Screenshots of latest Apple Mac OS X Leopard build

59 Comments

“In late July Apple released Build 9A499 of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to ADC members. This build represented the first since WWDC and offers very little major change but does implement some excellent visual changes and many, many minor ones,” World of Apple reports.

“At WWDC this year the Finder got a major revamp, adding a brand new 3D style Dock, transparent menu-bar and Stacks,” World of Apple reports.

“In this build Apple has tweaked all of these features, the menu-bar is still transparent but feels more natural now as the majority of the icons no longer have white backgrounds. Text sometimes feels out of place, especially if you have a dark desktop background and the menus that drop down from selected objects still feel a little too solid,” writes World of Apple.

Full article, with gallery of screenshots, here.

59 Comments

  6. I like the way it looks. There’s a crispness to it that’s missing in Vista (too much teh Shiny®), yet it’s somewhat muted and subtle. It’s actually relaxing to me. If anything, I find that weird. I like to look at it because it’s easy on the eyes. Never said that about an OS before.

    Reply

  7. *whisper*… “vista 2.0…”

    Oh! How sweet! All that translucency and shiny… ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    I thought you Mac People had better taste?

    Five years from now everyone will laugh at this trend of translucent eye candy – which really serves no purpose (on Pc or Mac).

    Reply

  9. Feels snappier!

    But is it secure?

    It’s being passed around the geeks here at La Vegas as I speak.

    You see the new game is to find the exploits before release, then hope Apple misses one or two, and then announce them to the public at large when Apple does release the new version.

    Step three: Instant fame!

    Reply

  14. Hey nittany4 . I will reserve judgement until I have it on my computer, but from what I see here, yes, I want to have a solid white menu bar too.

    It is nice there is choice for finder motifs. I always use column view, and am having a hard time imagining how “cover flow” could be more functional.

    Reply

  15. AAHHAAAHHAA! It took 6 years for them to think of making the menu bar transparent? No wonder they’re losing market share to Vista!

    Start of 2007: Vista 0.18% – Intel Mac 1.88% – Total Mac 6.22%

    6 months later: Vista 5.41% – Intel Mac 2.61% – Total Mac 5.97%

    Vista has only been on sale for SIX months. Intel Macs have been on sale for EIGHTEEN! With all the annoying commercials from beginning of 2006, people know what Macs are now. No excuse. Face it. Macs suck.

    http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=5

    Reply

  17. Actually, XP’s losing marketshare to Vista– and even that’s a sham.

    M$: “Vista has sold 40 million licenses.”
    Disclaimer: M$ is not responsible for the content of its advertising. Most copies of Vista have been sold to computer makers who have been screwed and have to keep selling XP because Vista’s a dog. Buy Vista at your own risk and you’ll win a pony. Vista: the hemorrhoids start now. Void where prohibited. All your dollars are belong to us. Apple sucks.

    MW passed, as in Gas.

    Reply

  23. You need to understand some statistics before you rely on figures from someone like marketshare.hitslink.com. Ask yourself some easy questions:
    – what’s their methodology (what and how do they count cpu’s)
    – where are the ‘margin of error’ figures. Without them, the data is meaningless.
    – do they have an agenda. Do they want to sell you something or have you believe something?

    When you’ve done this homework, then come back and post here. Until then, work on the rest of your homework. And enjoy 6th grade this fall…

    Reply

  25. @vista pwns: “Vista has only been on sale for SIX months. Intel Macs have been on sale for EIGHTEEN! With all the annoying commercials from beginning of 2006, people know what Macs are now. No excuse. Face it. Macs suck.”

    I feel sorry for you. Rather than enjoying Vista or XP or 2000, you feel that the only joy in your life is coming here and trying to show how — what you hate to use — is some how better than what we enjoy every day. Sorry, but you are a troll, thats all. And not even an ocasionally funny one. 🙁

    To PC Guy, MacFly, and all the other semi-trolls ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> , all I can say is “Just what are you trying to accomplish? We use Macs cause we enjoy them. You are mad at Mac cause. . . ???? If you enjoy Vista etc, fine. But to spend all your time here, well, I figure either you have been paid (and we know by whom) or you just have such a guilt complex that you just cannot stop.

