Leopard: Faster, Easier Than Vista
Upgrade of Apple’s OS Isn’t Revolutionary, But It Beats Microsoft’s
The Mac is on a roll. Apple Inc.’s perennially praised but slow-selling Macintosh computers have surged in popularity in the past few years, with sales growing much faster than the overall PC market, especially in the U.S. By some measures, Mac laptops are now approaching a 20% share of U.S. noncorporate sales, up from the low single digits where they once seemed stuck.
There are several reasons for this, including the security problems in the dominant Windows platform from Microsoft; spillover from Apple’s blistering success with its iPod music players; the fact that Macs can now run Windows programs; and Apple’s highly successful chain of company-owned retail stores.
But another key factor has been the Mac operating system, called OS X, which came out in 2001. It has proved to be as powerful and versatile for mainstream consumers as Windows, yet easier to use and more secure. And Apple has upgraded OS X far more rapidly than Microsoft Inc. has upgraded Windows, bringing out major new releases roughly every 18 months, while Microsoft struggled for more than five years to produce the latest Windows iteration, Vista, which came out in January.
On Friday evening, Apple will release yet another new version of OS X, called Leopard, to replace the current version, known as Tiger. I’ve been testing Leopard, and while it is an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, release, I believe it builds on Apple’s quality advantage over Windows. In my view, Leopard is better and faster than Vista, with a set of new features that make Macs even easier to use.
Leopard will come preinstalled on all new Macs. It can also be purchased for $129 as an upgrade to existing Macs that, depending on configuration, can be as many as six years old. Unlike Vista, which is sold in four noncorporate upgrade versions ranging from a $100 stripped-down “basic” edition to a $259 deluxe “ultimate” edition, there’s only one version of Leopard. It includes all the features, from those aimed at novices to those aimed at power users.
For me, the marquee features in Leopard are a new function called Time Machine that automatically backs up your entire computer in the background; two new methods, called Cover Flow and Quick Look, for rapidly viewing the contents of files without opening any programs; and new techniques that allow you to access the files in, and to remotely control, other computers on your network or connected over the Internet with a few clicks and no technical expertise.
Plus, Apple’s free software for running Windows on a Mac, called Boot Camp, which was formerly an add-on users had to download and install, is now built right into the operating system. And, in my tests, the third-party Fusion program for running Windows and Mac programs simultaneously continued to work fine in Leopard.
I did notice a few drawbacks, but they were minor. The menu bar is now translucent, which can make it hard to see the items it contains if your desktop picture has dark areas at the top. The new folder icons are dull and flat and less attractive than Vista’s or their predecessors on the Mac. While Time Machine can perform backups over a network, the backup destination can only be a hard disk connected to a Mac running Leopard. And, on the Web, I ran into one site where the fonts on part of the page were illegible, a problem Apple says is known and rare and that I expect it will fix.
While Apple claims the new system includes more than 300 new features, there is nothing on the list that could be considered startling or a major breakthrough. Some of Leopard’s features are unique, but many others — such as backing up data and quickly viewing files — have been available on both Windows and the Mac via third-party programs or hard-to-find geeky methods buried in the operating systems. Leopard has made them easy to find and use.
When I upgraded my personal iMac desktop to Leopard, it took less than an hour, and after the process was complete, all my programs, including the Mac version of Microsoft Office, the Firefox Web browser and Adobe Reader, worked rapidly and fine. I was still able to run Windows XP via Fusion. And my previous installation of Boot Camp, which turns the iMac into a speedy, full-fledged Vista machine after a reboot, worked perfectly. All my Vista programs and files continued to function properly.
With
In fact, every piece of software and hardware I tried on two Leopard-equipped Macs — a loaned laptop from Apple and my own upgraded iMac — worked fine, exhibiting none of the compatibility problems that continue to plague Vista. My old Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, for which Vista lacks the proper software, worked instantly in Leopard, even over the network. And, unlike with Vista, it was able to print on both sides of the page. I popped my old Verizon cellphone modem card into the test Leopard laptop and it worked, too, with no software installation or tweaking.
Leopard felt about as fast as Tiger, and it started up much faster than Vista in my tests. I compared a MacBook Pro laptop with Leopard preinstalled to a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista preinstalled. Even though I had cleared out all of the useless trial software Sony had placed on the Vaio, it still started up painfully slowly compared with the Leopard laptop.
It took the Vista machine nearly two minutes to perform a cold start and be ready to run, including connecting to my wireless network. The Leopard laptop was up, running and connected to the network in 38 seconds. In a test of restarting the two laptops after they had been running an email program, a Web browser and a word processor, the Sony with Vista took three minutes and 29 seconds, while the Apple running Leopard took one minute and five seconds.
