Computers: October 2007 Archives
While Mozilla admits that it isn't perfect (yet) Firefox has been updated for use with Leopard and is publicly available as I'm typing these.
Click here to download Mozilla Firefox.
Since most of my clients are based on Apple hardware, most of you are probably well aware that next week (Friday, October 26 at 6:00PM) Apple is releasing Mac OS X v. 10.5, which has been code-named "Leopard." Leopard is a full release version of the Macintosh Operating System and therefore is not a free upgrade. It currently has the following pricing:
- Single User License: $129
- 5 License Family Pack: $199
- Single User License (Edu): $116
Apple's educational pricing for software is NOT available in the retail stores. It is only available at your respective educational institutions or via Apple's online educational stores. While the educational pricing is higher than it was on this version of the Operating System, there are great deals on other Apple and third party products if you are an educational customer. To find out if you qualify as an educational customer you can consult Apple's Educational store gateway at:
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html
COMPATIBILITY OF LEOPARD WITH LEGACY HARDWARE:
Well, this is a sore subject. Finally, Apple has determined that my faithful Blue and White G3 Server is no longer good enough to run the most recent version of the operating system. Oh well, Tiger is running just fine on it, and it will stay that way. For the past decade or so (since Steve's return to the company) Apple has basically had 5 different machines in its hardware lineup:
Desktop:
- Power Macintosh (now Mac Pro)
- iMac
- Mac Mini
Portable:
- Powerbook (now MacBook Pro)
- iBook (now MacBook)
The official system requirements are available on Apple's website:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/
The basic idea is that you need at least an 867MHz or faster G4 (eliminating all of the Power Mac G3's, and iMac G3's, the first two revisions of the Power Mac G4 and even some of the Quicksilver Power Mac G4's as well as all of the iBook G3's, the first implementation of the iBook G4 (800MHz), the Powerbook G3's and all of the Titanium Powerbook G4's except the last 867MHz model). You also need at least 512MB of RAM. I really would advise against installing Leopard on anything that has less than 768MB of RAM for basic office purposes (email, web surfing, word processing) and less than 1GB of RAM for basic production purposes. And of course, you will also need a DVD capable optical drive to do the installation.
THE LEOPARD INSTALLATION OPTIONS:
Thankfully you don't need to call me to do the upgrade as Apple has provided three different ways to install the OS. The method you choose depends on how "clean" of an installation you want to do (and how much work you want to have to do after the installation). Those three different ways are outlined below for your own information.
Upgrade; "Dirtiest" but easiest:
Upgrading is the default choice when making the change from at least 10.4 (no official stance yet on 10.2 or 10.3). This option replaces your current versions of files wherever they are necessary and upgrades any applications that were previously installed (that still reside in your Applications folder) with those that are installed with the OS. This is the only option for those that are running close to the capacity of their hard drives as it installs all necessary files in place and shouldn't affect installed applications.
Archive and Install; "Cleaner" but moderate amount of work after installation:
If you are having any kind of intermittent software problems, but don't want to have to re-setup your user account or if for some reason the upgrade option isn't available, this is the option for you. This option moves your current root level "System" and "Library" files to a folder called "Previous Systems" and installs fresh clean Leopard-friendly versions of those folders.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are running any kind of applications that rely on data in those folders (including, but not limited to applications by Adobe including Photoshop, as well as Apps like Final Cut Pro) or are running peripherals that required driver installation (Wacom tablets, All-in-one Printers), those installations will have to be redone as those types of applications and software rely on data within those two folders to function.
Erase and Install; "Cleanest" but usually requires a great deal of work after installation:
This type of installation while easy to complete, can be difficult to work with as the user would have to restore data from a previously backed up user account, or use Apple's included Migration Assistant to move your settings back over if the internal drive was cloned, prior to the installation. While this is the cleanest type of install as it removes all of the original data from the hard drive and installs all new copies of applications and the operating system, any and all personal data and purchased applications will have to be reinstalled from backups, web based downloadable installers or original installation disks.
