Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Apple, Leopard
Leopard: All signs point to 10/26
Does anyone else think it's a little crazy that we're already 1/4 of the way through October and we still don't have an official release date for Leopard? It'll almost assuredly be at the very end of the month, but in terms of date and time, no one has an official clue.For a Piper Jaffray analyst, however, all signs point to October 26th (and gwhiz adds 6 p.m. on that Friday afternoon just like the iPhone launch). Makes a lot of sense to me-- Friday is clearly a great day to launch a product, as it gives Apple the weekend to claim sales figures, as well as gives us consumers a chance to break open the box and get it installed right away. Analyst Gene Munster says, also, that it's the end of the first month of a fiscal quarter, which Apple likes for boosting sales-- Tiger released in the same situation.
Plus, you know, the 25th is a full moon, so there's even more fuel for the speculatory fire. I agree that the 26th sounds pretty convincing, but of course we won't know for sure until Steve wants us to.
Thanks, Zoli!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Wil Stobbart said 11:08AM on 10-09-2007
...and conveniantly its the weekend of the MacLiveExpo over here in the UK :)
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dappleganger said 11:10AM on 10-09-2007
Finally!!!
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Farlander said 11:23AM on 10-09-2007
The reason nobody knows when it's going to be released is, probably, because Apple itself doesn't really know. The latest beta of Leopard is a very long shot from being a release candidate. Judging by that beta, I'd say it can take a few more months to iron out all the issues. It's not yet ready to be released.
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j0nkatz said 11:25AM on 10-09-2007
Thanks for bricking my iPhone Apple!
I'll be picking up this OS upgrade on Pirate Bay!
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ars_workerbee said 11:26AM on 10-09-2007
@Farlander: I disagree. Not only has the last seed been working great for me, with only the occasional minor issue, but word is that they're on track to GM before the end of this week.
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Jimmy said 11:32AM on 10-09-2007
Apple is supposed to give us a 30 day notice previous to the release date...so we have time to market and create web banners and print stuff...so that would mean we're looking at November now if that's still correct.
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Nick said 11:32AM on 10-09-2007
The full moon in London is at 20:45 BST on Weds 26th. Set your alarms and let's hope the skies are clear for viewing.
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shelterpaw said 11:33AM on 10-09-2007
I'm not thrilled it's taking so long, but I rather have it working properly than deal with bugs. I hope they don't pull and MS and kill features to get it out the door.
Perhaps since they are taking so long to get it out the door they could throw us a bone and include full ZFS support and resolution independence.
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Chad Zeluff said 11:34AM on 10-09-2007
watch it get delayed again...
remember, this was supposed to be out in May-June.
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apeguero said 11:35AM on 10-09-2007
I plan to buy Leopard. When? I don't really know. Generally, how stable have new versions of OS X have been? Also, when I finally buy it, should I do a fresh install? Or should I start out fresh? I used to just start out with a fresh install whenever I had to install a new version of Windows. That used to take me about a full day to install all of my previous stuff on top of the new OS. Should I do the same for Leopard? Or will upgrading it be just fine? Keep in mind that I'm using Boot Camp with a Vista Premium install on it.
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Chad Zeluff said 11:41AM on 10-09-2007
Apeguero -
it will have to be an easy upgrade from Tiger to Leopard, seeing as how many more Mac users there are since Tiger's release.
No problem with running Vista. After all, it exists on a separate partition, so it wont be affected. Youll just want to make sure you create a new driver disk under BootCamp Assistant, found in Utilities.
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Jacob Welsh said 11:42AM on 10-09-2007
I have Leopard 9A559 and it works %110, and i agree with a october release! and aperently Farlander doesnt have the newest addition of leopard!
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Leonard Nimrod said 11:44AM on 10-09-2007
Leopard Build 9A559 (the latest one) is quite solid and ready to go Gold especially considering the work that has occured since it was released. Also, Apple could easily release 10.5.1 a week or two after it goes retail which would be a full 1.5 month of further development from the initial printing.
I still think the release date is Tuesday, October 30th but I'm a longtime Apple customer who still remembers "Apple Tuesdays.
If they do release on Friday the 26th will they be so bold as to release updated MacBooks and MacPros on the following Tuesday. But if they release the new HW just before the Leopard release then early adopters will feel jaded. I'd love to see it just piss of the overzealous fans who think that Apple owes them something.
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a ham sandwich said 11:46AM on 10-09-2007
@apeguero
yes, os x updates are usually much more stable than their windows counterparts. id def recommend clean install tho. clean's always safer since its such a big upgrade. it wont affect your boot camp partition.
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Brian said 11:58AM on 10-09-2007
I can't imagine we won't hear a release date and get the Apple.com countdown by the end of this week.
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:01PM on 10-09-2007
@ Apeguero
• Archive & Install
Choose the option Archive and Install and then choose to perverse network settings. It's really quite painless compared to any other OS.
• Migration Assistant
If you buying a new Mac with Leopard on it you can use Migration Assistant to copy everything over. Note: you will need a Firewire cable.
• .Mac Account
This Apple service keeps track of your Address Book, Bookmarks, Calendars, Dashboard Widgets, Dock Items, your entire Keychain, Mail account settings, Notes, and System Preferences. This does not copy over your personal apps. Note: It does cost $100 for one year but also comes with many other features.
Note: There will some programs that choose not to follow Apple's guidelines and will subsequently have to be reinstalled regardless of the choice you make.
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Farlander said 12:05PM on 10-09-2007
I've been beta testing various products for quite awhile now (about 15 years, I'd say - starting with IBM's OS/2 2.0)
The release of Leopard that I have is the latest one - 559 with the latest update. So no, in my opinion there's still a lot of work to be done. Even the latest update to 559 didn't install properly (as was the case for many other testers on Intel Macs), where it'd freeze half way down, and the only way to finish its installation was to continue restarting the System Update over and over again (luckily it'd resume downloading from where it stopped).
To those who think it's a stable release - I suggest trying to use Front Row to view videos or listen to music, located on another computer, running Tiger, for example.
Or see if you can access other computer, running leopard, with "Back to my mac" option enabled, when one computer is at home, with a router and NAT enabled, and another - say, at your office, again with a router and NAT. Won't work (although it could, if implemented properly).
The Dock is still, probably, the ugliest creation to ever come out of Apple's labs. The disappearing shadows behind the icons on the dock, which don't even match the 3D depth of the dock itself.
Lots of bugs in Finder (including crashing, especially when using it via Remote Desktop session).
Freezing Front Row, when trying to view some VIDEO_TS folders (you can quit the Front Row, but the process will continue to sit in the memory, consuming 100% of CPU time).
I must add, I guess, that the majority of these problems only manifest themselves on an Intel Mac. PowerPC ones seem to work a bit more stable.
I'm telling you: it it is released the way it is now, I'm definitely not buying me one until at least 10.5.1 or even 10.5.2 version.
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me_here said 12:17PM on 10-09-2007
let's get some perspective on this -- we could be two weeks away from a new OS availability and we still don't know for sure?
Ridiculous.
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James Donevan said 12:45PM on 10-09-2007
For those with short memories, Apple announced the Tiger release date 17 days before the launch (announced 12 April for release 29 April). There is nothing new in their methodology this time around.
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Dale said 12:56PM on 10-09-2007
@j0nkatz:
You bricked your own iPhone by sodding around with it. Yes, it's backwards that Apple are so adamant about the locking, but you bought one knowing this.
On the story at hand, however, I am very excited for Leopard. I almost waited for it when buying my MBP but the cost of upgrading was offset by my need for a faster computer ASAP.
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