| Mac OS X Version 10.5.4 Leopard | 
 enlarge | From: Apple
Category: Software
List Price: $129.99
Buy Used: $89.99
You Save: $40.00 (31%)
New (34) Used (11) from $89.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  389 reviews
Sales Rank: 6
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Mac Os X, Macintosh
Color: 1-user
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 19.7 x 19.7 x 19.7
MPN: MB576Z/A
Model: MB576Z/A
UPC: 885909167876
EAN: 5050053026040
ASIN: B000FK88JK
Publication Date: October 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Best Operating System So Far October 28, 2007
41 out of 47 found this review helpful
I've only been using Leopard for a couple days, but so far it's worked perfectly for me -- better, actually, than 10.4.10 was. Here's a short list of the features that I like:
1. Quick View/Finder Icons -- all my documents, PDFs, pictures and Excel files show up as icon previews in the Finder. When I press the space bar, a large version pops up. Now I no longer have to open an application to read over a file quickly. It's also nice for photos
2. Spotlight -- That's the quick find search box in the upper right corner of the screen. It's WAY, WAY, WAY faster than in the previous OS X and can do complex searches if you like. Plus, now when I type a math problem (for example "123-25") in the box, Spotlight shows the result (i.e. "123-25=98"). If I type in a word I don't know, the definition also appears with the other search results.
3. Preview -- Anyone who's ever opened the regular version of Adobe Acrobat knows how dog slow this application is (plus waiting for the updater takes forever). When I open a PDF in a web browser, I have to wait like 10-20 seconds for Acrobat to load. No more. Preview can open PDFs, and now it has lots of controls that make it useable. I can highlight text, write comments, draw shapes on PDFs without opening Acrobat. Yeah!!!
4. Mail -- This is Apple's email client, and it's finally good enough to replace Microsoft Entourage. It's integrated with iCal and Address Book, so everything is connected while still being easy to use. For example, Mail will find stuff that looks like an invitation to do something and offer to put it in your calendar if you hover over that part of the text. By the way, it's also very FAST, especially when showing fancy html messages.
5. Speed -- Overall, this system is just speedier and eliminates a lot of minor inconveniences. By speedier, I don't mean that you really don't need to wait for things to happen. Photoshop opens a lot faster than before, and Safari is also faster.
I noticed that some people are having problems. Of course, you can never predict other people's problems, but here's two tips that may help some people:
1. After you first upgrade, Spotlight needs to create an index of your computer. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour, but the computer will be slow until it finishes. Don't worry, this only happens once.
2. Make sure you have enough hard drive room on your computer. The operating system takes nearly 9 gigs of space. Keep in mind that you want at least 10 percent of the space free on your hard drive, otherwise it will slow down. Try deleting or backing up unused files (or buy a bigger hard drive).
Good stuff. October 27, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
While I initially wanted to wait for the company to iron out bugs, I was convinced to install 10.5. I am happy to say, no bugs that I can see. The networking improvements are astounding. It finds and shares computers effortlessly, you can share screens with your friends on the other side of the country if you grant them permission or invite them to share. The plug and play of everything is simply astounding. I am very impressed. It was worth the upgrade. Outstanding.
Works great for me... October 27, 2007
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
First, an important message: When installing, make sure to SKIP the Disk Verification process...otherwise you will waste about 45 minutes for nothing.
I installed the Leopard upgrade on my first-generation Macbook Core Duo 1.83ghz with 2gb of RAM and a 60gb HD. The installation went smoothly, taking about 40-45 minutes to do so. When I started Leopard for the first time, all my files were intact as before and all my applications worked great as well. There were two items that did not work: an isync plug-in for my Sony Ericsson phone, but reinstalling the plug-in fixed that; and a widget for gas prices does not work, with no fix yet. I also had Windows XP installed via boot-camp; there were no changes made to that and it is also working fine. The manual says to insert the Leopard disc in Windows so that it will upgrade the drivers.
I tried out time machine; it took about an hour to back up about 38gb worth of files to a USB 2.0 external drive. Photobooth's new backgrounds are fun to play with, but they work well only if your background is a plain wall with no objects behind you. If there are objects, then they tend to distort the background; not very pretty, needless to say. Another feature that is greatly improved is the Wifi networks menu in the menu bar; now you can finally tell which networks are WPA/WEP secured thanks to a padlock icon. Also, the menus seem to be faster when clicked; there doesn't seem to be a lag anymore as was apparent with Tiger. Spaces is a very nice feature to organize the "clutter" of different programs open at one time. Make sure to learn the CTRL- shortcut keys to get the maximum benefit from Spaces.
Finally, the only serious bug I've noticed is that my Macbook seems to be running much warmer than with Tiger. The average CPU temperature with Tiger was about 120 degrees F with a fan speed of 1500 RPM. With Leopard, the average seems to be around 170 degrees F and a fan speed of 2400 RPM. The keyboard also feels noticeably warmer to the touch. I'm hoping Apple will release a fix for that.
Otherwise, Leopard is a great buy and is definitely worth the money. I highly recommend getting it if you love your Mac; Leopard will make you love it more.
EDIT: The 10.5.1 update has resolved the fan issue. The CPU is now running closer to 140 degrees F but the fan speed runs around 1500 RPM again when idle.
 it is ok October 27, 2007
19 out of 25 found this review helpful
I am not sure what is all the excitement about Leopard...
I love my MacBook Pro, but Tiger worked better for me. I have quite a stunning collection of desktop background pictures which are flipped every 1 min, it was never a problem on Tiger. On Leopard, every background cross-fade takes 60% of CPU, even freezing the UI momentarily, probably related to the [useless] menu transparency. My Mac is MBP with 2GB, the 2007 version of Core 2 Duo.
Then, Finder crashed on me once already. iTunes too froze once, which never happened before.
2 of my apps which I used every day (httpmail, Groupcal) no longer work.
There are also problems with some apps that post modal dialogs (the dialogs appear behind the app window, effectively making the app unusable).
Translucent menus don't work for me, I wish there was a way to disable it. I don't know how people can like this even bigger dock at the bottom, eating precious vertical screen space. I have my dock on the left, but it is now more transparent than it used to be on Tiger, and background creates a lot of visual noise. I understand new features (and even breaking backward compatibility) when they make sense going forward. But these menu gimmicks don't buy anything, and just about all users complained about them, so why Apple keeps them??
Gee, the screen snapshots with green grass and glass dock sure look pretty, but put a few windows on the screen, and the dock will start getting into your eyes. I think Apple over-designed this one. IMHO Apple users love Macs for good (ergonomic) design, good performance, and clean (Unix-based) OS, not for screen gimmicks. If translucency is a selling vehicle, why not make it optional to please the hard core users.
I am so disheartened, I think I am going back to Tiger. Silly me, I didn't do a backup...
Smooth as silk! October 27, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have been using OSX since it came out, and this was the easiest upgrade I have ever done. I have had absolutely no problems at all with Leopard and haven't found any of my applications that won't run as they always did in Tiger. I keep a pretty clean system, so I just did the "upgrade" option instead of the "archive and install" as I have done in the past. It worked well and I liked the fact that I didn't have to reinstall some of my applications. I would highly recommend 10.5. Just do your homework before you upgrade so you don't find out afterwards that a key app. you use hasn't been upgraded to work with Leopard.
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