Is there joy in hating Apple's Leopard?
I don't get it. Maybe because my experience with Apple's new "Leopard" release of OS X has been flawless (unlike Dave's). No bugs, no crashes, no problems (well, perhaps a little lack of flair and novelty, but I can manage that).
Yet in today's Guardian, Charles Arthur writes (in an article entitled "Leopard is nothing for Apple to purr about"):
...I'm considering [downgrading to Tiger]....[P]lenty of other people, having upgraded to Apple's latest version of OS X, codenamed Leopard, are doing the same.
The trouble out there was summed up best by a note from the ur-blogger Dave Winer: he moved back to the Mac a year or two ago and lapped up Leopard. But he says he's not enjoying it. He mentioned this to a friend, who replied dismally: "It's like Windows". As in crashes, stalls, freezes. That must have hurt in Cupertino.
Not even remotely. Yet still I wonder why people are having such widely disparate experiences with the same software. Are our particular software configurations so different? After all, it's not like our hardware configurations can be all that different.
Arthur suggests that Apple slipped up in trying to release both the iPhone and Leopard at the same time, with too little beta testing from the faithful. Perhaps.
I suspect, however, that we're actually dealing with a perception problem here. Because the new OS doesn't present too many new, sparkly features, users are less patient with any perceived shortcomings. In other words, if Leopard were super-cool yet buggy we'd have less reason to complain. But since its updated features are somewhat pedestrian, we whine.
Regardless, it's interesting to note that I've yet to read the unthinkable: people aren't opting to "downgrade to Windows." So Apple must still be doing something right.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
When Apple promises to "just work" and "just doesn't", then it's not hating, it pointing out a lie.
I'm a XP/Ubuntu user, and I really had no major problem with apple until their recent attitude. It's the same attitude Sony has which keeps me away from the PS3.
The Apple experience, by and large, is consistent so we can say that 'it just works'. That's what the majority of Apple users have come to expect these past 25 years and continue to expect from Apple.
That's not to say that there aren't bugs with Macs. If you use them you'd know it and I don't think you'd be reacting so angrily. When bugs happen we just work around it and know that Apple will release the fix quick enough through its software updates. That's how it's been since 2001.
As a non-Apple user (since you admit you only use XP/Ubuntu), you have to admit you're uninformed about Macs. If you could test Macs without bias, it might help give you a broader perspective.
So how does Vista do more?
Maybe on your planet.
However, using a Mac in a Windows shop has become far more difficult. The multitude of problems with integrating with Active Directory, and Windows Sharing problems seem to be overwhelming, and are a black eye on a platform (Mac) that was just starting to gain respect and acceptance in a corporate environment.
As a consultant who works in a number of corporate environments, I have successfully used a Mac for many years without problems. Now with Leopard, co-existing and collaborating on Windows based networks has become almost impossible. Thank goodness for USB Flash drives and "sneakernet" - at least I can still share data, albeit it with egg on my face. MacWindows.com has documented a multitude of work-arounds, with varying degrees of success.
Before Leopard, I was the go-to guy for having tools that could do things Windows machines could only dream of doing, and slick interaction and integration with everything in the enterprise. I may have to return to Tiger until Leopard's Windows integration issues are ironed out, or continue to take grief for using that "stupid Mac", and taunts of "get a Windows machine".
As co-founder of the world's first Mac user group, I have been a proponent of the platform since the beginning, but this latest lack of enterprise integration focus has set all the gains of recent years back tremendously.
I think this is one of the more stupid and biased articles I have ever seen. So I am not having problems so it must be imaginary. From what I have read I believe most of the issues are coming from upgrades not preinstalled purchases. Shows why Apple will never run on other hardware machines wen they cant code an O/S for their own manufactured hardware. I have a mini and macbook pro had both have experienced a myrid of problems. Guess what; in response today I just purchase a brand new dell and I am back to enjoying the benefits of both O/S and full compatibility of Windows Apps.
Maybe there is some therapy for over fixation on Apple that can help people like you.
I do not see you commenting on the 'wide disparities" in windows consumer experience. All you "Apple lover" do is insist everybody hates windows. If they do, why do they buy it. Its not that difficult to buy a MAC. I have never had compatility problems with Vista. In the far between case that an issue close to a compatibility problem crops up, using the "run as xp" feature cures it. My Vista does not crash and has not since I have had it.
Please make your comments more objective and maybe, just maybe, people like me will start taking your commentary seriously.
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20071025/leopard-faster-easier-than-vista/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-10-24-leopard_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-10-24-leopard_N.htm
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2214929,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2088443,00.asp
Objective enough?
I use both XP and OSX. I had Vista but downgraded to XP since it was such a dog. I find myself doing more work in OSX because it just stays out of my way and allows me to be more productive. It's snappier, more stylish, and I don't have to deal with my system getting bogged down with spyware and viruses (or having to pay extra for software to keep them at bay).
Objective enough?
For all these Windows users, all I can say is that Apple's had plenty on it's plate. This quirks will be iron out completely within a few months. But Vista will continue to be a second rate OS for years to come....
