The update naturally requires a reboot. This was a double-reboot which is common enough now that my heart no longer stops. Each reboot took much longer than normal and the desktop took much longer to completely appear after the first logon. Subsequent reboots were back to normal.

On two of my Macs there was also a RAW Camera update for Aperture. I decided to apply this update first (no reboot required). After applying this update Software Update refreshed and the OS X 10.5.3 update jumped from a 198MB download to a 420MB download. So if you’re concerned about the download size be sure to apply 10.5.3 first or both at the same time.

After applying the update on my iMac the button configuration for my Mighty Mouse was reset to the defaults so I had to go into preferences and reset them. I’ve had to do this after other updates.

Another problem that’s occurred with previous updates is that the first .Mac sync after the update causes several iCal conflicts. The appointments are fine and the problem hasn’t returned or occurred with my other Mac. The appointments affected are recurring appointments that go back several years.

That’s the extent of my problems so far, but the update is fresh and I haven’t done a lot or run a lot of apps yet. So far I’ve just run iTunes and Parallels, but no problems so far. Only time will tell.

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The problems I was having were minor but annoying. I had to turn of .Mac syncing of the Dock because the two updated Dock items, Documents and Downloads, always displayed conflict errors. The second problem may not be related to the upgrade since it didn’t occur at first. I could no longer logon to my Windows Home Server shares through the keychain. I had to delete the item from the keychain then I could logon. Even saving a successful logon to the keychain would fail the next time.

I updated my SuperDuper backup and booted off that disk to verify it was usable and then started the update. The update went along as it did for my MacBook update. The only difference was I got the iLife ‘08 update at the same time I got OS X 10.5.2. After the reboot I got the Leopard Graphics Update. The installation of the updates went fine.

The upgrade of my iMac wasn’t quit as smooth as the MacBook but it wasn’t too bad. The problems I had were related to .Mac syncing. I kept getting the following errors when iDisk synced:

I keep a copy of my iDisk locally so I turned off iDisk syncing (in .mac preferences) which deleted the local iDisk on my iMac. (It makes a copy on the desktop.) Then I turned on iDisk syncing again. It recreated the local iDisk and all was fine after that.

Once the keychains on both my iMac and MacBook synced the problem logging onto my home server also went away. The Windows Home Server shares would then be automatically mapped during logon using the password in the keychain.

The bottom line - multiple Macs that sync over .Mac should be upgraded at the same time or syncing should be turned off.

While I didn’t experience the problems, there’s been reports or problems between OS X 10.5.1 and LinoType Font Explorer, problems with the Leopard Graphics Update, and a list of additional issues. 

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Not a lot in the way of details. A restart is needed and it was a 43MB download through Software Update on my Intel MacBook. It’s also available as a 48MB standalone update.

I installed the update on my Intel MacBook. Like the 10.5.2 update my local iDisk displayed a quick compression popup after the reboot. The pop-up hasn’t appeared on subsequent reboots.

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The update itself went fine. It’s a 180MB download through Software Update on my Intel MacBook. The install requires a reboot and like the 10.5.1 update the system can’t be used while the update is being applied and a restart is required. The install took about 5 minutes (not including download time) and there was a single reboot. There was a long minute or two where the progress bar didn’t move.

The minor issues came up with .Mac. During the first sync I was told there were 15 conflicts in my iCal. All the conflicts were old recurring appointment. The immediate sync after that flagged 14 conflicts, all of which appeared to be in the first batch. The third sync was just fine. All the conflicting appointments were full-day appointments.

Shortly after the startup I received the following message which cleared within a minute.

I keep my iDisk local on my Macs so it was compacting it after the reboot. I haven’t re-sized iDisk in Months. The updates to iCal include recurring appointments and .Mac sync:

Improves iCal so that it accurately reflects responses to recurring meetings.
Addresses stability issues related to .Mac syncing of iCal calendars.

Which probably caused the sync issues. In my case some of the iMac dates were a day early, so I picked the iCal appointment as the one to save.

The iDisk compression may have just been a side effect of the OS X system update, eveything seems to be fine.

I’ll spend a day or two running things on my MacBook and wait a day or two before updating my iMac, but things seem to be OK for now.

