Leopard - First Impressions
 

I just installed Leopard, and my first impression was much like I had for iLife 08. A few "wow, that will really help", a few "interesting, but doubt I will ever use it" and quite a few "Apple, what have you DONE!!"

"wow, that will really help"
Spaces does a good and simple job of separating my windows that never want to go away. Elgato's EyeTV is one of those that is ever present before my eyes. So now I relegate it to one of the Spaces windows.
Quick Look is exactly that, and it works well and flawlessly.
The new Finder left hand ala iTunes navigation has good points, but may take some getting used to.

"interesting, but doubt I will ever use it"
iChat's background and iCandy effects.
Mail's fancy templates.
Busy Desktop pictures
Oooh once, then ignore screensavers.

"Apple, what have you DONE!!"
Transparent menu with no control over opacity!!??
Making a useless, uncontrollable Dock into less than useless?
No more "This folder only" settings!!!???

I haven't gotten in to using Automator or Time Machine yet. I have been quite let down by this release. I wish they would have graduated from the Middle School Aqua buttons and given us control over the the interface theme. But Apple knows better than the user... right?

well a nice little round up but must admit i am underwelmed.... Am i alone???...or is it that i just can't be arsed with the hype....

excuse my cynicism.

I do love Quick Look and the Finder is better...but what wouldn't be.
Spotlight now works, but have got so used to quicksilver i no longer used spotlight or the finder that much anyway.

Backup (time machine) did that anyway and not using it yet.

Still winds me up that Apple palm off "branded new features" that should have been implemented years ago....All i hope is that all the stuff under the hood works (or better) than Tiger and that it is easy to support in server environments.

I agree. They should put the GarageBand group in charge of the OS. They listened to everyone wanting this or that, and put their foot to the plow. By GB4, about 75% of what people asked for was now implemented. GarageBand alone was worth the full price of iLife.

Unfortunately, it seems the iMovie people are in charge of the OS. That is, replace usable features (like the nested Dock), for more useless eye candy (like Stacks).

Someone high up is making these decisions, and should be told to sit down and be quiet. Our luck, it's probably Steve. One should always ADD functionality and not REPLACE, like they did with iMovie 08. There should always be a preference setting that will allow you to revert back to previous behavior. That way no one would have a need to sound off.

Just to play devils advocate, what about software bloat? Some might argue that trying to please everyone is what is killing Microsoft (i.e., hanging on to legacy code and old forms of functionality). Sometimes cutting things out is the best way to go because it keeps the system sleek.

I thought about that, which is why I have always appreciated the Extension model. The fault lies with loading 100 features when you only need 4. The extension model notes your working preference, and loads only the 4 upon startup.

Also realize that something as simple as adding the checkbox to disable the extension change warning could hardly be considered bloat. One must consider how much code and resource a feature or preference adds, and whether or not it would classify as bloat. I am reasonably sure that the code to make the Dock a hierarchal view possible was probably around 10kb. The code that allowed a Dock preference to scale back to that usage would probably by another 10kb. To keep a 10-20kb block of code so that the user does not feel cheated with a new feature, is hardly bloat--it is just good technology PR.

For the average person, such changes would not be apparent. However, to the power user, it is a possibility to use your system as YOU see fit, rather than Apple dictating every year what THEY think is fit. In fact, it is very presumptuous on Apple's part to foist a new paradigm on to people every single year, and offering no recourse. It would be better for them to offer an additional functionality, then remove it if people find it too annoying. As it stands now, if Apple returns the Dock to its preview iteration, it would amount to saying, "Boy, were we wrong about what we thought you wanted." And this is a rare occurrence (though not without exception--ie hockey puck mouse)

So what has Apple gained by REPLACING functionality with an eye-candy down grade? Quite a few angry users. I work in the software industry, and we have a user conference that sponsored 14,000 users last year. Our main focus was to listen to what our users were saying. How is the software working well? Where can we improve it? How can we make your user experience be more effective? Rather than, "Here's a NEW way that we thought was cool--get used to it."

