should i wait for leopard os?

i am ready to make the switch from pc to mac. i see that apple is coming out with the new leopard os. should i wait until april or may when this is likely to be released? if i get a mac now, how much will leopard cost me to upgrade? is leopard going to be that much better anyway?

dlamp73 said:

i am ready to make the switch from pc to mac. i see that apple is coming out with the new leopard os. should i wait until april or may when this is likely to be released? if i get a mac now, how much will leopard cost me to upgrade? is leopard going to be that much better anyway?

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I would buy now.. that way you can get used to the mac OS and then when leopard comes out buy it.. It should be a lot better than tiger in my opinion. and it should cost about $130 for leopard.

take a look at the site below to see a few of the new leopard features

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/

$130. thats reasonable. i guess i'll get the mac now rather than later. cheers.

dlamp73 said:

$130. thats reasonable. i guess i'll get the mac now rather than later. cheers.

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good decision.. I would to the same..

Buy a computer when you NEED a computer. Personally, I'm waiting. My son got an iMac for Christmas and that was enough to convince me that my next computer will be a Mac. However, my home PC is still chugging along and I don't really NEED to buy now. I'll wait a couple of weeks/months, get Leopard when it's available, and maybe even see a hardware upgrade (I hope).

I think you decide to buy based on the urgency of your need. Otherwise, you could wait forever.

Have fun.

But I mean leopard doesnt really add anything thats like oh I need that... It adds some cool things, but all of it can really already be done. And some of us geeks want to have it asap. Like Im completely annoyed apple introduced the iphone 6 months before i can grope it... I would just buy it now, and if you want leopard and have the money, get the upgrade anyway... You only live life once.

You'll be fine with Tiger for a good while. Besides, it's always good to wait until patches come out and bugs are fixed, my personal tip is to wait until updates are available for 10.5.3 .

yogi said:

You'll be fine with Tiger for a good while. Besides, it's always good to wait until patches come out and bugs are fixed, my personal tip is to wait until updates are available for 10.5.3 .

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Do you think Leopard will be that buggy when it is released?

Keep in mind that all of Leopard's features are not public knowledge yet- there's more to come.

JRV said:

Do you think Leopard will be that buggy when it is released?

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Good question. As a newbie to Apple products myself, I was wondering the same thing. Does Apple's stuff tend to be buggy upon release like Microsoft's?

So far, Apple's apps (with the exception of iPhoto) are rock solid for me. I'd hate to bring the same kind of instability I saw on my PC back into my life.

dlamp73 said:

i am ready to make the switch from pc to mac. i see that apple is coming out with the new leopard os. should i wait until april or may when this is likely to be released? if i get a mac now, how much will leopard cost me to upgrade? is leopard going to be that much better anyway?

Click to expand...

Leopard isn't really going to be that great. Yes it'll be a bit more sturdy, but the major changes touted on the overview section of apple's site worry me.

OS X is a fairly demanding OS as it is, requiring a decent amount of ram before you really benefit from everything it can do. With the introduction of spaces and time machine the demand on ram for the former and storage space for the latter is really going to hamper the low end, entry level macs and dampen new comers experiences.

In answer to the question, it's not a matter of waiting for Leopard but rather checking to see how long the Mac you're thinking of buying has been available and then keeping an eye out for a hardware update.

It would be a shame to get a mac now and find that in 2 months time, for the same money, you could have purchased a slightly better specced machine. But if it's going to be months and months before they update the Mac you want then you may as well get it now. As everyone has been saying $130 for an OS upgrade isn't that much money, when you know how amazing OS X actually is.

When exaclty is Leopard going to come out? Has there been a set date?

No set date yet. Probably will see in early summer at the earlist, but that's just my guess.

Yea, I'll have to see how the cash flow is before I decide to buy Leopard right away or not. I still kind of want Applecare!

Mac OS's are cheap compared to Windows so it's more hardware updates you should be worried about. If you wait 4 or 5 months to buy leopard, you're hardware will be nearer the end of it's product cycle. Buy now and enjoy tiger for a few months to get the hang of it

When I decided to switch I was only about 1 1/2 months from Tiger's release, so I waited and was glad I did. There's a growing amount of software out that requires 10.4.x or better now, but it's also been nearly 2 years since its release. I also had a chance to scour this forum and other sites to fantasize and learn all I could about OS X.

I didn't find Tiger to be too buggy with 10.4.0, but even now with 10.4.8 on my G4 Mini there are bugs that Apple still haven't addressed, although they are fewer with each update. And when I say buggy, I don't mean a computer crashing all the time like with Windows bugs; I mean certain things in certain apps not acting the way you want or the way they should. Sending a bug report to Apple almost certainly corrects the problem within about 2-3 updates, I find (once enough other users report the same bug).

So my points: Wait if think you need to, but since Leopard could still be months away, get your "paws" wet with Tiger (bad pun, I know) like others have suggested. And realize that no version of OS X will ever be free of bugs, even after several updates!

Mac OS won't be buggy that it's unusable, but it's still worth waiting. Stability issues, hardware problems (fan stuff) and other little quirks like third-party apps not working.
It's good to jump at a ripe apple rather than one that hasn't bloomed.

windows full versions cost more, yes. $199* for a new license and up, but an upgrade usually only cost about $99* and up. if you are a thrifty shopper, you can always find it cheaper.

new OSX costs $129, but can be found for cheaper also.

IMHO, i would wait until the second update of Leopard is released b4 buying the upgrade. there will be a few bugs in the first few releases, but nothing major. Tiger is doing just fine for now.


*depends on version, Home or Professional. Professional is more expensive.