Filed under: Leopard
Leopard system requirements
If you're reading TUAW (which you're doing right now!) then I suspect there are one or two things amongst the 300+ new features in Leopard that have whetted your appetite. Don't pre-order just yet though, because you have to make sure that your Mac can handle all that Leopardy goodness.Here are the minimum specs your Mac will need to run Leopard, according to Apple:
- Intel, G5, or 867MHz+ G4 processor
- 512 megs of RAM (though if you only have 512 megs of RAM you should get some more. Trust me, I'm a pundit)
- DVD drive (Leopard is shipping on a DVD, and your Mac needs to read it to be able to install it)
- 9GB of free disk space (though I bet if you customize the install and leave out all those printer drivers and extra languages you can save lots of space)
- Time Machine requires a hard drive in addition to your boot disk (external or internal is fine, I would imagine)
- Photo Booth requires a camera of some kind (shocking!) and a processor better than a G4. If you want to do those wacky backdrop effects you'll need an Intel Core Duo or faster
- Screensharing requires a speeding net connection (300 Kbps is Apple's recommendation)
- DVD player requires a 1.6GHz or better proc for super cool de-interlacing (I hate interlacing!)
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Barry Fishman said 11:14AM on 10-16-2007
I keep a G4-based PowerBook around because I need Classic from time to time (to show my students some great educational applications from the past that will never be updated). Does anyone know if 10.5 will continue to support Classic on PPC machines?
-Barry
Reply
Mike said 11:15AM on 10-16-2007
*PHEW* I just made the cut-off for G4 processors. My Powerbook is 1.2Ghz if I remember correctly.
Reply
Ian said 11:16AM on 10-16-2007
Is everyone getting Front Row? The features list says Front Row is standard on the Leopard disc. That's a pretty huge thing for thousands of people who have systems that meet the requirements for Leopard but missed out on Front Row by a few months. Does Apple sell the remote separately?
Reply
Jens said 11:24AM on 10-16-2007
Ian, Apple notes that a remote is required for Front Row so if you Mac isn't doing it now, it won't after the upgrade.
Reply
Martin said 11:28AM on 10-16-2007
Why the hell does a DVD Player these days need a 1.6 Ghz processor? Last I checked they worked fine on any old box you stuck them in.
Does that mean that I shouldn't even bother with Leopard on a 1.67Ghz PowerBook G4?
Reply
Scott Kendall said 11:34AM on 10-16-2007
Leopard does NOT support classic. I tried to copy over the "system folder" from classic and it's icon doesn't show up inside System preferences. I guess SheepShaver is going to have to work for a classic solution
Reply
Aron Trimble said 11:36AM on 10-16-2007
I believe the cutoff was 1.60Ghz - it seems you are a whole 70Mhz in the positive my friend!
Reply
Mark UK said 11:47AM on 10-16-2007
So how does Time Machine work on a portable, with a single hard drive?
Or is TM desktop only?
Reply
univac said 11:48AM on 10-16-2007
So, how about screensharing? Is it true that it will only be available as an option for .Mac users and not for all iChat users? That would be a terrible mistake, if so...I have many clients who will benefit from this technology, but don't have .Mac.
Reply
Ian said 11:54AM on 10-16-2007
Jens, you're right about the remote.
When I purchased my Mac Mini I missed the Front Row boat by like two months. How about turning my iPhone into a Front Row remote control? Someone created a Web App to control iTunes with the iPhone - seems like the same would be possible for Front Row. Are you telling me that, although Leopard comes standard with Front Row, the only thing keeping me from using it is a remote? Come on, it's a $29 piece of infrared crapola keeping me enjoying my movies from across the room. I'll pony up for a new laptop soon enough, but I don't have the money to replace both systems and this is a must-have feature. Grrrrr.
Reply
utterer said 12:03PM on 10-16-2007
The DVD player works on any G4 that supports Leopard. it is the fancy new Deinterlacing that requires the 1.6ghz procs.
As for Time Machine on a laptop, you better start carrying around an external FW/USB drive with you when you want to back the laptop up. Or just keep your backups at home with you. You can probably also repartition your drive and use the other partition. Unless it is physically checking your disks.
Front Row is coming with 10.5. it is a aprt of their "whole package" deal.
Reply
Optimistic said 12:11PM on 10-16-2007
Would buying a Universal Dock + remote not be a possible solution to those Leopard owners who didn't already have Front Row on their Tiger systems? I only ask out of interest as my machine doesn't even meet the Leopard requirements.
Reply
pentumforever said 12:12PM on 10-16-2007
@5
Did you really read carefully?
From the TUAW post:
"DVD player requires a 1.6GHz or better proc for super cool de-interlacing"
From Apple:
"DVD Player requires a 1.6GHz processor or faster for improved de-interlacing."
That means you only need an 1.6GHz processor if you want the new better quality deinterlacing.
Reply
Brian said 12:13PM on 10-16-2007
I want to run Leopard on a G4 "Sawtooth" 400MHz tower.
No, don't laugh - this machine is acting as a headless web/email/file server in a closet. None of the GUI applications are ever used on it. I want it to run Leopard so that it has the latest libraries so that ongoing work on open-source server applications (like Exim and SpamAssassin) will continue to work with it. Right now it's still running 10.3 (regular version, not the server version), and some developers have dropped support for the libraries which shipped with 10.3. (For example, the precompiled PHP binary no longer is available for 10.3.) I'd upgrade it to 10.4, but then I'll be eventually faced with the same situation.
I know I can get this to work - I know there's a setting in one of the Installer's plist files that can be changed so that Leopard will install on a slower processor. (I forget what file it is, but I can look that up.)
Reply
Al said 12:17PM on 10-16-2007
@3, 4
You can activate Front Row by hitting Command-Escape. So technically, it's still there and can be activated. And I would bet that you could control it using one of the many remote solutions out there (Sailing Clicker?).
@8
External hard drive.
Reply
Robert Jones said 12:32PM on 10-16-2007
You can run TimeMachine on a laptop, if you repartition your drive to give it its own partition to work in. Remember, though, that you'll be eating up a good chunk of your already limited mobile space, and this setup *won't* save you from complete drive failure, like an external backup would.
Also, you don't even need a physically connected hard drive. It works fine over a network share. I'm currently backing up via TimeMachine to a filesystem on my Linux box being served out over netatalk, and it works great.
Reply
Andrew Harden said 3:12PM on 10-16-2007
So can the fancy shmancy new interlacing be disabled? I bought this damn 17" PowerBook (1.33 GHz) to watch DVDs on. Or will it act like iMovie 08 and simply not install DVD Player.app and leave the Tiger version?
Reply
Kenneth said 12:45PM on 10-16-2007
Apple keeps saying 'external hard drive' for Time Machine.
What's about PowerMac G4, G5, and Mac Pro users? They have plenty of extra internal drive bays.
Reply
The Oggmonster said 12:48PM on 10-16-2007
Would it really matter if I use my 512 megs of RAM for my Mac Mini.
Is it possible to upgrade the RAM too?
Reply
Adam said 12:55PM on 10-16-2007
Photobooth works fine on a 1.5Ghz G4, even with the snazzy effects.
Also, Front Row is in there and it's in the Apple TV style.
"External" HD means "a second HD that isn't your boot device". If you've got a dozen drives crammed into your case, one of them should be fine.
I'll have to try this DVD Player thing out. Fact is, deinterlacing is so easy I could do it with my wristwatch, so I have no idea what sort of magic deinterlacing they're doing at DVD resolutions that I need 1.6GHz to process it. It better come with cake, that's all I'm saying. And the cake better not be a lie.
Reply