ricwis
10-29-200729th October 2007, 10:49 AM
What a weekend. Not only did I upgrade to Leopard but got a new iMac as well. Thought I would post my experience in case you might be considering either upgrading to Leopard and or investing in a new Mac. My MacBook and G5 had Tiger 10.5 as did the new Imac with a Leopard upgrade disk in the new box.
First thing you have to do is shut out all of the chatter, noise, nonsense, and other ramblings that go on in many forums and even in reviews. Having upgraded to Leopard on my MacBook laptop first, then on my new iMac, I found most of the chatter to be off the mark. Reviews can be very subjective in things like how the reviewer likes the interface or GUI changes and have to be read in that light. What I found is there is a tendency to bring how "I've always done it" to something brand new and then right away dismiss the new as awful or stupid and never take the little time needed to work with it or even learn the new before trashing it. This is especially true in things new to the interface like Stacks, Spaces, or the translucent look.
It is a good idea to disconnect all peripherals like USB hubs and devices and external drives before doing the OS upgrade. This just prevents any potential problems from those devices.
First the MacBook. I made a complete system backup using SuperDuper. It is always good to have a system back up that includes everything. Then I chose to do an update since I already have a complete backup on an external drive. The update went smoothly, taking about 40 minutes. When it was done, Leopard booted just fine, all my files and applications were intact and worked as expected. The only application problem was with SuperDuper, the backup program. The has already been know to not work with Leopard and a fix is in development. PhotoShop CS3 works fine as do all of my other apps.
For the iMac I was upgrading from a G5 Tower. Again, I made a complete system backup of my G5 system. This next thing is important to do. Deactivate and uninstall Photoshop CS3 on the old system. Some have said they just deactivated but I did not want to take the chance. I then used the Apple Migration Assistant that moved my account, files, and applications to the new iMac. Took a little less than 2 hours to do the move since I was using the slower Firewire 400. After the move, I verified that everything made it over and worked as expected. No problems here either. My apps, documents, photos, mail, and contacts all were there. After I was assured that things worked, I upgraded to Leopard. Again, this went smoothly and took about 40 minutes. After Leopard was installed, I installed and activated Photoshop CS3 with no problems.
Its been fun to learn the new OS. There are so many new features that it will be awhile till I've looked at many of them. And the new iMac? Working with a 24" screen is incredible. I opted for the 2.4 Ghz but have 4 Gig of RAM. I find the glossy screen is not a problem and I am not even aware of it. Colors pop. I calibrated it with the Eye1 Display2.
I was pleased that things went as smoothly as they did.
First thing you have to do is shut out all of the chatter, noise, nonsense, and other ramblings that go on in many forums and even in reviews. Having upgraded to Leopard on my MacBook laptop first, then on my new iMac, I found most of the chatter to be off the mark. Reviews can be very subjective in things like how the reviewer likes the interface or GUI changes and have to be read in that light. What I found is there is a tendency to bring how "I've always done it" to something brand new and then right away dismiss the new as awful or stupid and never take the little time needed to work with it or even learn the new before trashing it. This is especially true in things new to the interface like Stacks, Spaces, or the translucent look.
It is a good idea to disconnect all peripherals like USB hubs and devices and external drives before doing the OS upgrade. This just prevents any potential problems from those devices.
First the MacBook. I made a complete system backup using SuperDuper. It is always good to have a system back up that includes everything. Then I chose to do an update since I already have a complete backup on an external drive. The update went smoothly, taking about 40 minutes. When it was done, Leopard booted just fine, all my files and applications were intact and worked as expected. The only application problem was with SuperDuper, the backup program. The has already been know to not work with Leopard and a fix is in development. PhotoShop CS3 works fine as do all of my other apps.
For the iMac I was upgrading from a G5 Tower. Again, I made a complete system backup of my G5 system. This next thing is important to do. Deactivate and uninstall Photoshop CS3 on the old system. Some have said they just deactivated but I did not want to take the chance. I then used the Apple Migration Assistant that moved my account, files, and applications to the new iMac. Took a little less than 2 hours to do the move since I was using the slower Firewire 400. After the move, I verified that everything made it over and worked as expected. No problems here either. My apps, documents, photos, mail, and contacts all were there. After I was assured that things worked, I upgraded to Leopard. Again, this went smoothly and took about 40 minutes. After Leopard was installed, I installed and activated Photoshop CS3 with no problems.
Its been fun to learn the new OS. There are so many new features that it will be awhile till I've looked at many of them. And the new iMac? Working with a 24" screen is incredible. I opted for the 2.4 Ghz but have 4 Gig of RAM. I find the glossy screen is not a problem and I am not even aware of it. Colors pop. I calibrated it with the Eye1 Display2.
I was pleased that things went as smoothly as they did.