My first impression of 10.5 from the various blurbs around the net:

The dock: I seriously don't see what all the dock hate is all about. I like the dock design and the little lights underneath the running applications. I'm going to guess I'm in the minority because I use my Mac as more of a lifestyle computer, that is, not a production machine or work machine, but instead, a personal machine. For people who use their Macs for work, this may be a productivity killer. The only design flaw in the dock is the folders. Their icons take on whatever is inside of them, and I hate it. What if you have two document folders on your dock? How are you to tell which is which? Or--groan--readme files in your applications folder? Apple needs to fix that straight away.

Stacks: I wish Apple would give us the option to turn this off. In some cases, it's totally unnecessary, but in others, it's an awesome option.

Menu bar: Once again, I actually like this. The menu bar takes in it's surroundings and blends in a bit. The result is you don't notice the menu bar as much, which I like. The only problem I have with it is that it seems it was ripped from Vista, but in OS X, the menu bar does a better job of blending in.

So far, those are the things I'm noticing in most reviews and my thoughts on them. I know a lot of you disagree, but it's just my personal opinion.

All opinions are welcome. Looking for discussion, not necessarily agreement. :)

Leopard is a better upgrade from Tiger than Tiger was from Panther, IMO. I love it. I haven't had a chance to play with all the new features, but first thoughts:

Stacks are brilliant, better than the previous hierarchical menus. Stacks are a MUCH better exploitation of Fitts' Law than the menus. I've been waiting since I switched to Mac for Apple to implement a feature like this.

My opinion of the semi-transparent menu bar depends on the desktop picture. With some pictures, the effect is very nice indeed, while other pictures cause it to look rather awful.

The new Finder was the one feature I was not expecting to like at all. I was not at all unhappy with the old Finder. I've been pleasantly surprised. Everything I liked about the old Finder has been retained; the path button remains, and the path bar can be hidden.

Quick Look is great. I can watch full screen movies without even opening QT.

Time Machine is probably the single most intuitive Apple application I've ever had the pleasure of using. I can understand why Apple gave this app top billing among the marketed OS improvements.

I am still bummed that Xshelf is broken in Leopard. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to replace that functionality.

I have to admit, after three days, I'm falling pretty firmly into the "love it" camp. I feel like such a tool these days :). Spaces, especially, is getting far more use than I ever thought it would, but it's just so much easier to use than any other implementation I've seen of it. And it really helps keep the clutter down.

I also think it's very sneaks how Apple has made it's Finder window just like iTunes. Now anyone who's used iTunes can use a Mac... Speaking of the Finder window, it's brilliant as well. I mentioned this somewhere before, but the new coverflow view really helps me. I can make the icons big enough that I can preview documents without even opening them in "quick preview". For my purposes as a historian, with all of the writing and reading, I don't think I could have asked for a better solution.

The one feature that has proved more useful than any other is screen sharing. My wife and I usually have the others screen up in one of our spaces. We use it to work on documents together, plan things together, and sometimes even watch videos (like when she has a short clip she wants to show me from youtube). So far sharing has been absolutely fantastic.

If I was going to list a grip it would be this: I miss my little window clock I used to have...it's gone now. Oh, well, that's progress for you. Now I just have to put my clock in the menu bar like a normal person.

The big thing I would like to see is any application that makes use of Core Animation (other than the Apple apps.)

I was experimenting around last night with Leopard. A few more impressions. Yes, Spaces has some quality use. Flip, I'm doing email. Flip, I'm watching EyeTV. Flip, I'm writing one of my studies.

What still gets to me is my folder views are useless. No matter how I set my folders, I cannot get the view to stick. I like exploring my photo archive in List View until I get to a folder full of photos. Then I like it to be Icon View. Trouble is, when I back up a folder, it does not revert to List View (as assigned) but rather stays Icon View. This is a bug--and a very annoying one at that!

