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Leopard is finally in the hands of thousands of Mac owners who are now getting their “new Mac” set up the way they prefer. While some found frustration with the Upgrade install, I backed up my important stuff and performed a full Erase and Install, resulting in a fresh system with no lingering apps or tweaks from the previous system. So far, my experience with Leopard has been a great one, with only a few software updates required to make things run like new. Here’s a run-down of some of the notes I made while getting software working:

• Backup

  Apple’s .Mac-bundled “Backup” application received a small update bringing it up to Leopard standards, meaning many users can now successfully retrieve backups created before installing the system. Since I erased my previous OS install, being able to bring forth my backups stored on my networked G4 fileserver was one of the first things I needed to accomplish – something I’ll hopefully only need to do once with the advent of Time Machine. (Thanks for the tip, Jaron!)

• Adobe CS3 Compatibility

  I had read a number of reports concerning CS3 compatibility with Leopard, and was wary of even installing them again, but I was glad to find that Adobe CS3 seems to work just fine in Leopard. I’ve run Photoshop, Illustrator, and Bridge for a few hours now without issue!

• VMware Fusion

  I’m a big fan of using VMware on Windows to try out software before actually installing it on the host PC, and couldn’t be happier with the implementation on the Mac side of things, as well. VMware Fusion for Mac just hit 1.1 RC, and is nearing the final 1.1 release. The update brings, among other things, Leopard compatibility which works great.

• Transmit & Unison

  My two must-have utilities from Panic, Transmit and Unison, are now Leopard ready and run with nary a hitch. Way to go, guys!

• Font icons

  Images, PDFs, and Keynote presentations aren’t the only icons branded with the actual content they contain. Font files’ icons are updated to show the actual typeface on right on the icon. How cool is that?

I’m sure there’s a mountain of other cool things in Leopard just waiting to be discovered, and software developers will be publishing Leopard compatibility updates for the next few weeks at least. Keep an eye on MacOSXHints.com, one of the best places to check for the latest Leopard tweaks and tips!