"...the response from both customers and reviewers have been terrific," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer.

Pete has got to be kidding. I use Leopard every day, and like a lot of things about it, but there's no denying that this was the buggiest Mac OS release ever.

Tech reviewers and customers posting on Internet message board have both been very vocal about Leopard's shortcomings. Granted, Apple still made a ton of money on it, but I can hardly qualify Leopard as a roaring success.

A "roaring success" is different than "buggiest Mac OS release ever". It can be both.

But also remember that most tech reviewers don't spend time using the software full-time for long periods. It usually is "OK, got this, let me install it, play with it for a few days, then move on to the next thing". So they review on the obvious, the superficial, the feature set, but rarely get to the points where the problems arise. And, if you're lucky, you'll get reviewers who don't use the previous version of the software, either, so they won't compare the two and list new shortcomings.

But those are the reviewers the companies like, because they're more likely to rave their reviews and gloss over (or just not realize) some problems.

That's why I prefer my reviews from a site like Ars-Technica, which would have a 12 page review of something like Leopard, detailing everything from the glitz to the underpinnings and stuff in between.

I haven't bought it because NOTHING I use requires it. Tiger is rock steady. I'll get Leopard after a bunch of the bugs are fixed.

Sure beats using Vista, though.

Yeah, and you're probably better off skipping every other version. That way you spend half as much time relearning a UI and changing your workflows because Apple decides they need to change stuff (well, Stacks had to be added, because everyone from 10.0 to 10.4.11 have been screaming for such an interface 'enhancment').

I can see the advertising now: "You hated the dock in 10.0! You still hated it in 10.4! In 10.5, Apple performed what no one thought was possible, making the dock even less useful then ever! But you haven't seen anything yet! Coming with 10.6. The worst dock yet!"

So Stacks is disappointing if you actually used the dock. Most people serious about using there Macs for work use a launcher like QuickSilver anyway. I can't think of any real shortcoming in Leopard. Spotlight is better, stronger, faster... Time Machine works better than anyone thought. Mail.app is finally stable. Dashboard web clips work like a charm and the new core elements are just amazing to work with. So where are these supposed shortcomings?