[JKT]

My suspicion is that it is related to any apps which code signed or whatever the new feature is called in Leopard, but that is based more on the fact that some of the apps it happens to are ones I know are code signed.

It isn't just the first install as I can have it happen for several apps in a row.

[Toadling]

Hmm, that's a pretty good list and I agree with some of your complaints. But I'm still not sure Leopard is any more buggy than any previous release of OS X. In fact, I'm inclined to think it still comes out ahead despite the annoyances you've listed. But maybe that depends on your work patterns and which features you use most.

Anyway, here are a few comments:

Originally Posted by JKT

2. My day-to-day account is a non-admin, Standard user account. If you attempt to drag and drop an application update into the /Applications folder and overwrite an older version you will be...

I've see this as well, although the frequency on my systems is perhaps 50% rather than 90%. But it's still annoying.

I've found that if I simply drag the item again, things often work more smoothly the second time around.

xiamenese may be right about it being a timing issue. I'm not sure of this, but I swear it seems like after dragging a new app to the Applications folder, if I pause for several seconds before dismissing the "Replace" dialog, the Finder is more likely to give me the desired authentication dialog rather than the "insufficient privileges" error.

Originally Posted by JKT

4. Non-modal dialogues in Spaces are a complete fricking nightmare...

5. Spaces and focus...

6. Spaces and focus pt. II...

7. Spaces and Window cycling...

Spaces just feels half-baked; that's one of the reasons I don't use it. I find a single "space" and prolific use of hiding and minimizing works better for me. I have everything at hand and can toggle between apps/windows as needed.

Originally Posted by JKT

8. Spotlight. OMFG, what did they do to it? They went from a not too great implementation of Spotlight, but at least it sort of worked, to an absolute horror show implementation that makes me shudder every time I use it...

Yeah, there are (still) some usability issues in Spotlight as well, particularly in dealing with search result windows. But you know, I don't think Tiger's implementation was all that great either. In fact, Spotlight in Leopard is still a step up, despite its flaws. I love the boolean searh operators, quoted phrases, and improved performance.

It's really kind of sad that Apple hasn't followed through better on Spotlight. It feels like they've got a great foundtation in place but haven't really polished the user experience sufficiently, which is surprising, considering Apple's reputation and typcial attention to detail.

Originally Posted by JKT

9. Finder. You can’t give the sidebar focus using the keyboard. Ever.

Yeah, very annoying. I can't remember, does Tiger allow this?

Originally Posted by JKT

10. Finder. If you change the view for a window, all newly opened windows will sometimes open in that view and sometimes they won’t. Completely inconsistent behaviour

Hmm, I haven't had any problems with this. In my experience, the preservation of window state has been greatly improved over Tiger and any previous OS X release.

Have you tried opening a particular folder, setting up the window as you like, and then closing the window without selecting any of its contents? Doesn't it preserve the settings on next open?

Also, if you go to the Finder's View->Show View Options for the folder, you can set a chekbox to always open the folder in the particular view (i.e. icon, list, column, etc.). I typcially run in column mode but have a few folders of files with long names that I like to see in list view. By setting the "Always open in..." option, I can browse to those folders in column mode, then double-click on the folder to open in in list mode in the same Finder window. It works very well for me.

Originally Posted by JKT

11. Finder. Cover flow view is a good idea terribly implemented. Resizing a window should expand the list not the cover flow part of the display. The list should conform to the settings used for list view instead of being separate from it.

Maybe, but that's a matter of personal preference, isn't it? I kind of like that the cover flow section expands rather than the list. After all, that's why I'm using the cover flow view instead of list view!

Originally Posted by JKT

12. Finder. The sidebar randomly, though infrequently, changes its width on you.

I've never seen problems with the sidebar. But I have, on occaission, had the Finder suddenly revert to its default window position and size. This seems pretty rare (once every few weeks maybe?), but it is annoying none the less.

To work around it, I wrote simple AppleScript to set my Finder windows back to the size I like:

tell application "Finder"
	try
		set bounds of front window to {5, 50, 1080, 780}
	on error
		beep
	end try
end tell

Originally Posted by JKT

13. Finder. The Places and Search For locations will sometimes spontaneously duplicate themselves in the Sidebar (so that you get Devices>Shared>Places>Search For>Places (again)>Search For (again)) in your Finder windows. Only cured by restarting.

14. Finder. Apple have completely buggered up disk image ejection...

Hmm, that's strange. I spend a fair amount of time in the Finder and use *lots* of disk images, but I've never seen either of these issues on any of the 3 Macs I have running Leopard.

Have you tried swapping out or rebuilding your Finder preferences? Maybe something got corrupted?

Originally Posted by JKT

15. Memory management. OS X is now really bad at handling memory intensive apps.

Again, this has *not* been my experience at all. Memory management in OS X has always been absolutely rock-solid for me.

I regularly use some pretty memory-intensive apps too: Logic Pro with several instances of RAM-hungry plug-ins and multiple virtual machines in VMware Fusion. But OS X rarily even hiccups.

As for kernel panics, I don't think I've had more than one, maybe two, since upgrading to Leopard in 2007. And those were clearly associated with VMware Fusion. Kernel panics simply aren't an issue in Leopard, at least not on my system.

Are you sure the problems you're seeing aren't due to a bad RAM module or other hardware problem? Or maybe a kernel extension that's not behaving properly?

Originally Posted by JKT

16. Mail. This is still not fixed in 10.5.6 - when updating to Leopard for the first time (by archive and install), your Mail accounts will appear to have successfully been upgraded but they will not display any messages if they are IMAP accounts.

17. None of my Macs will go to sleep by themselves anymore if they are on my Wi-Fi network. Never had the problem before but now I do.

18. ARDagent crashes every single time I wake my Macs from sleep. Every single time.

I haven't seen any of these issues either. I'm stumped as to why you're seeing so many problems that I don't.

One difference might be that I typically do an install from scratch rather than the archive and install. That may explain why I've had no problems with my Mail accounts.

But I've never had sleep issues of *any* kind with Leopard on my MacBook Pro. So I can't say why it's been so hard for you.

And just to be clear, I certainly put a lot of time on my Mac, running Leopard 10-16 hours a day, Monday through Friday, and another 2-4 hours a day on the weekends. So there's plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong.

Other than the usability complaints with Finder and Spotlight, Leopard seems pretty damn good to me -- certainly as good or better than any previous OS X release. CLearly, however, YMMV.

Let's hope that Snow Leopard addresses all of these issues. Rumor has it that we'll see a complete rewrite of the Finder in Cocoa, so maybe Apple's finally decided to FTFF. ;-)

-Dennis