Filed under: OS, Peripherals, Apple, Leopard
Getting ready for the next Big Cat
Happy 1st October, TUAW readers! Whilst not a particularly notable date (unless you're my brother, in which case Happy Birthday!) it does in fact signal the countdown to the next release of Mac OS X: 10.5 Leopard - due at some stage in the next 31 days. If you've been living away from Apple civilization for the last 18 months, you'll want to head over to Apple's Leopard features pages, and check out what we can look forward to with the release. But what can we do in the interim, whilst we sit and wait for Steve to announce a launch date? Here's four things to bear in mind to whet the appetite (and potentially empty the wallet) in advance of the Leopard launch.- Backup. Backup. Backup. Whilst you may think that I'm talking about Time Machine, I am in fact talking of a general backup plan - when installing a new OS, I always ensure I've got a couple of working backups of my OS, regardless of whether I'm doing an Upgrade, Clean Install or Archive and Install (and on top of my existing Backups) just to make sure. Paranoia? Most certainly not - my Windows-using past taught me the hard way just important backups are. Oh, and talking of which option to take, I err on the side of a Clean Install - that way, your Applications folder gets a handy clean out (along with Application Support files) - and with a backup at hand (and all serial numbers duly noted) there's nothing stopping you getting going again.
- Check the Sys Specs. According to AppleInsider / Wikipedia, you'll need:
- A PowerPC G4 (867Mhz or faster), G5 or Intel Processor
- 512MB RAM (additional recommended)
- DVD drive
- Built-in FireWire
- 9GB Hard drive space
- Built-in display or an Apple-supplied Graphics Card
- Get yourself another External Hard-drive. Whilst I have no knowledge of how Time Machine works, if you want to be able to take full advantage of the backup and easy restoring features, you'll almost certainly want to grab yourself a large (and perhaps just as importantly FAST) hard-drive. I'm using an assortment of FireWire 400 & 800 drives for backups, but if you're wanting the latest and fastest it might be best investigating eSATA drives (which can be added to MacBookPros via a $119US ExpressCard) or go the whole hog and indulge yourself with a Drobo.
- Smile! You're on camera. With Leopard integrating Photo Booth into the general OS instead of shipping with iSight-enabled Macs, you can pick up a fairly cheap USB camera, lose hours of productivity making amusing photos but at least then be able to explain to the boss why you're not in yet via the joys of a video chat. Or go one better and present the accounts via iChat.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Ross said 9:10AM on 10-01-2007
Don't forget all the features you'll lose... Address Book will no longer let you send / recieve SMS messages. InputManagers are gone, so if you use things like SIMBL or PithHelmet or other so-called Haxies then they will not work (and as far as I can tell there is no other way of implementing them)
And there's still compatibility issues with Adobe's Creative Suite (according to Adobe themselves!) ... maybe best to wait a few weeks before jumping straight in with 10.5... theres a lot more changes under the hood than with Tiger.
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apeguero said 9:15AM on 10-01-2007
Are they going to lock our Macs with this software also? Will 10.5 lock our Macs so that no Open Source or non-Apple approved software can run anymore? And if it detects any unregistered or non-Apple software running then it will brick our Macs?
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KeynoteKen said 9:29AM on 10-01-2007
Anyone using Adobe's Creative Suite in any serious capacity won't be considering upgrading to 10.5 until next year anyway. Why throw unknown kinks into a currently working and productive workflow just to say you're running the latest? Especially with all the potential work with the holiday seasons coming up?
"Are they going to lock our Macs with this software also?"
Don't know, check the EULA on it. You DO read those instead of just clicking, right??
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tuaw said 9:43AM on 10-01-2007
Ross: I believe the input managers thing is optional: you're advised to disable, but can enable it if you want to.
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smqt said 9:55AM on 10-01-2007
so, any word on the features that Steve wanted to "keep secret so the competition couldn't make them first"?
