What is Digg?162 Comments
- falconer, on 11/02/2007, -8/+147Siracusa hits it out of the park again with an extremely thorough assessment of Leopard from the ground up. As with his previous work, this is exactly what an OS review should be.
- Quix, on 10/31/2007, -6/+120"As I've learned more about Leopard, it's become increasingly clear where, exactly, those two-and-a-half years of development time went. Leopard is absolutely packed with improvements. It seems that not a corner of the OS has gone untouched."
A detailed and well-written review. Ars Technica continues to do it right. Bravo for informed and thoughtful tech journalism - something I wish there were more of. - fr0z3nph03n1x, on 10/31/2007, -5/+82This is no fan-boy article, this is down to earth.
- lcfiner, on 11/02/2007, -2/+51Man, I love Siracusa's reviews. They always go into so much more detail. I think this one properly explains all the extensive gut-level changes in Leopard that the most other reviews never bother to deal with.
- shahruz84, on 12/17/2008, -13/+53If there is one more review for Leopard on Digg, I'm going to destroy my $2500 gaming PC and get a Mac.
- Zorn85, on 11/02/2007, -11/+46I keep getting baffled by why this vocal minority of people hate the new dock so much. I absolutely love it, the Tiger dock looks boring and "old school" in comparison. Every one of my friends or family members that have seen Leopard, the first comment to come out is "Wow, that looks so much nicer than it used to." Since when did eye candy become a dirty word?
- digggggggggg, on 10/30/2007, -0/+34Remember: Video or it didn't happen.
- newbill123, on 10/30/2007, -1/+27John's review was objective and detailed. That means it was vicious about Apple's goofs, and praiseworthy when they did something right (in some cases after 5 or 6 years of error). But it generally went well beyond the reviewers who just say "It's [beautiful|ugly]" or "You'll know why this is [good|bad]".
I think John's skills as developer give him an interesting perspective. I'd love to read more reviews that were this detailed but perhaps from different competencies: a System Admin, a Windows Trainer, an Open Source developer. There are whole ecosystems of things changed in Leopard and the fact that so little looks different on the surface is impressive, but is it better? Like John's, these are the reviews and perspectives I'd love to read more of. - Flashman, on 11/02/2007, -0/+18Yes, it's fair and honest, and doesn't pull any punches when it comes to Leopard's flaws. His gripes about the user-interface elements will no doubt bruise a few egos within Apple.
- pakkman781, on 11/02/2007, -2/+18Yeah, I completely agree. I like the transparent menubar, and the new folder icons too. To be fair to the people saying it's ugly, I think it'd be good of Apple to include two little check boxes (or maybe a slider for menubar transparency) in the Appearance Prefpane: Transparent Menubar and Glass Dock. How hard would that be? Then they couldn't complain, just turn it off. Bam, problem solved.
- deadbaby, on 10/30/2007, -0/+13I mostly like the UI changes in Leopard. I always thought the big white menu bar was somewhat distracting. If I'm not actually using the menu bar I would prefer not to pay attention to it. If I am using it the transparency doesn't make it any less useful. That being said, I had to turn off the 3D dock for the exact same reason. I found it too distracting and shiny. If I'm not actively using the dock I prefer not to pay attention to it. The "simple dock" look is far more appealing to me. Everything else; icons, window styles, etc. Is a huge improvement IMO. I thought the 10.4 icons were an eye sore. The same goes for brushed metal.
- Balanced, on 10/30/2007, -0/+13Why not just leave your $2500 gaming PC intact AND get a mac? Depending on what model you get, the space requirements aren't that harsh. They can even potentially share a KVM!
- inactive, on 10/30/2007, -0/+12do it.
- dustinmacdonald, on 10/30/2007, -1/+13Moving the cursor in a completely straight path is somehow easier? It doesn't curve that much to make it a usability flaw.
- digggggggggg, on 11/01/2007, -0/+12subtract the "pro" and the "mac book" suddenly becomes within your budget.
- digggggggggg, on 11/02/2007, -3/+14There are some people out there who still use TWM, blackbox, or some similarly minimalist window manager, and they consider anything with any degree of "eye candy" to be bloated, annoying, and wasteful of resources.
Personally, I like it when things look nice, but aren't overdone. The new KDE looks good. Leopard looks good. Beryl (or Compiz whatever, sorry for not following all that) and Vista all look like overkill. - statikuz, on 11/02/2007, -1/+12"I say this despite my deep hatred for many of the user interface changes." :)
- AuburnTigers, on 10/30/2007, -3/+14Did everyone else have lines 200-300 people long at their local Mac store? Ours in Fresno did, and I don't think I've seen that many nerds concentrated in one area in a long while. Waiting in line for a cool gadget like the iPhone is one thing, but for a software update, haha, downright nerdy and I love it.
- inactive, on 10/29/2007, -2/+12An excellent review overall. Even his complaints about the Finder's view retention were balanced, although his complaint is somewhat off-base. When you switch Finder's view to List, it should damn well stay that way no matter where you navigate in your system. The fact that it does so in Leopard is a major fix.
He's also a little too charitable to search functionality:
"the new file search interface is now what it should have been all along: powerful, understandable, and fast."
Not really. Searches STILL don't start at the selected folder; in fact, the selected folder isn't even offered as a place to start your search. Try it: Go into Finder, drill down a couple of directory levels, and select a directory. Now do a Find. It'll search your whole damned computer, and the toolbar offers no way to start your search at the selected directory. That's just plain stupid.
Another problem with searches is that THEY DON'T SHOW WHERE THINGS ARE. You get a giant list of hits with no paths. You have to click on every item, one at a time, to see where it is. Preposterous. - ozroy, on 10/30/2007, -0/+10WTF? What are you running it on? An Apple II?
