At Tridea, we work on Macs. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but recently, there’s been a big change. That change is Leopard.

Now it’s not the most revolutionary operating system ever, I’ll admit that, but it’s progress, and that’s something Mac operating systems have been achieving for quite awhile. However, there are some features Leopard offers that Windows just hasn’t been able to do as well or as easy.

The biggest feature is Time Machine. Time Machine is basically an incredibly simple way to back up your files and access those backups. When you attach an external hard drive to your computer, Leopard will ask you if you want to use if for Time Machine, and if you say yes, it backs up your computer entirely. Once the first backup is run, subsequent backups are run every hour when the drive is connected.

The best part about having this simple backup system, is that searching through the backups is really easy. If you want to do it by hand, you click Time Machine, and you can browse back through finder windows on folders from change point to change point. The first time I needed it, I had deleted a file on my desktop that I had when I was installing some software. A few clicks into Time Machine and I had found it and restored it to my desktop. It’s simple, which is something Mac interface designers have always delivered.

Another great feature for us at Tridea is the improvements to iChat. Now, we don’t normally USE iChat, we use an app called Adium because it allows us to user multiple chat accounts (AIM, Gchat, etc.) in one buddy list. But one of the new features being touted is improved video chat. Now, keynote/powerpoint presentations can be shared and gone through over a video chat. Also, we can do code reviews remotely via desktop sharing. Admittedly, desktop sharing has been around on the Windows side via Netmeeting for awhile, but desktop sharing in iChat is, again, really simple.

Another feature Leopard has preinstalled is BootCamp. This allows a Mac user with Windows software to install Windows and choose to boot in it at start up. When I first made the switch to mac, this was my main reason. Only, the more I used the Mac OS, the less I booted into Windows. Nowadays, I use virtualization software simply to browser test my work. Virtulization software like Parallels and VMware Fusion allows you to boot windows while inside OS X.

Initially, I was a Parallels user because I had heard about it more online. It worked fairly well, but had kind of a clunky interface, not exactly up to the Mac standard I was used to. I heard of VMware fusion but never gave it much thought because of the pain involved with having to reinstall windows with my old XP disc. However, with my Leopard install (clean and new, not an upgrade), I decided to give it a try…I mean, their stock seems to be doing well, so why not? It was a good decision: Fusion is fast, simple, and clean.

So if you are a Mac user or a PC user fed up with Vista, I recommend you upgrade to Leopard. It’s another solid product from a solid company that helps us at Tridea work well and work happy!