Apple Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to ship Oct 26

Apple is slated to ship Mac OS X 10.5 aka “Leopard” on October 26th (version 10.4 is “Tiger”). My September 28 blog entry offers a few brief comments on its features.

I’ll be ordering the family pack. First I’ll install it on my kids eMacs and my wife’s older PowerMac G5. If all goes well, then next up (after a week or so) is my MacBook Pro for several weeks (at least). The MacBook Pro is my “test mule” which runs most of the applications that I also run on my Mac Pro workstation. Finally, and after researching reported issues with Photoshop CS3, DreamWeaver, Nikon Capture, Digital Photo Professional, Epson print drivers, etc, then I will upgrade my Mac Pro workstation, most likely some time in December or January.

If your livelihood depends on “production” machine(s), let the dust settle—wait 3 months!!! You’ve waited a few years, there is nothing in Leopard that demands upgrading immediately. If you’re really itchin' to try Leopard, install it on a separate hard disk, and boot from that hard disk to try it out without risking your existing boot disk.

Leopard can be pre-ordered at amazon.com, which offers a low price guarantee and free shipping. Some people will want the single-machine license, but those with multiple Macs at home should opt for the family pack version, which licenses five machines.