It took Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
a few extra months to deliver than originally planned -- credit diverted development efforts to the iPhone for the delay -- but Apple's new Leopard OS X 10.5 operating system hit the store shelves Friday night, giving Mac geeks everywhere the chance to spend their weekends installing and learning the new OS, which boasts more than 300 new features.
"I think this release overall will do better than Tiger. There isn't anything Apple has done that would induce people to hold off," Chris Swenson, NPG Group director of software industry analysis, told MacNewsWorld.
"I think it's an excellent OS release, and you're going to see better unit volumes -- if only because of the increase in install base Apple's gotten with the Mac over the last few years," he added. "It would be almost impossible to see unit volumes lower than Tiger. Apple has almost a 100 more retail stores than they did back when Tiger launched."
Good Reviews, Few Problems
So far, most early reviews are overwhelmingly positive, but a handful of early adopters have noted upgrade problems, the most troubling of which locks up the Mac.
"After completing an upgrade installation of Leopard and restarting the computer, a 'blue screen' may appear for an extended period of time," Apple explains in an online support 
document that attributes the problem to third-party application enhancement software. The document, however, doesn't explain which applications may be causing the problem.
The solution requires a more lengthy reinstallation of Leopard -- or the use of Apple's Terminal interface using a handful of text commands that will remove the enhancements. The vast majority of users have been able to upgrade easily and seamlessly, even without backing up their data and settings, but some have had problems, even accidentally doing a completely clean install that first wipes the user's hard drives clean -- an event that may be due to user error during the upgrade.
Fortunately for the future, OS X now has a feature called "Time Machine" that will help users who accidentally delete files recover them easily. Time Machine requires an external hard drive, and it provides a complete system backup. If customers choose to use it, they'll be able to mess up future upgrades with the ability to go back in time, booting from their backup drive, and try it all again.
"The thing that really sticks out is the Time Machine backup. I've personally been the victim of a hard drive failure, and infrequent backups can really come back to haunt you," Swenson said, noting that drive recovery services can easily set someone back US$1,800 to $2,700.
"According to Apple's own research, only 4 percent of Mac users do regular backups," he added. "That's just a screaming area of weakness in user behavior, and Apple's Time Machine might motivate people to upgrade."
Swenson also expects Mac-friendly external hard drive manufacturers to see a boost in sales due to Leopard upgrades and Time Machine use -- again, because setting up and using Time Machine is so easy that users would be crazy not to do it.
Stacks of Other Features
One of Leopard's coolest new features is Stacks, which automatically places Web, e-mail and other downloads in a downloads "stack" that helps users reorganize what typically becomes an OS X desktop cluttered with application and document icons. To view the items, users click on a single icon in the dock to fan the stack of contents to view and find the item they want. Of course, users can create their own stacks of documents, applications and folders.
Another new find-it-fast feature is called "Quick Look," which lets users look inside files without launching them -- even if they don't have the application that created the files. Quick Look creates full-screen views of virtually anything, even media files, from any view in the Finder. Tiger used to provide a similar quick view, but for only basic file types. It only showed the first portion of the file, in a tiny size in a column of the finder.
A feature called "Spaces" lets users create customized desktops that can contain applications or documents for specific projects or jobs. For example, a user could have a Spaces for work, another for play, or another for the family. Users can quickly switch between Spaces with the mouse or keyboard.
Boot Camp Out of Beta
Now that Apple Macs run on Intel-based processors, it's relatively easy to let a Mac run Windows XP or Vista, too. Apple provides a new Boot Camp feature that partitions a user's hard drive and lets them install a valid, licensed copy of Windows on it. During startup, the user can choose to launch Windows or Mac OS X. The feature has been available for months, but it's only been in beta -- with Leopard, Boot Camp is now an official feature.
There are dozens of new usability features built into Leopard, and while the desktop client will get most of the attention, business customers will see improvements in the server version of Leopard, Mac OS Server. It boasts much-improved setup and configuration features, a highly-anticipated iCal Server that will make it easy share calendars and coordinate events, as well as a built-in Wiki that lets users publish collaborative documents on a wiki-powered Web site. Plus, in line with Apple's podcast push, there's a new Podcast Producer that lets user capture, encode and distribute podcasts.
A single-user license of Leopard retails for about $129, with a five-user Family Pack going for $199. Users who have purchased new Mac computers since Oct. 1 can get Leopard free with a shipping and handling fee of $9.95. Mac OS Server retails for $499 for up to 10 users and $999 for unlimited clients.
Talkback: 
