OS X Leopard

It’s not like my opinion about this is going to make a difference, so I’m not going to bother making this some comprehensive Leopard review and instead just go with an itemized list. But to sum up, I’m diggin it a lot and it was worth standing in line on launch day with a bunch of other cult members and watching the confused onlookers drive by (Them: What are you in line for? Us: a new operating system! Them: ….) My only complaints are largely cosmetic, but those are things that are relatively easy to fix (or hack around).
Good: 

  • Faster startups and shutdowns
  • No more beach ball of death if Finder can’t connect to a remote server
  • I’m finding myself using the CoverFlow and Quick View Finder much more than I thought I would
  • Unified window decorations (no more mish-mash of brushed metal, pinstripey windows)
  • Time Machine already saved my ass (more details later)
  • Mail.app is noticeably faster and more snappy
  • Spaces (finally! virtual desktops)
Bad:
  • Stacks. Looks nice but it’s behavior and appearance is more inconsistent than useful
  • The reflective bottom dock looked sweet for the first few days but the relatively low-contrast blue-orb (replaces Tiger’s black triangle) is hard to see so I can’t quickly tell  which apps are running. I ran the no-glass dock “hack” for less eye candy and more visibility
  • The new system folders are lame. It’s much harder to tell at a glance which folders are which since they’re now monochromatic and all the same shape.  (see http://www.indiehig.com/blog/2007/09/09/fix-the-leopard-folders/)
  • Translucent menu bar. I know Steve Job’s intent with a lot of these visual enhancements was to showcase your desktop, but at least give us the option to adjust the menu bar’s opacity.
  • No sticky windows functionality. Spaces was a concept clearly borrowed from just about every *nix window manager out there, but failed to bring over another feature that’s usually tied in with virtual desktops — sticky windows. I mainly use this on my buddy list and my terminal windows that tail various log files, so it’s sort of annoying to have to switch back and forth between spaces, when having sticky functionality would fix this right away.

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Published:
11.05.07 / 4pm
Author:
underactive
Category:
Geek Stuff