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| Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.4 Leopard [5-User Family Pack] | ![Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.4 Leopard [5-User Family Pack]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JcgilFn0L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | From: Apple Computer
Category: Software
List Price: $199.00
Buy New: $142.95
You Save: $56.05 (28%)
New (17) Used (1) from $142.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  107 reviews
Sales Rank: 106
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Mac Os X Intel, Mac Os X
Color: 5-user
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: 5-User Family Pack
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 13.4 x 13.4 x 1.8
MPN: MB577Z/A
Model: MB577Z/A
UPC: 718908999783
EAN: 0885909240555
Publication Date: October 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Anxious to Install, Failed 1st Time, All is Well Now October 30, 2007
Upgraded a 17" Intel Core Duo 2 today. First install ended with the Blue screen. (Very similar to the Blue Screen of Death in Windows ... I'm sure Apple didn't plan on that.) Luckily there is help on Apple's site. If this is your only machine, I'd suggest you go to support BEFORE you upgrade, so you can see some of the problems & solutions. I first tried the Terminal fix but that did not work. So I ended up doing a reinstall with the Archive & Install method as recommended. So far so good.
Nice look .. no problem seeing stuff as others have mentioned. Time will tell how I like it.
 Great OS! October 30, 2007
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is an amazing upgrade on my Intel Macs! I won't cover all the details as it's on Apple's website. My only complaint is that the sidebar text and icons are too small. Hopefully Apple will fix this. Remember this is 10.5.0, as soon as we have 10.5.1 or 10.5.2, I'm sure it will be great.
People who are complaining about the new features on an older Mac should stay with Tiger if you don't have the horsepower. There were many articles prior to release describing the memory and video requirements of the new features. My Intel iMac is faster under 10.5 then it was under Tiger (10.4) NOT slower!
If you don't like the menu then open an Apple desktop pattern and add a gray, white or black bar at the top. The new desktop pictures have a built in guide when you open them in Photoshop. I added a gray bar and voila, no more translucent menu. It is a quick and easy fix, so do it and stop complaining!
 The first Mac OS release to disappoint since 8.5 October 29, 2007
26 out of 46 found this review helpful
I pre-ordered 10.5 Leopard. The disc was here before the general availability. The disc was damaged. It would read on my old PowerMac, but as it's so big and dual layer, the intel portion would not work. I had to call apple, wait 55 minutes on the phone and then drive to the nearest apple store to get a new DVD. Upon arriving, I was hassled by the employees about not having a receipt. I couldn't print it since my Mac wouldn't boot. The printer was not connected to the other system. 10.5 disabled booting my Mac. I could only get into single user mode which is a shell prompt (unix command line). After getting a new disc, I could do a fresh install. I spent several hours reinstalling and/or copying files around to get everything back together.
Time Machine is nice. It does require several hours of syncing and when doing a lot of things, it will cause slowdowns using your Mac. You have good backups though.
Spotlight has to re-index everything which takes some time.
Mail.app now now has check box for INCOMING SSL/TLS certificate acceptance. This has been an issue for a long time. IF the certificate is self signed on your mail server, you had to go through a lot of hoops before. Those hoops are still required for OUTGOING mail. I had to set this up again.
Safari 3 has some rendering issues on some sites compared to the old version. It is much better than the betas though.
The transparency and new dock are ugly and harder to read. I have trouble telling if a program is open sometimes. (I use my dock on the left side) Transparency is disabled on old G4 PowerMacs, but enabled on newer Macs with beefy video cards.
My wacom tablet randomly stops working in Leopard. No driver yet (other than beta). Everything else works fine. Adobe has not updated many of their applications yet and won't until January 2008.
Test drive this before you buy it.
Whiz-Bang? Kind of. Refined? Definitely. October 27, 2007
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
Each new major release of an operating system (OS) has to make a splash. We all expect to be wowed. We expect and demand that we are shown new whiz-bang features and enhancements. For example, Microsoft's Vista has lots of whiz-bang features when compared to the steady and stalwart Windows XP. But since Vista's debut, the afterglow has faded. ANd now, the 'whiz' is the sound of people flocking back to XP and the 'bang' is the sound of people's heads hitting their keyboards from the frustration of wrestling with their computer's operating system.
Enter Mac OS 10.X:
10.1 - not a great debut. 10.2 was admittedly undercooked. 10.3 was getting there. And 10.4 finally delivered on the promise of the Mac OS in the modern age.