Here’s a rundown of some of Leopard’s key features. Much more detailed information is available at apple.com/macosx.
File management: Apple’s Finder, the equivalent of Explorer in Windows, now offers two new ways to quickly see what your files contain. You can still view them as icons or lists. But you can also use Cover Flow, the same system Apple uses in iTunes and on the iPhone to display album covers for music. In Leopard, a large preview of each file you select appears above the list of files in a folder, and you can rapidly scroll through these icons. These previews are live, and their contents can be viewed without opening the program that is normally needed to display them.
For instance, if the file is a video, you can just click on it, and it will play. If it’s a multipage PDF file, you can click on it, and arrows will appear allowing you to flip through the pages.
An even better and deeper look can be obtained using a feature called Quick Look. Just hit the space bar or click on a toolbar icon, and a preview of any selected file zooms out. You can even view multiple sheets in an Excel file via Quick Look without launching Excel.
Another quick new way to see your files is available in the Dock, the Mac’s equivalent of the Windows Task Bar. Here, any folder you place on the right side of the dock will display its contents, after a single click, either as a grid of icons displaying miniversions of the file or as a “fan,” or arc, of such icons. These special Dock folders are called “Stacks.” Leopard includes one by default that is the destination for everything you download from the Internet, so your desktop will no longer get cluttered with downloads,
Time Machine: This built-in feature will continuously back up all of the contents of your Mac to either an external hard drive directly connected to the computer, or to a hard disk connected to another Mac running Leopard that’s on your network. The initial backup, in my tests, took all night, but after that, the system updates the backups hourly and I didn’t notice any slowdown during the process.
To recover any file you deleted, you simply click on the Time Machine icon, and you are taken to a view that shows file folders — or your email or address book or photo collection — in a stack of windows that appear to go on infinitely. You click on an arrow and the stack of windows zooms until you arrive at the last view in which the missing file existed. Then, you click “restore,” and the file is recovered in your normal desktop view. You can also restore whole folders, groups of files, or even an entire hard disk.
Shared computers: In Leopard, any computer that has been set to be shared on your network shows up on the left side of every Finder window. Click on it, and you can access whatever folders have been shared on those machines. Depending on the remote computer’s security settings, you may first have to enter a user name and password. It’s the simplest method I’ve ever seen for accessing other computers on a network. And it works with Windows PCs as well as Macs. When I first turned on the Leopard laptop in my office, it immediately found a shared folder on my colleague’s old Dell running Windows XP. She hadn’t even remembered sharing the folder, which contained files from 2003.
You can copy or move files to and from these shared computers, or view their contents with Cover Flow and Quick Look, or open them in programs on your own computer.
If you are a member of Apple’s optional .Mac service, which costs $100 a year, you can use a feature called “Back to My Mac,” which can access your Macs from thousands of miles away over the Internet. However, this feature works only over certain kinds of routers (not all of them Apple’s) and, as my router didn’t qualify, I couldn’t test it.
Remote control: For any Mac in your shared-computers list for which you have permission, you can take over the screen by simply clicking on a button called “Share Screen.” You can also remotely control distant Macs over the Internet using Apple’s built-in iChat instant messaging program, as long as you have permission and the Macs are running Leopard.
iChat: Apple now allows you to use its instant messaging program with Google Talk as well as AOL’s AIM service, and you can set up a video chat in which you can present a slide show or display a document. You can also add special backgrounds that can make it look as though you’re someplace else, like Paris. In my tests, this even worked with someone on the other end using a Windows XP computer running the latest version of AIM.
Spaces: In order to cut down desktop clutter, Leopard lets you set up as many as 16 different desktops that can run simultaneously, with different programs open in each. You switch among these desktops by using keyboard commands or a menu.
For instance, you might have your iPhoto and iTunes running in one “space,” or desktop, your Web browser and email program in another, and Windows XP in another.
Leopard isn’t a must-have for current Mac owners, but it adds a lot of value. For new Mac buyers, it makes switching even more attractive.
Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. Find all my columns and videos online free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.
Comments
Walter,
re: QuickLook
what about .psd (Photoshop) and .eps (Illustrator) files?
,dave
Posted by Dave Barnes at October 24th, 2007 at 6:58 pmMr. Mossberg,
Do you happen to have either (or both) Photoshop and Illustrator CS3 installed? If so, how did they work under Leopard? Sadly no real info from either Apple or Adobe on this. (At least recently.)