OS X 10.5.2 is also available via a 343MB standalone installer. After installing OS X 10.5.2 a Leopard Graphics Update will be available for installation and it also requires a reboot.

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Large Restore

After corrupting my local iTunes library (through a stupid mistake) while trying to get it to work off of a Windows Home Server I decided to go the restore route rather than try to fix the problem and miss something. I knew it would work and I could go do other things while it happened. My iTunes folder is about 139GB and it’s on a 433GB partition. All the iTunes files were still there so there was less than 139GB free on disk when I started the restore.

I went into Time Machine and started a restore from the last backup made before I started working on moving the library. It displayed a message saying there wasn’t enough space to do the restore without overwriting existing files and asked if I wanted to continue. I let it overwrite the existing files. Most files were unchanged since they were backed up but Time Machine still overwrote all the files (which I consider a good thing).

The downside to this occurred during the next Time Machine backup, although it wasn’t serious.

Time Machine wanted to backup the entire iTunes folder again. First, there wasn’t enough free space on the Time Machine drive so it told me that it needed to delete old backups and the oldest backup was now Nov 3rd. Whenever I went in to check the status during the backup it always showed XXGB out of XXGB backed up where the numbers always matched. Each time I checked the numbers were higher but equal. Eventually I received a timeout error with the message that the backup failed. When the next scheduled Time Machine backup rolled around it completed the backup. Based upon how little the free space actually went down, and how fast the backup ran, it appears Time Machine used pointers to existing files when they were already on the Time Machine drive.

Renaming Folders

After moving the iTunes library I renamed the old iTunes folder on my Mac rather than delete it. The next time Time Machine ran a backup it backed up this entire 139GB in directory structure again. Based upon the backup time and drop in free space it actually backed up the files again even though the files themselves were already there on the drive in another folder tree.

This was my first real occasion to use Time Machine and it was nice to see it work as expected. The iTunes library worked find after the restore.

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One of the fixes took a page from Microsoft by changing some words to help call the problem solved. This “re-wording” was for the problem described as:

The “Block all incoming connections” setting for the firewall is misleading.

Apple fixed this so the setting now reads “Allow only essential services”. According to the bulletin they have reduced the number of apps that allow connections through the firewall. It used to be any app running as root could get through the firewall. Now the list is limited to configd (for DHCP and network configuration), mDNSResponder for Bonjour, and racoon for IPSec.

Previously, any process running as root would be allowed through the firewall even if it was on the list to block. The OS X 10.5.1 update now blocks any process that’s in the list to be blocked, even if it runs as root.

And in the third firewall fix Apple changed it so that changes to the firewall take effect immediately. Previously some processes had to be restarted for the change to take effect.

So, Apple made some changes to the firewall so it makes a little more sense and the way it works is more clearly defined. I still prefer the OS X 10.4 method of opening ports by number.

News & Links

BlogSecurity.net: RR Securing WordPress Tips - Good tips for securing a Wordpress website.

PaulStamatiou.com: Privacy Implications of RFID Tags - An interesting read on the topic.

Wired.com: Hushmail To Warn Users of Law Enforcement Backdoor - Hushmail, always thought to be secure, can read any email with a court order. Even those using their most secure product.

apple.com: Apple security updates (OSX 10.3 & 10.4 and Safari 3 Beta for Windows - Apple released OS X 10.4.11 for Tiger which includes security updates. Also Security Update 2007-008 for OS X 10.3.9. And finally, Safari 3.0.4 beta for Windows which includes security updates.

news.com: In ID theft, some victims see opportunity - Roundup of ways companies make money from ID theft. Needing to pay to protect our identity just seems wrong to me.

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But I was pleasantly surprised when I turned on Spaces to see what was there. I’ve been running it since. On my 13″ MacBook it makes sense because of the small screen. Even on my large 24″ iMac it’s been a huge benefit. It completely eliminates my envy of people with dual-monitor setups.

Two features that make Spaces more useful than the virtual desktops that came before it are the ability to assign apps to a desktop and to jump to the desktop that hosts the app when the app is activated.

The preference pane for Spaces is shown to the left, click the thumbnail to enlarge it. The default arrangement for the spaces are two rows of two spaces each as shown in the screenshot. This can be modified and can be up to 16 Spaces (4 X 4). I’m still using the default 2 X 2 arrangement.

