+ 2 hour upgrade to Leopard from Tiger on Brand New imac 20"

Question

Forgive my upcoming ignorance as this is my first Apple Computer and I know very little about Apple overall but I know a LOT about PCs and Windows.
I just purchased an imac, 20" Intel 2ghz Core Duo, LAST NIGHT.
From out of the box, to plugging in the computer and peripherals, to getting into Tiger for the first time and putting in the Leopard upgrade disk.
Is 2+ hours normal to do this upgrade.. this upgrade took FOREVER. I've installed many operating systems on PCs, mind you I'm installing Windows but it's never taken me 2+ hours to install an Upgrade to an OS on a reasonably fast machine. I've installed / upgraded linux in less time.
I can't believe this is normal and have some concern as to there being an Issue with the Combo Drive or something else?
There's no lights to indicate disk activity or anything during the installation, this is something I'm quite used to in the PC world, to be able to tell if the computer is accessing the Hard Drive or the CD/DVD drive with little lights or even noise. The only noise I heard was scattered disk noises and a random spin up of the CD Drive every so often.
The only visual indicator on the screen was the progress bar during the installation with a Time indicator that seemed to be having as much difficulty as I was in figuring how long this should take. Frequently it would jump from 1 hour 40 minutes to as much as 2 hours and 50 minutes estimating installation time.
Any experts here have any insight on this? Is this normal? Am I missing something here... I would hate to endure another upgrade or install that will be this painful in the future.
Thanks for your input and time on this!

Answer 1

Promomag wrote:
Ah yes, I remember 95, infact, I did install this version from floppy, it was 27 floppies if I remember correctly.... at least I was doing something if it took just as long, so I don't think that install was as agonizing as this. Thanks for the memories.
C'mon though... what's up with not having any indication that the computer is doing anything at all while it's installing.... Couldn't apple make the little Apple logo on the front blink or something when there's disk activity. Seriously, I like that the Mac is quiet, but I don't like having to put my ear to the side of the case to hear if it's doing anything. If I hear the cd whiring or the disk crunching I have a good indication there's activity but through this whole process the CD only spun up in short spurts every so often.
I was wondering if this install was recompiling kernals or doing something ... the time indicator bar as my only means to an estimated guage is very silly to me!
I thought about that when I installed and even posted about those seemingly long times when nothing seems to be happening and cautioned the rush-hour crowd to be patient.
I think I have an answer, but it may be stretching things: many Mac users, I have noticed don't like things like desktop items, even if it's only one or two. One did not even like the Dock and wanted it gone - not hidden as most of us set it, but gone. Finito! And for years there were only one-button mice available and no BSD under the hood. So I think this lack of information is only annoying to people like me who came recently from the PC world (and am still in it) but the Macophiles probably like those blank information-less screens. I do recall once that Apple ran an ad saying "Who cares about MHz, GHz GBs and such - it's the color (flavor?) that counts. Fortunately, Apple has come a long way from then and attracted people like myself who do care about what is under the hood.
I suspect as more and more get involved in the BSD stuff and X11 and such, that these indicators will become more prevalent. At least I hope so.
An obvious bug when using DU, in 10.5.1, however, is that when doing a verify, my odometer says 1 minute left for about 5 minutes and then backs up and says 13 minutes left and drops about 1 minute every few seconds. In 10.5.0 the barber pole spun for a long time with no information.
Still, these are reasonably minor glitches and certainly not show-stoppers.
All-in-all, I look at Leopard as a distinct improvement over Tiger in almost every area. I miss Sherlock - which is why I keep my bootable Tiger clones up-to-date and working properly.
Interestingly, I have 3 Macs and 2 PCs and 5 Windows programs running on them.
Contrary to what others say about Vista, I find it running quite boringly well on this MBP. It's the 64-bit version and I did have to find the network drivers on my own.