Before I began, I purchased a second external hard drive. CostCo has the WD dual interface (firewire and USB) 500GB drive for $149 if you are looking for one. First step, copy everything from the old 250GB to the new. Time: 4.5 hours.

Then, it was SuperDuper!’s turn to back up my user folder and whatnot. Time: 3.5 hours*

Then, and only then, was it time for Leopard. Erase and install for me thankyouverymuch because I had a ton of cruft, crap and misc. whatnot that I didn’t want anymore. Time: 1 hour

Then, install apps time. This time around I’m really going to make an effort to only install apps that I will be using on a regular basis. For the others, I am not going to install them until needed. Here is what I have so far.

• iLife ‘08
• iWork ‘08. Yes, I’m going to try this for 30 days before reinstalling office.
• SuperDuper!
• Skype
• VMWare Fusion
• Adium
• Flickr uploader

I have a few left to go (MAMP, Smultron, Acorn/Pixelmator), but those I will leave for later today.

Thoughts so far?

It’s faster. Noticeably faster. I’m not sure where, but it is.

Safari is smokin’ fast. So, I’m going to try it for a while before I put FireFox back. 2 things that are killing me on this so far are the ability to set all new links to open in a new tab (I know, cmd-click does this, but FF has a setting so I don’t have to) and to highlight the menu bar with a single click. Plus extensions. But, I’m going to give it a week and see what I can do.

Dock on the bottom sure is pretty. Dock on the left is pretty ok too. Although the change from black arrows to blue lights will take some getting used to.

Spaces seems awesome. As soon as I play with it some more I’m sure it will be.

Spotlight doesn’t suck anymore. I’m going to try to use that instead of Quicksilver for launching apps (the primary use of Quicksilver for me anyway).

Preview is great. It’s that Windows feature that I have been waiting for and they did it right. Try it with a multi-sheet spread sheet. You can actually look at all of the sheets in a workbook. Awesome.

So far it’s only been about a day with it, but I can say that I am glad I did the upgrade.

Oh yea, plus upgrading to Leopard.

I’ve decided to do an archive and install instead of upgrading in place. A hold over from Windows to be sure, but it’s a great chance to clear everything out and start fresh once again without all the extra crap that I have installed and don’t use.

So, SuperDuper is warmed up and ready to go. Just waiting for a new external drive that will be on my desk this afternoon. I already have a 250gb firewire WesternDigital drive, but it’s almost full and it’s the wrong format. Everything from this drive will be moved to a 500GB firewire drive (or maybe a 320GB, depending on what I can find) and it will be formatted for Mac and become my primary backup drive.

I also have iLife ‘08 already installed so I could play with iPhoto a bit. HUGE improvement like everyone has said. Events work. It’s faster. Less crashy (my library has close to 4K pictures) and the interface, while different, is much improved. Alone worth the price of admission.

Something I’m also going to try with Leopard is iWork instead of Office. I have the install disks for both (conveniently, iWork is included with iLife, how thoughtful). So, if after 30 days I don’t miss Office, then that’s what I’ll do.

Things I am looking forward to in Leopard.

• Preview and coverflow in Finder. 2 of the niftiest features of windows since Win98.
• Improved audio quality (plus recording) in iChat
• Stacks. Anything that will help keep my desktop more organized will be welcome
• iCal. I don’t use it now because I think it sucks. Maybe it won’t and I can actually have a calendar on my computer instead of having to go online everytime.
• Mail. I’ve tried using it but I think it is also horrible. Especially with gMail IMAP (more on that later). Thunderbird is much better. Hopefully the new version will really wow me.
• Spaces. One of my favorite features of Ubuntu (and most ‘Nix distro’s) is the ability to have more than 1 desktop going at a time. I can’t wait for this, especially if I can display 1 desktop on the MacBook and 1 on the external display.

Full report once upgrade is complete. Should be fun!

So, w(t)f spent yesterday and some of this morning in a complete state of borkage. Problem was with the ftp account I was using. Once I figured it out, I was able to upload the necessary files (latest greatest wp) and everything is exactly as it should be. I will take this as a great time to remind all y’all running wordpress that backing up is a very good thing and a great use of your gmail account. You should, probably once a week, run the wp-backup and have it sent to an email account (or download to your desktop). It also should go without saying that anytime you make a change to your theme, install a new theme or plug-in, you should also make a backup of your wp-content dir (copy in place or download to your desktop). But that’s rookie stuff that you knew already, right?

The reason it did spend yesterday borked is because I had to make an emergency trip to CCRM to fix their wLan. It was completely down and everything I can instruct them to do over the phone was done. Without wifi, they can’t take or manage houseboat bookings. So it definitely qualifies as an emergency.

I had them change the cable for the main access point already, so started checking out everything else, including the old cable. Nothing. So, I programmed a replacement access point (using Buffalo equipment down there, more on those in a later post) and put it in place. Still nothing. Well, not nothing, but the range was only about 100 feet, when it should have been about 1/2 mile. So, just for the heck of it, I replaced the cable again with their last new one (2 in reserve for just such an occassion) and wouldn’t you know it, it worked! Last time they ordered backup cables one of them was probably damaged during shipping. So, 3 hours of work and 9 hours in my car later, they are good to go. Snapped some cool pictures on the way down there if you want to check them out.

And I’m going to wonder who of this particular group (see the sidebar) will be the last to get Leopard. I think it will be me since I’m going to wait at least another week, maybe 2. Anyone waiting longer than that? And, for those of you that already have it…(I already got some conformation from jSchwa, but I’m, as always, looking for more feedback)

• The dock on the right or left…works ok?
• Anyone test the audio/video quality with iChat?
• On the Intel machines, can you tell it is faster?
• coverflow/preview work ok? Or is it real dodgy?
• Anything else you would like to add?

I have decided to go ahead and up-g iLife while I’m at it, so I’ll do both at the same time. Still eyeing one of those 20″ iMacs too and I’m working toward making one my Christmas present this year.

Happy Sunday!