Anyone that knows me knows that I was one of the hapless drones standing in line last Friday for Apples new and much improved OS release. Though I got a chance to see a lot of it in an early ADC seed over the summer, I really didn’t get to put it through its paces because of my more “professional” status as a working designer–meaning, I don’t have the time anymore to deal with buggy new releases that my geekyness would have allowed for before. That said, I like many have been anxiously waiting since June (when Leopards release was postponed for the iPhone debacle) for this new superstar powerhouse OS.

Most of us PRO users all know that Adobe pointed out Apple’s procrastination in properly delivering stable versions of Leopard–in fact many ADC members supported this claim–so I wasn’t counting on CS3 to fully function properly. I’ve definitely been upset with Apple a little over the past year, they’ve contsantly come up short in delivery on products and been a bit disingenuous to their mac faithful, but I got my rebate and I’m happy Leopard is finally here with at least a little CS3 functionality.

So I’m now 48 hours into cranking on Leopard, though I have only installed it on my MacBook Pro and my girlfriends iBook 1gig G4. So far so good, however here are a few of my issues:

• 1)

  No Firewall Settings!!! WTF! Hopefully they will add a GUI for this, as opening ports can only be done via terminal. OUCH!
  

  *

• 2)

  There were serious changes to the AFP threading, so if you connect to a server, you won’t see the volume on the desktop. However, there is a preference in the finder prefs for showing volume–but you must connect via GO menu rather than “shared macs” panel.

• 3)

  Adobe CS3 support. Most apps seem to be working fine, but Adobe has reported Video apps (After Effects!) and Acrobat issues. See Adobe’s recently posted doc HERE.

• 4)

  Dock shelf anoyying and makes it hard to see what apps are open. Luckily someone has already hacked it.

There are also a lot of networking apps and third party plugins not working. One of the most notable issues for my girlfriend is the lack of support for the Sidetrack extension that allows for a scrolling trackpad on older Mactops. They say that apple redesigned the keyboard/trackpad architecture, so I’m assuming many 3rd party devices and extensions won’t work for the time being. Furthermore, the apache and network architecture has DEFINITELY changed quite a bit, though config files seem to be in the same places. When running little snitch, names for the background connections do have different names and more of them. And though the firewall still seems to be an ipfw configuration, there is NO FRIGGIN GUI for it. Many people may not seem to mind this–there is an app whitelist for in/out access–however, I run a regular OS (I just don’t need the full OSX Server) install on my server, and I’ll need a GUI for these functions.

I can say to certain degree at this point that the new OS is pretty much all its cracked up to be. Spaces is AWESOME, and the rest of the updates to older apps (ichat, iphoto, mail, etc) are great. I’d also like to point out that the Keying technology in photobooth and ichat is PRETTY FRIGGIN amazing!

On the Adobe front, most apps seem to be fine–although I haven’t had the chance to put them through their paces. Photoshop seems to start up SUPER fast–with in 6-10 seconds on my MBP. And although, Adobe is claiming issues with After Effects, it starts up and seems to run smoothly. I’ve got my Trapecode plugins installed, and a short demo seemed to work fine–no hiccups yet. I’ll keep you updated on this.

Check back for updates to this post…I’ll be3 updating regualry (I hope).

*Updates:

• 10/29/07

  I’m noticing the “ol” fan kick up on my MBP when the screen saver starts…Has Apple still not figured this out???

• 10/30/07

  Just completed the install on my G5 DP2.3 with CS3 Master & FCP2. So far so good, except for my RAID. As with all G5’s, to run a good RAID, you have to use a 3rd party PCi-X RAID or Serial Host card. I’m using one of the best–the Highpoint RocketRAID 2220. HighPoint just released a driver as of yeasterday, but “Legacy” formatted drives DON’T WORK!!!! I haven’t reformatted yet, but I’ll keep you posted.

• 11/6/07

  Correction!! I found the Firewall!! However, its been moved to the security section of the System Preferences! And to boot, its now a blatant rip off of the v.1 Little Snitch! Read more here I of course found this today, after purchasing the new version of LS…But I can say that v.2 of LS is WAY better. I also hunted down a nice GUI for the Firewall, but didn’t install it yet based on my findings….



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