Aral Balkan

John Grden just forwarded me an email form John Olsen (thanks guys) alerting me that Apple has reportedly released a fix for the keyboard freezing issue in Leopard.

That's good news but, to tell you the truth, I'm going to wait a couple of months at least before even considering giving Leopard another shot. See, the thing is, I'm really happy on Tiger and downgrading to it made me realize just how many little issues I had with Leopard (responsiveness, general quirkiness, etc.) I absolutely love how stable Tiger is. I love how Tiger looks (yes, I love my non-transparent menu bar, rounded corners and blue apple logo) and I love how everything (all applications, etc.) work. I love the level of polish Tiger has.

Tiger doesn't remind me of Windows at all and Leopard did.

Part of Apple's corporate culture is its arrogance. The problem with arrogance is that, combined with incompetence it makes you appear a fool. Apple can be as arrogant as they want with Tiger. It's a shining beacon of stability and aesthetics, a perfect marriage of form and function. It just works. Not so with Leopard, at least not yet.

In Leopard, form trumps function and eye-candy exists for its own sake while fundamental characteristics of the operating system like stability are compromised.

I'm personally going to wait until Apple or third parties at least give me the option to make Leopard more like Tiger before I upgrade again. I'm guessing this will be in the 10.5.2 - 10.5.4 timeframe.

And really, I don't miss anything that Leopard had. I definitely do not miss the IMHO butt ugly interface. The Finder enhancements were really nice (I loved the breadcrumbs, for one), spotlight was far more useful and I did enjoy the integration between Mail and iCal but I value a stable system far more than any of these. And I didn't really get to use Time Machine as I'm on a laptop and don't have a USB drive plugged in all the time (here's hoping for that dual hard-drive laptop in '08, Apple... and I'll have that second one removable/hot swappable if you don't mind!) :)

I know that Leopard is working well for some of you and that some of you are very happy with it and that's great! But I see Leopard as more of an alternative to Tiger than an upgrade.

At the end of the day, the kitty that still has this early adopter's heart is Tiger.

Comments

• so i just got my macbook not too long ago... and i have been recently experiencing keyboard freezes i don't know what to do? i keep having to restart my computor any suggestions?

  by esther on 2008-01-10 03:36:23

• Leopard 10.5.1 resolves this issue. I had the same problem. Do the software update and all should be fine.

  by Shannon on 2008-01-10 14:11:42

• I checked if any update for Tiger was released last night, but no. After zapping the PRAM my MacBook still experiences keyboard freezes. Shame, as otherwise it's the best computer I've ever owned (unless you count games consoles too, in which case I'd say the NES). :)

  by coderkind on 2007-12-19 12:12:24

• Well, I wish I'd waited... sure I had a minor problem with Tiger that required the disk; but I can't find my disk!. so I figured might as well order Leopard. The transition itself was painless (sort of like borrowing a LOT of money this past decade) but then I tried my usual SSL sites and the shine went right out the door. Steve Gates has done it! much like Bill Jobs' VISTA - except that one doesn't stop me from doing anything (except cringing at times). I can't SSL out of the machine except by using Safari - no; not Camino and not Firefox. so, yes! my last thought was: I want to downgrade to Tiger; except! can' find my disk. I wonder if I can exchange Leopard for Tiger at the Mac store.

  by jacques B on 2008-01-18 21:01:44

• I am staying with Tiger, sure there are the few minor bugs (log on screen not present when I awake from sleep with an external monitor plugged in, but even that is not all the time). I love the speed of spotlight and quick view, plus screen sharing and not to mention the new features in mail and iChat! Spaces, Time machine, stacks and cover flow I'm not that bothered by!

  by Rob on 2007-12-19 12:50:24

• @Tracy: Ouch -- that's not good!

  by Aral on 2007-12-21 08:58:55

• Downloaded Opera and it worked with https/SSL with no problems. It occured to me that, perhaps, all new browser installs would work. So i downloaded and reinstalled Firefox; still the same problems as before... until I realized that I had reinstalled the app... and neglected the application parameters. So I renamed the Firefox profiles folder and let the app recreate it. This time it all worked fine. No more problems with HTTPS/SSL sites. I was able to access Gmail, Hotmail and online banking. I then installed FEBE and used to reinstall all my extensions onto the new install. I'll keep Leopard after all.. ;-)

