Mac OS X Leopard — I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks testing it out and getting to know it. Most of the time, I’ve been without internet access so I actually haven’t read anyone else’s response yet, other than that of the beta versions. This is purely my own experience.

Installing the new version was a quick and painless process — as expected of anything that comes off an Apple assembly line. A few clicks and a fresh install was being streamed onto the hard drive of my MacBook. Half an hour or so later, I was greeted by the new welcome screen.

I noticed a few changes as soon as I logged in, some bigger than others. Looking back over the past couple of weeks, I can tell you that the single most noticeable thing about Leopard isn’t visual changes or new features — it’s speed.

When operating systems are being upgraded, you’ll usually be better off if you have a new or powerful computer. It’s logical. As eye candy and new features are added, the operating system will naturally demand a more powerful setup than it’s previous version. Apparently, the people at Apple don’t believe in this outdated mentality.

The first thing that came to my mind as I logged into Leopard was “man, that was fast.” If you think it had anything to do with the fact that my install was fresh, think again. After installing numerous big and small applications of all kinds, it’s still just as fast as when I first logged in two weeks ago.

For the record, my MacBook has the slightly older Intel Core Duo processor so I’m not exactly running a state of the art, cutting edge supercomputer. I may have a decent 1.5 GB of RAM but on the other hand, I don’t have any fancy graphics card. And from my experience, Leopard actually runs noticeably smoother than Tiger on this machine which is pretty remarkable if you ask me.

I was also very surprised to see that Spotlight now seems to work at the speed of light. In Tiger, I always used QuickSilver to start most applications because it was so fast. But after installing Leopard, the thought of downloading QuickSilver has honestly not even crossed my mind. I’m pleased to see that Spotlight now does an excellent job.

So speed is definitely what I find most important about Leopard. I haven’t tried Time Machine yet, so the seconds place goes to the Dock and the new Finder interface. The dock drawers aren’t just eye candy, they’re actually very useful too. New downloads are just a click away, right there in the dock, and the same goes for all your important documents.

Finder now has a iTunes-like interface with Cover Flow which allows you to preview files just like you do with album art in iTunes. I great thing about this is that it’s not just for photos but for text and video as well. You can actually play video files right there in Finder without opening QuickTime Player, or see if you’re about to open the right document.

As you can probably tell, I’m pretty excited over this update. Watching Apple release an OS — or any software for that matter — is just a bliss. No big screw-up, no laggy new features, just a smooth install and an improved system. That’s why we’re Apple fans.

If I recall correctly, the leopard is the fastest animal on this planet. Apparently, it lives up to it’s reputation even in the world of IT.