Will Leopard hit the spot?


18 Oct 2007

Apple confirmed yesterday that it will be releasing the Leopard OS X on Friday 26 October at 6pm US standard time, which should mean the following day for us here in Ireland.

Leopard, priced at €129, is the sixth major Mac operating system release and comes with 300 new features but it remains to be seen whether it will result in mass uptake by Mac users or if the iPhone and iPod Touch hype has overshadowed its arrival.

Eamonn Carey, co-founder of Dublin-based digital media company Random Thoughts is a Mac fan but isn’t too excited about the forthcoming release.

“I love Macs. I have a Macbook at home and an iMac for work but I hadn’t planned on getting Leopard to be honest because I am wary of updates.

“I tend to hold off on getting updates until I read some reviews and positive comments.”

Although there are many new features and improved functionality, the general consensus among the more practical Mac user is; “If it’s not broke …”.

“I already like the functionality of Tiger: everything is clean, it works well and has never given me any trouble so I’m not sure if I want to switch to an updated OS just in case there are Vista-esque compatibility problems,” adds Carey.

Self-proclaimed Mac man Stephen McCormack, chief executive of WildWave, a digital content producer, said that he is looking forward to the ‘Spaces’ feature but hasn’t heard much buzz about Leopard apart from this.

Spaces will allow users to organise their work by creating multiple customised desktops with applications or documents specific to the individual project they are working on.

These desktops ca be switched between easily at the click of a mouse.

Some users attribute the lack of hype to the constant delays of Leopard caused by the iPhone release earlier this summer. This annoyance was further exacerbated by rumours that engineers has been pulled off Leopard development to work specifically on the iPhone.

Despite hiccups the forthcoming release will see “the best upgrade ever released” by Apple according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was quick to add that everyone gets the ‘ultimate’ version for one price unlike a certain other software vendor.

By Marie Boran