Mac question - Upgrading to Leopard

[yearoftherat]

Picked up my copy from the apple store yesterday, wondering how many of you mac users on the forum are going to upgrade to Leopard? If so, are you going to do a upgrade/archieve or erase and clean install?

[Kevin@nextmod]

sry to thread jack you chris...but i just got a simple question about macs. What is Mac TV? can i load rmvb and avi, mpeg files to it and play? theres no dvd roms right?

[sauga_kid]

Planning on upgrading myself, was at the MAC store yesterday as well (Easton Centre) but have yet to pick up my copy. Not quite sure which is the best way to go, I'm going to ask a friend of mine first and see. By that time you'll probably be up and running so let me know what at the pros/cons of either.

[yearoftherat]

Well the advantage of upgrading is that you don't loose any of the setting from the previous OS. Disadvantage is if you have deleted programs in the past, there may be remnants left over.
With a clean install, you basically end up with a new mac, so to speak but takes longer to do and you have to reinstall all the program all over again.
I checked with my brother who is an apple developer and he's done an archieve/install

Here'some info

http://www.macworld.com/2007/10/secrets/leopard_install/index1.php

[yearoftherat]

sry to thread jack you chris...but i just got a simple question about macs. What is Mac TV? can i load rmvb and avi, mpeg files to it and play? theres no dvd roms right?

No dvd rom as its basically a hard drive. As far as I know it will not play avi's. Only Mpeg-4's, .movs, mp3s, wav's and aiff's
Allows you to hook up your mac to your tv wireless and play itunes, movies downloaded from the onlinew apple store.

[Kevin@nextmod]

No dvd rom as its basically a hard drive. As far as I know it will not play avi's. Only Mpeg-4's, .movs, mp3s, wav's and aiff's
Allows you to hook up your mac to your tv wireless and play itunes, movies downloaded from the onlinew apple store.
oh.....than its practically useless to me
thanks chris

[yearoftherat]

You can install codecs for the avi files.

Try appletvhacks.net

[Hum]

oh.....than its practically useless to me
thanks chris

if you upload your downloaded movies into itunes, it should be able to play it.

[cwp_sedan]

I have always just upgraded in the past but then I usually end up reformatting later on usually a clean install. There will always be stuff left over but you can get programs to clean that junk up if you want. I personally would do a clean install of 10.5 and go from there.

If you haven't done a lot of installing and deleting of applications, 3-party software, etc, etc then I would just upgrade. If you have you may want to try the Archive and install. It's the easiest way to install the new OS clean and still have some of your previous files from the system to copy over. Problem with this is that you will still have to reinstall a lot of software anyways.

You will also want to back up your user folder as well as you System folder since it has info in it that you will want to keep. They forget to mention that if you don't you will lose all of your files (itunes, iphoto, mail, etc).

I can't install Leopard since my mac is just out of date even though it can handle most of the apps wih no problems. This is the first time I haven't put a new OS on it since 2001. :( Looks like I will have to get a new one soon... :)

[yearoftherat]

can you do a clean install and drag/drop your user folder and system folder afterwards ?

[Kevkill]

I always do an archive/install. That way you get the benefits of a clean install plus your old files are off to the side in case you need something (you can drag and drop the files you need).

The apple TV won't play divx, xvid etc. out of the box, but it can easily be hacked to play whatever you want.

-Kev

[yearoftherat]

My brother just installed Leopard on his Mac Pro and iMac with no problems. He recommends that you do a backup of your mac with Super Duper. One you do the backup on an partition on an external drive, then do the upgrade.

[cwp_sedan]

can you do a clean install and drag/drop your user folder and system folder afterwards ?

Not quite. Setting will be different between OSs so I would highly recommend that you don't do that. You can however pull the preferences and settigns you need. Address book, Internet bookmarks (etc), Mail, iPhoto, iTunes are just a few. You may also need to pull some stuff form the main Library and System later on but you won't know until later on when you get up and running again.

Super duper works ok and ccc (carbon copy cloner) are what I've always used. I know it works with Tiger and older.

[bluntman]

I picked up a 250GB (internal) notebook hard drive with the expectation of replacing my MBP's 120GB hard drive and installing a fresh copy of Leopard. The installation, as expected, went without a hitch. Unfortunately, the hard drive went back because it made an annoying clicking noise every minute. Instead of trying out another drive, I decided to throw on Leopard over Tiger on the original 120GB hard drive (no archiving done). Again, no problems. I've never known a Windows installation to go so smooth. I love Macs.

BTW, I was able to pick up my copy of Leopard during Futureshop's "Friends and Family" sale for $1 more than the student discount price.

[cwp_sedan]

I picked up a 250GB (internal) notebook hard drive with the expectation of replacing my MBP's 120GB hard drive and installing a fresh copy of Leopard. The installation, as expected, went without a hitch. Unfortunately, the hard drive went back because it made an annoying clicking noise every minute. Instead of trying out another drive, I decided to throw on Leopard over Tiger on the original 120GB hard drive (no archiving done). Again, no problems. I've never known a Windows installation to go so smooth. I love Macs.

BTW, I was able to pick up my copy of Leopard during Futureshop's "Friends and Family" sale for $1 more than the student discount price.

Yeah the price has come down quite a bit. I remember when it was a lot higher. I find the installation of any OS 10.X is simple for anyone to do...inexperienced or not.

[mEtH]

Always a clean install when switching the operating system. I am planning on selling my MacMini and even my PC tower to go with an iMac running both operating systems. I loved using Parallels on my MacMini but for the work I do I need more front end bus to keep up. Hopefully this switch will alleviate some of my sharing problems I keep having between the two systems. Running a wireless network in the household with three systems on it and a stinkin 2.4 ghz cordless phone is annoying!

