Pete Hindle

Warning: this is even more boring than my last few posts, and is only for the education of nerd-types

I decided to update my laptop to Leopard, OS X 10.5, as I was coming across more and more software that I wanted to use. In particular, I wanted to start using the versioning system Git, which is only available for install in 10.5, unless you use DarwinPorts. I was also interested in using MacFuse rather than Cyberduck for my FTP/SFTP needs, and so I could write to NTFS on my parents computer, and I was convinced that I’d have better luck using it under 10.5 than I would under 10.4.

(I warned you that this would be boring. Stick with it though.)

The install was not easy, fast, or good. In common with a lot of other users of elderly Powerbooks, my DVD drive died some time ago, so I had to install it from an external Firewire drive. Unlike 10.4, I didn’t have a huge amount of trouble doing that (thank god) but it did take a very long time. After I’d finished with the install process, I rebooted the machine and was faced with a kernel panic. Twice. Eek!

On the third time, the machine booted up and I watched the lovely welcome-to-new-mac video. For some reason, I immediatly set to work making my desktop look exactly like my old desktop, by swiping my backdrop from my twitter account.

At first, I was struck by stacks, and the general glitzy-ness of the new operating system. However, after about two days of use, I’ve got some issues with it that I’d like to point out. Perhaps they’ll get picked up by google, because I’ve been doing a lot of searching on them, and it would be nice to know if other people also had these issues.

• Fans now work overtime

Before the update, my fans would generally kick in for only two reasons: watching videos or using Java based programs. Now, my fans kick up, and stay on, whilst doing most things. I can’t figure out what I’m doing that’s so processor-intensive when I’m only browsing the internet, so I assume that it’s something to do with Leopard. For instance: right now, I’m working in a Firefox window and typing, and I’ve got the fans whirring at full power. This is something that should not be happening, and didn’t under 10.4.

• Battery life down to 20 minutes

Alright, I’m not saying that my battery was healthy to start out with. It had some issues, sure. But on Leopard, my battery just cuts out after about 20 minutes. I don’t get the ‘you are now running on reserve’ warning, it just cuts out at around 84%. I’ve tried resetting the PMU, as per Apple’s instructions, but frankly I think that the install did ‘something bad’. Unless I buy a new battery, I don’t think that there’s any point in looking into this, and seeing as a new battery is a significant chunk of money I’ll just leave it.

• No bluetooth SMS sending

I used the old SMS sending in bluetooth all the time, as it was pretty useful – I hate typing with my thumbs! Now, I’m stuck with the ol’ thumb method, as Apple have removed the function to send SMS’s via their Address book application. (Adopts fake mafia voice) Eh, what gives? Didn’t I treat you right?

There’s now a range of third-party vendors taking this space, which offer various levels of computer/phone interaction, from BluePhone Elite‘s complete integration to SMS widgets which you can use via the dashboard. But this has turned the Address book application from being ‘a useful thing’ into something that’s just more bumpf.

• No Quicksilver
  

I admit to knowing about this before I upgraded, but after using Quicksilver on my mac for over two years, it’s a shame that there isn’t a version around for Leopard. A quick check of the Quicksilver group on google tells me that others feel the same.

The more basic actions are dealt with by spotlight, but I found that the ability to do things such as upload images to flickr, open documents in a specific application, and move files to the trash with only a few keystrokes was great. Now, there is only one application that can do all: Terminal.app. But if I’m going to spend all my time on the command line, I might as well go Linux.

Conclusion

In many ways, my move to Leopard has been good. I can do a number of things that I just couldn’t do before, such as use MacFuse. I’m still getting the hang of Git, but I expect to be able to do some interesting things with it soonish.

What I wasn’t expecting was that my four year old Powerbook would suffer so badly from the upgrade process. When I originally got it, it was running 10.3, and the 10.4 upgrade (about six months later) really made a difference to the speed and ease of use with the system in a good way. However, with 10.5, I find that my venerable laptop, which previously served me well, is now kind of clunky.

Update: Temp Graph

Over on Flickr, I’ve posted my findings about from using a temperature monitoring tool on my laptop. Also, this post got immediatly picked up by some nerdy link-spam blog.