Five days into the life of Leopard, and some ugly blemishes are starting to surface in the new OS X.

First, we had the inevitable compatibility issues where several vendors, among them FileMaker, said that  their applications may not work right on the new OS.

Then we get reports that upgrading to Leopard can leave some machines with a blank blue screen. This was eventually blamed on the third-party Application Enhancer utility, though the company that makes AE swears up and down that its software is not responsible.

Next, we get word that the firewall in Leopard lets more things through than a third-string goalie.

And this was after Apple took an extra four months to fix things.

31 Oct 2007

The fact is that the first release of ANYTHING is going to have problems. If you're buying a Mac, the term "Rev A" can prove to be a sucker deal on par with the extended warranty (anyone remember the issues with first blue & white G3 towers?) Early iPhone owners got to wade through an AT&T activation nightmare, and now Leopard owners will have to deal with these problems. It's just part of being an early adopter.

It's not much different with software. Something gets released, people bang away at it and pull up flaws for a few weeks, and the issues get patched. My guess is that Apple will be issuing the first Leopard update before thanksgiving. If you want a smooth transition, it may be best to wait until after that first patch before dropping the cash for Leopard.