You can also assign applications to a specific space. When an application starts up it will open in the assigned space. You’ll see from the screenshot that I have my photo apps open in Space 2. I make space 3 my “Windows” space and open the VM apps there. I’ve assigned Mail to space 4. Space 1 is my work space. If I start using more apps in full screen mode I’ll probably start adding spaces to hold them.

Another useful trick is to assign a app to all spaces, this way it will follow you around from space to space. I’ve done this with iTunes and Skype. iTunes because I frequently watch videos and this way they follow me around. Skype, because if I’m using it I want it in front of me.

Moving apps between spaces is also simple, just drag the app’s window to the edge of the screen, towards the space you want to move it to and it will jump to that space.

There are numerous ways to move between spaces but I’ve become partial to the <Ctrl-#> key combination. I’ve also been using <Ctrl-arrow> to move between adjacent spaces. The <F8> key can also be used to display all the spaces and then you can click on the one you want. Hitting <F9> after displaying all the spaces will display all windows in each space expose style. You can also add a spaces selection to the menu bar and use it to switch spaces. All the key combinations are configurable.

Spaces is one of those features that make my Mac more productive than it wa sunder Tiger.

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I’ve been using the Time Machine for local backups and Mozy for my offsite backups. But my boot disk for fast recovery was running Tiger and had data that was getting older by the day. So I decided to use Disk Utility to clone my iMac disk and replace my last SuperDuper! clone of Tiger. This is a simple process although the disk clone will take some time, how long depends on your hardware. I ran the clone while I was at work today. To clone the disk:

1. Start Disk Utility. It’s in Applications/Utilities.

2. Select a drive then click the “Restore” button.

3. Drag the source partition from the list on the left to the Source box.

4. Drag the destination partition to the Destination box.

5. Click erase destination to make the disk bootable.

6. Click the “Restore” button in the lower right. The screenshot below shows my selections:

When I left for work the time estimate for my drive (258GB used) was 8 hours. I can’t say how long it took but when I returned 10 hours later it was done. Unlike Superduper! the next clone will take just as long and it can’t be scheduled so I probably won’t do it daily, but at least it’s got newer data and is Leopard.

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Until now Time Machine ran almost unnoticed by me. But tonight I had a Parallels VM open for several hours. The good news is that Time Machine didn’t seem to be bothered by this.

But then I shut down the VM and Time Machine’s hourly backup time rolled around. Time Machine had 12.9GB to back up, almost all of it was that VM. I was playing music in iTunes like I often do and it sounded like a record skipping (to those of you too young to remember vinyl think fingernails on a blackboard). The skipping is what caught my attention. The CPU wasn’t pinned (although heavily used) but between that and reading the disk iTunes was affected. I was typing at the time and that seemed unaffected. The backupd process was showing around 70% in activity monitor.

Since I don’t really care about backing up the VM’s (well, I do - but not frequently so I’ll come up with an alternative) I excluded them from Time Machine.

To do this go into System Preferences and select Time Machine. Then click the Options button and click the + button. Browse to and select the location of the Parallels VMs.

Then click the exclude button to save it to the exclude list.

This doesn’t remove them from existing backups, but future backups won’t have them.

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I did a complete erase and fresh install of Leopard. I’d cloned my disk so I’d be using the clone as a backup to restore from. After installing Leopard I installed Parallels and ran it once to make sure it created all the directories it needed then shut it down. Then I dragged the ~/Library/Parallels folder from my backup to my Leopard drive and put it in the same location.

To load the VMs it was simply a matter of picking “Choose” from the new VM dialog.

Then browsing for the VM and selecting it.

Once it’s loaded Parallels will remember it and you can open it as you would any other VM in the future.

That’s it.

One thing I like about Leopard is Spaces. I have one space set up just to run Parallels in Coherence mode without mucking up the rest of my desktops.

Also, I did have a problem adding Boot Camp as a VM although the problem seems to pre-date Leopard.

If the large size if the VMs causes performance problems when Time Machine backs them up you may want to read about what I did.

