I got started with Leopard on my backup computer, my MacBook, on the Saturday after Leopard launched. Had some problems there. I was tempted still to upgrade my main axe, my MacBook Pro, to Leopard but held off. Lucky thing.
I'm convinced that I would have lost more than I gained by switching my main machine at that time. I'm still happily productive on Tiger on my main axe. And, I haven't had a lot of time to do much with Leopard yet on my MacBook. But I have a few initial impressions and experiences to share.
I tried using the dock at the bottom of my screen because I wanted to see the cool new dock. This week I switched back to the dock on the side. I like it there. I like it on the bottom from an aesthetic point of view but a widescreen like the MacBook's really works better with the dock on the side. I like it on the left. The left side dock loses its 3D look, but still looks different enough to be a nice touch.
If you have a 24" iMac or even a 20" or 17" MacBook Pro or maybe a 15" MacBook Pro, you may have room for the dock on the bottom. But forget it on a MacBook. No way!
I like the way Leopard looks overall. I like the consistency and the great number of small refinements throughout. And, I am still being surprised by big improvements here and there. For example, the Network panel rocks (see above). It looks enticing and actually gives you the most important information you need on one panel.
I heard Mac guru, Dr. Bob Levitus, talking about Leopard on the Mac OS Ken podcast recently. He wasn't really recommending it. He loves it but thinks there are enough issues like the blue screen of death to make it a prudent idea to wait a while. Wait until you can upgrade with confidence. Wait until there's enough time for good advice to be published and for lesser but prized applications to be upgraded and fully Leopard-compatible.
I'm lucky to have a secondary machine handy that I could upgrade to Leopard and use for web browsing, feed reading and some email. I can tinker with it and explore and not get stuck with extra problems when I'm under deadline and have to get something out the door.
So what's the plan with Leopard? I'm going to keep this up for a while. I have my fun, new Leopard machine to play with and I have my MacBook Pro for work and anything else I want on my main machine. I want to wait until my favorite backup program, SuperDuper, works flawlessly with Leopard.
I have every intention of upgrading to Leopard on my MacBook Pro by Christmas. Maybe Thanksgiving weekend even. I'll be tracking the Leopard news. Once I'm convinced the chances of problems has diminished to unlikely, I'll go for it.
By the way, even when I go to Leopard on my MacBook Pro, I'll still have my G5 tower on Tiger. That machine isn't Intel based and still runs Classic. I still have one Classic application I like to run from time to time - Civilization II - a classic game if ever there was one.
I hear Intel Macs are the ones that get speedy on Leopard. Older machines don't fare as well. My 3-year-old G5 runs great and I don't want it slowing down on Leopard. It'll probably be fine, actually, since the Mac towers have decent and upgradeable video cards.
Then there are the highly anticipated screen sharing and remote control features in Leopard to consider. Once the kinks are worked out (hear Ted Landau's rundown of initial limitations on the Nov 8 episode of the Tech Night Owl Live Podcast), this snazzy sharing stuff is going to be compelling.
If I fall in love with Leopard over the next few weeks, I may decide I want an all Leopard household at some point. The advantage to NOT doing that is that I'll be able to run Leopard-incompatible applications on my non-Leopard machine(s) as needed rather than being stuck without that option.