Mac OS X Leopard: Launch Sell!

Well, yeah, while our friends in Asia has been playing with Leopard for almost a day, it is just available today, 6pm in California. While I don't have the dough to buy a copy (see previous post), I do have the time to join in the excitement. So, here goes...

So here I am, the local Apple store, 5:20 pm (I forgot to set the time on my camera, so the time in the meta data is still Taipei time, though), 40 minutes before the launch.

So, it's just 30 minutes to the launch time, where is the long line of fans? And wait, why is the door locked?

Or is this simply too small a town for a long line of Apple fans? I don't believe it, as Apple won't open a store at a small town without sufficient customers.

Well, here's some...

Since I haven't spotted the "line", might as well look at the stuff in display, here's a huge iPhone on display.

"Leopard World Premier" it says, closed 4~6pm to prepare for the launch. Interesting...
Time now? 5:24 pm, might as well go for a walk and come back at about 5:50.

Hay wait, there's the long line, hidden on the other side of the store.

Now there's your long line! (The Apple store is the green top / red bottom building to the far left)

Here's the end of the line about a block away. My rough estimate: 250~300 people in line.

8:55 pm, here comes the free Leopard T-shirts! They say there's 500 per store. What, aren't there just 300 in line? You bet! I guess I've got a chance to get my hands on those without getting in line!

5 minutes till open, their standing in a row, clapping their hands.

Walker by: "What is this all about?"
Clark: "We are launching a new version of Mac OS"

Another guy asks: "What is this? I don't care about any freekin' operating system, I just came to buy a computer, and I have been waiting for 2 hours!"
Clark: "We're sorry but we have people waiting in line for about a mile long. Maybe you could wait for another hour, or get in line, or you could always order from our website." (to first guy in line)"When did you came?"
First guy in line: "7 in the morning."
The other guy: "Jesus..."

5:59 pm, and they're opening!!

There goes the happy first guy! (the guy with the huge back pack)

And there goes the happy line in to the store.
Actually, they are letting in 10 duds a time, about every 5 minutes or after every 5~10 dudes come out. A nice way to prevent stampedes, but really a long wait for the 200th guy in line. Eventually I got tired of waiting and went home for dinner...

7:30pm, and I'm back... for the T-shirt... err, no, to see what Leopard feels like on actual machines.

But wait, when I got there, the line was long gone, but the T-shirt cart still wasn't empty, so I did get one of the last ones! The clarks looked at me and gave me an estimated size. Neat, I thought they were one size fits all...

And the back...


As for trying out Leopard on the computers in the store, I do like it. Time machine is useful, but you need a 2nd hard drive. Quick look is useful too. And making widgets from any website is really nice. For the 3D and transparent interface, it only matters for the first 10 minutes and that's it. At first I was, wow, cool, I want a copy... But after the first 10 minutes, it doesn't feel that much of a difference from Tiger. It's really is an incremental upgrade, so yeah, until I have money to burn, I'll wait until the next big cat.