  by jacques B on 2008-01-19 06:28:38

• Thankfully, my transition to Leopard has been mostly painless (other than AIR and a few other apps being unstable - but the new AIR update resolved those issues). I think it's kind of hit or miss regarding Leopard. I think I prefer the old Tiger look of the dock versus the new 3D look. I also dislike that all gray feel of everything. On the other hand, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the new "stacks". That said, it did take some additions to make them usable. Namely, using these great "drawer" icons from a Japanese designer. So between these and some other implementations described on my blog; for the very first time I feel that Mac OS X's "dock" is providing me with the usability that I desired. http://thesaj.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/os-x-leopard-improving-the-dock/ That said, the technical/stability issues of Leopard are a whole 'nother ball game. But if the patches resolve those issues. I find the above enhancements resolve a number of usability quirks I have had with OS X. "Spaces" could be really nice. But I think they need some further innovation (ie: locking items so that when you switch spaces a particular folder or app window remains, defining apps to appear in more than one space concurrently, multi-monitor space support so that I can define one space on one monitor and another on my secondary monitor).

  by Jason The Saj on 2007-12-20 14:09:28

• I installed this update on my Macbook, and now I have the keyboard freezing problem that I didn't have before the update.

  by Tracy Bates on 2007-12-20 16:35:16

• Installed the update as well, and the laptop keyboard and mouse have completely died so that I have to use the USB for everything. Hmm...not sure if I can really call this sucker a "laptop" anymore...not so portable either. Only thing worse than releasing buggy software: releasing a patch promising to fix the buggy software, but actually making the problem worse. Stick with Tiger my friends.

  by BE on 2007-12-22 08:04:26

• Does anyone have instructions on how to dump Leopard and re-install Tiger? I spent $400 dollars getting a new keyboard installed on my PowerBook, and now I see from various discussion groups that the problem was software. Leopard has caused the following problems for me: 1. iPhone crashed iTunes EVERY TIME it is plugged in, and usually iTunes does not "see" the iPhone. 2. Preview.app does not properly select pieces of a PDF document. 3. My new keyboard has become disabled again and I don't have another $400 to get a new keyboard, and its not the keyboard anyway. 4. Performance is terrible. Leopard is a bloated pig for resources. 5. Leopard is not a significant upgrade, but it is costly, and has caused severe problems for me.

  by Edward M. Roche on 2008-01-22 01:16:02

• Apple tends to release new versions of things at the big user conferences. There's one next month, so I'd wait until that's in progress before buying. I bought a MBP when Leopard was announced. That way, I got a system with Tiger and a Leopard installer disk. I'm still running Tiger until I feel like making the move to Leopard makes sense, which I hope is within the next couple of months. I like my Mac, but it's not the be all / end all. It has its pros and cons, just like my Windows machine has. In some ways, I prefer Windows, at least on XP, but in others, I'd rather use the Mac. Don't look to OS X as any kind of a panacea. It has its flaws, plenty of them, particularly if you're the sort of advanced user who'd probably read this blog. It's kind of the thing right now to switch to Mac. I did it, at least on my laptop. I'd probably still do it if I had it to do again, but part of it is just that it's nice to do something a little different sometimes.

  by Jim on 2007-12-23 19:44:17

• Well, I have a question for you if you wouldn't mind. I have used windows for a very long time, but with vista I have finally decided that it might be worth it to shell out a few extra bucks for a nice macbook pro. Unfortunately I am beginning to come to terms with apple's sudden and unexpected updates. My question is, is it worth it to buy a macbook pro right now (knowing full well that I intend on spending upwards of 3k realz moniez), or instead should I wait for a new update, and if so how long?

  by Joe on 2007-12-23 03:34:59

• Ok, thank you for your input

  by Joe on 2007-12-24 15:50:51

• Hey Aral, To bad that you got all those problems with leopard. Like I posted on my blog it's to bad apple didn't handle the situatie all that well. But I do hope that this didn't chance anything regarding to you opinion about OS X and such. The only thing I don't get is why I hear / read so many people talk about the rounded edge's and the blue apple logo. I really like the new look (even the transparant menu bar is not that bad) it just takes some adjusting (not saying that you didn't try).. As for the rest keep rediscovering the fun !

  by Marius van Zundert on 2007-12-19 14:03:40

• The thing is....Apple may have issued many "fixes" but here I am in late 2010, using Snow Leopard on a MBP, and my computer has the keyboard freezing issue. I have tried every "fix" I can find, which is how I got here. Some things work for a little while, but so far nothing works permanently. I understand from the blogs that getting the top frame and keyboard replaced seems to do the job, but until Apple owns this problem and issues a recall there is no way I can afford a $700 fix for a machine I bought 2 years ago.

  by Jenne on 2010-08-24 11:49:02

• The fix is this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1365569 All that is necessary is a piece of tape or paper to smooth out the crease in the ribbon under the battery! good luck Matthew

  by Matthew on 2011-03-22 00:27:15