Thanks in advance,
Posted by Jason Armstrong at October 24th, 2007 at 11:33 pmJason
Hi, Walt
Posted by Jonathan Polyakov at October 25th, 2007 at 7:13 amI am not so agree with this urban legend, that it took almost 5 years from MS to develop new OS. Let’s make some calculations. 2000-XP - Feb 2000 - Win XP - 20 months. XP - XP SP2(we can consider it as new OS. At least upgrade was not less serious, than that from Panther to Tiger, for instance) 34 months. SP2 - Vista 30 months. So average break was 28 months. When we count such stats by Apple since 10.1-10.5 that average is 17 months. While it took the same 30 months for both companies to make last upgrade.
But, generally, I agree with the rest in you article regarding Vista.
The business about Apple computers not being vulnerable to viruses and other malware is really not relevant.
Apple’s share of the pC market has been so miniscule that the evildoers just do not care about it.
The last overall figure I saw was that Mac’s have about 3% of the market for installed computers.
Let Apple get up to maybe 15-20% and we’ll see how invulnerable they are.
Posted by Richard Mitnick at October 25th, 2007 at 8:47 amSecurity through Obscurity eh?
That worn out old MYTH has been debunked hundreds of times for the last 5 years.
Numerous cash prize contests have been offered to hackers to hack into OSX and wreak havok.
To date, there have been no winners.
Please get some facts about OSX security before posting drivel!
Posted by Rick Vartian at October 25th, 2007 at 10:31 amYes, obscurity helps OS X stay safe. But cackers (hackers aren’t all bad, crackers are) revel in noteriety. If someone were to hack OS X, they would get massive attention. Yet to date, not one single cracker has succeeded in bringing OS X down. OS X is not only safe because of the installed base being small, but it is inherently safter as well.
And in fact, it did just hit about 15 percent of market share. (Your three percent is quite old, and no longer true.) At Harvard, a large majority of freshmen bought Macs. Other universities are seeing the same massive migration to OS X. Windows no longer has a strangle hold on mindshare. Now they are losing marketshare.
Windows astroturfers are dinosaurs. Their defense of Microsoft has little impact any more.
As for the questions about Photoshop, John Nack, who is the product manager of Photoshop, has said there may be a few bugs in Photoshop related to Leopard, but it runs in Leopard already, and any fixes shouldn’t take too long. Too bad we can’t say the same thing about Apple’s own Filemaker Pro!
Posted by Eric Welch at October 25th, 2007 at 11:05 amI have been using Leopard for several months now, with the Gold Master installed and running for a little over a week. I have to be honest; this article comes off as Apple Fan boy propaganda. I could sit and debate this entire article with my own personal experiences with each platform, but I will only touch the areas that peeved me most.
Let me share my experience with the author in no particular order.
Installation was easy, I’ll have to admit. But I can tell you exactly why your ancient HP printer works flawlessly with Leopard. That is because Apple includes 3.2 gigabytes of printer drivers. I discovered this when I alarmingly realized Leopard consumed almost 12 gigabytes of my Mac’s hard drive. Microsoft didn’t include 3.2 gigabytes of printer drivers, so if it’s too complicated to install your own printer driver, maybe you shouldn’t be using Windows. For the record however, my Brother 440CN and my HP LaserJet 1100 work flawlessly with no additional hardware drivers on my Vista Ultimate 64 machine, my Home Premium 32 machine, or my Leopard machine.
Hardware compatibility? Not if you’re talking Bluetooth. I have paired a multitude of Bluetooth devices, including mice, keyboards, PDAs (Blackberries and Windows Mobile), etc. The only devices that work are keyboards and mice. Whenever I tried to pair a phone for internet tethering for instance, as I often do win my Verizon XV6700 (a.k.a. HTC Apache), I would find that Leopard will use NONE of the services that are on my hardware, even if the same hardware works fine on my Tiger machine. Also for the record, as soon as I pair the phone to Vista, a standard modem over Bluetooth link is created instantly and I can dial out and connect wirelessly within seconds, WITH NO ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE OR DRIVERS. Also, my Leopard machine will not even send files via Bluetooth to any of my PDAs, as it reports the proper services are not available, something which also works flawlessly in Vista. Where was Apple on that one? Another byte here, any and all of my accumulated peripherals have worked flawlessly with Vista 32 and 64 bit. Worst case scenarios were that Vista automatically connected to the internet to find the drivers it needed with no additional input or software from me. Chalk another one up for Vista.
Also, Leopard users who regularly network to Vista PC computers will find the whole process ridiculously convoluted from here on out. Don’t expect to open the Network browser and find your network of happily communicating PCs, it won’t happen. Unless this is a crazy bug that Apple plans on fixing down the line, your Vista machines will no longer appear for easy access. You will need to MANUALLY enter the address, in the proper Apple format mind you, to link to your PC shares. I don’t know what Apple was thinking here, because it definitely doesn’t qualify as EASY. Pretty stupid, actually, to remove functionality from your new OS… I also noticed that the Windows Share features in my Sharing System Preferences panel are gone. My Tiger machines talk to Windows just fine, thanks.
