As I was between projects, editing-wise, I took the plunge and upgraded to Mac OS X Leopard as soon as it arrived at my door today.
The upgrade was incredibly smooth, and the only casualty seems to be Dramatica, or moreover, the Pace security protection software it uses. I’m sure it’ll be sorted in due time. Otherwise, all seems well. Screenwriter 6 appears to be fine, as is Final Cut Pro 6, so I’m happy.
It definitely appears to be a worthwhile upgrade, the key points for me so far are the speed increase – it’s significantly faster than 10.4 – and cover flow in the Finder – really, really useful.
Other features which are cool, include the new make-a-widget-from-a-bit-of-a-web-page function in Safari. I tried it on the Scribomatic widget, and it worked very well. Only my funky javascript scrolling seems to have gone a bit wafty as when you drag the widget to start the scrolling again, insted of scrolling, it just moves the widget about – so I might have to revisit that.
The new dock is quite sexy (as sexy as docks can get, anyway), especially the new icon for System Preferences. I’m not sure how useful I’ll find Spaces, the feature has been part of most Linux distributions for a long time, and I never really used it very much back in my Linux days. I think the family might find it all a bit confusing.
Mail has some very useful additions, and stacks seem to be very handy – I like the idea of keeping my desktop clear of clutter.
I also splashed out on one of the new Apple low profile keyboards. The enter key looks dauntingly small, but I don’t seem to be having any problems with it. I read a couple of reviews saying touch typists wouldn’t like it, but I’m having no bother with it – my fingers are veritably skipping across the keys.
My only issue with it is the function keys are all in a different place, but at least they are nicely iconised now, so it’s hard to forget where they are. The addition of the iTunes controls is very welcome.
All in all, well worth the money.