The case for Leopard

As someone who works in the technology field I always wait a little bit before I start using a new version of something. The same went with Apple's Leopard operating system. When the software was released I was hesitant to install it on any of my Macs because my philosophy on life is "Don't fix it if it's not broken".

At the same time the new software was supposed to fix some bugs that the previous software had and thus I had to install it on a couple of machines at work. The interface along with some of the new features looked really great but that still didn't convince me that I needed to have it on my machine.

Part of the problem of upgrading to the latest operating system whether it be Leopard or Vista is that some of your existing software might now work correctly. I learned this the hard way after installing Leopard on a Mac only to have to reinstall the old operating system because of incompatibilities.

So why should any of us upgrade to Leopard (that is if you use a Mac)? In my case there are two very good reasons to upgrade to Leopard.

1. Time Machine
2. iChat

Time Machine is software that comes built in with Leopard. Time Machine is nothing new in the computer world. We already have other software that does the exact same thing; BACKUP.

The difference with Time Machine is that it doesn't require someone like me to install it, configure it, and make sure it's working correctly. This means you get to save some money by not hiring a pro like me to make sure you backup your computer files. All you need for Time Machine to work is an external hard drive with the same amount of storage space as your internal hard drive. Plug in the external hard drive and Time Machine automatically asks you if you want to use that drive as your backup device. Once you say "yes" it automatically backs all your files up hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly. That's it! There's nothing else to do.

Sure you can use Retrospect or other backup software, but why pay for it? Additionally trying to configure other software to backup your machine is no walk in the park. For me it's pretty easy, but I can imagine my dad trying to figure out the software and I can see him getting lost very easily. That's why Time Machine is priceless.

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iChat is an Instant Messaging program. It's the same thing as Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and other ones you might use. The main difference between iChat and all the other instant messaging programs is that you can allow a buddy to connect remotely to your machine. What does that mean?

Picture this scenario: You are at home and I'm here. You call me and tell me that something is up with your Mac. I tell you, get on iChat. We start a video conference and I connect to your machine remotely and fix the issue as if I was there. I can basically see exactly what you see because I am connected remotely to your machine and have total control. Once I'm done, you quit iChat and your Mac is back on track.

Sure there are programs like Remote Desktop, PC Anywhere, VNC, but again, they all require some sort of configuration. Not only do you have to configure your Machine, but you'd also have to configure your firewall. Yup, you see how easy iChat is? All you have to do is turn it on, start chatting and let me do the tech work.

Those very simple little programs make Leopard worth the upgrade. I say that because it seems like more and more people now a days are losing all their data due to lack of a backup program.

Not on a Mac? I guess you can try and figure out the Windows "Backup" software. It's not quite as simple as Time Machine, but then again Windows is not as simple as a Mac.