I have had multiple Kernel Panics on my Intel Mac mini with Leopard. And when I resume it from sleep, it takes almost a full minute for the system to begin responding to mouse and keyboard commands. My Vista boxes are scratch built, except for my HP laptop. But I promise you, Walt Mossberg, that they resume from sleep and are usable MUCH faster than my Macs. You are correct, however, that Leopard boots blazing fast, but not fast enough to make my PCs feel painfully slow. If this is your take, maybe you should quit buying crappy PCs. As far as real world performance, as in browsing the web or handling digital media, the PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+) is painfully faster than any of my Macs.
Now the upgrade… I purchased the Vista Ultimate upgrade for my Windows XP. I wanted to move to the 64 bit platform so I was unable to “upgrade” 32 bit XP. I had to let the setup wipe my drive and reinstall. This whole process took just about an hour. But my Mac wanted to cause problems for me. Due to a previous dual-boot situation, I wanted to wipe my Mac before Leopard. So I also had to clear my Mac’s drive and start fresh here. Due to ridiculous errors with Disk Utility (I was told that my disk was too busy to partition and format, took a long time to sort out) the process took over 2 hours. This was alarming considering how SIMPLE the Mac experience is supposed to be. For those not in the know, Vista, and any Windows, installation handles your hard drive setup automatically. It asks a few questions, you answer them, done. Where was Apple on that one?
Is Leopard good? Yes. Is it better than Vista? Hardly. Is Vista better than Leopard? Hardly.
I don’t consider Leopard as a new OS. It doesn’t look new, and it certainly doesn’t feel new. To say 10.5 is more of an improvement than Vista was over XP is ludicrous. The changes in Vista are evident EVERYWHERE, not just Aero glass. It seems that “upgrades” in Leopard are few and far between, especially when a good chunk of “new features” mimic software that is either included or available for Windows (Time Machine à la System Restore, iChat à la Trillian, etc.).
The bottom line is that 10.5 will be a great upgrade for hard core Mac nerds, but coming from the view of a PC nerd, it is a steaming pile of crap. If you are not a power user, the plain vanilla taste to Apple’s OS X is appealing and streamlined. For anyone who actually likes to use and control their system, Vista will keep you busy with options and toys for hours. The desktop in Vista alone blows away OS X as far as versatility and function. When is apple going to allow me to add my own menus and objects directly to the Desktop? That is something that has been easily accomplished since Windows 2000.
Posted by David Hansen at October 25th, 2007 at 11:35 am“…your acient HP printer works flawlessly with Leopard. That is because Apple includes 3.2 gigabytes of printer drivers.”
Yes, OS X will install lots and lots of printer drivers if you simply click the “Easy Install” button without thinking.
Weren’t you even curious about the “Customize” button? sitting right there on your screen? T
The “Customize” button would have given you the otion to select just the printer drivers you need (or none at all). You could have also deselected the boatloads of foreign language support files that are installed by default when the “Easy Install” method is used, or chosen just the ones you want.
I have concluded that there is a simplicity and elegance about Apple software that is apparently too subtle for many Windows users. It’s true that, at first glance, Apple programs (or even OS X itself) can appear to be over-simplified or lacking in features. With use, however, Apple software shows itself to be at least the equal of all competitors. All the functionality is there, but without the clutter and complexity that Windows users are accustomed to dealing with.
To my mind, the notion that “more complex” means “better” is in need of serious re-evaluation to whatever extent the slow thinkers among us continue to successfully propagate this ridiculous idea.
Posted by Alan Sanders at October 25th, 2007 at 12:30 pmAlan, I hear what you are saying, and I even agree with you. hat’s why I said this, “Is Leopard good? Yes. Is it better than Vista? Hardly. Is Vista better than Leopard? Hardly.”
My point is simply that depending on what you use your computer for, and how you use it, you will always find one system “better” than the other.
And to praise Leopard as being far superior to Vista is false, as would be the other way around.
Posted by David Hansen at October 25th, 2007 at 2:02 pmTrash both Windows and Apple and download the latest version of Ubuntu for free.
Posted by Ray Hernandez at October 25th, 2007 at 7:04 pmI agree with Walt. I find Leopard much better than Windows.