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The first thing I installed was Yojimbo because I keep all my configuration info, serial numbers and passwords in it. Yojimbo syncs with .Mac so after installation I reconfigured it to sync with .Mac and did a manual sync. When prompted I told .Mac to replace everything on the computer (Yojimbo data only). All my data was quickly restored and I moved on.

Next up was Firefox. While it doesn’t sync with .Mac I do use the Google Browser Sync plugin to save configuration and other info. So I re-installed that and did a sync. All my bookmarks, cookies and configuration were restored.

Other programs, such as DVDPedia keep their data in ~/Library/Application Support/AppDir. I didn’t want to take the settings for every app since I wanted a clean start, but if the app also kept it’s data there I dragged the directory from my backup to Leopard after installing the app.

I installed all the Apple apps (iLife, iWork, Aperture) from DVD then ran Software Update to get all the updates for them. While there were updates for just about everything it was nice to only have to get one set of updates and not have to return to get the updates for the updates. For other apps I used their own update check after installing the software.

For iTunes I started it before any restore then I shut it down and moved my iTunes library from my backup to the newly created library directory and overwrote everything. I was happy to see it remembered all my podcast subscriptions and history. I had to authorize the computer with the iTunes store and I also went through the preferences and set things up again.

For iPhoto I copied my libraries to the Pictures directory. Since I don’t use the standard library name I held down the option key when I started iPhoto and picked one of my libraries and all was fine. I was able to use iPhoto Library Manager to switch between libraries although I’m avoiding any other iPLM options until there’s an update.

I was able to install the following apps: Aperture 1.5.6, ChronoSync 3.3.5, CSS Edit 2.6, DVDPedia 4.0.7, Fetch 5.2.1, Firefox 2.0.0.8, Growl 1.1.1, iLife ‘08, iWork ‘08, Mailplane 1.53, QuickSilver B52 (3813), Skype 2.6.0.151, SnapZ Pro X 2.1.1, and Transmit 3.6.1 among others. All used similar methods, either restore data from .Mac or restore the data from my backup.

SnapZ Pro X is one app I had a problem with. When I picked the option to license it to all users on the computer it would prompt me for my admin password but not do anything after I entered it. I had no problem licensing it for me. This isn’t a big deal since I’m the only user.

The Quicksilver website (quicksilver.blacktree.com) has been down so I’m been unable to download plugins but I’ve been using it as an application launcher. Can’t blame Leopard for this one.

That takes care of most of the software. I still need to setup Boot Camp, install Parallels and configure Time Machine but those will be more involved. I have read about people who are doing an upgrade in place having problems (and many other success stories) so I’m glad I went the re-install route. It takes longer but not unexpectedly long and I end up with a pristine installation.

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I synced my iPod with iTunes to get the latest updates, refreshed my iTunes library backup on my Airport connected drive then deauthorized iTunes. Then I did one more .Mac sync and set syncing to manual. Then I started Superduper! to do a smart update to both my external drives and went to put on a pot of coffee. The smart updates for my 500GB drive (240GB used) took about 15 minutes each. I then verified Mozy had backed up during the day while I was at work.

Then I booted off of each clone to make sure they worked. So I had two bootable full disk clones and a third backup of all data (Mozy offsite for everything except iTunes, and iTunes on another external drive). Once each clone booted I shut down and disconnected it from my iMac to avoid any accidents. Not that I’m paranoid or anything.

Once that was done I decided to take advantage of my backups and see what it was like to remove a Boot Camp partition. That went extremely well and was quick. (I’ll be adding Boot Camp back but with Windows XP and not Vista.)

Then I shut down, disconnected all peripherals and did the memory upgrade to bring it to the 3GB maximum, and booted to make sure the old OS saw the memory and everything seemed fine. I’ll do the upgrade with only the keyboard and mouse connected.

It was time to pop in the Leopard DVD, power off and reboot while holding down the <C> key to boot from the DVD. I did an Erase and Install which went very much as described by Apple. I picked a custom install and deselected the Language translations to save 1.9GB. The install was about 9.5GB.

The install took about an hour, including the setup wizard. There’s a DVD verification scan that can be skipped. I let it run this first time but will skip if for the other Macs. This took 22 minutes. The setup wizard runs after the first reboot and was just like setting up a new Mac. I did not use the Wizard to import the old settings. I want to do fresh installs for everything.

