10.17.07
I Already Used The Obvious Joke Here
Next week, Apple is set to release the newest version of their OS X operating system, code-named “Leopard”. (Actually, I suppose it’s no longer strictly speaking a code-name, as it’s pretty much the de facto marketing word for the 10.5 version’s box.) Akin to Microsoft’s release of Windows Vista late last year/early this year, many computer users are facing the very difficult decision: should I stay, or should I go?
I’ll grant that, as a still niche-market product, the release of Leopard will do little to remove the stigma of a “niche-market” product from Macs. It’s almost inconceivable to think that this release– which is downright silent compared to the marketing blitzkrieg surrounding Vista– will do anything to make the general populace more receptive to an admittedly more expensive machine that does more or less the same thing. And as much as that would worry me or disappoint me as someone who likes to evangelize the Mac, that’s not really where Apple is focusing their mainstream marketing efforts, nor should it be. The ‘masses’, as it were, get the iPod, iPhone, and all the fanfare that goes with it because those are low-maintenance devices; those who want a Mac likely already know about it and the steps needed to get it working with a Windows-dominated world. My glasses are blue, not rose-colored– I know this isn’t going to be the panacea that topples Microsoft’s dominance.
Still, Leopard does offer some features I’m looking forward to, but I’m honestly not sure if it’s worth the upgrade cost. Time Machine sounds good on paper; I’ve been looking for an automated backup setup that’s literally fire-and-forget, but some of the technical barriers for it seem a little counterintuitive for a laptop (requires an external drive? I can understand that you don’t want to have to repartition your hard drive for an OS upgrade, but this is a little silly). Spaces is downright essential for me if I’m not on a dual-monitor setup– and multi-monitor is usually a pain in the ass to set up on a Mac, so, no downside there. I’m a minimalist when it comes to my desktop and Dock/Start Menu, so the new, slicker Dock and its Stacks functionality is a little bit of a plus– but more of a drawback, really, as I rely on Quicksilver almost exclusively to launch/search, so there’s nothing there I can’t live without. I totally don’t use Spotlight– I mean that quite literally, as in I removed it from the menu bar as it’s completely useless; therefore the enhancements to it are of no use to me. The new Finder stuff like Quick Look and the new iTunes-y window layout are really kind of blah, as I abhor Cover Flow (too distracting). And the improvements made to several of the other utilities, like Mail and Safari, are completely irrelevant to me, though I can see where some folks might be looking for those. You would think with all of the crap in Leopard that I don’t use, it would be a foregone conclusion that I’m not going to upgrade.
But then again, there’s a few “under the hood” things I’m looking at that make the outlay very tempting. The big ones are a Networking panel that doesn’t look like it was designed by someone who clearly has no idea how it would ever be used, printer support that (similarly) actually makes sense from a user standpoint, iCal that sounds like it supports more of a GTD-like setup, better support for shared computers/drives, and a bunch of improvements to TextEdit that make it even more powerful than it already is (you laugh, but I do half my writing in NeoOffice and the other half in TextEdit). Actually, to be completely honest, it’s more than just the cash for the upgrade that’s bugging me; I’ve been wanting to put some more memory in the Basroil for a while now, and this is as good an excuse as any (though if I do that, I’m not going to be able to go to Leopard at the same time; I’m going to have to stretch the whole effort out over three paychecks).
After some reflection, I think the best way to go about it, really, is just to go ahead with the memory upgrade for now and let a few weeks or months pass before I jump to Leopard. By that time, of course, all of my favorite tools will be in their new versions, and I’ll have a seamless upgrade experience, if I decide to make the jump at all. Besides, more memory is always good… of course, now I have to decide whether or not I want to go to 1 or 2 GB (currently I’m on 512MB). I’ve been mystified for months as to why my MacBook uses more memory while idling than the Mini does with iTunes on standby; arguably, the Mini should use more, as it’s got the massive library file stored, but I had failed to take into account the MacBook’s integrated graphics chip siphoning away precious, precious MBs from the system memory. I don’t currently run Parallels or any other virtualization programs, but looking at the benchmarks and requirements, with what I’ve got now, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
This post really doesn’t serve much in the way of a purpose; just my musings on the impending release. I’m kind of curious to admit that I’d love to see the commercials for Leopard, to see if they’re as ever-present as the previous “I’m a Mac” commercials have been, but come to think of it, those have sort of dropped off, haven’t they? Also, what do ya think of the new cut system for the blog? (EDIT: Fixed a minor glitch with the cuts; they should be more obvious as cuts now. I’m still working on some more CSS trickery to make them even more obvious.)