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OS X Leopard Ships On October 26th

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the big-cat-in-my-laptop dept.

David in AZ writes "According to the Apple website, Mac OS X Leopard will start shipping on October 26! From their blurb: 'Packed with more than 300 new features, Mac OS X Leopard goes on sale Friday, October 26, at 6:00 p.m. at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, Apple announced today. And, beginning today, customers can place pre-orders on Apple's online store. "Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we've ever released," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.""

12 of 762 comments (clear)

  1. The student edition is now $47 more by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Informative

    It used to be that for software anyway, the student discounts represented a significant savings, which was great for poor college students. But starting with iWork and iLife it seems that the student discount is only about 10%. So whereas Tiger cost $69 for the edu version, Leopard costs $116.....

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by VCAGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think it still is, though it appears that Apple has reduced the places where you can get those steep discounts at...their online "Education" store pricing is higher than it used to be, but since they don't bother with compliance checking, I think I can understand why. I attend UCF, and a quick check of our computer store's ordering page shows that Tiger (M9639Z) is $69, and that Leopard (MB021Z) will also be $69. iWork '08 cost me just $39...a quick check of a another Florida university's computer store showed the same pricing.

      --
      Q: "Why do sound techs say 'check 1, 2'?"
      A: "Cause if they could count any higher they'd be lighting techs."
    2. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by sribe · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just went to the Apple Education Store, looked at Leopard, and it is indeed showing up at the higher price of $116.00 for me.

      My apologies. I checked the institutional price, not the student/faculty price which does indeed show up as $116. I guess the Tiger troll left me hyper-sensitive!

  2. Re:Macbooks by 8127972 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not likely, but you have the ability to get Leopard cheaply if you buy a Mac after October 1st.

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
  3. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Jaxoreth · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why does it cost me so much for a point release is what I want to know and why aren't people lambasting Apple for such?
    Because it's a major upgrade, not a point release.
    --
    In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
  4. 300+ features... by Techguy666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a list of all the new features: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

    I'm praying that it's not just more bloat like Vista. It seems like Leopard is good on paper, better Boot Camp for those who still need Windows; better iCal for the people who use their Macs for organizing their life; Instruments, Core Animation, Unix certification, built-in Sandboxing for programmers; and other doodads for Joe-user such as a cooler Photobooth... But then, do I need my address book to make calls to Google Maps or the OS-wide dictionary to reach out to Wikipedia? Those last two are cool but I get worried when my "OS experience" is tied in anyway to whether I have network or Internet access.

    1. Re:300+ features... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

      A lot of the new features (mostly the ones that aren't hyped on the main page) are specifically for developers. It's been that way with most of the OS X releases -- the best features are actually for developers. From memory there's full 64-bit support, CoreAnimation (CoreImage, released with Tiger, was a great tool for developers), a Dashboard development tool and Objective-C 2.0.

      All of the new developer toys are nicely exposed through well thought out APIs, with free documentation and were announced two years ago and a pre-release of the OS made available a year ago so developers could get a jump start.

      Apple has to put a few nice Joe Public features in the new OS so people will upgrade to it so there's a bigger market for all those third party developers.

  5. Re:problem is... by spud603 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's a lot that was done on the base level that will improve general usability. Finder is fixed (we hope). It's UNIX compliant now. Better use of 64-bit and multi-core processors.
    Also, some of the "eye candy" will be very useful: easy backup and multiple desktops built in (I've been using a 3rd-party solution for this for a while now that works remarkably well, but has a number of glitches).
    I'm not beating down the door for 10.5, but I am looking forward to some of its conveniences.

  6. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 5, Informative

    In order to maintain the longevity of the OS X name, full milestone upgrades of OS X are called point releases. People lambaste OS X for that numbering convention, as if OS X milestone releases are not as significant just because Apple isn't moving the first digit of the version number with each release. It's a really stupid critique, FWIW.

    --
    Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
  7. Re:problem is... by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Finder *is* definitely much improved. On a lower end system, its much faster and has enough features and speed increase it makes using Path Finder negligible.

  8. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by RogerWilco · · Score: 4, Informative

    Microsoft does the same and sometimes Windows point releases cost as much or even more:

    Windows 3.0/3.1/3.11

    Windows 4.0 a.k.a. Windows 95
    Windows 4.03 a.k.a. Windows 95 OSR2
    Windows 4.1 a.k.a. Windows 98
    Windows 4.9 a.k.a. Windows ME

    Windows NT 5.0 a.k.a. Windows 2000
    Windows NT 5.1 a.k.a. Windows XP
    Windows NT 5.2 a.k.a. Windows 2003

    And the gaps in release dates of the above aren't a lot different from the OS X ones, maybe a bit larger (1.5-2 years vs. 1-1.5 years) and they have some clever naming system since 1995, but then so does Apple (Panther, Tiger, Leopard)

    --
    RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
  9. That sucks, but it's not Apple's fault. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do realize that 298 of those 1195 SEK are tax, right? So subtracting that out, you get a real price of 897 SEK, which is only 68 SEK more than the US price, or about $10.60 USD.

    I doubt that you'd be able to order a US version and have it shipped to Sweden for less than $10 in shipping.

    Seems like a pretty fair price to me. Maybe you should vote for politicians who support lower taxes if you don't like it?

    --
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