Immediately after my first logon there was an update through Software Update titled “Remote Desktop Client 3.2.1″. It was a 5.8MB download which downloaded quickly. I had expected Software Update to be buried so I was pleasantly surprised.

Then I connected one of my cloned drives and clicked cancel when asked if Time machine should use it. I then started copying the User directory to the local disk in a spare location. My plan is to disconnect the clone and start moving data from that spare location to my current directories. I’ll clean things up as I go and by doing a move I’ll be able to keep track of what I haven’t touched.

I made a few quick configuration changes - moved the dock to the left side and set it to auto-hide and reconfigured mighty mouse so I can right-click. I also set it to bring up the app switcher by pressing the trackball.

Then I started installing software which I’ll cover in Part 2. (To jump ahead a bit - Software Update is feeding updates to my Apple apps just fine.)

My Leopard page will be kept updated with any problems as I find them.

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But I shifted gears. I’m going to upgrade my primary Mac (iMac) right away. I’m pretty confident there won’t be any serious problems and if there’s some software problem that I can’t live with on Leopard I can install and use the software on my MacBook until I have a solution. On the other hand, I do expect some minor and annoying problems.

iMac Upgrade

But I’ll still have a backup plan. All my iMac data, except my iTunes library, gets backed up to Mozy and it’s offsite so I’m not going to accidentally delete it during an upgrade. Then I’ll make two clones of the iMac drive and pack one away. If the upgrade goes horribly wrong I can boot from one of these drives and turn back time to pre-Leopard. In order to avoid problems I’ll turn off .Mac syncing before making the clone in order to avoid forgetting and booting off the drive after Leopard upgrades and does it’s own .Mac sync.

There are three upgrade options when booting off the Leopard CD (plus ‘install’ if I flatten the iMac drive first). There’s a plain old upgrade which will keep most settings and software in place and literally upgrade what’s on the disk without changing anything it doesn’t need to.

Then there’s Archive and Install which will make a copy of the existing system files then install Leopard. The recommendations I’ve seen recommend re-installing third party apps.

Finally there’s a Erase and Install option. This will completely erase the drive and install a new copy of Leopard. This requires all software to be re-installed and all settings need to be reset.

It’s the last option, Erase and Install, that I’m going to use. Leopard is a new OS and I want to see it from the ground up without any pre-conceived (meaning migrated) notions. This will also eliminate any problems in my current Tiger install and coming from a Windows environment it’s the way I’ve always upgraded in the past. I’ll pull data from one of the disk clones but re-install all software and manually configure them.

I’ve already downloaded the latest versions of all the apps I care about so I’ll be installing the latest versions.

So my Upgrade Checklist is:

Already done

1. Download current versions of all software.

2. Use SuperDuper! to create 2 disk clones (simply to save time the night of the upgrade since the Smart Update will be quicker).

The actual upgrade

3. Manually run Mozy backup to make sure I have everything.

4. Run .Mac sync then turn it off.

5. Run SuperDuper! Smart Update for both disk clones to update them.

6. Sync iPod, run ChronosSync task to copy my iTunes Library to the Airport drive, unmount drive then turn it off. De-authorize iTunes since there’s a 5 computer limit and I’ll be formatting this one.
7. Power off iMac, boot from Leopard DVD and for a Erase and Install upgrade.

8. Tour and admire Leopard.

9. Re-install apps.

MacBook Update

While I use the MacBook a lot it’s relatively new and there’s not a lot of data. I did do a disk clone, but only one. I considered trying a upgrade in place but decided to go the Erase and Install route here too. I also want to eliminate the Boot Camp partition and make the drive one big partition.

I could do the same basic process as the iMac but for variety I’ll format the HDD and do a fresh install. Of course, I’ll update the disk clone first.

Mac Mini Update

My Intel Mac Mini is used as an media computer more than anything. For variety I’ll do regular upgrade in place. I’ll update the third party apps in place, do a disk clone and then do the upgrade.