Posted by Arthur Beckel at October 26th, 2007 at 8:27 amI bought my 1st PC (Sony Vaio Laptop) 4 years ago with a warranty. My learning curve was quick and was soon helping friends with their problems and getting their PCs working. No, I’m not a specialist nor am I a newbie. I consider myself a self taught compter enthusiast that uses computers for personal interests, movies and hobbies.
When my Vaio crashed I was able to use every penny towards the purchase of a new PC at Best Buy. That was about 2 months after Vista’s release. Nothing at Best Buy had XP, only Vista. I heard nothing but complaints with peripheral device (scanners, cameras, printers, etc.) compatibility. Many people I knew dropped big bucks on a Vista PC only to lose functionality with ALL their devices. I don’t know if that is the case any longer. It seems like Vista was the larget beta program released by Microsoft. No product r&d to work out the kinks. Just get it out, get people’s money, hope for the best and make updates as the complaints come it.
Avoiding Vista like the plague, I asked a frined who works for PC Magazine what I should do. When she recommended a Mac, I laughed at her. Well, now every person I recommended a Mac to makes the purchase and ponders why anyone even buys PCs anymore. Even the simplest things make lif easier. I remember showing my brother-in-law’s iMac to a friend before I shiped it to him in South Korea. The PC user said, “Where’s the rest of it?” No tower. One cable: no clutter. Camera, wi-fi and bluetooth embedded. Software updates with a click of the button. Defrags on the fly except for larger files. I bought iDefrag for $30. Defrags better than windows defrag since you can move all files to the front of the hard drive (needed if you need the space to partition drive for windows XP Pro Ubuntu or other OS) and do more complex algorithms. I’m sure you can probably defrag better if you’re familiar with complex operations/programming on a PC. No more registry: simply delete the program you want to un-install. Use spotlight to find any associated files that may need to be deleted.
Everyone knows that a debate can take place for 5 years as to who is better: Apple, Microsoft or none of the above. The debate is moot: everyone has their own preferences and to each is own. Personally, I like my Mac much better than Windows. At work, people hear me all the time saying, “I wish I could bring my Mac in because it’s simply easier to work with.” I installed bootcamp so I can use XP Pro for bootleging DVDs and running 1 other program. I hardly ever use the windows side but is is nice to know it is thre if I need it. NeoOffice, a free office suite, is installed on the Mac side and communicates with Microsoft Office with no problems so far.
I was a doubter, but after using my Mac for only 4 months now, I love it and I would never buy another PC unless I installed Ubuntu on it (nice OS that works great on father-in-law’s PC. It automatically searched for drivers on the net when perepherals were plugged in. It was FREE and esy to install pre-loaded with an office suite. It is even possible to run from disk before installing just to see how it works before you decide to install it or not. If you’re a power user/programmer use it, improve it, share it and help everyone escape the grasp that both Microsoft and Apple have by having a 3rd choice of a free OS.)
Posted by Ray Hernandez at October 26th, 2007 at 12:02 pmI received Leopard in the mail two hours ago, and was disappointed to discover after installation that, when installed on a G5 machine, it does not support Classic (System 9) as Tiger did. I have many legacy documents in Pagemaker format, and was holding on to a fast non-Intel machine specifically so I could access these documents. So far I have not not seen anything from Apple, not even “fine print,” that warns me their new, improved system is inferior to Tiger, at least in this important respect. If you depend on any Classic legacy applications, beware.
Posted by Don Frankenfeld at October 26th, 2007 at 1:35 pmI mostly found the review interesting, but:
“Other operating systems supported”? Vista “cannot run Apple OS”?
That just seems to conflate the OS and the hardware.
Apple have crippled their OS/included some TPM/whatever else they have done, so OSX only runs on their own machines, and you manage to make that seem like a virtue of the OS.
Being a comparison between OSs, the better question is: brands of personal computers on which the OS can run. And then it is clear which is the more flexible OS.
And it was then ironic reading your blog “Free my phone”, about phones and carriers; ok, not exactly comparable, but it struck me as close.
Posted by Paul Thomson at October 27th, 2007 at 3:07 amWhat if I want a MacBook, but not OSX? Why am I forced to pay for it?
What if I want OSX, but not a Mac computer? Surely this is the same limiting of choices that you complain about in the blog.
Paul, although i agree with your point of view, this is a review of Leopard.
Posted by andrew pettinger at October 27th, 2007 at 7:03 amApple have made it perfectly clear that
their OS will not be made available for non Mac hardware.
Actually, Apple has made it clear that Tiger would be the last OS to support Classic mode for quite a while. The change was incremental, with a shift to OS 9 being available in Tiger, but not bootable as in previous versions of OS X. One should keep up with what is going on by reading Apple’s Hot News, independent Apple blogs or magazines such as Macworld.
