Leopard: Should I or Shouldn't I?

Question

I've been reading the discussion group for quite sometime, trying to decide whether or not I should purchase Leopard and upgrade my MBP and iMac. I've been using Tiger for close to two years now and I'm extremely pleased with it. I was considering purchasing Leopard because of my positive experiences with Apple. (I switched from Windows after my XP "caught" and virus and died a slow, miserable death.)
Given the number of negative comments on this forum and others, I've been reluctant to upgrade fearing that I will likely have problems with many of the third party applications I have installed or suffer the fate of those trying to connect to the internet (i.e., slow connectivity or frequent interruption of services, unexpected disconnection, etc.) or experience a slow down in performance. I suppose my concern is: Are these negative comments just a few individuals who are for one reason or another having difficulty or are they related to a broad spectrum of the users who have bought and tried and find themselves disappointed with the overall performance of the software. I don't want to invest time, money and resources into an upgrade that isn't up to snuff.
Your responses are welcome.

Answer 1

I agree with your last postee that the 10.5.2 upgrade has taken care of a host of problems with Leopard. I couldn't care less about Time Machine, or any of the rest of the eye candy. And to be honest, upon the introduction of Leopard there was more than a little selfrighteous attitude from the Applemaniacs who made it seem like every problem was caused by the original user themselves. I'll admit that I did cause some self-induced wounds from ignorance during installation. I'm not a tech head. I don't want to know coding and I don't want to fiddle too much with the computer. But I was amazed with the number of threads that had Cupertino fellows writing as if I purposely paid $129 for Leopard to simply have the opportunity to spend my weekend in the studio screwing things up so I could then spend hours trying to deal with the situation. It was somewhat rude to say the least.
Is Leopard better right now than Tiger is for the average Joe? And I mean someone who really uses their computer to work (not play) using ancillary Adobe products, Quark and such? Not really I've found. I haven't noted a speed difference in using the newer products made for the Intel computer. Nor upon reflection would I have been hamstrung production-wise if I'd simply waited for a while if I'd simply waited. Indeed the production headaches of waiting for Adobe and Leopard to get together and create a way to get Adobe Professional back up to speed (yes, you can make pdfs in Apple, but I would never send one of those pieces to a professional press requiring CMYK presets and hi-res values) in fact cost me time and some cash too. Is all this Apple's problem? No of course not...but the transition has been far from smooth no matter what MacWorld tells you.
Ask yourself why you're changing to Leopard today. Are you getting a new system? Well, then figure in the new software costs, some peripheral problems, buy more RAM, get a huge external hard drive, bite the bullet and go. But if you've got an existing MAC and need it for business and are happy with the productivity you've got right now, I'd suggest you wait. When? I don't know. Obviously you're aware of your situation better than anyone else.
Look, I'm not here to tar and feather Apple. I've used their product professionally since '94 (which doesn't seem like such a long time actually). And I've seen professional resistance to changing OS in various studios that has required as long as 2 years to overcome and they didn't suffer for it. However I've learned a valuable lesson. If there is a OS Ocelot (or whatever cat comes next) I intend to wait until I cannot find upgrades for my software and those cause production/profitability/instability headaches severe enough for me to lay out for a new system and (splurge for newer stable software). That's the prudent thing to do, in my opinion.
If you need a computer to play with, or wow the friends, you can buy an Apple any time. But work and paying the bills are serious matters to me. And simply jumping to something because it's cooler or because of the hype is a recipe that is ripe for disaster.
Oh...and by the way, when you find a few problems and come back to this forum for answers, show some patience and some humor. These answer guys are working hard at doing their job and they know there are problems...and the wrong tone in your note can really set them off (as it would anyone). Otherwise they'll fire back a snippy note, your nose will get out of joint, you'll respond, and this thread will mysteriously end. With no real resolution. That's there right. It's there website afterall.
I wish you well.