Yes, I had pre-ordered Mac's new operating system, Leopard (10.5) so it would arrive oct. 26th and I could be an early adopter. Sure enough, it came yesterday via fed ex around approx 10:30 am.
Like an excited über goober, I immediately opened it and began the install process.
Okay, not true, I cleaned off my desktop first, tossed some useless files, and verified permissions, and then I began to load it.
In retrospect, I might have wanted to check the discussion boards on Apple first (always a smart move when a new piece of software hits the market) because I'd have seen the numerous posts from panicked mac users pleading for help with what turned out to be a big problem for thousands of new Leopard owners.
Because there's one mighty big bug when it comes to installing this puppy.... and that's the dreaded "Blue Screen" that appears and seemingly 'breaks' one's computer, rendering it unable to do anything else ...even eject the install disc). I can guarantee you that many a mac folk was desperately calling tech support and borrowing friend's computers to log onto the apple tech support.
And I was one of them.
Above: a screen grab of the tech support forum for the new Leopard Operating system shows that over 12,000 people have read the post regarding the dreaded "Blue Screen of death" as of 8:00 am california time this morning
It's pretty funny actually... sooo many people have experienced this during their initial install that it's already been given an acronym.... the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) and appears on posts and discussions boards in numerous online forums.
The good news is the fix was relatively easy (if you call taking approx 6 hours to install a new OS easy).
Seems there are two ways to get past this.
One way, and the way that worked for me... was to simply re-install it as "Archive And Install" as opposed to the usual install which yeilded me the BSOD. (By the way, I did have to force eject the disc using the ol' paperclip method, insert it and start up holding down the alt key so i could choose the disc over the hard drive for my next install).
The other way is to go into UNIX through your terminal utility and remove a few files.
Now, I do not have an intel basd mac but instead have a dual 1.8 mHz G5, perhaps that's why the archive and install fix worked for me. I think the intel-based MAC users have to actually enter as single-user mode and delete some code.
If you are stuck on the blue screen and nothing seems to work (not even reboot or disc eject) do not fear, the fix is here.
That being said, there are a few other little bugs (like the inability to delete mail from an IMAP account), but other than that, it's pretty darn impressive.