Automator 2 will not open my Automator 1 Workflows! So that is a major mark against it. Another negative is that it seems to have just as many Actions as it did in Automator 1. This is truly sad! Actions are what Automator is all about!

As for the iTunes style Finder window--yes, I kind of like that too. It's a much smaller form factor, and the light background tint provides a good separation from the main window. Quick Look? Brilliant. I hope every third party creates a plugin to work with it for rendering.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that. In order to make a view stick, go to Show View Options under View, check the box that's there. It will make that view stick for that particular window. A bit irritating, I have to admit...

I hadn't even known about this one. Hopefully this is addressed in 10.5.1, because that's kind of silly.

Yeah... For example, I have a friend who downloaded something that makes it so that .avi's work in preview now (could I be any more vague?). I need to get a hold of him, as a lot of my videos are encoded thusly. Somewhere, someone needs to make a list of incompatible preview types, and we can check them off as software developers get on the ball.

:( Still not got round to getting leopard yet, too much homework, but i have heard about various problems, so maybe i should wait a few weeks untill some updates roll out, and has here had the blue screen of death? Apparently application enhancers are to blame. I use an app enhancer to make the background of the dock invisible, will i have to unintsall this before i install leopard

Doesn't work. Try it. Set the following hierarchal structure... Folder 1 set to "List", Folder 2 set to "List", Folder 3 set to "Icon". When you go to Folder 1, you get List View, fine. Folder 2? List View, again, fine. Folder 3? Icon View. Again, fine. However, hit the back button and Folder 2 is now Icon View despite its settings. THAT is the bug.

I would highly suggest it. You will need to wait for an update to that app enhancer. There may even be a code to kill the dock in coming hints so you will not have to use a hack like that.

@Schneb -- Oh, you're right. It won't stick. Time for a bug report...

On a side note, here's a very very VERY detailed review of Leopard from ArsTechnica. Covers everything from the new UI to the inner frameworks of 10.5.

If I understand your requirement correctly, this page of a very long Leopard review explains how to make it happen.

I found the old way nearly useless, and when I used it, found it annoying. Stacks is perfectly usable for me and is exactly what I wanted. I guess it all comes down to working styles.

Nope.

In the paragraphs to which (I presume) you refer, Siracusa is detailing
"spatial" Finder window views... a la OS9, where opening each folder
spawns a totally new graphics port (window).

The bug to which schneb refers occurs in "browser" mode (navigating
within a single window, and using the back and forth arrow buttons on
the Toolbar).

-HI-

All in all I like Leopard. its a nice change, I feel that its look and feel is a lot cleaner. The finder is a massive improvement and the network share's seem a lot faster. I don;t even mind the 3D shelf Dock that much what I don't like is the translucent task / menu bar at the top of the screen. THe problem I have with the shelf and the task / menu bar is that the effect changes with the desktop image. if you have a dark wallpaper your taskbar looks fine but if you have some dark icons in the Dock its hard to see the top half on the icon. Oh also I find coverflow a bit gimmicky.

But my biggest issue it that I used to use VirtueDesktop and although spaces is not bad, and I am getting used to it (it is version 1.0 after all) I liked the way I could move between desktops simply by moving my mouse pointer to the left or right of the screen and clicking, causing the screen to move either left or right.

Ah, that would be nice. The mouse clicking to changes spaces thing. Can someone phone Apple on that one? Or would it be all that hard to write a plug-in that does it? That would definitely be worth someone's time...

As for the semi-translucent shelf, I really like it myself. I like how I can see my pictures showing through it. I even set my pictures to rotate just so that when my screen is entirely full of different programs, I can watch the menu bar shift colors ;).

Ahh, but the point is, Apple changing what works for many, rather than adding a new feature that can be chosen by folk of your opinion. This reflects the "love it or lump it" attitude that Apple has come to garner on their users. There are several, for example, that love the new iMovie 08. But there is a firestorm of hatred for Apple dropping support for iMovie HD. Apple should never replace features, but rather add functionality with the ability to revert back. For the Dock, this would not be, in any way, a fear of bloatware--it is a minor amount of code.