I do not believe a person who is using a pirated pre-release version of Leopard is qualified to discuss the final, legal release of the program.
Posted by Julia Gomez at October 27th, 2007 at 4:43 pmpersonal take. I think Mac’s timing is perfect. I think allot of people where waiting for Leopard to come out cause they’re timing the purchase with the new OS release. There product line in very attractive. I was always a PC guy and I’m still not all Mac. I appreciate my gaming and also my investment in the Pc gaming side with my dual video cards in SLi. If Mac gets all there brains together and starts offing SLI . I think everyone will make that last step.
Posted by Dan Infante at October 27th, 2007 at 5:34 pmI still think I’ll get my toddler a imac 20″ and now that you can share screens,you can monitor them in the next room. I love my wife’s’ Macbook Pro. And with a a extreme base station I have a network drive for both of our music libraries. It’s just a matter f time before the house with be the Mac house. And then you can cal me the MAc DADDY ! Corny but true. Microsoft messed up when they got in with the vendors . They basically pushed you into buying another computer with there insane prices for there OS. Don’t get me wrong, I was tempted till I heard and read from the experts that Vista runs slow for gamers. It’s the same thing. Microsoft comes out with a product that takes about 1 1/2 to get there drivers right, when Mac and put out a product that works better from the get go! Please , please Mac come out with a SLI mode MAc pro and I’ll go to it ! Call it the gaming edition or what ever.
sorry was typing fast cause the SOX are on !
Posted by Dan Infante at October 27th, 2007 at 5:37 pmI own an Intel-based Mac Mini and a BlackBook. I run Boot Camp on the Mini and Parallels and Fusion on the Blackbook.
In short, I don’t see how anyone other than a casual user can only live with one OS. The simple truth is there are good and bad things about both systems. As an example, if you work on a corporate network, XP or Vista is a far better network client than OS X. On the other hand, if you’re handling media, the Mac excels with iLife. If you’re in an Exchange shop, Entourage just doesn’t measure up to Outlook as an e-mail client. And so on and so on.
One surprise I’ve found is that running Windows XP or Vista on a Mac is a far better experience under Boot Camp than it is on a Dell, HP, etc. I’m not an engineer, so I can’t give you the reasons for it, but my guess is that the drivers are created by the same people who create them on the Mac side, so they just know how to make them work without a hitch. Combined with good Apple engineering, the Windows experience using Boot Camp on a Mini or an iMac is really something to write home about! Someone asked Walt the other day whether they should buy a Mac to run Windows even if they never really intended to run OS X. My answer to that question would be *yes*, it is a superior experience. I’m not a gamer, so I can’t speak to that segment of Windows users, but for everything else, you won’t find a better computer. Just add a PC-mapped keyboard and mouse and you’re ready to go.
As for Fusion and Parallels, I think they are both fantastic products. I have settled on Parallels as my engine for running virtual machines, but either one will give you an outstanding experience. If you’re thinking of doing this, make sure you install the maximum amount of RAM and the largest hard drive you can afford to optimize your experience.
Two notes in closing. There is no need to purchase RAM (memory) from Apple who charges an outrageous premium for generic memory. Buy your memory for an iMac, MacBook or MacBook Pro from a third party provider like Crucial. You’ll save a bundle and memory is easy to install in any of the above machines. Avoid doing this with the Mini as it is difficult to service unless you’re really experienced with this particular computer.
The same is true of upgrading your hard drive, although this requires a bit more skill. I recently upgraded my BlackBook with an Hitachi 200 gb 7200 RPM drive. Using a program like SuperDuper to create a clone of the existing drive it was amazingly simple and the new generation of 7200 RPM drives won’t drain your battery any more than their slower 5400 RPM cousins. This was an inexpensive upgrade to my BlackBook and has more than doubled my hard drive space, plus made it perceptibly faster.
Posted by Ron Lockhart at October 29th, 2007 at 10:58 amRichard Mitnick said:
>The business about Apple computers not being vulnerable to viruses and other malware is really not relevant.
How so? The situation you present (”IF the Mac had 15-20% share of the market, it MIGHT have a security issue”) is hypothetical. The day-to-day reality is this: Windows users have to deal with viruses and malware. Mac users don’t.
As long as we’re dealing in hypotheticals, here’s mine: the hype about Macs being invulnerable virtually assures that any serious Mac virus would be front-page news, an even bigger story than a corresponding Windows virus. So the “Mac is too small for virus writers to care about,” premise, I think, is invalid. But again, that’s only hypothetical.
Posted by Greg Maletic at October 31st, 2007 at 8:49 amPoint taken on printer drivers. Obscurely, there’s over 1G for EPSON alone (!).
