Leaping to Leopard! Oh my!

edfaulkner — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:52:39 GMT

Today I begin upgrading my home Macs to Leopard, Apple's new system software OSX v10.5. While it went on sale last night at the local Apple Stores, I opted for "Date Night" with my wife. Just so you don't lose faith in me, I did ask if I could run in to the Apple Store while we were between dinner and our concert plans! She said no.

The Apple Store in Dallas (Northpark) was pretty crowded, but always seems to be. I picked up the Family Pack for $199 so I can legally install on my iMac, my wife's MacBook, and a PowerBook I use for my church, all are Intel-based.

The first thing I did, being a good SysAdmin, was document my environment and review each app for unique issues. I recommend you do the same, no matter what platform or OS you use. I came up with a general description of my environment, a checklist of things to do before wiping out my disk, and what software I use.

The checklist
Do you use iTunes with an iTunes Music Store account? Did you know that if you wipe out your machine, you burn up one of your five authorizations! Photoshop also requires that it be "deauthorized" so it can be reinstalled again on another machine or on the same machine later. I also noted unique locations of email data files and settings files as appropriate.

The software list
If you are like me, you have a combination of software you own on CD and some that you've downloaded. I actually put the serial numbers and install locations of purchased downloaded software into this document for archival and reinstallation purposes. One thing I didn't do, <hypocricy> but I recommend it to you </>, was check my list of applications with the vendors for OSX 10.5 compatibility. Seeing that it really didn't matter, that I was going to install it anyways, I opted to take a chance. I'm starting on my iMac, and will apply my advice above for my wife's machine. :-)

Upgrade or Clean Install?
The answer to this is as obvious to those who know me as asking me if I'd like to go grab some Mexican food! Always do a Clean install, and yes, I'd love to get some Mexican! I'm sure Apple makes it easy to upgrade, but I'm a long-time Systems Administrator on UNIX and Windows systems, and I've acquired the philosophy of always opt for the clean install. A clean install will allow you a chance to fix any hard disk issues and get out of the jungle of old apps and pref files that you have been accumulating. Those files can get corrupted over time and cause you pain.

The Install
Macs use special keys to tell the system what you intend when you start up. I'm not always fast enough with my fingers, so I put my Leopard disk in while still running 10.4 and select it as the start disk in Preferences:Startup Disk. The iMac reboots into the Leopard installation program. But before I clicked install, I selected CUSTOM and selected "Erase disk before installing" so that errors I've been having on my hard disk will be eliminated. That also is the defining act for a clean install. Once I selected INSTALL, I've just been sitting back and watching it go. It took about 42 minutes for my install.

MMMmmmm, Candy!
When the install completed, the "Welcome" message came up that every OS seems to put forward upon completion. And it's usually not even worth mentioning. But this time, I was greeted by a hyperspace-inspired trip through gorgeous outer spacescapes with the word "Welcome" tumbling in from all corners, briefly forming the full word, and then exploding out to space again - sequentially in about 15 languages. And accompanied by some really hip music that I'm way to "OUT" to know. It was something pretty special considering it was just celebrating the successful install of an operating system. I couldn't help but imagine its Apple's way of saying "We ARE music and video".

Last note
The system booted up quickly after install, and automatically downloaded two patches and rebooted one more time. I'm not going to take you through a list of features, you can see that on Apple's site. But I will do two things in my next blogs: 1) step-by-step installing Vista on Bootcamp; and 2) highlight my experience configuring Time Machine. Come back soon!

Technorati Tags: OSX , Mac , Leopard , Vista , iTunes , Photoshop

Taste Some Apple in Al Gore's Whirled Peas

edfaulkner — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 05:32:00 GMT

Today, Apple "honors" Al Gore with a full-screen tribute to his award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. While I'm generally Apple-friendly, this is the ultimate kissing up to the boss. Al Gore is an Apple Board member. His work on "the climate crisis" is a politically driven attempt to scare the "hail" out of people - there is so much research that brings question to his statements. Apple should stick to making technology, and do it in an earth-friendly way. For example, I applaud their work last Summer (2007) as they took greater steps to make new monitors for laptops that don't have dangerous chemicals.

I would have been equally impressed with this on the front page:

If you've read my "About" page, this would be the rabbit I discussed.

Office for Mac soon; this blog... TODAY!

edfaulkner — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:59:35 GMT

Thanks for checking out my new blog for helping Mac folks utilize Microsoft technology better. My philosophy behind the words: I'm not going to spend any time ragging on one platform over another. I will, however, spend time showing pros and cons in the most "fair and balanced" way that I can.

So if you are a Mac user, bookmark this site. If not, tell one of your Mac friends about it! And get ready for a fun ride. -ed

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Leaping to Leopard! Oh my!

Taste Some Apple in Al Gore's Whirled Peas

Office for Mac soon; this blog... TODAY!