It wasn’t too long ago when Apple lauded the Mac operating system as its flagship product. Whenever a new version was under development, it would be heavily demonstrated at a WWDC keynote, and, in the ensuing months you’d see more and more chatter about it until the highly-anticipated release event.

Indeed, hundreds of you were known to wait for hours outside a store just to get your hot little hands on a copy of the upgrade. It didn’t matter if the initial release was riddled with irritating bugs because it didn’t stew long enough in the developer kitchen. You had to have a copy, and, besides, there would be updates over the next few months to repair the worst of the ills.

As for me, well, I preferred to place my order online, and wait for the overnight carrier to deliver my copy. I got more sleep that way.

When Steve Jobs and crew delivered the first revelations about Leopard last August at the WWDC, there was lots and lots of anticipation. I joined with the crowd, wondering just what “top secret” features were held in abeyance, and when we’d learn about them.

I even presented my own wish list from time to time, with suggestions for a better help system, improved Finder performance (something more important to me than changing its appearance) and other stuff. Indeed, I had hoped for a more usable set of Open and Save dialog boxes, maybe something incorporating a few of the features from Default Folder X and maybe even the late, lamented SuperBoomerang (anyone remember that?).

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This article was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 1:02 AM and is filed under News and tagged with: Apple Mac, Default Folder, Dialog Boxes, Help System, Initial Release, Leopard, Mac Operating System, Night Owl, Owl, Revelations, Secret Features, Steve Jobs, Wwdc Keynote.