But on the flip side, by and large I find it easier to keep the Mac “clean” from various disk junk compared to XP/Vista. The Finder makes it a simple to narrow in on space wasters. So removing a few gig of printer drivers is simple.
It is a little odd that in 2007 we still don’t have a consumer OS with a built-in function along the lines of “remove any files that I don’t need and that I could reinstall from your internet servers if I do ever need them”. Expecting end users to be sysadmins so they know what libraries can be safely removed is getting old.
And it’s interesting to see the old “Mac is too small a market for virus writers to target”. Who propagates that myth? MSFT employees? Salesmen? Same argument holds true for IBM mainframes and Pentagon defense systems, I guess? The only reason they’re not hacked is that the market is too small?
XP and Vista are still designed such that you cannot practically use them without running as “root” *all* the time. That’s a big chunk of the problem. Mac OS X handled that much better, only rarely requiring admin privileges.
Apple made a fundamental decision several years ago, which was to forego some characteristics (perfect backward compatibility, maximum gaming performance, etc) in order to upgrade the overall OS infrastructure to BSD-based (and now with Leopard, Posix etc compliant) Unix. MSFT began a similar transition earlier, with NT, but then backtracked, sacrificing technical qualities for market share. This added to Apple’s previous, also fundamental, decision to only support their own hardware. The result is a better product from Apple and a more profitable one from MSFT.
And one of the consequent (conscious) differences is security.
Posted by Peter Magnusson at October 31st, 2007 at 12:58 pmmore mac vs windows stuff. this jihad will never end. enjoy your macs. no one really cares. if apple was smart they would sell the OS to everyone NOT just mac users. but they have never gotten how to win the game, only how to stay in it barely. it would be very easy to write the OS to work on the dominant hardware but they refuse to. silly.
Posted by Robert Freeman at November 9th, 2007 at 12:48 pmI teach English, and many educated students ask me to confirm whether English seems poorer than Spanish. But they nod their heads when I ask them “How much English do you know… compared to Spanish?”.
Like that, I liked Apple from a distance.
But last year I had to work at the office many hours every single day (photo, video, wordprocessing, the web, etc.) with a G5 iMack 20″ and Tiger OS. I learnt and used (some of) those tweaks and shortcuts that make you “a regular user”. After 9 months I would answer:
“Better, more powerful, more efficient?” I don’t know, but at least as much so as XP.
“More comfortable, nicer, smoother, clearer?” I would say so. And -as a test- I even burned DVDs while doing other computer work. No problems.
“Safety, system crashes, viruses, reboot to solve a frozen system?” What’s that? I never heard of those. (Honestly, I think in 9 months I had ONE or TWO “frozen systems” while running programs, audio, video, etc. all at the same time. With similar usage patterns, I have several freezes a week in Windows.)
I used to ask about Macs to my (very religious) friend R. Moses (I give his name in case he should get copyrights on such a wonderful quote). Until one day he answered: “Stop asking those small questions; this is not science, it’s religion. Choose your god and follow it.”
In a way, with all your (our) discussions, we are doing it like that, aren’t we?
But, for heaven’s sake! Let’s keep on discussing, that’s how we all learn!
Thanks
Posted by Hari Geninazza at November 11th, 2007 at 9:40 amI am always surprised when I read some sentences on professional reviews.
The fact that you can run MS Vista (or XP, or Linux) on an Apple computer is an obvious advantage for Mac owners.
However, this possibility depends on the fact that MS operating systems or Linux are able to use more hardware components than Mac OS. The fact should not be listed among the pros of Mac OS, but among the pros of Vista, Linux, or XP.
Posted by albert di sesto at November 12th, 2007 at 4:32 amSome problems affecting non-apple OSs depend also on the number of hardware components they aim to use.
- albert
Amazing comments here which try to bring Leopard OSX down to the level of Vista. My take is:
1. OSX is 32bit and 64bit all in one.
2. OSX is dual chip in one (Intel/PPC)
3. Mac hardware runs Unix, OSX and Windows.
5. In contrast Vista can’t even play nicely with itself.
You only want OSX. I show it to Windows users who are completely stunned.
What? It’s so fast? No antivirus software? You only reboot once a week? It doesn’t slow down over time? It’s that easy to use? It’s that compatible? etc etc.. And that’s all before Multi-Touch from iPhone has arrived.
Sorry, but the people attempting to level the playing field either have vested interests in Windows, or are very scared of change.
But the reality is it’s game over, with Windows looking more like cheese to OSX’s diamond.
