Anyone tried this Preview Beta (either on older non-Intel Macs and the newer Intel Macs)?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.5


Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" is the upcoming sixth major release of the Mac OS X operating system for Apple's Macintosh computers. On August 7, 2006 at the 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Apple's intention to release the operating system in Spring 2007.

Compatibility

Leopard will be available for Apple computers using both the PowerPC and x86 architectures. While it is known that Leopard will support the PowerPC G4 and PowerPC G5 architecture, given that each release of Mac OS X has dropped support for certain computers (10.3 dropped support for computers without built-in USB ports and 10.4 dropped support for computers without FireWire ports), there has been debate over Leopard's compatibility with Apple computers that utilize the PowerPC G3 architecture. When Apple's Leopard website first appeared online, the 64-bit section stated, "From G3 to Xeon, from MacBook to Xserve, there is just one Leopard." This sentence would imply support for computers using G3 processors (likely with FireWire as a requirement similar to 10.4), but the sentence was removed from the page the following day, which may indicate that the sentence was not properly proofread and computers with G3 processors therefore are not compatible. Further, documentation contained with the Prerelease DVD mentions a PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel processor as a minimum requirement. Even if this is the case, it may be possible for third-party programs such as XPostFacto to allow 10.5 to install on Macs with G3 processors.

Features

Leopard will include a software assistant called Boot Camp, a piece of software that was revealed as a public beta on April 5, 2006, that assists in the installation of Windows XP Home or Professional Edition (SP2 only) to a separate partition on Intel-based Macs. This allows Windows XP to run natively, as opposed to running in an emulated or virtualized state. This means that applications can run at full speed, although only one operating system can be run at a time. Although intended for the installation of Windows XP, preview versions of Boot Camp have been used to assist in the installation of other operating systems such as Vista, Linux and Solaris.

At the Worldwide Developers Conference in August 2006, Steve Jobs highlighted ten major features that would be included in Leopard (also stating that he would keep other features "top-secret"):

1. Native support by all libraries and frameworks for 64-bit applications, allowing 64-bit Carbon and Cocoa applications; 32-bit applications using those libraries and frameworks will continue to run without the need for emulation or translation.
2. Time Machine – an automatic backup utility that works mainly with Finder, but also with other programs (such as iPhoto and iTunes) and even third-party applications; it backs up every file overwritten by the user, allowing users to "go back in time" and restore files (any number at once) from a specific date in the past.
3. "The Complete Package": Front Row and Photo Booth, currently only available with the purchase of a new Mac, will be included with Leopard.
4. Virtual desktops called "Spaces", similar to the feature already present in some Unix window managers.
5. Upgrades to Spotlight, including the ability to search other computers (with permissions) and advanced search options such as Boolean operators as requested by many developers.
6. Core Animation, a key component of Time Machine, but also a significant feature on its own; when a developer (creating a screensaver, for example) specifies a "start" and a "goal" space, Core Animation automatically deals with the intermediate steps (color, opacity, etc.), enhancing these applications while significantly shortening the source code.
7. "Universal access" – significant improvements to applications including VoiceOver, along with increased support for Braille and closed captioning.
8. Enhancements to Mail including the additions of RSS feeds, Stationery, Notes, and To Do's. To Do's use a system-wide service that is available to all applications.
9. Dashboard enhancements, including Dashcode to help developers code widgets and Webclip, a feature that allows users to turn a part of any web page into a live Dashboard widget.
10. iChat enhancements, including multiple logins, animated icons, and tabbed chats, similar to features present in Gaim and Adium; iChat Theater, allowing users to incorporate images from iPhoto, presentations from Keynote, and videos from QuickTime into chats; and Backdrops, which are similar to chroma keys, but use a real-time difference matte technique, which does not require a green or blue screen. iChat will also implement desktop sharing; a feature previously available with Apple Remote Desktop.

At the end, Jobs mentioned that there would also be enhancements to Parental Controls and iCal. He did not detail the specifics of those enhancements, but according to Apple's Leopard website, the additions to the parental controls will include the ability to place restrictions on use of the Internet, and to set parental controls from anywhere using remote setup.

Garbage collection for the Objective-C runtime was also revealed for Leopard as a feature of Objective-C 2.0. Xcode 3.0 will support the updated language and was even rewritten with it. This feature had been suspected since Xcode 2.2. Apple have also integrated DTrace from Sun's OpenSolaris. DTrace provides tools that users, administrators and developers can use to tune the performance of the operating system and the applications that run on it.

Mac OS X v10.5 will also include the Ruby On Rails web application framework.