I use Windows, and I trouble shoot Windows, and there is NO way in HELL that I'll use that junk at home!
Later
The only thing that's driving me nuts: The gratuitous transparency in the menu bar and menu drop-downs. I've hacked the former to turn it off, and can't stand the latter.
Let me explain some of the finer points of shilling for Microsoft, Mavfan.
1. Don't use Microsoft black PR words like "Apple Fanboy" and "Smug", and then say you purchased a Mac. Any real Mac person will know your a lying, Microsoft paid schill.
Why would you quote an article by a professional Mac hater and Microsoft Shill?
Let me guess...
It's because you know what will follow in the comments...
I call it as I find it, and find others finding it. Leopard GM had two huge bugs: the "delete while copying between partitions" bug, and the "flaky wireless" bug. Neither should ever make it into a GM of anything, especially since they weren't bugs in Tiger.
My upgrade install freezes more often than Tiger ever did. Others have found the same. Hence the unhappiness. Try reading the article.
Charles Arthur, editor, Guardian Technology
(always on email, ya know)
So you call it as you find it, shill. What you mean is you find it on the internet, then you dump on it.
And I read just fine, MS schill. Even your crap.
Vista 32 bit edition is not bad in terms of usability and compatibility with most PC hardware, however with the 64 bit edition this is NOT so. Many antivirus, fileshare, networking programs and hardware still do not work properly with the vista 64 bit edition.
If anyone disagrees with what I have mentioned, they are free to browse any blog that discusses windows vista 64 bit edition.
NOTE: this comment is ONLY for VISTA 64 BIT EDITION
How long has microsoft been trying to get a 64bit version of their OS to work? How long did it take Apple?
People keep glossing over the fact that leopard is 64bit!
It's the crashes, hangs, beachballs of death and other things that bug me - and other people. Those, and the huge bugs that were in the GM (copy-over-partitions deleting, flaky wireless). No amount of cosmetics makes up for those. So no, I don't think people are being under-impressed by how it looks. They don't like how it *works*.
Charles Arthur, editor, Guardian Technology
Charles Arthur is a professional liar who writes for "The Guardian". What the "Guardian guards is MICROSOFT, MICROSOFT, MICROSOFT. Just like CNet.
But I can definitely say, that if the issues are ironed out, I rather be with Leopard than any other OSX incarnation so far.
My biggest arguments are the Stacks that don't have menu hierarchies any longer and the fact that when you add something to the stack, the original item gets moved. Now that's annoying!
Yawn. Read the section and *then* form a view on whether we "guard" Microsoft.
- by irnchriz December 20, 2007 3:20 AM PST
- I have been using Macs as my main system for 4 years now. I currently work on an iMac.
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- by Alban Read April 7, 2008 7:34 AM PDT
- I have been using Macs for a while; I owned a powermac when they ran at 75Mhz. We have a few Macs in our house and I like OSX a lot. I am afraid that Leopard just crashes for me (the keyboard fails, the mouse fails, the finder hangs and the kernel panics.) It is as if there is something very wrong with the USB drivers. This is by far the worst experience that I have ever had with an Apple operating system. And this was a clean install, when the installer crashed the first time around that really should have given me a clue.
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(32 Comments)I work look after the IT support for our business and also provide web hosting, web design and broadband support.
I upgraded to Leopard on 26th of October, with no issues. Having been through the upgrade to Tiger I knew that the best way to do an OS upgrade was to back up everything to an external drive (I have many lying around) then completely formatting and doing a fresh install of Leopard.
I reinstalled all of my applications and updated them accordingly.
Features
Time machine:
This probram works well and makes incremental backups to a 250GB external drive. I also run a daily drive image backup to another drive but i like the way Time machine works with file versions.
New Dock:
To be honest, I like the way it looks but if you work on an system you rarely have time to notice it. I have no problems with apple adding as much eye candy as they want as long as it does not impede on performance.
Stacks:
I only use the Downloads stack and this works well for me, I fail to see why anyone would **** and moan about this but they must have too much time on their hands.
Spotlight:
Here's the real dock space saver. [CMD]+[Space] then type in all or part of your app name then key enter. Fantastic
Apart from this I have only rebooted my system a further 2 times since installing leopard and every day I utilise the following software.
System Stability
The only program which has caused any problem was parallels desktop, which caused similar issues under Tiger. Parallels has only crashed twice since 26th October
Who knows what these guys are running to have so many issues
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iMac specification:
White not Aluminium
500GB HDD
3GB RAM
GeForce 7600 256 VRAM
External drives (2x 1TB RAID FW800 1 250GB FW400)
Adobe CS3 (Photoshop & Dreamweaver)
Office 2004 (Word & Excel)
Mail
iCal
Safari (also use IE7, Firefox & Opera for site compatibility testing)
Parallels Desktop 3.0 (for IE7 and Publisher)
Transmit (FTP software)
iChat & Adium (Messaging clients)
Roxio Toast 8
Clearly there is some Apple hardware that runs Leopard without a problem but not in my case - I have tried Leopard on my power mac g5 and it is utter rubbish on it. My experience is that Leopard just doesn't work.