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Darren said 10:55AM on 10-01-2007
I believe you have your specs wrong. Revised specs say that you need a G4 at 867MHz or faster. The 800MHz systems no longer qualify for Leopard.
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Tu said 10:04AM on 10-01-2007
what's with "whilst", it's so damn annoying trying to read your comments
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Justin Eaton said 10:12AM on 10-01-2007
My brother's birthday is today too, what a coincidence.
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Pete Zich said 10:09AM on 10-01-2007
whilst |(h)wīlst|
conjunction & relative adverb chiefly Brit.
while.
Get over it.
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drakhul said 10:12AM on 10-01-2007
Ross, where did you get the information about the compatibility issues with Creative Suite? I have searched Adobe.com and the only thing I see that is not compatible with Leopard is Digital Editions.
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Dogzilla said 1:01PM on 10-01-2007
The one thing I'm really interested in is whether an official iPhone SDK will be released with Leopard.
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Ed said 10:43AM on 10-01-2007
Do you read your own stories?
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/24/leopard-to-exclude-800mhz-systems/
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Jeffrey Bergier said 10:46AM on 10-01-2007
the current betas are requiring an 876MHz G4, not 800. It is simple to get around though. You can either boot the leopard installer on another compatible PowerPC mac and then put the incompatible one in Firewire Target Disk mode and install it on that Firewire Disk. Or if a compatible mac is not avaialble you have to extract the OSInstall.mpkg file. (xar -xvf OSInstall.mpkg) then you have to edit the file called Distribution. In there delete the definitions for "bad machines" and lower the minimum speed from 86600000 to 26600000 (I am not sure if deleting this number all together would mess up the script). Then you save the file and recompress it. xar -c ./* -vf ~/Desktop/NewOSInstall.mpkg . Then place back into the cd or boot volume and there ya go. Of course your results may vary with unsupported hardware.
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ce said 10:49AM on 10-01-2007
@Tu
In the same way that many people find the American system of mm/dd/yy difficult to read.
If you find cultural differences annoying, the *inter*net might be a tricky place for you.
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jonvdveen said 10:52AM on 10-01-2007
It's my birthday too! What a glorious gift Leopard ought to make. Personally, I'm looking forward to the networking and file-sharing enhancements!
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Matteo said 11:02AM on 10-01-2007
I am also waiting for Leopard. My birthday is October 24th (or the 24th of October...). Hope to get it as a birthday present...
In the meantime tonight I am going to enjoy the setup of my girlfriend's 20" iMac with Tiger.
In her office they all have Macs and it's thanks to me :-)
I will be setting up:
- iMac
- Airport Extreme
- USB HDD (attached to Airport)
- Wi-Fi printer (through Airport)
Hope it works smoothly, because I have never done it before :-)
I'll let you know.
My mother, my girlfriend and I will all get Leopard when it comes out (all have macs and I'll buy a "family license").
Leopard in October is perfect!
If it comes out arund the beginning then I'll buy it as a present to my father (october 4th) if it comes out at the middle it will be a present for me (october 24th) whilst if it comes out at the end it will be a present for my mother (october 31st). I got it covered :-)
So, either way, I'll buy a family license with the excuse of a present and then install it on all systems...
Have to go now. I'll let you know about Tiger..
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Kevin said 11:03AM on 10-01-2007
Does anyone know what the previous cutoffs were for getting a free upgrade to the next OS? E.g, if you bought a new Mac 30 days before the next OS came out you would get a free copy.
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Paul said 11:09AM on 10-01-2007
Address Book sends SMS? 0_o
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punkassjim said 11:13AM on 10-01-2007
@2 apeguero
I think you're taking the iPhone paranoia too far. There's no way they're going to lock down the OS like that. They actually ship an X11 installer (among other things) with their computers, why would they suddenly do an about-face on developers and disallow it all? Think.
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slinky said 11:17AM on 10-01-2007
Ross - I am using 9A559 right now and InputManagers still work and the AddressBook still is able to send messages the way you describe.
Please stop spouting disinformation.
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