Why a Leopard Delay is a Good Thing
Apple news this week is that Leopard, Mac OS 10.5, won’t be out this spring, but instead in the fall. I’m celebrating. Why? It’s not because I don’t want Leopard, or because I don’t think it is ready yet (how would I know?), but simply: Tiger (OS 10.4) is good, and upgrading will be expensive.
So will cost $129, I assume, to upgrade to 10.5. I’ve got a PowerMac. My wife has one. Plus, I’m responsible for a business with six other Macs that will need upgrading. That’s 7 x $129! And upgrading is not an option. Sooner than later, Adobe and other software vendors will be releasing updates that are 10.5-only. I’ll bet Adobe does it right away. They are already releasing software that is Intel-only. I use Boot Camp already, and the beta on 10.4 is already rumored to expire when Leopard comes out.
So I have to pay more than $1,000 in the months following Leopard’s release. And for what? I’m not sure what Leopard will do for me that would be worth that. Sure, it will be a step forward. Sure, it will be better than Tiger. But I’m not hurting for anything now. As it is, I don’t even use some of the “cool new features” in Tiger, like Expose.
So I’ll get Leopard when it comes out. And I’ll probably love it. But I don’t mind the wait.
2 Responses to “Why a Leopard Delay is a Good Thing”
Gary,
If you have one, your wife has one, and there are six others at the office, doesn’t that make it 8 x $129, not 7 x $129.
Also, I read one article or blog post claiming that 10.3 was the sweet spot, and 10.4 was just bloat. It said some of 10.5 looked neat, but it also looked like it was going to add even more bloat.
Personally, I find I use Expose once in a while, and it’s useful. I think spotlight’s a POS though.
After dealing with multiple Spotlight downfalls (incomplete searches, indexing of backup volumes, etc) I rolled back to 10.3. The old Finder search may not have all the “bells and whistles” of Spotlight, but from a UI perspective, it takes much less time to perform a search than with Spotlight. Apple needs to revist the “KISS” theory of design… Case in point are the 3rd party utilities on the market for turning off Spotlight or replacing it’s functionality.
Also, 10.3 provided noticable performance gains and stability over 10.2. I don’t see this as the case going from 10.3 to 10.4 and expect more of the same fluff with Leopard. (Prove me wrong SJ!)
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