After the smoke has settled... thoughts on Leopard
Hey everyone, I was just thinking today about Leopard.
After being a bit wowed and underwhelmed at the same time, I came to a little better understanding of the new OS X today.
1) The translucent menu bar is nice. I like it. It has a refined look to it.
2) The dock looks great with reflections and a mroe even shadow per icon. I still don't know about the trapezoidal thing though. I think I don't like it so much. Kind of cheap looking. that is one constant.
3) the Finder is absolutely amazingly one of the best innovations of Leopard. It is a must have and alone makes Leopard a worthy upgrade. The Cover Flow deal bugged me at first, but now, I think I will actually use it often enough (even just to admire it and to show my windows buddies what next-gen tech is supposed to look like)
4) Stacks is an amazing innovation as well. I know it has been worked on since Panther, but it looks perfect and really solves clutter issues with the desktop. This is a constant source of frustration for me with Tiger.
5) After looking at the Apple.com Leopard site and going through every last video, there is enough improvements to Mail, iChat, etc., to really be excited about.
After complaining yesterday and then sleeping on it and thinking today, I think Apple made the smart move. They shouldn't have strayed to far away from the current UI because it is just about perfect and oh so clean. Leopard carries that tradition forward, but with a few refinements that give it just enough polish and just enough eye candy without going overboard.
Overral, I think Leopard is not only a solid upgrade, but is truly innovative and pushes the already superior Tiger into the stratosphere with Leopard.
Vista looked aged when it came out. It looks absolutely ancient now.
Leopard looks like what on OS should in 2008.
Besides, it is just an OS. It is there to make your apps run awesome, not get in the way. I cannot wait to see what developers do with the tech that is now available to them.
After being a bit wowed and underwhelmed at the same time, I came to a little better understanding of the new OS X today.
1) The translucent menu bar is nice. I like it. It has a refined look to it.
2) The dock looks great with reflections and a mroe even shadow per icon. I still don't know about the trapezoidal thing though. I think I don't like it so much. Kind of cheap looking. that is one constant.
3) the Finder is absolutely amazingly one of the best innovations of Leopard. It is a must have and alone makes Leopard a worthy upgrade. The Cover Flow deal bugged me at first, but now, I think I will actually use it often enough (even just to admire it and to show my windows buddies what next-gen tech is supposed to look like)
4) Stacks is an amazing innovation as well. I know it has been worked on since Panther, but it looks perfect and really solves clutter issues with the desktop. This is a constant source of frustration for me with Tiger.
5) After looking at the Apple.com Leopard site and going through every last video, there is enough improvements to Mail, iChat, etc., to really be excited about.
After complaining yesterday and then sleeping on it and thinking today, I think Apple made the smart move. They shouldn't have strayed to far away from the current UI because it is just about perfect and oh so clean. Leopard carries that tradition forward, but with a few refinements that give it just enough polish and just enough eye candy without going overboard.
Overral, I think Leopard is not only a solid upgrade, but is truly innovative and pushes the already superior Tiger into the stratosphere with Leopard.
Vista looked aged when it came out. It looks absolutely ancient now.
Leopard looks like what on OS should in 2008.
Besides, it is just an OS. It is there to make your apps run awesome, not get in the way. I cannot wait to see what developers do with the tech that is now available to them.
Comments
"After the smoke has settled"??? I'm still smoking my marry jane to try to keep my mind off of the severe underwhelming-ness of the keynote and Leopard's "Top Secret" features, or lack of. Oh yea, and I'm trying to get so high I forget ZFS should have been talked about instead of stuff we already know about, such as Dashboard.
Better light up again.
It appears ZFS is not on the horizon. No ZFS
If the plugin function is robust enough, it's a very very efficient way to look at files. Basically it shape based. The center file, is the biggest most easily identifiable thumbnail, and of course big enough so you know what it is, then it slowly gets less in both directions. That means your eyes can spot the files you want upto 5-6 files away, while having the flexibility to focus on the main.
It's great ascetically and in practice. Photos and documents are the biggest uses for them, but depending on the plugin thumbnail system, it can be even better.
Theoretically, the less you know about a file, the more you'll want to use coverflow option. The search-at-a-glance theory is something wired to our brains. Thumbnails on steroids.