I’m as excited as anyone about Leopard. In particular, Time Machine and Spaces. Time Machine because backups have to be automated and I’ve never investigated the options. Spaces because virtual desktop is the one thing I really, really, miss from Linux. I also have hopes that Spotlight will actually be worth using. And I know there will be tons of the little things which seem pointless in isolation, but make a superb impact overall.

However, I will not be upgrading until at least the first significant patch. Leopard early adopters suffer for the rest of us. I salute you guys for your assistance in making the platform more stable. Me, I’m going to continue using Tiger until the “blue screen” problem is a thing of the past, Skype works, and MOST IMPORTANT, Rails works without the hassle I went through on Tiger when it first came out (it wasn’t very funny).

Apple and Google both have a policy of secrecy, which has been highly successful in an era where the common mantra is openness and transparency. It works fine for both of them, but it’s better for Google, where the barrier to usage is low. For Apple, there’s always a risk of charging hundreds or thousands for something that turns out to be seriously broken. They’ve been fine to date, mostly due to the zeal of the Apple crowd, as well as what must be some very savvy development and testing processes. While it works fine for Apple, I as an individual user make sure to protect myself from the risk of early releases.

The sweet spot for me and Apple is being a late Early Adopter - that’s the right balance between the increased productivity from new features and the loss of productivity from using an OS that’s been sent into the wild sans beta test. I may be a fanboy, but you won’t see me queuing up in Regent St for a week. I’ve gotten by without Leopard for the some decades; I can wait another month.