Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, the Mac roars again, Leopard it is this time. With some ingenious developments in the past few weeks, it was time indeed to give this platform a try. And that is exactly what I have done. I am very very happy to report that it is a resounding success. Leopard has roared, a roar so loud, that the other OS’s better stand up and take notice. (Bad prose). But anyway, it has been an awesome journey, started out of necessity because of the purchase of my new iPhone.

I installed Leopard and some "tricks" later, I had a rock stable and steady system, likes of which I really could not have imagined. Spotlight is one feature that stands out above and beyond everything else. I am amazed at how fast it searches through the huge list of Apps, Docs, and all the assorted junk I have. The indexing is light speed, and it works splendidly. I have absolutely no complaints.

Spaces is a concept that Linux and other OS’s have had for a long time indeed, but only Apple could give it the deft touch that would make it usable in a day-to-day setting and just SO intuitively. I am again at a loss for words for how smooth the transitions are, and how easy it is to move the files from one desktop to the other. I use a dual display (1680×1050) and the Spaces take note of that, and change the view accordingly. Amazing ease of use.

iCal has been upgraded to being just super fast and with changes in the UI that make it ever so much easier to use. It loads within a millisecond, for my huge iCal DB (with events ranging back from 1998). Mail.app has been completely overhauled and I find myself using this exclusively for IMAP access to my Gmail account. The Notes feature is just an awesome add-on.

Which brings me to Safari. Now noone hated Safari more than yours truly. I was a fervent opponent of how closely Safari was tied to the OSX Tiger system. It is worse off in Leopard, where the System indexes your Safari history as well. But, somehow I am yet to take offence. Ask me why? Because… Safari 3.0 has been overhauled from the bottom-up. I have never seen a faster browser, with such a rich UI and browsing experience. The icons, the fonts, everything scales so well on Safari 3.0 that it has seriously made me shift from Firefox (I have been depending on that of late) to exclusively Safari.

All my apps from Tiger have nearly been updated for Leopard except for my scanner Canon Lide 60, if ever those people would get their act together and release drivers for 10.5. Ach. I have also not managed to get my Look 320S Webcam to work. I am working on a fix for that. Unison, Transmit, iGetter, Simple Comic all work splendidly.

I have to say this for Apple. Guys you have done a bangup job with Leopard. My hat is off to you! This OS makes the other OS’s look like grand-nannys.

Good news! Rissa has her permit for Indieland! This is just such exciting news, and even though we had the tickets for her and knew the dates, just feels as if another formality or rather all formalities have been taken care of, and we guys are well on our way to India together. As my love put it, "All I have to do is wait till spring and get on the plane". Just so exciting. I really cannot wait to show her around the places I grew up, and introduce her to the people and friends I grew up with. Watch out Indieland, here cometh Rissa and I.

But before that there’s the Christmas break, and ideas abound for gifts for the family, most of which are rather difficult to implement being ever so far away, but I hope the family shall not be overly disappointed this year. I do promise to make it up the next! :) Stay tuned.