PLEASE NOTE: As always, when doing a major operating system change, I recommend that you backup the contents of your computer prior to making that change just in case something should go horribly wrong. There are an infinite number of ways to "clone" your internal hard drive. The following are the two that I recommend for clients:
Built-in, Mac OS X's Disk Utility:
See http://www.macinstruct.com/node/147 for a tutorial on using the Built-in Restore feature of Mac OS X's Disk Utility application.
Free add-on Application:
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Words of Caution:
Since we live in Los Angeles and a great many of us rely on our computers day-in and day-out to manage our daily personal lives as well as our professional lives, I need to caution anyone doing any kind of media production work on their computers to hold off installation of Leopard (if you can). I'm sure application developers like Avid, Digidesign and Propellerhead work very hard to maintain compatibility with the latest and greatest operating systems on the market. This is especially true of Apple's third-party software developers. Case in point is the recent release of Microsoft's new operating system Windows Vista. Vista was released almost 1 year ago and we are finally starting to see professional class applications being released that are compatible with Vista. I don't want to compare Apple's software pipeline with that of Microsoft's as they are very different. Typically it takes 2-3 months for the major Applications to become qualified for the new version after a major update to the Mac OS. Just to give you an idea, Digidesign is officially stating the following with regard to ProTools compatibility with Windows Vista (even after 1 year in production):
While Digidesign originally anticipated bringing the entire Pro Tools® product line to Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system during the summer of 2007, delays in software development have occurred. We now expect to release Vista-compatible versions of Pro Tools LE® and Pro Tools M-Powered™ in winter 2007/2008.
Because Pro Tools software will not function with Windows Vista at this time, please wait to upgrade your operating system if you’re using Pro Tools on Windows. Stay tuned – all the power of Pro Tools paired with the benefits of Windows Vista is coming soon.
http://digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=48&itemid=24626
My hope is that this doesn't happen with Leopard since there are many great features I would love to see all of my clients in production take advantage of, I just felt that I should warn everyone about the possibility of delays in application deployment.
In addition, I share Digidesign's recommendation that if individuals want to test drive a brand new version of an operating system (like Leopard) in their production environment, that they dual-boot their computer instead of simply upgrading immediately. To dual-boot the user should clone their current drive (using the methods discussed above) to a practical backup solution, and repartition their current internal drive into two separate partitions.
NOTE: The act of repartitioning a drive will eliminate all data that is stored on that hard drive. Make sure that you do backup the drive completely before attempting to repartition the drive.
The user can then use one partition for their production environment and the other as a temporary test environment for the new operating system. In addition, if you are using a desktop tower workstation, then (if space allows for it) the user can install a second hard drive into the tower and install Leopard onto that new internal drive and test drive it completely separate from your production environment.
Once the individual vendors qualify your various production applications (and plug-ins) then you can feel secure in moving to the new OS once you have access to those applications. For some developers (like Adobe) you may find that a free software update brings full compatibility, for others (classically Digidesign) you may find you need to purchase a whole new version or a dot upgrade to bring compatibility to your environment.
If you are simply using your Mac for daily office work (as many of us do on our laptops) I'm sure you will see very few speed bumps on your way to Leopard.
I will be waiting in line at the Glendale Galleria on October 26th to pickup my copies of Leopard for my Powerbook G4 (1.5GHz) and my CoreDuo Mac Mini media center (1.66Ghz). Once I get these two machines up and running on Leopard I will be sending out another email with my impressions of the new OS. If you have any questions in the meantime I, of course, will be available to answer them. If any of you would like assistance backing up your current machines and installing the new OS we can definitely discuss that as well.
Information Links for Leopard:
Apple's official Leopard Site:
Apple's official technical specifications:
Information about Apple's Up-to-date program.
This is for people that have bought a Macintosh since October 1st. They can purchase Leopard at a dramatic discount:
Unofficial (but thorough) Leopard hidden features list.
This is a list of little known features that are apparently part of Leopard:
Google search for Native-Instruments' Leopard Support:
Google search for Digidesign's Leopard Support:
