Rotten Apple

    As a graphic and website designer here and there I'm generally a Mac supporter and would pick one over Windows if I could afford it. But I'm definitely torn about Apple's release of Leopard. It just seems like they are forcing a new operating system on people when they don't really need to. More often than not during the guided tour video I found myself saying "Well that's cool looking...but not exactly ground breaking." Apple advertises over 300 new features in Leopard yet these new features are neither earth shattering nor are they in fact, new. First, the "CoverFlow"? Uh, that's been on their iPods for 2 generations now. And TimeMachine? I remember watching videos about that months ago before Leopard was even in the picture.

    I just say they're forcing these features on people. I mean Apple's game has always been aesthetics and pretty-looking, but at least they were functional and forward thinking (see iPod). But in this case, the prettiness doesn't really cut it when there's nothing to back it up. For example, the backgrounds and image effects in "the new iChat." Oooo, wooptie doo. If that is impressive to you, you should not own a computer and stick to Legos. It'll give you just as much entertainment apparently. But, I digress.

    Now the good news is you will be able to network much easier, being able to access shared computers on both your home local network and even remotely, with just one password. Unfortunately this is also a bad idea as this ability to share so easily creates any hacker's dream. Mac's other major selling point is a more stable network from the ground up with Linux/Unix. But a stable network doesn't do jack if you're giving the security away to people. Yes they say you're only able to access the person's shared folder, but they're called hackers for a reason.

    There were actually two things I was genuinely impressed with from the demo. First was Bootcamp. Yes you've been able to run dual operating systems for some time now. But being able to boot it up easily in Windows mode, plus, according to Apple, with drivers already pre-installed or on the Leopard discs is pretty handy. I was actually having this talk with co-workers this past week. They were saying there are tons of programs for windows that you still can't run on Macs. Brrrtt, try again. And secondly was the Quicklook feature. From both the Time Machine and regular Finder you can now preview documents (all kinds by the way - video, audio, pictures, PDFs, word documents, spreadsheets, etc.) without opening the application. And I don't mean a thumbnail. You can actually have a full screen preview and browse through multiple page documents in Quick Look, without opening the program.

    Moving on, the Spaces feature seems like a nice and handy way to organize multiple windows and place them into practical groups. This is marketed as a new feature but really this is a somewhat advanced way to alt+tab through windows. Another false innovation is the concept of Stacks. Stacks can open into a "grid" this is nothing more than a folder.

    Another question that ought to be raised is true cost of this product while the actual cost of the install disc is under $200 how many of the older machines will be able to smoothly run this new OS. Apple has never attempted to make hardware upgrades easy unlike its PC counterpart (which is why I can't afford one). Given how graphically driven the new OS is I find it hard to believe that a two year old processor will be able to keep up with the "new" features.

    Overall though, I am not impressed. Yes there are fancy terms like Bootcamp, QuickLook, Spotlight, Stacks, Time Machine, CoverFlow, and Spaces. But really that's all they are, fancy terms. A good way to sum this up? You can't even rewind or fast forward the tour video on Apple's official site (thank god for youtube). Apple needs to focus on practical use not flash or buzzwords. Enough said.