45 replies to this topic

[Duder]

Apple upgrades should be much safer than Microsoft for sure, but I've never tried it....but if Bento is scared of it then so am I!

[Sao_Bento]

Apple upgrades should be much safer than Microsoft for sure, but I've never tried it....but if Bento is scared of it then so am I!

I was inspired by your post to give it a try. I'm going to try and run a straight Leopard upgrade on my laptop. I'll post the results when they are available.

The most notable thing about Leopard for Mographers right now is that AE CS3 is NOT GOING TO WORK flawlessly on Leopard until they make a patch. I just saw that Adolfo posted that the patches are expected "before the end of the year", so don't get all worked up and do something you'll regret.


Edit: OK, I'm back. I did the Leopard upgrade on my laptop (because I don't use AE on it). It took between 1.5 to 2 hours, but it seems to have worked. Nothing wonky to report except that it turned my Airport off. I did do a "verify disk" and "repair disk permissions" with Disk Utility before I installed. C4D seems to work fine.

Since the patches for the Adobe Video apps won't be out for awhile, I won't be going near Leopard with my production machine until at least mid-January.

[Duder]

Dopeness!

Do you have AECS3 on your laptop? If not, it's worth putting the trial on it to see if Leopard causes havoc. I really need Bootcamp final, so this is one of the reasons I wanted Leopard (plus a few other stuff of course), and since I only have 1 Apple machine, I don't want to mess anything up since it's working perfectly.

[govinda]

What's new with Boot Camp that makes it a must?

[Sao_Bento]

Dopeness!

Do you have AECS3 on your laptop? If not, it's worth putting the trial on it to see if Leopard causes havoc. I really need Bootcamp final, so this is one of the reasons I wanted Leopard (plus a few other stuff of course), and since I only have 1 Apple machine, I don't want to mess anything up since it's working perfectly.

I'm sure Adobe will have detailed info on exactly why using AE CS3 with Leopard is a bad idea. I started it up and it appeared to work fine, so I don't know what the hitch is. I'd still be very wary about betting my livelihood on something the manufacturer specifically says is a problem.

In general, Leopard feels faster. The new UI things don't really bother me, except that it's easy to get confused about what window you're in when they all look like iTunes. I haven't experienced any of the QuickTime problems I've seen people post at Mac Fixit. Seems OK so far.

[the_Monkey]

I don't think there has ever been a problem with the upgrade install. I just like starting from zero. It gives you a level of certainty that you just can't find any other way. I don't even install anything but the core system. Some people complain that it takes too much time, but you only have to do it once... after you've got a good base... clone the drive immediately. It's a method I've been using for a few years and it has always served me well. I have far fewer system issues than my peers.

-m

[Duder]

What's new with Boot Camp that makes it a must?

Final drivers and that Bootcamp is not going to expire, so if I need to reinstall Windows I have to get Leopard. And of course the possibility of having a few issues fixed such as the Bluetooth keyboard problem and a bunch of others.

[Sao_Bento]

Some people complain that it takes too much time, but you only have to do it once...

The straight upgrade took plenty of time - I'd say it took around 2 hours. Speaking of time, the apps seem to launch slower than they did with 10.4 which is quite frustrating.


Edit: unrelated update. In Leopard, you can have h.264 with alpha channels. I've been testing it by dropping C4D rendered QuickTimes into Keynote - h.264 is not exactly a production codec. It works well. The only gotcha is that the alpha has to be premultiplied to avoid fringing.

[jan]

Useful tip to get rid of the glass look of the dock (those light bulbs telling the app is launched are so ugly):

In terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
then restart the dock
killall Dock

(to get back: defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO )

you'll get a sort of tiger dock but darker with a useless heavy border around it.

IMO there some slight readability problems in leopard. The dock, pile stacks as mentionned when you have a busy desktop, icon folder are too dark with a white background. Leopard feels darker and more contrast. But some features like transparency are starting to compete with functionality.

Welcome improvements:
-Rounded drop menu
-crispier overall antialiasing (or maybe i'm wrong)
-preview is much faster with large pdf.
-useful shortcuts to organize your desktop/folders (arrange by type: control+command 5)

Edited by jan, 29 October 2007 - 08:57 AM.