    Either way, I feel sorry for you. As for Zune Tang, well, his jokes are even worse than mine. It makes me feel good that I am not the worlds worst comedian. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />

    MDN word become. “MS proclaims, “I am become the destroyer of worlds and Vista is my sword. “

    en

    Reply

  26. Vista stinks!

    Now with that out of the way…

    Can we fix one this that really annoys me in Tiger:

    When u have column view, the folder icons disappear when you click on the file preview icon. Really annoying!

    Reply

  27. @en

    I’m not happy about Vista. Unfortunately, it seems I won’t be happy about Leopard either. Too bad (I use Pc/Mac 50/50 at work).

    Maybe I’ll just have to try Linux? Thought about it, but never got around to it. Maybe it’s time.

    Reply

  29. All the windows are still gray, they’d better figure out how to assign a different color for each app’s window. It really makes working easier with small screen (with Expose) and 30″ screen with 40 windows open.

    Reply

  30. The PC trolls certainly are funny. And clueless.

    The truth is that Vista is a wreck, pure and simple. It was the OS that finally convinced me to try a Mac after being in the Microsoft camp since the days when MS-DOS reigned supreme.

    (Of course, ME was also a wreck, but I was smart enough to skip that one.)

    As for Leopard, I’m really looking forward to it. My week-old MacBook Pro has convinced me that Apple makes the best consumer OS in the world, bar none.

    BTW, don’t bother to quote market share numbers to me. I don’t give a $#!^. All it means is that the world is filled with uneducated lemmings who don’t know any better. I know. I used to be one.

    Reply

  31. “I’m not happy about Vista. Unfortunately, it seems I won’t be happy about Leopard either. Too bad (I use Pc/Mac 50/50 at work).

    Maybe I’ll just have to try Linux? Thought about it, but never got around to it. Maybe it’s time.”

    and do what? Get back to us on how that goes. The translucency doesn’t bother me. Seem to be showing up in Linux also. At least on the Mac it is toned down compared to Vista. Linux…everyone else’s UI ideas mashed together. I bet it eats up a lot more resources to make all the windows translucent on Vista. MS philosophy: copy an idea make left right, right left, & up down. Then add every useless feature we can think of…more is better. Bloat is king!

    Reply

  33. Welcome to Mac OS X Tiger (Vista lookalike edition), the version that gives you all those Vista goodies and gets you ready for the final platform migration Steve has in store for you.

    You already know you’re going to justify Steve’s move to Windows Vista by saying it’s not so bad because they stole all Apple’s ideas.

    Reply

  35. @ vista pwns…

    Gee… there’s nothing I could write that could make you look any dumber than what you’ve already written yourself.

    You are a poor troll and even worse flamer. Please, just go back to playing games or better yet, get out of yer mums house and meet some girls. Sheesh.

    Reply

  37. I have to say…Apple has gone a step back with OS X in my opinion. Some people say that looks don’t matter and what that what it has is more important, but I believe that the reason for why so many people are disappointed with Leopard is because if it’s new (uglier) look which still is pretty much the same as Tiger but worse. Except the dock..the dock is nice, but the top transparent bar, icons, boring grey….U.G.L.Y!!!

    ps: Not impressed with the so far shown features either.
    Come on, at least improve the speech recognition (Vista did it pretty good).

    Reply

  39. Personally I don’t like the translucent bar either. It’s a GUI element that just doesn’t make sense to me.

    Hopefully someone will release a program that allows you to turn it off, if Apple doesn’t provide that option. Much like the program (can’t remember the name) that allows you to hide the tool bar in Tiger.

    As for the Vista debate, I didn’t really care either way until my friend got a system with it pre-installed and I’ve had nothing but support calls from him for the past month. There has been some funky stuff going on with his system. Sad thing is, he could print his report for school because his printer didn’t work with Vista, I my MacBook Pro always saved the day.

