Letter from the CEO
One Angry Cat!
By Robert Pritchett
Michele Patterson may have had a premonition about Leopard
as not being the perceived kind kitty, but a hissing kitten, with her November macCompanion cover. Anyway, I thought it was cute – until I
started reading the post-Leopard debut feedback.
What do I mean?
Well the early adopters did manage to find chinks in the
Apple armor as we heard dire warnings from the likes of MacFixIt and others who said the dot-0 version is not the one
we want, but should wait until dot-2 arrives before leaping.
Developers are having a hissy-fit about Java 6 not being
there in the final version, but hold on, there is a history regarding Java with
Apple.
Steve Stanger’s The Mac Attack podcast - Episode #78 - does a great job covering the issues. Don’t load Leopard if you
make money on your Mac until you check all the apps for compatibility and
updates.
Even though MacFixIt gave dire warnings, they also posted a
workaround for those who have pre-876 MHz systems.
On my machine, I use Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional to do the
magazine. Guess what? Adobe won’t have a Leopardized version out until January.
It is a good thing I ordered Leopard through Amazon as a family pack and it
won’t arrive for a few more weeks, because it is coming via snail-mail. I would
have not heeded the warnings and just installed it and you would not have had
the November PDFed version of this magazine.
You would think that after nearly a year we would have had
all the 3rd-party apps working with Leopard, but many of the software developers did
not get the final version either, so they got blind-sided and somewhat
surprised, but the list of compatible apps is gradually increasing in size.
The
Developers again are miffed because they didn’t get the final version either,
and are wondering if their membership in the ADC is worth the money they spent
as beta-testers. Apparently somebody posted Tiger on BitTorrent and the ADC
developer community was blamed. Well, Leopard was posted on BitTorrent again,
but since the ADC developers didn’t have the final version, apparently it
wasn’t their fault this time.
By the way, the first Leopard update was released almost
immediately regarding the login and keychain snafu. A lot of flack is flying
over on the Apple Discussion Forum - about bugs, fixes and missing pieces.
One of the better balanced
reviews is over on Ars Technica - and I was intrigued by the comments regarding folder graphics, but there are
other naysayers who listed things they didn’t like.
Perhaps someone is watching out for me as the inevitable
updates get posted by Apple and the dot-1 release is given probably about the
time I get my copy to load. And maybe Adobe can expedite the Adobe Acrobat 8
Professional update. Two months for an update? And they were early adopters.
I’m still waiting to find out what the Leopard secret
features are that are above and beyond the “300 features” so prominently listed
on the Apple website.
Will Leopard learn to be well-behaved or will it continue to
scratch and bite before settling down and feeling at home in all the millions
of kitty bags we are all carrying?
What works with Leopard? Here is Apple’s List.
What breaks? MacFixIt lists those.
And then there are issues regarding Security in Leopard. More here.
Of interest is Dan Frake’s article over on MacWorld about what Leopard replaces when it comes to 3rd-party apps for things that should be in the OS but were not – and which ones had functionality folded into Leopard.
Daniel Eran Dilger also has his "10 Myths of Leopard" series going as well.
Keep current on issues by going to Mac Surfer.
Update! Version 10.5.1 released.
More about Leopard will no doubt be forthcoming in the
December issue of macCompanion.
Meanwhile, why not settle down, now that harvesting time is
over in the Northern hemisphere and enjoy a good read with macCompanion magazine?
We would also be delighted if you would visit our
advertisers and affiliates and give us a warm fuzzy feeling as we approach the
Holy-day season.
