[SimpleBeep]

Dan Frakes said:

Serious question: What was this "direction"? The only thing I saw was a crazy UI that, depending on your choice of Desktop picture, led to a menu bar that was at best nicely tinted and at worst nearly unusable.

I agree that the translucent menubar has no real functional purpose. I also agree that it can be anti-functional. It's purely eyecandy.

On the other hand, we need to look at the other issue: For those who like it, the translucency is a pleasant feature. I like the fact that now that you can turn it off. You can choose which mode you like, and we don't have to bicker about whether it's worth keeping. Let's agree with ourselves and customize to our liking.

--
Simple Beep.

P.S. I've been ambivalent myself and now will be flummoxed about which mode to choose.

[dbater]

I love the update except for one minor problem. Since I purchased a MacPro 8-core machine with the latest OS my drives are vanishing from my desktop even though they are selected in the Finder prefs. I have reinstalled the OS and it still happens randomly. When I checked the visibility of it using Terminal and a unix comman I discovered that the visibility was set to invisible. I reset it but ocassionaly they either together or one or the other (internal drives) just vanish. Time-machine can still backup, I can still open apps but can't see the drives in finder or the desktop. I called Apple tech support and they said Oh!
Apple are you listening.

[samsara]

I'd like to have the more transparent drop down menus of the original leopard back again, or the option. I feel deprived.

[whitedog]

Clearly Apple didn't think we were whining when we complained about Stacks and the translucent menu bar - and, ultimately, it's their opinion that matters. Personally, I'm glad to see some evidence that Apple will respond in a positive way to user concerns.
There is still an unfortunate side effect to the way the Dock works in Leopard - you can no longer open a specific folder in the Finder by clicking on its icon in the Dock. And no keyboard shortcut I've tried restores this function. Instead, you have to click on a folder icon and select Open In Finder, a two-step process where one step used to suffice. This is a relatively small matter, however, compared to the improvements in 10.5.2.
In respect to the question of when it's safe to upgrade to Leopard, the answer, as always, is "it depends." The best way to migrate to Leopard, in my opinion, is to buy a new Mac and install software from scratch, carrying over as little as possible from your previous Mac. The differences between Tiger and Leopard are substantial and there are still some major programs that are not problem free in Leopard, including many Adobe applications and even Office 2008. The differences between Leopard and earlier versions of the Mac OS are even more dramatic.
If you don't "need" to upgrade, it might be a good idea to wait until you do. At the least, back up your current system before you move up. If you want to know more about the advantages and disadvantages of Leopard, check out the coverage on MacFixIt. If that doesn't give you pause, nothing will.

[algebraman]

Dad:

Regarding modifying the keyboard with the Keyboard and Mouse preference:

"And because this is a standard Mac OS X menu extra, you can use Keyboard & Mouse preferences to set up keyboard shortcuts for any of these commands. For example, in the image below, you can see that I?ve assigned a keyboard shortcut to Back Up Now; I use this if I?m about to unplug my external drive from my laptop and I want to be sure I?ve backed up my latest work beforehand."

I've been trying to do this for my own Mac. Can you give the steps to do it--something is going wrong for me.

PS Thank you for the article--it was helpful and convinced me to upgrade to 10.5.2

Algebraman

[Dan Frakes]

Sadly, you're not the only one having issues; I'm having them myself. There appears to be some sort of voodoo here; the shortcut appears in the menu, but pressing the shortcut doesn't work consistently (and for some people, it never works).

[Silkline]

OMG what language did you have to use? Our barely speaking English Tech-Help we've called just "disconnect" forcing us to call back.
With that out of the way, Leopard is the WORST OS since Windows ME, so many problems where to begin... What we can all easily see is that it surely appears Apple Corp is far more interested in corporate thinking where iMoney is the singular force to "thinking different" now. That's what appears to have happened with that horrible 10.5 OS - LeoTards, thanks mostly to getting the famed iPhone to market in record time to capture serious cash putting off and ignoring the development of LeoTards. Add, now this week we're seeing iPhone being sold overseas (Germany for $155 US) and how is that legal or fair is that to the US customer base, and the rest of the world? Now sadly, it appears that Apple isn't there for us anymore, but there for their bottom line. That's what they're listening to now... And that's a mistake.

[whitedog]

Silkline wrote "... Leopard is the WORST OS since Windows ME...."

That's over the top, to say the least. Every new OS version, Mac and Windows, has problems. The difference is, first, Windows ME wasn't really new, it was just half-baked. Second, ME never got any better; OS X always does, as the 10.5.2 update clearly demonstrates.

By the way, since my last post on this thread nearly two weeks ago, I have moved up to Leopard from 10.4.11 on my Mac Pro. The migration has been relatively trouble free.

I found a fix for the problem with opening a window in the Finder from Stacks: the shareware utility Quay. Among other things, it enables a keyboard shortcut - Shift-Command - that opens the folder you click on, rather than the enclosing folder. It also includes some better folder icons in Stacks for the dull generic Leopard folder icons.

There are still issues, of course. The unchangeable icon and text size in the sidebar is one of my pet peeves. But this is hardly a deal breaker. And the recent spate of updates have been problematic for some people. But, as anyone who reads MacFixIt regularly knows, these problems are similar to those that show up every time Apple updates anything. While this doesn't diminish the impact on those affected, it is, more or less, par for the course. Also worth noting is the fact that most people have no trouble with Apple updates most of the time.

[CrisBCT]

{quote:title=stosh1985 wrote:}{quote}
> I would hardly call the return of folder lists to the dock an improvement over the 10.4 implementation. Previously in 10.4 symbolic links were followed in the traversal, however, in 10.5.2 with Stacks you cannot go any further when you reach a linked folder.
[/quote]
Ah, that's a very good point; I hadn't noticed that. So I guess we're at about the same level of functionality now -- we can finally sort
Dock menus, but we lose the obvious functionality of aliases in those menus. Dang.
Dan Frakes | Senior Editor, Macworld
-----
No aliases in the dock's folder lists? My dock folder in Tiger only has aliases, these give me a great way to navigate easily to frequently used items and folders on different disks. So the new yet downgraded functionality in Leopard is useless to me.


What would give greatly increased functionality is for the operating system to resolve aliases rather than rely on each program to do so. This would give users real flexibility in the location (and re-location) of files and folders. Imagine, being able to choose relocate anything to where YOU want it! Truly a 'powerful alternative organizational scheme for your apps and documents'!

Guess this means the subject should be revised to: - 10.5.2 update shows Apple has missed a golden opportunity to listen to users.


So, Dan, when are we going to see your article - and hopefully even its title - revised to correct this glaring inaccuracy?

[whitedog]

The solution is fairly simple - Quay, http://www.versiontr...o/macosx/33458. I have Quay installed and aliases in folders in the Dock expand just fine. I hardly used Leopard before installing Quay so I remember little of what Stacks can't do. Quay even adds a keyboard shortcut - Shift-Command-click - to open the folder you click on in the Dock. I do remember Leopard only opens the enclosing folder - a real nuisance, in my opinion.