[jan]

Spaces seemed a bit complicated to use because it adds a new set of shortcuts
A natural way to use it is to use command+tab. It switches automatically if you set mail onto another screen for example.

[Sao_Bento]

IMO there some slight readability problems in leopard. The dock, pile stacks as mentionned when you have a busy desktop, icon folder are too dark with a white background. Leopard feels darker and more contrast. But some features like transparency are starting to compete with functionality.

Welcome improvements:
-Rounded drop menu
-crispier overall antialiasing (or maybe i'm wrong)
-preview is much faster with large pdf.
-useful shortcuts to organize your desktop/folders (arrange by type: control+command 5)

I was surprised at some of the UI as well. The Finder menu bar's semi-transparency is annoying at best. To me, the rounded corners of the menus are sign of poor project management - is Leopard so perfect that they couldn't find anything better to improve?

[the_Monkey]

Spaces seemed a bit complicated to use because it adds a new set of shortcuts
A natural way to use it is to use command+tab. It switches automatically if you set mail onto another screen for example.

Well it actually already works like that (using command tab).
You need the extra spaces commands because sometimes you want to move to a particular space when and application may not be open. What absolutely sucks though is fact that the windows wrap around to the row below. Bastards! I used to love to set up my virtual desktops like this:

[AE][Finder][C4D]

With a standard wrap I could be in C4D and move one window to the right and be in AE. That meant that you were able to switch between [AE<->C4D] or [AE<->Finder] or [C4D<->Finder] by only moving one step to the left or the right. I'm sure someone thought they were doing me a huge favor by wrapping to the next line, but it is yet another example of Apple reducing a 2 dimensional interface to a linear one.

-m

EDIT: Oh and thank you so much for the dock tip! I was about to stab myself in the eyes.

Edited by the_Monkey, 29 October 2007 - 06:42 PM.

[govinda]

Leopard Up-to-Date, gets you Leopard for US$9.95 plus tax if you bought your machine in October (as I did).

http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

[the_fuzz]

well, evidently the problems between the CS3 Production Bundle and Leopard aren't that bad according to Adobe.

also, ars technica posted their review.

[ZeBrownie]

Did anybody manage to run AE CS3 on leopard or do we have to wait until december when adobe releases AE CS3 leo compatibility?

[Sao_Bento]

Did anybody manage to run AE CS3 on leopard or do we have to wait until december when adobe releases AE CS3 leo compatibility?

It runs, but apparently there could be some unexpected behavior. Honestly, Leopard is Apple's Vista. it's got some cool stuff, but it also seems to really bog down randomly. It takes forever to start, apps launch very slowly, etc. I'm sticking with Mac OSX 10.4 XP on my production machines until I hear that things have smoothed out.

[ZeBrownie]

It runs, but apparently there could be some unexpected behavior. Honestly, Leopard is Apple's Vista. it's got some cool stuff, but it also seems to really bog down randomly. It takes forever to start, apps launch very slowly, etc. I'm sticking with Mac OSX 10.4 XP on my production machines until I hear that things have smoothed out.

Did you do a fresh install? What's your configuration?

Mine runs like a charm and much speedier than tiger. It starts up faster than tiger and apps launch much quicker too here.
Spotlight is now superquick and quicklook is so cool for previewing media and other documents.

[the_Monkey]

Honestly, Leopard is Apple's Vista.

As punishment for your blasphemy we should make you use Vista.
I think that's just your machine/install. Leopard runs noticeably faster on my 8 core.

-m

[Sao_Bento]

As punishment for your blasphemy we should make you use Vista.
I think that's just your machine/install. Leopard runs noticeably faster on my 8 core.

-m

Could be. This is just on my laptop (17" MacBook 2.3Ghz). As I say, Leopard is faster in some areas, slower than others. I was the test monkey for doing an "upgrade" install, so that could be it as well.

[the_fuzz]

upgrade? that's probably your problem, sao. archive & install is the best option, it's a fresh install but leaves everything you need in a "previous system" folder that you can later delete.