Computer security firm publication Heise criticizes Mac OS X Leopard for shipping without its firewall enabled by default like Windows Vista and advises users to turn it on. To do so, in System Preferences’ Security area either block all incoming connections or set explicit exceptions for services that can communicate through the firewall, like file or screen sharing, as shown. (More on that in an upcoming post.) Holes in Leopard’s firewall [CNET]
While it’s still no where near the powerful file explorer that the shareware alternative PathFinder is, the new and improved Finder does include several feature enhancements that—though they might seem superfluous and superficial at first glance—are actually pretty fantastic. Not only do new features like Cover Flow and Quick Look rank high on the snazzy scale, but they—along with a few other feature enhancements—make it that much easier to find the file you’re looking for as quickly as you can.
Mac OS X 10.5 only: Command line-lovers who’ve upgraded to Leopard will also love its new tabbed interface and fine-grained window control. To create a new tab, hit Cmd+N Cmd+T, and to cycle through tabs, use Cmd+} and Cmd+{. You can also drag and drop an existing tab into its own window, configure and save window groups, and skin Terminal windows using prefab or custom themes. After the jump, see the theme options (“Pro” pictured here.)
Mac users who picked up a copy of the new OS, Leopard, over the weekend may want to appraise themselves of some teething issues reported by early installers. It was also brought to my attention over the weekend that Apple’s own FileMaker won’t run on Leopard – more on that below.
Apple’s put up a support page for Leopard installation issues and so far the top support topic is how to deal with the “blue screen of death” phenomenon reported by CNET.
Hopefully FileMaker users are already aware that it won’t run on the new Mac OSX, Leopard.
According to the Australian FileMaker site, FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Pro 9 Advanced generally will not run on Leopard in a number of countries outside the US, including Australia. They haven’t confirmed when there will be a fix for this, but the site says they are aiming to have a downloadable update available on November 19. But that’s just for the latest versions of FileMaker – they won’t be updating older versions:
“We have not tested earlier (pre-FileMaker 9) versions of FileMaker software on Mac OS X Leopard and do not intend to release updates for earlier versions of FileMaker.”
I haven’t gotten to check out Leopard yet, but if you’ve installed it successfully (or not!) let us know your thoughts in comments.
Mac OS X only: So you erased your hard drive to install Leopard, and now you’ve got to load your Mac up with all your essential software. I kept a detailed inventory of the downloads I hunted down all over the internet to load on my Mac this weekend, so I thought I’d save you a few clicks. Here’s a list of 21 mostly-free downloads with direct links to the download pages.
Mac OS X Leopard only: If you tried installing our favourite password manager for Mac, KeePassX, on Leopard, you already know it doesn’t work. (When you launch it, it crashes, without ever opening.) Apparently someone who knows more about KeePassX than we do figured out it’s a problem with the Qt development package installed with it. Here’s how to get KeePassX working on Leopard.
If you’re running Leopard and you’ve got an external hard drive, you will back up your data, even if that wasn’t your intention when you bought the drive or plugged it into your Mac. That’s because Leopard’s system snapshot mechanism, Time Machine, is dead simple to enable—and Leopard prompts you to turn it on the moment you plug in your FireWire drive. You’ll think, “why not?” and why not indeed.
Those of us who ran out to buy the newest version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard this weekend had a choice: piggyback the upgrade on top of your current installation of Tiger and keep all your data and applications, or wipe the hard drive and start sparkly clean and fresh (but without any apps or data). As a Windows user, I tend towards a clean install, but Mac commentator John Gruber says: Arguments that there is something mysteriously dangerous or deficient about the default upgrade procedure—and that you should do a clean install instead, followed by tedious hours manually migrating software and data and preferences from your old installation—are voodoo.
Adam just jumped right in and did the default upgrade, but I hit that Options button to head down the erase and install route. What about you?
Virtual desktops have been popular amongst geeks for years, but they’re just starting to catch on with the consumer desktop crowd; in Leopard, Spaces be thy name. Previously Mac users had an incredible virtual desktop application called Virtue Desktops as their desktop management option, but with the announcement of Spaces, development on Virtue Desktops was dropped. I’m a huge fan of Virtue Desktops, so in my eyes, Spaces has some pretty big shoes to fill. So how does Spaces stand up?