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I haven’t used Leopard yet but here’s what Apple tells us about Time Machine:

• Backs up everything by default, but it can be changed.
• Any directly connected external drive gets offered as a time machine drive the first time it’s connected. although Time Machine can backup to another drive over the network.
• Multiple Macs can use the same Time Machine drive.
• Time Machine can restore the entire computer if needed.
• The initial backup is the entire hard disk, without compression. After the initial backup only incrementals are done.
• Time Machine can be used to migrate settings to a new Mac.

I have a 30-day file history through Mozy. While Time Machine will keep things “forever - up to the limits of disk space” I’ve never had a problem with the 30 day limit and Time Machine could actually be less than 30-days depending on disk space. Mozy gives me an offsite backup so I’m not going to dump it for Time Machine.

The other thing that has me concerned about Time Machine is the disk space usage. Keeping all files forever takes a lot of disk space so Time Machine will have to purge old backups. Apple says they’ll be a notification before this happens. I’m hoping this is a one time notification and not a constant nag each time some deletion is needed. The problem with this is the historical archive duration is based upon the size of the Time Machine disk so the actual history may vary over time and isn’t a set duration. The size of the Time Machine disk is based upon the size of you Mac disk (or at least the files on it) so your Time Machine disk needs to be larger than your data with enough extra space to save changes for how ever long you want. Figuring that out seems guesswork at best. What happens if you edit large movie files all the time? I have visions of Time Machine filling up rapidly.

What would be intriguing (but costly) is to team up Time Machine with Drobo. As you run short of disk space you can simply expand Drobo without losing any past data. There’s no mention by Apple as to whether you can manually delete old files as of a certain date. Since Drobo reports itself as an insanely large disk (2TB) so Time Machine would never see the disk run out (well, not until it actually used 2TB). You monitor available space through Drobo and to avoid having to keep buying disk upgrades you have to manually delete from Time Machine. Since I don’t have a Drobo I can only dream.

Since my disk clone is local I could use Time Machine to replace my nightly disk image backup. One benefit of the disk image backup is I can immediately boot from backup by holding down the option key. While Time Machine can do a full restore, the Time Machne disk isn’t bootable since the backup is in directories and not as an image. Since disks always fail at the worst time this could add several hours to the recovery process when I really need to use the computer. I don’t see Time Machine replacing my SuperDuper! disk clone.

I do have two Macs that don’t get backed up in full. My MacBook only gets it’s settings and data backed up to Mozy. My Mac Mini doesn’t get backed up all. It would be nice to have a full backup of these machines. So I plan to hook an external drive up to my Airport Extreme and try to use Time Machine by connecting to this drive with both machines. [Updated: Oct. 26 - There's been confirmation that Airport connected drives can't be used by Time machine.] The Mac Mini will be interesting because large video files come and go on it with great frequency. It’s also got a slower 802.11g wireless connection.

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It’s time to start going through my apps and seeing which are ready for OS X 10.5 Leopard and which aren’t. I’ll start with my most used and favorite apps.

I’ll start with the assumption that the Apple apps in iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08 along with Aperture 1.5 will work with Leopard either in their current form or with updates released to coincide with Leopard

Another assumption I’m making is that even software that is “Leopard compatible” may have minor bugs and quirks since it was finalized so close to release. I expect some bumps along the way. In addition, many developers won’t have the final version of Leopard until it’s officially released on the 26th.

While many companies may say OS X 10.4.x or later, I’m not going to assume they thought of a future 10.5 release since it probably didn’t exist at the time they made their statement.

Also, unless otherwise noted the compatibility comments refer to the current, fully patched, general release of the application.

Acorn by Flying Meat Inc. No mention of Leopard support but it’s a new app and is actively in development. It also uses CoreImage so there might be some bumps with the upgrade. It’s not a critical app for me in the short term. [Oct. 29: I've used this, although only a few features, without a problem.]

Apple Aperture 1.5.6 was released on Oct 26th and should be installed prior to using Aperture for the first time on Leopard. The update is available through Software Update or from the Aperture download page. Apple also release a tech note about a conflict between Time Machine and Aperture.

CSS Edit by MacRabbit. No mention of Leopard compatibility but CSS Edit doesn’t seem to be heavily tied to the OS. I’m not expecting problems but since I’m using the app heavily at this time I’ll try it one my test machine after it goes to Leopard. If there a problem it would stop me from upgrading my main machine. [Updated Oct. 25th: CSSEdit 2.6 has been released and is compatible with Leopard.] [Oct. 29th: I've used this without a problem.]