So with OS 10.5 - where's the whiz-bang? Ah, as they say the devil is in the details. 10.5 won't jump up and clamor for your attention out of the box. It's new features are to be lauded, but the real benefits here are in the easy way that 10.5 builds on the solid foundation of 10.4 and delivers as the best Mac OS to date.
I won't go into massive detail about each new feature, you can just check out the product info or peruse [...] for the sales pitch. Suffice to say that the additions and enhancements are indeed very cool. And perhaps more importantly worth the cost of the upgrade.
Instead of belaboring the fine points of each nook and cranny and application, I am going to touch on how impressed I am with the way that Apple has worked to ensure the continuance of a good thing.
10.5 is certainly evolutionary. The departure from Tiger is not drastic. But this is a good thing. Unlike the jolt of moving from XP to Vista - the transition from Tiger to Leopard can be best defined as "refined". At each turn there are subtle enhancements and features that may not trumpet for attention but work to take the "interference" out of using a computer. You can expect Leopard to work as advertised. Simple in its promise, but steadfast in its mission: 'it just works'.
During the past couple of years, more and more people have moved to Apple systems for the first time. With more people hopping on board, I'm glad to see that OS 10.5 is a mature refinement to an already fine OS. More than anything, I'm encouraged that this new version allows me and my family to actually use our computers with minimal interference from the OS.
So where's the whiz-bang? It's in getting an easy to learn, easy to use, and as-powerful-as-you-need-it operating system perfect for use in your home.
On a final note - this review is for the 5-user family pack. It is hard to beat the idea of getting the best OS on the block for $40 a computer. In my case, to upgrade each system averaged out to $67. And there is no strange upgrade path to follow. Each version of leopard is the same. No Leopard home, or business, or ultimate or penultimate. Just leopard. Everything you need, when you need it. No strange add-ons or deluxe editions needed.
For those interested - I have Leopard running on a 12" Powerbook G4 (1.25Ghz - And it will run - trust me), a MacBook and a Core2Duo iMac. Leopard is running well on all of these systems. It took about 45mins-1hr per system to upgrade.
Here's the upgrade path: Put in the DVD, walk through the the setup menu and wait for your "new" computer to restart.
Post-upgrade, all of my existing programs work. All of my files are in tact and I'm off and running with 10.5.
How's that for Whiz-bang?
It has some noteworthy deficiencies October 27, 2007
41 out of 67 found this review helpful
It's premature to judge the value of many of 10.5's new features. I'm pleased with the improvements to Mail, iCal, and iChat. There are, however, some serious problems that should give a buyer pause. Apple has changed the Finder menus so that they are translucent. The lettering is no longer black-on-white unless you choose white as your wallpaper, which is hardly pleasing. I've compromised by choosing a solid light blue, but for the sake of efficiency and clarity nice designs and pictures are out. There is no corrective for the translucent pull-down menu: you always see a hazy semblance of whatever is behind it. This has introduced a lot of visual noise and may be a serious problem for individuals with vision impairment. In this case Apple has sacrificed clarity and performance for a dubious new aesthetic.
There are instances when icons and buttons which are themselves grey are placed against a gray background. This is true with the Trash on the new Dock background (if you place the Dock on the right). This makes them more difficult to see at a glance.
In changing many aesthetic features of OS X Apple seems to be addressing problems that don't exist. There is a reason why most books are not printed on translucent or colored paper, and that same reason is why the Finder should be black-on-white. Apple has added milliseconds to basic functions, thereby reducing productivity. Apple's habit of offering take-it-or-leave-it features which cannot be modified or turned off is frustrating.
One of the few regular maintenance requirements of OS X is repairing permissions. In 10.4 this took less than a minute to accomplish, but after installing 10.5 I found that it took about 7 minutes, and then a cryptic message appeared. Each time I repeated the procedure the same thing happened, though it does report also that permissions have been repaired.
When I click on the Applications folder in 10.4 the contents appear almost instantly. In 10.5 it takes more than 4 seconds for the contents to appear. It remains to be seen how many other basic functions of OS X have been harmed.
In summary, Apple seems to have made substantial changes merely for the sake of change, rather than to improve productivity, and some of these changes have degraded both productivity and comfort.
I installed Leopard on one of my three Macs, but I will not "upgrade" the other two until Apple eliminates the aesthetic drawbacks and brings speed back to parity with Tiger. It's nice to have eye candy, but productivity is my first concern. Some of the new visual features remind me of the clutter which is now standard on the screens of cable news channels.
As for the family pack, in my opinion it should contain 5 discs, not merely the same lone disc that is in the single-user package with some different text in the user agreement.
The installation discussed is on a MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz.
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