[bluntman]

FWIW, I just bought 4GB of OCZ RAM for my MBP from NCIX in Vancouver. Found the deal on RFD.

[mEtH]

Dang blunty wish I'd known! I would of went in on that deal with yah...
I am checking ram prices at Canada Computers right now and debating what brand I want to go with. There is about three different brands within $117-125. Kingston, Corsair and OCZ. What price did you get the ram at? and what did shipping cost etc. Also just found some brand called Transcend that sells for $101.

I am eyeing some OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 for $295 from CanadaComputers. anyone know of any other prices around?

[b3GS]

how are you guys finding the leopard OS so far???

I have a Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz, 1GB RAM and a Mac Mini 500MB RAM (1.5Ghz)
and I'm not convinced they are capable of running the new OS smoothly, so I'm not sure I'll do the upgrade

any thoughts?

[Xenon]

I finally got my $10 upgrade to Leopard via Purolator today.

I'm going to upgrade my new MacBook Pro. I'll report back when all is finished.

[bluntman]

Dang blunty wish I'd known! I would of went in on that deal with yah...
I am checking ram prices at Canada Computers right now and debating what brand I want to go with. There is about three different brands within $117-125. Kingston, Corsair and OCZ. What price did you get the ram at? and what did shipping cost etc. Also just found some brand called Transcend that sells for $101.

I am eyeing some OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 for $295 from CanadaComputers. anyone know of any other prices around?

OCZ PC2-5400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-667 CL5-5-5-15 200PIN SODIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit -> $234.41 shipped with insurance and GST

I only bought this kit after seeing someone had already tried it on their C2D MBP. I used to think that Macs were very particular about the type of RAM being installed.

Back to Leopard, it's evolutionary, not revolutionary. I am not a power-user by any means, but they've added some nice features (Time Machine, a dedicated Downloads folder, Coverflow, an improved Preview, etc.) for the casual user - think of it as putting icing on the cake. I am especially appreciative of Leopard's ability to automatically find any other drives on located on the same network. In Tiger, I would have to physically go through the whole process of finding a particular drive on my network and then mounting it, it wouldn't even show up in Finder until I did this. With Leopard, at least it is in the Finder on the left hand pane.

[mEtH]

Just so everyone knows when upgrading the ram on their mac, the hardware memory controller of the Macs is locked at 667 MHz.

Not to mention, Apple installs variously Hynix, Micron and Samsung RAM which they buy in bulk from the manufacturers. There's no predicting what will be in a Mac from one week to the next.

Planning on picking up the same ram as blunty! Canada Computers sells it at $109.99 but until the end of the month they has a $15 mail-in-rebate woohoo!!! This will help keep some up my upgrade costs down.

[bluntman]

Good stuff! OCZ is really good with MIRs. I purchased a 2GB kit of desktop memory from them this past spring and I remember the cheque coming in faster that I had expected. Of course in hindsight, at the time, I think I should have spent my money on a MacPro instead of a new PC.

[zedtech]

how are you guys finding the leopard OS so far???

I have a Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz, 1GB RAM and a Mac Mini 500MB RAM (1.5Ghz)
and I'm not convinced they are capable of running the new OS smoothly, so I'm not sure I'll do the upgrade

any thoughts?
I installed Leopard on a 1.67Ghz Powerbook G4 (2GB RAM) and it's running smoother and quicker than Tiger. I had issues w/ Tiger where Flash content played back so choppy and now Flash files are running nice and smooth just like they should. As a web designer by day, Spaces is such a sweet little feature.

I did a clean install FWIW. I convinced my boss to order up a 2.6Ghz Macbook Pro to replace my Powerbook G4, can't wait to run that bad boy when it gets in.

[bluntman]

I just added the smoked glass dock mod to Leopard. It looks much better in conjunction with the dark wallpaper I use.

[cwp_sedan]

Screw all of you with Leopard!!! I'm jealous! lol.

[b3GS]

I just heard that running Adobe Creative Suite is a problem on Leopard and they are working on a fix

thats not good

[zedtech]

I'm running CS3 and the only problem I'm having is w/ Photoshop, it has a weird glitch w/ Spaces.

If you activate Spaces (F8) then go back to PS and select the marquee or lasso tools, the cursor will begin to go haywire (switching back and forth between the selected tool and the pointer cursor). If you don't switch to Spaces, the tools work without any problems.

This was on the Powerbook G4, not sure if this happens on the Macbooks. I'm gonna give CS3 a workout this weekend and see what other bugs come up. FWIW though, CS3 runs so much faster in Leopard.

[bluntman]

I read somewhere that for some reason Apple did not distribute the final version of Leopard to many software companies in time so there will a few (hopefully minor) glitches with several popular pieces of software in the meantime.

[zedtech]

I just added the smoked glass dock mod to Leopard. It looks much better in conjunction with the dark wallpaper I use.
That's my project this weekend :) I hate the new dock in its bottom position.

[mEtH]

i might plan on doing the triangle swap for the distinction of what programs are open.

[yearoftherat]

That's my project this weekend :) I hate the new dock in its bottom position.

My dock is usually on the right side...
How the heck do you change the colour of the dock?

[Xerox]

I have the dock on my Windows XP :)

[yearoftherat]

I have the dock on my Windows XP :)

ObjectDock by Stardock?

[b]

ObjectDock by Stardock?

Maybe using the osx-e software. http://www.osx-e.com/

http://www.osx-e.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2226

[Xerox]

ObjectDock by Stardock?

Y'z dock :)

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p101/planetxerox/Yz_Dock.jpg