Data Rescue II by ProSoft Engineering is compatible with Leopard when run from the Data Rescue boot CD. An update will be needed to run it as an app under Leopard.

Firefox 2.0.0.8 from Mozilla is compatible with Leopard except for issues with some media plugins. From the release notes:

On OS X 10.5 (Leopard), there are known problems with some media plugins as well as Add-ons that contain binary components. Also, the tabs in Preferences > Advanced will not render properly.

[Oct. 29th:I haven't had any problems beyond what was mentioned in the release notes.]

Growl by the Growl Dev Team. Growl works in one of the dev seeds. I expected more problems with this since it seems to integrate with the OS a bit but it does seem to work with Leopard. [Oct: 29th: I've used this without any problems.]

iDefrag by Coriolis Systems did not work with a late beta version of Leopard. They will make a update available one they have the final build and can work out the problems. See question #10 in the FAQ for details. [Oct 29th: I haven't had the need for this so haven't risked trying it. I'll wait for official confirmation it will work.]

iPhoto Diet by Martin Fuhrer does not work with iPhoto 7 and is being re-written and will support Leopard at that time. No mention of specific Leopard support although it is written in Applescript which should remain compatible. View the October 22nd update on the iPhoto Diet page

iPhoto Library Manager was a concern of mine since it used the now unsupported (as of Leopard) Input Manager. This blog post says a release will be made to coincide with Leopard, once testing on the final Leopard build can be done. [Oct. 29th: I've used this to switch iPhoto libraries but haven't tried any of the other features such as move or copy.][Oct.30th: A Leopard compatible update has been released.]

Lightroom by Adobe. My trial will expire about the time I install Leopard and I won’t be buying it. So compatibility is moot. I didn’t come across any mention of Leopard on the Adobe website. [Oct. 29th:] Adobe has published a Leopard support FAQ(pdf). Lightroom will need to be updated for Leopard. [Oct. 30th: The official Lightroom blog has a list of known issues and an eta of mid-November for an update. The issues are realitively minor, unless of course you rely on them for some specific reason.]

Little Snitch 1.x is not Leopard compatible. Version 2 is in public beta and is Leopard compatible. It is not a free upgrade unless you purchased Little Snitch recently.

MacMozy by Mozy. This one is important to me. Need those off-site backups. Since the Mozy client is still in beta it’s actively being developed so I would expect Leopard to be supported. I’ll try Mozy on my test mac first and if it doesn’t work I’ll probably hold up upgrading my main machine. [Oct. 29th: I had no problems installing and running either the Mozy paid or Mozy free accounts (both use the same software). I write about installing Mozy on Leopard here.]

MailPlane by Uncomplex Gmbh. No mention of Leopard support but as this software is still in beta, and actively being updated I have to believe it will be compatible. If there are problems I can access email through a browser. [Updated Oct. 25th] Released a new update which makes it mostly compatible. Still an issue with the screenshots option which may be fixed in the next version. [Oct. 29th: I haven't had any problems using this. I haven't used some of the more advanced features such as the iPhoto pluggin.]

Parallels Desktop for Mac by SWSoft. It will run under Leopard although expect a update based on the official release of Leopard. From Parallels website: “Parallels Desktop 3.0 Build 5160 will run on Mac OS X Leopard, however, there are a set of know issues that limit some functionality. We are working to address all know issues.” This isn’t critical for me. If there are problems I can either use boot camp, VMWare Fusion or wait until fixes are released. (I use Parallels on one Mac and VMware on another for variety.) Here’s Parallels’ blog post on the subject. [Oct. 29th: I had a problem with Boot Camp integration which seems to pre-date Leopard. I've run a Windows XP SP2 VM that was created under Tiger and migrated without a problem. Here's my post about migrating the VMs.][Oct. 29th: Parallels has a beta release of an update with full Leopard support.] [Nov. 1st: I installed the beta on the 31st. Spaces got a little weird after the Parallels install although I'm not sure it was Parallels that caused it. In short, some apps jump spaces or open in unassigned spaces or get lost. There's been some rumbling about things like this from others and they don't mention Parallels.]