The whole desktop is being rendered 3D and handled by the GPU. This sort of stuff is trivial and will not affects your gcc compilations one iota.
Old school 2D desktop rendering can actually be more intensive because the 2D stuff on graphics cards are pretty much deprecated and no longer updated. - rompom7, on 11/02/2007, -0/+10Don't fuel eatspie's flames.
- antitab, on 10/30/2007, -0/+10Someone must have forgotten to inform all of my Java apps, which are currently running fine.
- rompom7, on 10/30/2007, -2/+11I think its more of the fact he isn't a faceless macboy that does not question Apple. If you actually read the whole article, not just the parts about the updated GUI, you will find he has a lot of nice things to say about Leopard.
- darienphoenix, on 10/31/2007, -1/+10"Since when did eye candy become a dirty word?"
When it interferes with usability, eye candy is always a bad thing. - Kazrog, on 11/02/2007, -0/+9Siracusa never ceases to amaze me. This review is insanely detailed and I agree with almost all of his UI gripes, although they bother me less. When is Apple just going to get over themselves and support themes natively?
- antitab, on 10/30/2007, -0/+9If GCC is running in the same thread as the Dock, you have one seriously ***** up install.
- joe90210, on 10/31/2007, -1/+10because it's more important that the usability is better than whether it looks "old school"
- BossKey, on 10/30/2007, -0/+9Having read many previous Ars Technica and John S. reviews, I knew in advance that every page would be worth reading, far more than the uninformed or fanboy reviews currently circulating in the mainstream media. It's a very good site for reviews.
- turpenine, on 11/02/2007, -1/+9the os was intended for all macintosh systems g4+
- DaffyDuck, on 10/30/2007, -1/+9Might I suggest, NSPesponder, that you actually expand on your suggestion that he has no technical insight? I've seen you lash out him several times in the past and never with any supporting facts so it just comes off as sour grapes.
- chromerium, on 10/30/2007, -0/+8ooooooh someone is jealous of someone else's technical insight, amirite?
- totorototoro, on 11/02/2007, -1/+8Now THAT is how your review a product :D
- madskjaer, on 11/02/2007, -4/+11An awesome review. I'm looking forward to getting Leopard soon...
- AlanYx, on 10/29/2007, -1/+8I agree with you about the menu bar. This was one of the disappointing parts of Siracusa's review... he argues there's no usability goal for the semitransparency, but the goal clearly is to focus the user's attention on the application, not the surrounding chrome. This is why the drop shadows are deeper, the menu bar is semitransparent, and the dock has empty, free space around the tops of the icons. It's all part of a consistent effort. Whether or not that effort is successful (whether the cons outweigh the pros in terms of usability) is an entirely separate issue. But it's silly to argue there is no method to the madness beyond just eye candy.
The stacked dock folder icons though, those are terrible. Which is a shame, because elsewhere in Leopard icon previews are much improved. - pkulak, on 10/31/2007, -0/+7That guy could teach an entire course on the Apple finder. I can just see him up there throwing his arms around and screaming about window state and browsing paradigms while first-year CS students wonder just what the hell they've signed up for. Great review! :D
- KnightWhoSaysNi, on 10/31/2007, -1/+8...but I hope they take the criticism well, because this guy is absolutely right about the UI.
- KnightWhoSaysNi, on 10/30/2007, -0/+6or with "/sarcasm" :)
- xdre, on 10/30/2007, -0/+6I guess it depends on what you're used to. As a "greybeard" Mac user since System 6 days, I'm *glad* that only one corner resizes the window. Nothing annoys me more than to see my cursor change just because I moused over a window border.
- inactive, on 10/29/2007, -0/+6it usually is free on macs
- MacEnvy, on 11/02/2007, -0/+5Good luck in college. You're going to need it.
- zweben, on 10/30/2007, -0/+5You better get out the sledgehammer. Another Leopard review is pretty much a given.
- postalblowfish7, on 10/30/2007, -0/+5windows 3.1 tried that. it got in the way.
- udahlen, on 10/29/2007, -0/+5Very good review, as always. I completely agree with John. I'm a Mac user, and love it, but I'm perplexed that it took Apple six years to add variable grid sizing. (I've complained about to Apple for six years as well.) The 3D Dock might attract new users, but it's basically pointless. The stacks are implemented in a strange way and their changing icon is confusing. The translucent menu bar is also pointless and smells Vista to me. Please, Apple, get some new guys in the desktop department (or perhaps, stop Jobs interfering).
- Balanced, on 10/30/2007, -0/+5Well, he's already got a machine that does something he wants (play current games) but is interested in the Mac for, presumably, different reasons. It's kind of like having a 'fun car' (Convertible, off0road vehicle, weekend racer, etc.) and having a commuter car.
- inactive, on 10/30/2007, -2/+6thats because the effects in windows are gaudy talentless *****
- hayashi, on 10/29/2007, -0/+4run leopard on your gaming pc?
- inactive, on 11/02/2007, -4/+8Originality isn't even the issue: It's usability. Not only are the changes gaudy and cheeseball, but they reduce usability.
- HillerMylife, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4I skipped a lot of the stuff relating to the kernel and stuff for developers, as it doesn't relate to me, but I read every word of the interface and usability pages.
- KnightWhoSaysNi, on 10/30/2007, -0/+4I'm using Vista right now. The new task bar looks great, but the "aero" borders on the windows look like utter crap.
And yes, it is horrendously slow. - Nossie, on 10/30/2007, -0/+4you can disable it quick enough from a terminal
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