Apple's New Leopard is One Fast Cat

Apple Computer, perhaps known best for its iPod music players, has just released Leopard, a new version of the operating system for its computers. This release of the superstar Mac OS X replaces Tiger, another popular (and fast) cat.

Apple's new Leopard is getting great reviews from testers and early adopters. Mac users usually are vocal Apple supporters; is that because these are machines that just plain work? Mac users seem to spend more time enjoying their computer and less time fixing them.

Leopard is not being touted as revolutionary, but it is evolutionary. Unlike Microsoft who struggled for 5 years to get a replacement for Windows XP, called Vista, Apple has been updating its flagship operating system about every 18 months since the first release of OS X in 2001. And while Vista is generally accepted to be better than XP, people aren't exactly converting in droves; quite the contrary, market forces have forced computer companies who initially dropped XP to resume offering it.

Leopard, on the other hand, seems to have no drawbacks that require someone to remain with Tiger. In fact, Leopard is installed on all new iMacs and iBooks from Apple. Now, in Microsoft's defense, Apple is primarily aimed at the non-corporate market and it's corporations that have been most resistant to Vista.

But a closer look at Leopard reveals that Apple is doing a better job at making the computer a tool to be used, not another project to try and keep operating. And unlike Vista, Leopard comes in just one flavor at one price that includes all features. Sure simplifies things, doesn't it?

What are some of the best new features in Leopard?

The one feature that I am most excited about is Time Machine. This truly is "backup for dummies". And not just one copy of your files, Time Machine does what it sounds like; it goes back in time to recover previous files you may have deleted or changed several times. Just attach an external hard drive and let Time Machine do the rest.

Is that all you have to do for a backup and disaster recovery plan? No, but it's about 100 times more than most people have.

Another improvement is the file management system. Apple has made it extraordinarily simple to search for files on your own Mac or any connected one. While I'm not a big fan of peer to peer networks, many homes have just that. These days, a WiFi home network is almost ubiquitous. (A home server is my choice, more on that in upcoming articles.)

Once you find the files you are searching for, you can view these files almost immediately without loading the entire application that created them, and in a nifty interface to boot.

Speed; I did say this was a fast cat, right?

I wrote in my blog about my pet peeve with Windows: no matter how much hardware you throw at it, before long it's a dog in performance. How many times in a day don't you stare at an hour glass, peek at the hard drive light and wonder "what in the heck is it doing"?

Early tests seem to indicate that Leopard blows away Windows Vista on comparable hardware. Getting the machine up and working quicker is a hallmark of performance in my mind. Then once it's up and running, I don't want to see an hour glass unless serious computing is being done. Hopes for Vista in this category have already been dashed to pieces. The only thing Vista seems to blow away is a bogged down copy of Windows XP, tired from years of patches and patches that patch patches.

Windows users need some light at the end of the tunnel. Linux flavors such as Ubuntu are one ray of hope, but if you really want to get some work done without becoming a hardware and software guru, maybe a Leopard installed Mac is worth a look. Linux just isn't quite ready for the inexperienced masses; one day, maybe.

And now that a new Leopard equipped iMac or iBook can run not only all of your Windows software but even Windows itself (should you need to), there is even less reason not to give Apple a chance at your business.

Check out my blog post on Leopard where I have links to a guided video tour, a great article reviewing Leopard's new features and even a way to hack Leopard onto your PC! That post can be found