Path Finder 4.8 from Cocoatech - Officially Leopard Ready with the caveat there may be a few broken items when the final version of Leopard is released. See the last section in this post on the Cocoatech blog. [Oct. 29th: I haven't had a problem with this although I've been forcing myself to use regular Finder. But when I jump into PF it's been fine.]

Quicken 2006 for Mac by Intuit. I’m a version behind with no plans to upgrade. I don’t expect any problems as it doesn’t seem like it’s tightly integrated with the OS. If there are problems I’ll install it on my Mac Mini and use it there until a replacement can be found. [Oct. 29th: I haven't had a problem with this. I use a data file created under Tiger, not that it should matter. I only use scheduled transactions, the registers and a little online banking transaction downloads]

Quicksilver from Blacktree (alcor) will be compatible with Leopard with this new release. I’m using this version on Tiger now, it’s not Leopard specific. I suspect he’s waiting for testing of the final Leopard release before he officially releases the upate on the website The update is available from the homepage. Ignore the version listed, the link will give you the latest version. [Oct. 29th: I haven't had a problem with this although since their website has been down I haven't been able to install or use any plugins.][Oct. 31st: The website is back up and B54 (8314) is available and has updates for Leopard.]

Skye by Skype (eBay) - Due to the large user base I have to believe this will work from day 1, but I couldn’t find any mention on their website. [Oct. 31st: I made a Skype to Skype and a Skype out (to a land line phone) today without a problem.]

SuperDuper! is not Leopard compatible. It can be used to clone Tiger as a backup prior to the upgrade and then files can be pulled off when running Leopard. But SuperDuper! itself cannot clone Leopard drives. They will complete testing once they have the final Leopard version and release the update.

Transmit by Panic Software. There’s no mention of Leopard support on their website but as an ftp client I wouldn’t expect any serious issues. [updated 10/24] A blog entry mentions it “mostly works” with a few issues. The upgrade to Tiger broke their favorites feature but the basic functionality of the ftp software was there. This is a bit critical as I automate my website backup with it. But if there are problems I’ll find a temporary work around rather than hold off the Leopard upgrade. [Oct. 29th: I haven't had any problems. My Automator tasks that backup my website via SFTP work fine. I did have to re-enter my password in my favorites after I restored them.] [Oct. 31st: Panic has released an update that includes tweaks for Leopard.]

VMWare Fusion by VMWare. From the VMWare website:

VMware Fusion has experimental support for running on developer releases of Mac OS X Leopard. VMware Fusion will work to support Mac OS X Leopard officially when it is released later this year.

This isn’t critical for me. If there are problems I can either use boot camp, Parallels or wait until fixes are released. (I use Parallels on one Mac and VMware on another for variety.) [Updated Oct. 26th - VMware has released Fusion 1.1 RC1 which includes support for Leopard. It's on the beta page but will probably move to the regular download page soon.]

Yojimbo by Bare Bones Software. No official statement but the discussion lists indicate there are either no problems or minor problems when running it on past betas of Leopard. [Oct. 29th: No problems found and I use this pretty heavily touching most features.]

That seems to be the list of software I really care about. There’s a bunch of other minor apps which I don’t have the inclination to research. Once I get Leopard installed I’ll start trying them out.

Other Software

This is compatibility information that I’ve run across for other software. I don’t use any of the software so I won’t be confirming the accuracy of the info. If you have information on any other software feel free to put it up in a comment.

Disk Utilities probably aren’t Leopard compatible until updated. Verify compatibility with the vendor before running any disk utility.

DiskWarrior from Alsoft has this compatibility notice (limited support when booting from CD or Tiger).

Macsimum News reports that all of Intego’s security software is Leopard ready. They also report that Northern Software’s Cache Cleaner is Leopard compatible.

Filemaker (an Apple subsidiary) has said that Filemaker software is not yet compatible with Leopard.

ProSoft Engineering: Drive Genius is compatible when booting from the Drive genius CD. An update will be needed to run it as an app under Leopard. DataBackup 3 is not compatible with Leopard. TuneTech for iPod is also not compatible.

SmileOnMyMac has said all their products (such as TextExpander) are Leopard ready.

I’ll update this post as I collect more information.

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