This does not address the bug described. Read my Folder 1, Folder 2 example and recreate the bug yourself. That will make it clear.

I have to agree here I find Stacks totally usable for my needs but other people I work with prefer the old way of doing things I never bothered having folders in my doc.
I agree that you should be able to enable stacks for a particular folder on the doc on a adhoc basis. so you can have say 3 folders on your doc and only have 1 enabled as a stacks folder for instance. Oh and me personally I preferred iMovie HD but I have not realy done anything with the new iMovie yet.

you know what, most of us (including me) we're complaining how 10.5 wasnt substantial enough for a new os, but i think we've forgotten about a universal 32 and 64bit OS, and how core animation is going to open up the os, to dx10 like games and apps both of which are major upgrades which i think we're forgetting about

Actually, I have been very pleased with "what I don't see". A Finder speed improvement is enough for me to upgrade. The little nits and nats of things we do not like is just worth ranting over, and will probably be dealt with by Apple or a third-party application. But on the whole, it is a good (not great) update, and worth getting used to the changes. I'm still getting used to Spaces, and so far, I like what I am seeing. Quicklook makes me wonder how I ever lived without it. And I am quickly getting used to the new iTunes window look.

I'm just glad to see that most of my main apps are working. The only glitches have been iKey and my Brother TWAIN scanner import. Thankfully, Brother had an update download, and iKey may see an update soon with the possibility of a temporary fix.

This is really more of a second impression, but I thought it would be weird to start a new thread for this.

I've decided that the new SpotLight can role over and die for all I care. I don't like it that much at all. First off, it won't find preference files for some reason. Second off, I can't get it to search specific folders (I have hope that I'm just missing something so far). And lastly, I don't like the new view. I liked having all of my searches broken down into easily distinguished categories. Now all I get is a giant list of files...it's annoying to me.

Oh well, I did change it to icon view, which helps a bit...but I still feel disoriented whenever I look at it, and I miss all the control I had over meta-data searching... It's not the end of the world, but it sure stinks. I know we've been talking about removing functionality and replacing it with something else, and I'm all for that in most cases, but I'm not sure I like the concept of removing functionality, not replacing it, and hoping no one notices it.

Oh well, here's hoping 10.5.1 fixes this.

Edit: Fortunately, part of this is wrong. You can search in specific folders, my computer was just being a bit weird is all. No idea why...

Actually, quite a bit of what you were mentioning seems foreign to me. It is acting like the same Spotlight for me as Tiger, only now I can put exact phrases with quotes and boolean searches. Something seems to be up with your system, I think. Perhaps a rebuild of your index file is in order?

There is still one annoyance that still remains. For some reason, when I have a window open, and I press command-F, Spotlight will go, "Duh, you want me to soich de entire compooter?" Thereby having to click on the actual folder I am in. This may only be a phenomena on my home computer, because it does not do this at work. I have the exact same computer, only it is running Tiger. Hmmm.

What I mean is that when you open up spotlight from it's little menulet, then click "show all", the menu you are given is completely different. That's what I'm referring to.

At the moment I'm fairly split on Leopard. I love some of the new changes like QuickLook, the AutoFS config format change, Spaces.

But I'm downright angry about the broken implementation of the folder actions in Leopard. All this talk about the use of the fsevents framework for folder actions and not having Finder handle it. You know what it worked great in Tiger why did they have to break it? Random delays, actions spawning again moments later after the first ones have finished. It is a complete failure on my machine. I paid full price for this upgrade and one of my favorite features is completely hosed.

Honestly I don't do anything that crazy to my mac under the hood and I don't really have any way to muck up the upgrade so I see absolutely no excuse for the fact that Folder Actions don't work correctly any more.