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Mircosoft took 5 whole years to develop their next operating system, Windows Vista, which was released in 2006, 5 years after their previous OS, Windows XP. In the early stages of development, Microsoft made some pretty bold promises, yet even with repeated delays, the final product failed to deliver on many of those promises. While Microsoft’s been busy delaying the release of its next OS, Apple has been chugging along just nicely. Since the first version of OS X was released back in 2001 (Cheetah), Apple has come a long way and released version 10.5, Leopard, last October.

For those who aren’t familiar with Apple’s Operating Systems, 10.5 marks the fifth update to the original OS X, meaning that in the time Microsoft took to release a single OS, Apple released 4 of them (from 2001 to 2006), and this fifth update definitely delivers. Granted, while Apple boasts that Leopard has more than 300 new features as compared to the previous iteration of OS X, Tiger, you definitely won’t see that many improvements immediately. However, you’ll “feel” the improvements made the more you use it because they’re hidden throughout the entire OS. For example Safari 3, Apple’s own internet browser, is included in Leopard which has several new enhancements, most importantly it’s been given a huge boost in terms of performance which many avid web surfers (like me) will appreciate. Other improvements have also been made to the browser that will take me forever to list here.

The Finder (ie OS X’s version of explorer for those who don’t know) has been given a huge facelift as well, giving a completely different look and feel. They’ve even included Coverflow in the Finder so you can scroll through your documents like you previously would with your albums in iTunes. By itself, Coverflow is nothing more than eye candy. Coupled with Quick Look however, it becomes a very powerful tool which can be used to quickly search for documents, especially when you’ve forgotten the name of the document. If you do remember the name however, all you have to do is hit Command+Space to open up Spotlight and search for the title of the file (Spotlight even searches WITHIN the file, meaning you instantly search through the contents of ALL your documents, including pdf, word documents, powerpoint slides and even the metadata of pictures or movies) and have the results instantly show up. And when I say “instantly”, I’m not exaggerating. If you search for a file and it doesn’t turn up in the results in at most 5 seconds, the file doesn’t exist on your hard drive. This feature has been around since Tiger, but I never bothered to use it then since it was quite buggy and sluggish, not only not instantly showing you the results, but even slowing down your Mac. It seems like Apple finally responded to everyone’s feedback and improved Spotlight in Leopard by leaps and bounds so that it really does work as advertised now. On the whole, the Finder’s new look will take some time to get used to, but it works just fine.

It would be impossible for me to provide a full review of Leopard here because it would take up at least a few thousand words if I were to really delve into the numerous improvements made. Where would I start? The new Front Row menu; Boot Camp; new enhancements to Photo Booth; Spaces (virtual desktops); Time Machine (backup utility), etc. What I would like to point out though is how Apple is trying it’s best to support older Macs with Leopard despite there being so many new features being added as can be seen from Engadget’s experiment. This unlike Windows Vista’s requirements, whose are so steep that even some brand new laptops being released have trouble supporting it. While not every single new feature will work in Leopard on older Macs (as Engadget’s test has shown), it beats having to buy a brand new computer just to run the latest OS.

All in all, Leopard still isn’t the perfect OS, there’re still points in time when you’d wish some small issue could be tweaked to your liking. However, as compared to Tiger, it really is a much better OS from my experience. It’s a lot more stable and snappy, unlike Tiger which would begin to feel sluggish after some time. Still, the US$129 price tag (PC Connection is selling it at a discount price of $109.95) might turn some people off for what seems like a pretty similar OS, but for those of you who can afford it, I’d dare say it’s well worth the price.

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First things first, some credentials. I’m not an IT guru. I’m a computer user, not a computer geek. I’ve been using Windows for going on ten years now, and while I’ve been aware that Macs existed, I’ve never really contemplated switching, until now.

What caused the switch wasn’t anything traumatic with my computer; it wasn’t any kind of Steve Jobs reality distortion field, or mind control rays from Apple. It was that I’d looked at what I actually do on a notebook computer, as opposed to all the things I could theoretically do, and I could do them all on a Mac, and the MacBook Pro was a pretty sweet piece of hardware.

First, let’s be honest. None of us are going to be upgrading parts of our laptops. The appeal of a PC is that you can upgrade incrementally; my main desktop machine (now relegated as a gaming platform, rather than a serious workstation) has had parts upgraded on it since I first built it in the late ’90s. I think the floppy drive cable might be the only thing left of the original machine, maybe some screws. You’re not going to do that with a laptop. A laptop, you’ll use for three years, never open the chassis once, and count yourself lucky if you can give it as a hand me down to some cousin before they go off to school.

I just got myself a MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz model with a 17″ screen - I’d been wanting a 17″ screen laptop for a while. I do a lot of writing and remote work with page layout software, so the wide screen is great for having InDesign open and a word processing app or a spreadsheet. The other reason for getting the MacBook pro was that Adobe had just launched their latest versions of the Creative Suite software, all recompiled to work on the Intel processors; since I was going to upgrade anyway, well…

Now, there are lots of gewgaws on the MacBook Pro. The ambient light sensor is pretty sweet. There’s a light sensor (a couple of them, actually) that will automatically adjust the backlighting on your MacBook’s screen to maximize contrast, while minimizing the amount of battery power used. Similarly, there’s a backlight for the keyboard, which I found really annoying at first, but it kind of grows on you.

With the new Intel optimized software, performance is pretty solid. The graphics card is underclocked for heat management (and since MacBooks are passively cooled, that’s kind of important - more on that later), but since there aren’t many games for OS X, that’s not a major issue. (Besides, if I’m going to play a game, I want a bigger monitor, a real mouse and more keyboard space.)

The connection ports are OK. While some people bitch about the lack of a PC card slot, I haven’t used a PC card in a laptop since Clinton was President. I do wish there were more USB ports; I’ve taken to carrying a USB hub in my laptop bag. The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity are excellent, and Apple has put in some really nice touches - if you plug it into an external monitor, it just works. (In fact, most everything I tried with the MacBook Pro just worked. No configuration, no hassle, no fuss. On the other hand, there wasn’t as much variety of stuff to hook up, but the stuff that was available was very high quality.)

The biggest gripe I have with the MacBook Pro is two fold - the first is that passive cooling. You will roast your legs if you actually use it on your lap. It’s just damned hot on the undercarriage. The second, oddly enough, was OS X, particularly the Dock. The Dock is like the Windows Task Bar, if the Windows Task Bar had been designed by a hyperactive five year old living on pixie sticks. It leaps at you with big flashy animations, which make it hard to actually tell what’s going on; it vanishes on you. Most of the other user interface differences tend to be “different for the sake of being different” in my opinion, though I was pleasantly surprised to be able to ‘right click’ with the touch pad.

Although I already have a Dell Inspiron 640m as reviewed here, overall, I like my MacBook Pro too; it’s a good piece of machinery, but it’s not a cult object of reverence.

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