How hard will it be to upgrade to Leopard?

[zub3qin]

I can't wait any longer. I'm in for a Blackbook.
I thought Leopard would be coming for free, but it ain't.
So if I use my MB for the next 4 months, when Leopard is out, how hard is it to upgrade?
Do all my apps and documents come back exactly as I left them? Or is it best to do a fresh reinstall?

Is this a lengthy process?

(New Mac user here)

 

[Igantius]

Not sure if there's any real benefit to doing a fresh install. Upgrading is a breeze - always a good idea to keep those important docs backed up.

 

[kymac]

im curious about this too.. esp. about the apps and stuff.. will they even be compatible if they do stay?

 

[TheSpecialist]

They will stay completely compatible, no hassle for upgrading. Though I WOULD, do a fresh install. Just for the best performance, but that's just me. You could also just simply upgrade, your files won't be lost.

 

[Sbrocket]

I usually prefer to do a clean install when I upgrade an OS of any kind, just to get a perfectly clean slate to screw up.

Really though, it isn't practical for me personally. I configure a lot of stuff that would be a pain to transfer over to a new install (various self-scripted launch daemons, etc), and doing an upgrade is usually fine.

You're not gonna have nearly the complexity of customization that I or some others have being a new user, though. A direct upgrade install from Tiger to Leopard using the Leopard install discs will work perfectly for you. All your documents and files will be left generally untouched and as they were before the upgrade. Mac OS X upgrades are known for their simplicity and user-friendliness since the Unix core of OSX is hidden from the purview of your average user, which is what the upgrade is actually modifying.

 

[66217]

Not sure if there's any real benefit to doing a fresh install. Upgrading is a breeze - always a good idea to keep those important docs backed up.

Fresh install is only helpful if your Mac is starting to slow down. Or if you have some glitches that don't seem to get fixed.

But it takes a lot of time, so it is normally don't a good idea.

But good advice, always back-up your data. Terrible things can happen if you don't.

 

[aquajet]

Clean installs are mostly a waste of time. I've done many upgrades successfully. So while the rest of you have just finished formatting your drive, I'm happily poking around the new OS.

 

[uicandrew]

as far as i know, it wasn't mentioned by steve in the keynote, but zfs could change things a bit if leopard is zfs by default.

i'm assuming migration assistant will always work, though

 

[Aniej]

very very simple. migration assistant or manually if on a different machine or simply load 10.5 and that's it.

 

[Aniej]

Clean installs are mostly a waste of time. I've done many upgrades successfully. So while the rest of you have just finished formatting your drive, I'm happily poking around the new OS.

oh, and I completely agree with this point. Only qualification is if you have been experiencing somme problems with certain applications and want to be extra thorough.

 

[Igantius]

but zfs could change things a bit if leopard is zfs by default.

Doesn't look like this is happening (see news section).