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| Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack (5-User) (Mac OS X) | 
 enlarge | From: Apple
Category: Software
List Price: £129.00
Buy New: £107.48
You Save: £21.52 (17%)
New (7) Used (1) from £84.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 268
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Mac Os X Intel, Mac Os X
Media: DVD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 19.7 x 19.7 x 19.7
MPN: MB577Z/A
Model: MB577Z/A
UPC: 885909216635
EAN: 0885909168040
Release Date: October 31, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Economical way to upgrade your Mac December 3, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Leopard is a valuable upgrade to the MacOS which offers both visible and under-the-bonnet improvements to what was already a strong, stable and exciting operating system. Upgrading is relatively painless, but upgraders should ensure that they have run Disk First Aid before they begin, and, crucially, uninstalled APE application enhancer if this is on the system. Compatibility with earlier applications is generally good, but QuarkXpress 6.5 users will need to consider the benefits carefully. For those running more than one Mac, the Family Pack is extremely good value, at 1.5x the price of a single license for up to five Macs.
The visible improvements to OS X are technical, aesthetic and practical. The inclusion of the Time Machine backup system effectively completes the Mac offering as a stable and safe out-of-the box product. Aesthetically, Leopard offers a more subdued look, with better icons and more integration of animation and state-change -- for example in the way it shows folders. The addition of an iTunes-like browser adds a further way to view your folders. Mail also gets a makeover, with the ability to use templates, and crucially, to create your own. Practically speaking, the tighter integration of Mail and iCal substantially improves the OS as an integrated personal information manager. Quickview offers a new way to take control of your files, by instantly previewing many (but not all) file types. The dashboard benefits substantially from the ability to make a widget from any part of any web-page, on-the-fly. Finally, the Spaces function provides a welcome return to an older concept of virtual desktops.
Invisibly, the system is now 64-bit throughout, which should provide speed improvements on many systems. Once properly installed, most users have found it to be highly stable -- something which is essential for front-end improvements like Spaces to make sense. The integration between iCal and Mail is underpinned by OS level implementation of this kind of data, which makes it much more available for other applications, such as Bento from Filemaker, and Merlin, to use. This make iCal a collaborator with rather than a competitor against more advanced time-management applications. Core image has been improved, though it may be some time before major applications begin to exploit this. PDF support has been improved, as has connectivity with Windows SMB drives.
3rd party developers have been reluctant to qualify their earlier versions for Leopard, although Adobe have now confirmed that CS2 does work with Leopard, apart from some Bridge incompatibilities. Quark have refused to confirm compliance of 6.5. Most users have discovered that trashing the Quark preferences and forcing it to rebuild the printer list is necessary, and many users have found that Quark PDF no longer works. On the plus side, it is for the first time possible to print a PDF from Quark using the Mac OS PDF printing services, though this is a work-around rather than an improvement. Avid have not yet qualified their software for Leopard, though AvidXpress Pro and ProTools started up without problems on my G4 Powerbook -- something which did not happen with the upgrade to Tiger until Avid released an update.
Upgrading is a relatively painless process -- certainly compared to upgrading any version of Windows. However, the APE Application Enhancer from Unsanity must be removed before upgrading, as this will prevent the OS from ever starting up. A number of 3rd party applications, including Logitech's, install this, so check carefully, even if you have never deliberately installed it. As always, you should also repair permissions before upgrading. Finally, after the installation is finished, you should immediately load the software updates.
The price of upgrading is relatively low, both in terms of what it does to your existing software investment, and in terms of time and money. Leopard is particularly economical if you are buying a family pack and upgrading several Macs.
For me, the only false note with Leopard is the inclusion of Boot Camp, rather than a more sophisticated system for installing Windows on Intel Macs. The cost of installing Windows is quite high, because you have to purchase a full Windows license. For that price, most users who want to take advantage of both systems will probably find something like Parallels desktop, which allows you to run both at once, a better bet.
The final verdict is that Leopard is an extremely worthwhile upgrade, unless you rely on an unqualified application like QuarkXpress 6.5. Although our home systems are now on Leopard, at work all the machines will remain on Tiger until we can guarantee the Quark workaround, or until we move to a later Quark version.
 Only a minor upgrade that hurts performance of older machines December 1, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have a G4 PowerPC running at 1.67 GHz with 1 GB memory, and my wife has an iBook. So I judge Leopard by its value as an upgrade over the previous operating system. I bought the Family Pack because I understood that it (a) introduced new useful features and (b) because it improved the performance of older machines such as the ones I own. I loaded Leopard on to the G4, it took sometime but everything went fine. My first reaction is that my G4 now runs slower, or more exactly certain tasks such as start-up, close-down, launching applications and accessing files on the hard disk appear to take more time than in the past. Secondly it jams just as (in-)frequently, i.e. occasionally when accessing video material. Thirdly the added features such as the new desktop and finder are nice and useful to have items, but I don't know if I absolutely needed them. I have not used Spaces, iChat and Time Machine so I can't really judge yet. The new mail client is certainly a major upgrade, and about time too. So overall I don't share all the 5-star positive comments made by others. I'm a mac user now for 2-3 years, and I fully appreciate the advantages of OS X over you know who. But I was expecting more from a major upgrade: faster more stable operation on older PowerPC machines as well as the latest machines, and a little bit more in terms of overhauling the user experience as opposed to enhancing what was already there. I am not convinced that upgrading the OS on my wifes iBook is worth it, in particular if the performance is hurt. Overall the upgrade is useful, but not as much as I expected. The performance of my G4 PowerPC appears to be adversely affected. And I am not convinced its worth 120.
AWESOME October 18, 2007
12 out of 44 found this review helpful
Well having being a devoted Mac user now for little over a month i can say im in love! it rocks and is fantastic and beats windows by miles! seems windows in stuck in the past. this version just looks amazing and i am getting it. anyone who is not sure about a mac because they dont know how one use is all it takes!
AMAZING JUST AMAZNG
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