After months of anticipation, Apple finally launches its newest version of Mac, i.e. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It is the fifth updates (Cheetah & Puma, 2001; Jaguar, 2002; Panther, 2003; Tiger, 2005) to Mac OS X since the first version Cheetah launched in year 2001. Watching the Leopard Guided Tour will know that this new OS X contains more than 300 new features, including a new back-up system that called Time Machine. Though many users tried it and gave positive reviews, many of these new features can be viewed as incremental innovation, but it seems Apple has made this version of Mac Leopard more powerful, stable, and user-friendly. The Leopard has a new Finder, one can see her files in this new Finder and browse with Cover Flow, works much the same as she flip the album covers in her iTunes. The Finder also offers a Quick Look feature, help an user does one thing better, display the content before she launch the application. New features such as Spaces, a virtual desktop feature which main function is to group related applications in their own areas and Stacks, helps an user gathers related materials in an easy manner have been added. Nevertheless, I think the main selling point for this Leopard is the availability of Time Machine, which enables an user to restore her machine to a previous state.

My sense is that with the newest version of Mac OS X, Macintosh is becoming a more-manageable environment than in the past. For Windows users, if Windows Vista has disappointed them, then the above features found in Leopard might be served as a strong reason why they need to make a switch. In this case, Apple might be the beneficiary. However, I don’t see the existing Mac lovers will retain their fondness for the Mac Tiger when they see the enhancement and improvement of Apple done on this newest version of Mac, it’s only “when” they will make the upgrade. If you’re using the Mac old machine, Apple said the majority of Macs sold in the past four years will able to run Leopard, but some configuration need to be done on some Mac old machines.

Leopard is priced at $129 for a single user license, however for the family pack, in other word five users is priced at $199.