Leopard: Data Loss, Firewalls, & Incompatible Programs

We knew it wouldn’t be perfect. Leopard is here, and for those of us who went out and bought it on day one knew we were taking a risk. There have been reports of data loss, and various applications perhaps acting strangely. Good thing I started using Time Machine as soon as I got Leopard up and running.

Yahoo News is reporting that the “Leopard App Casualty List [is] Growing”, and for many a power-user, this isn’t a good thing. Apple is set to release 10.5.1 in the near future, but the incompatibilities may last through the upgrade. What applications and services specifically have been targeted as not working up to par?

For one, there may be a firewall problem. The Leopard firewall isn’t turned on by default, but when on, “users are complaining that the VOIP (voice over IP) application Skype and the online game ‘World of Warcraft’ are breaking after being activated from within the firewall.

Over at eWeek, their article “Leopard Has More Holes than Spots” states that the Leopard Firewall has been dumbed down significantly, and the power can only be harnessed by users by the Terminal. For others, the settings are confusing, and the firewall doesn’t work as well as it did in 10.4.

Meanwhile, developers are scrambling to update their applications for Leopard, and this list at MacRumors shows the current known incompatibilities.

Yahoo is reporting that Adobe CS3 is having a few problems (which I have experienced personally), and many users are experiencing 802.11g speeds which are inconsistent and slow.

As for all the applications that are incompatible, you can be assured that we here at Macapper will let you know which applications work with Leopard and which do not.

I think it’s time for another backup.