks. This is true; it is not possible right now. I don't know if Apple plans to change this, but for my purposes, it's absolutely fine, because I never used the Dock as a file manager. Instead, I find Stacks to be an incredible way of keeping clutter off my Desktop. It includes a Downloads folder that receives files from Mail and Safari. You can easily open the Stack for this folder and see what files you have downloaded; you can drag them to the Trash, open them, and delete them. You can expand a Stack to show the folder in the Finder, which essentially makes it a file launcher. Finally, contrary to what many have said, you can drag and drop into a Stack as though it were a regular Mac OS X spring-loaded folder. Doing so simply opens the folder in the Finder and you can continue there as you would have done in Tiger.
4. Spaces
Spaces is the new feature that gives users almost as many virtual desktops as they want. If I recall correctly, the whole concept was developed by a Mac developer a few years ago. Since then, many Mac and Windows applications have imitated the concept. In the case of Spaces, however, Apple has finally done it right. Spaces switch fast and remember application preferences perfectly. You can assign applications to one space or make them viewable on all spaces.
Before I purchased Leopard, I had two displays attached to my Mac Pro. With the advent of Spaces, I am now down to one display, because I feel I don't need the second display. Spaces keeps my workspace organized and uncluttered.
These are the primary features from which I have benefited. There is also a noticeable speed and responsiveness increase in Leopard, probably because it works with multi-core processors much better now. Thankfully, all new Macs come with dual-core processors, so everyone will benefit.
You can see unbelievable polish and attention to detail in Leopard, as well. For example, when you add a new GMail IMAP account to Apple Mail, you will see a little link to GMail's help center appear at the bottom of your new account page. Also, when you download a file and try to expand it, Safari will tell you exactly when it was downloaded and give you a link to the site so you can make sure the file is safe before proceeding.
It is this kind of detail that really sets Apple out from other companies. You will see it in Leopard and enjoy your computing experience thoroughly.
 Huge incremental improvements, little 'wow' November 3, 2007
David Dennis (San Mateo, CA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
In a nutshell, Leopard has a huge number of incremental improvements that make it worth getting, especially at a reasonable price. Tweaks to drivers, the interface, and stability all make it worth getting. Leopard even consumes less RAM than Tiger.
But, to be honest, there are very few, if any, jaw-dropping new features that are going to change the way you use your Mac in a major way. Bootcamp has been around for a while (and arguably less useful than VMware Fusion or Parallels), while Time Machine is not such a big deal for anyone who has been using rsync or another backup method. And the new shiny Dock and Stacks are of questionable value.
That being said, get Leopard. If you keep your expectations modest, you'll be happy.
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![Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.4 Leopard [5-User Family Pack]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JcgilFn0L._SL500_.jpg)