Posted by Jonathan Tilney at November 15th, 2007 at 5:10 amUm… more than have of new Japanese computer purchases are Macs, and growth is massive in the college market in the US. Seems like a pretty big incentive for hackers, and yet there still aren’t problems.
I think that someone will eventually figure it out, but it’s pretty clear that something about the basic form of the OS is harder to crack.
Posted by Stephen Long at November 15th, 2007 at 7:46 pmIt amazes me how little some people know about what their actually talking about.
Have you ever wondered why Apple never sold their OS or other systems ? The stability OS X users enjoy is the exact same reason Windows and Linux users enjoy such flexibility with their hardware. Apple only have to ensure their OS works with THEIR internal hardware, no-one elses.
I’m a long-time Windows user, going on 11 years now, right from the Windows 95 days. This is my second mac (Black Macbook) my first foray into the Mac world wasn’t as rosy, but I believe Apple and OS X have come even further in those seven year’s. OS X is such a mature OS now, If I could have had an OS X Media Centre I would’ve.
Only Vista allows me the flexibility of what hardware I want - such as a TV Tuner and a VFD coupled with the ability to record/playback DVD/Video/TV. I’ll have Vista installed on my Quad-Core Water-Cooled PC by the weekend. Why ? cos I encode Video & play games, again VistaXP currently offers the best OS.
I tinker with Computers quite a bit, I’ve had a HP Laptop for 3.5 years and was sick of it running slow, being awkward, crashing and not ‘just working’ this is why I bought a macbook. I can use a mac, to help make PC’s work. Ironic huh? Mac needs MSN Video (it shouldn’t, but asking ppl to download AIM/iChat/Skype isn’t right either) and better networking with VistaXP.
Windows Users: 64Bit comes as standard in OS X
I invite anyone to try Mac and not be impressed.
Posted by Graham Klerks at January 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pmLeopard is definitely faster to boot to the desktop (less compatibility variables to load) but once in the desktop, that advantage does not exist. At least that is my experience on my Boot camp Imac.
Posted by Chris Wilkerson at January 13th, 2008 at 7:10 pmhello mr.Walt, i’m using Mac G5 PPC processor with Leopard. I found it’s very difficult to use instant messaging like Adium and Yahoo Messenger.
Posted by beng bakarbessy at February 27th, 2008 at 11:13 pmCould you tell me, what’s wrong on my system?
Ok admittedly I have never had a mac. I acknowledge that many people love them and thats fine. I will probably never buy another computer that costs over $500. THIS is my issue with MAC and the HIGH END PCs.
Posted by Larry Smith at March 23rd, 2008 at 1:57 pmIn 1999 I bought my first gateway computer for about $2300. I had a friend tell me that my new 450 mh P3 / 64 mgb ram, 9 gig hd and windows 98 was more computer than I would EVER need. Well I guess you can imagine how that panned out.
Recently I purchased a used desktop from ebay for $115 add $50 for S&H I maxed out the RAM to 2 gigs for a price of $122 out the door at Best Buy. I have a 2.66 P4 and I swapped out the HD to an 80 gig that I had purchased for my old gateway. I purchased a used 14 inch flat panel monitor for $25 from a yard sale and other than about once a week it goes blank and I have to push “AUTO ADJUST” to get my picture back it works fine. I know, I know, not even a dual core processor but hey the price was right. So I have $337 total wrapped up into this puter (by the way my boy bought me a nice DVD rewriter for christmas) so that would have cost me more but I got lucky there. I am running XP sp2 of course. so after getting my current puter on ebay I GAVE my old one away! $2200 and I just GAVE it away, FREE.
I know I dont have all the fancy bells and whistles that you guys have with your fancy puters but,,,you cant miss using what you never had in the first place.
My other thing is this…If my first puter was more than I would ever need and it became virtually useless due to everchanging products, what makes everyone think that someplace out there somebody has an idea that will blow away VISTA AND MAC OSs making them obsolete. MAC may be all that but the one thing it isnt is an inexpensive entry level computer!
I also forgot to mention that possibly the Mac market is only at 20% because a lot of people feel the same way I do about how much they are willing to spend on a computer. It is so easy to find ads in the paper on Sunday for a $449 duo core with 2 gigs of memory. If you happen to be raising a family or on a tight budget or both the extra $750 dollars can go a long way toward a lot of other things. If your computer usage calls for a Mac then you will probably have one. I am fine with that. I do understand that they are great puters, dont get me wrong on that. I have a Mac guy where I work and he just helped a 50+ yr. old guy buy his first computer it was an Imac which is fine but so far the only thing he uses it for is to buy Itunes which he could do on any puter the extra $$ would have bought him a lot more music!!
Posted by Larry Smith at March 23rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm