It’s not like me to rush into installing new operating systems, but I really was keen to see what Leopard could offer. And anyway, I had a couple of spare Macs lying around with nothing to do. So when the shiny box dropped through my front door last Friday morning, I settled down for a little installfest.

The following are the observations and notes I made along the way. They don’t qualify as a full review (you can find plenty of those elsewhere), but I’m sticking them online in case they come in useful for others.

Leopard on a PowerBook G4

My old PowerBook was the first to get upgraded, with a complete erase and install. There was nothing worth keeping on it anyway. To my astonishment the installation was painless, reasonably quick, and the resulting system was snappy. Snappier than Tiger was, I’d say. The only hitch was that the installation’s final message “Time remaining: about one minute” lasted for 10 minutes or more. Overall, I was amazed that all the Leopard eye-candy worked. The system was so nice that I found myself encouraged to upgrade my daily working machine, a recent MacBook.

The Finder

Much spleen has been vented regarding the new Finder’s habit of enforcing the same view style everywhere. If you pick list view in one window, all windows you open subsequently will adopt it. I like it this way. I like all my Finder windows to be in list view, I always have. On the very rare occasions when I wish to use another view, I can switch to it easily with Command+1, or whatever shortcut is required. This new Finder behaviour has pissed off a lot of people, but it suits me very well.

The Finder is faster and more reliable, too. It doesn’t hang when a networked drive goes offline. File sharing is more flexible and easier to use. Integration with Screen Sharing and Spotlight (of which more in a mo) is nicely done.

One minor problem: I’ve noticed some oddness with the Finder, particularly the Desktop. I often drag URLs to the Desktop, but several times now I’ve noticed them not appearing there. Re-starting the Finder provides a fix.

Spotlight and the new simplicity

The huge improvement apparent in Leopard’s Spotlight has interesting consequences. I’m confident that Spotlight will find the stuff I’m looking for; and the improvements to its interface mean I won’t be grinding my teeth with horror every time I have to use it. As a result, I’m experimenting with the storing of simple data in simple folders, instead of using database-backed applications.

Here’s an example: for years, I have stored addresses and text notes in an app called Notational Velocity. I loved it because it was so simple. But now, it’s the only PowerPC process my computer runs; everything else is Intel native. NV is slower because it has to run in Rosetta, and the reduced speed makes it less appealing. As an experiment, I exported all the NV notes as plain text files and stuck them in a new folder. It turns out that the Finder, plus Spotlight and Quick Look, makes a very acceptable super-simple alternative.

Another example: instead of keeping PDF files in something like Yojimbo or Yep (both fine applications), I’m simply keeping them in a folder inside my Documents folder. Again, the improved Spotlight search does an excellent job of locating the file I need.

Because Leopard has got search right, search takes on new significance. It offers scope for simplifying your system further, which in my opinion is a good thing.

As a result of Spotlight’s better performance and interface, I’ve stopped using Yojimbo, Notational Velocity, and Quicksilver. So far, Spotlight is doing a decent job of finding what I need, including taking over Quicksilver’s job as a launcher and file locator. There’s even a search box built into Open and Save dialog boxes, which makes finding the right location for things very swift and simple.

And yes, I’m well aware of all the extra power Quicksilver offers, but to be honest I rarely used much of it. I haven’t missed it yet.

One thing I noticed was that Spotlight doesn’t index the names of any saved searches, something Quicksilver managed just fine. Since I use a couple of time-specific smart searches all the time (“Text files in my Work folder modified in the last 24 hours” and “Text files in my Work folder modified in the last week”), this was a pain. I simply created aliases for both these smart searches (the originals are kept in ~/Library/SavedSearches/) and popped them in somewhere in the Documents folder. Spotlight finds the aliases – and thus the searches – straight away.

Spaces

I didn’t expect to like this virtual desktop, but I do. I think it’s great and I’m using it a lot. Spaces makes a lot of sense on a small MacBook screen and has got me drifting away from hiding my apps when not in use – instead, I’m training myself to flit from space to space. It’s nice to be able to leave iTunes fully maximised, swallowing a whole space of its own. The default controls for navigating Spaces are easy to remember, too.

Stacks and the Dock

When I first heard about Stacks, I was quite excited; I hoped it might bring back some of the behaviour of OS 9’s tabbed folders.

Nope. Stacks are a poorly thought out concept, all the more annoying because they replace the perfectly decent functionality of a Docked folder in Tiger – at least then, you could click-and-hold and navigate your files from there. I’m not using Stacks at all. Again, this is partly because Spotlight is so much better. I can get to my recent downloads, or any other location, by using Spotlight. I don’t need Stacks, and thank goodness.

Stacks are just one part of the redesigned Dock, and thank goodness I don’t need that either. Like many other critics, I am at a loss to understand what on earth Apple was thinking when it came up with the 3D effect, mirror-surfaced Dock. It just looks awful. Thankfully it’s easy to switch to a cleaner, nicer look.

Nonetheless, my Dock is being kept out of sight, and I’m not bothering to use Stacks at all.

Time Machine

I’m in two minds about Time Machine. It’s great to find something that makes backup so simple, but since I use a laptop, I still have to think about it (by remembering to plug in my backup drive on a regular basis). And even then, Time Machine backups aren’t bootable – so I’m tempted to keep a Superduper-powered backup as well. I like the Time Machine concept and even find the look-into-the-past interface quite entertaining; I’m just not convinced that, on the whole, it’s the backup solution for me.

In summary

For me, Leopard is a valuable and useful upgrade. My needs are small compared to many specialist Mac users; simply having a search system as good as Spotlight makes a huge difference. Spaces seems to give the machine a new lease of life, opening up the workspace in a genuinely useful manner. When other members of my family have upgraded, I’m looking forward to helping them fix their Mac problems with Screen Sharing in iChat. I’m very pleased with this new system and looking forward to the next few years using it.