    Reply

  40. Apple took a page out of Microsoft’s book, but didn’t even do it right. If the menu is going to be transparent, the least they could have done is made it opaque when you hover over it, sorta like Office is on the mac with its toolbars. But nooo, Apple had to be lame and leave it totally transparent. They also shouldn’t have screwed around with the contrast on aqua, now even that looks like ass on Leopard. Such a shame! 🙁

    Reply

  42. You bozos sound like a bunch of stupid spoiled brats. Leopard looks good, and is an improvement over every previous version of OS X.

    What a bunch of whining losers. You make me sick, and you’re the reason why people hate Macs. If I didn’t know any better I would hate Macs too just because of the bozo crybabies like you guys.

    Go ahead and switch to Linux because you’re unhappy with menu bar and a some icons. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

    Reply

  43. hey PC GUY, go do us all a favor and turn off you comcast subscription. go to Linux please. I will even donate 10 dollars to buy you a new mouse and keyboard if you will stay away from Macs forever just so the Mac user-base will have one less retard.

    Reply

  46. We aren’t spoiled brads…

    But face it, Apple is known for it’s good looks in design.
    But for some reason they failed miserably with Leopard.
    I would have to say that Microsoft did a better job on the “upgraded looks”-part of their new OS.

    Not switching back though.
    I have OS X Tiger and Vista Ultimate both running perfectly on my iMac. But I’m in Tiger 95% of the time…which should prove something.

    Reply

  48. Everyone has design opinions– I mean, even some people think Chevy cars and trucks are attractive. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />

    Be specific, though. What is th reason behind your dislike beyond personal taste?

    I tend to like changing things up, in general. As nothing is permanent, playing with colors, transparency, and layout is an inherently good thing. Not only does it keep things interesting, it makes me think about things again in a new way.

    I am an individual who will not be living in a home decorated the same way for 20 years. My landscaping changes, too. To me, change is ALWAYS good, even if it causes temporary discomfort. Nothing grows to its potential standing still.

    And so goes my opinion with the menu bar and other appearance changes in Leopard. I have yet to use it (as I’d guess 90% here have, also) and so I’m open. I can see it as part of an incremental change that hints at future developments– most obviously (maybe), the end of the menu bar as we know it. Apple likes to coax users into bigger changes. I’d bet this is an instance where it is being de-emphasized, or at the very least made less intrusive for those who’d like to customize things more. They’re showing off customizability, not ham-handed design. So, bring on transparency.

    Bring on clowns with balloons if you have ’em. Shake things up and enjoy the ride.

    So, again, be specific as to why your complaints deserve attention because they’re more than opinion. base them on something. Or go away and complain about how the summers never used to be this hot, the winters this cold, or politics this dirty.

    Believe me, we’ve all heard it before– and it was a waste of time the first go around.

    Reply

  50. I am unhappy as well with the menu bar.
    I hate the grass background.
    In some respects it gives pee cee users an excuse to say that Apple copied, or at least some things.
    The new Dock and Finder looks awesome, although not to sure why they used coverflow in the Finder??

    Reply

  53. The sun, she a bother me! So red, like a baboon’s a behinda! She shoulda not a be so red. Maybe blue, like a da’ veil of Santa Maria Majore.

    God, he has a made a mistake. It’s a my opin–ee–on.

    Reply

  56. Familiarity breeds contempt. I’m happy with the changes I see in the Leopard UI, I think making the Menu Bar translucent is Apple’s way of shifting your focus from the OS to your WORK – it’s there when you need it, and fades out of your sight when you don’t.

    My $0.02

    Reply

  57. I know that it’s off subject, but has anyone heard about the latest developments with hacking Mac OS X to run on a standard Windows PC? I’ve been hearing about this X86 that is supposed to make this work now. Anybody know about this?

    Reply

  58. Twisted Mac Freak,
    I believe that HG Wells is correct.
    I’m listening to the original Broadway cast album, and it sounds like “La-la-la-la-la • La-la • La • la-la” to me.

    But – I still loved your version ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    Reply

  59. hmm..I like everything visual about Leopard except the menu bar. I, for one, would like to see a “metal” menu bar to match their apps.

    i think that would be cool.

    @R: nice Ferrari-Ford analogy…I’m going to to go with leopard even if the menu bar is purple

    @Pc Guy i thought i was the only one who hated the transparency that vista and leopard seem to be in bed with.

    Reply

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