Within weeks of Microsoft unleashing Vista on the buying public the issues facing those making the switch from XP to Vista were clear and you could sum them up in a few bullet points:

* UAC too intrusive
* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the XP now falling over regularly

Now that Leopard has been in the hands of users for a little under ten days and you can draw up a similar list for Apple’s latest OS:

* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the Tiger now falling over regularly

Dave Winer does a good job of summarizing the problems affecting Leopard:

I’ve given Leopard a chance, but it’s pretty clear, this is not a good operating system release.

I’ve been out of the Mac loop for most of the last decade, just got back in a bit over 2 years ago. I don’t know if early OS releases are generally as crappy as this one, but I wasn’t prepared for where we’re at now. If I had known, I would have waited, instead of upgrading most of my Macs to the new system.

In fact, Winer also goes on to compare Windows to Mac OS X:

Talking with a friend a few days ago, he asked what I thought of Leopard. He had installed the new version, like me, the first day it came out. “I’m not liking it,” I said. He said something that was simple, profound and revealing: “It’s like Windows.” It is. It’s that unpleasant to use. It disappears for long periods of time. Systems that didn’t used to crash now crash regularly. On one system three hard disks were rendered unusable, and I lost a couple of full days restoring them (luckily I had good backups). The user interface is quirky. The new networking interface is a big step backward. The firewall moved and lost features! That’s simply never done, you don’t charge customers to remove features, esp security features. I think Apple doesn’t understand how many people depend seriously on their Macs.

I’m guessing that the root cause for these problems echoes Vista too - a rush to get the OS out of the door. It makes me sad to say it but we as consumers are now having to put up with buying far too many flawed products because companies are rushing to get products out to market and leaving us (the poor saps stuck with the defective product) to road test it properly, I’ll bet that the road to fixes for these problems will be as long and rocky as the one for Vista. Something else that the two operating systems will have in common.

Leopard’s not generating good press for Apple at the moment (actually, when you stop and thing about it for a moment, not much is generating good press for Apple lately) and it might help is affected users were given a timetable of when to expect robust fixes to come down the tubes.

The strange thing is that I’m quite happy with my Mac and Leopard. I’m guessing that this is because I’m still near the bottom of the M learning curve and not pushing the OS too hard.

I bought my copy of Leopard on Saturday from the local Apple Store. Granted, I’ve only used the software for two days, but it has made a remarkably fast first impression. There is much to like about Leopard, but this cat scratches—oh, am I wounded.

What’s bugging me about Leopard is what bugged me about Vista eight months ago:
* Feature or UI changes made without really good reasons
* Application compatibility problems
* Diminished performance compared to the predecessor operating system
* Irksome sense the software shipped before being really ready

I tested Leopard on a MacBook Pro that Apple provided for testing Aperture: 2.4GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 256MB graphics accelerator and 160GB hard drive. I kept the notebook longer for Leopard testing. No doubt someone will ask for the loaner back as soon this post is passed around Cupertino.

My problems with Leopard started fairly quickly. Apple’s pre-Leopard launch marketing exacerbated the problems, because it so increased expectations about those 300 new features. Apple’s past practice of delivering more than promised gave some confidence about Leopard. Sure, there are some truly whiz-bang enhancements, with some of the seemingly smallest having big impact (example: users can from the main Spotlight search window type in definitions to find words in the dictionary). But compatibility and performance problems are causing me way too much trouble.

Some quick examples: * The new Apple Mail can no longer delete messages from my personal domain’s IMAP server; they’re piling up in the inbox
* Leopard is incompatible with my version of Cisco VPN. I did hunt down a compatible upgrade
* Safari crashes … often enough
* Outlook Web mail works sometimes in Safari, but usually just hangs; it’s A-OK in Firefox
* Internet connection is sluggish and routes slowly (connected through an Apple AirPort router); performance is speedy by comparison on Windows Vista or Tiger

Interface changes add unnecessary complexity to the operating system. Another added complexity: Like Microsoft, Apple has added new and annoying security prompts to the operating system. This morning, I downloaded an updated NewsFire RSS reader and got a warning popup asking if I really wanted to open this application—because it came from the Internet. Maybe Apple’s user interface designers should watch their own TV commercials: “Security.”

I’m going to give Leopard another day, but already I’m thinking about switching the MacBook Pro back to Tiger. Isn’t that a story told and retold about Vista, where people went back to XP? It’s a story other Leopard adopters may tell.

My point: Leopard is no better than Vista, in the sense that some—perhaps many—of the same migration complaints and problems apply. Windows’ visibility and exponentially large number of applications amplify its complaints. There are more potential problems to have with Windows compared to MAC OS X. Besides, Microsoft is the successful company so many people love to hate. Criticism is easy, and it’s frequent.

Leopard’s problems would be a whole lot bigger if more businesses used Mac OS X. I’m simply one consumer user. By the way, I had no serious problems (other than Cisco VPN) migrating to Leopard’s two predecessors, Panther and Tiger. My user experience, while anecdotal, shows the problems that can come as an operating system adds on features and its supporting ecosystem of software increases. Those 300 new features have their price in increased complexity and compatibility problems.

By the way, Cover Flow is the one Leopard feature I really like. Cover Flow lets me scan through documents without opening them, which is hugely convenient. But the one compelling feature won’t be enough to stick with Leopard, particularly if personal and professional e-mail problems persist. By comparison, Vista’s shakedown is largely over. I have little to complain about and lots more to like about Vista than I did in February.