There ’s plenty go on above the surface in Leopard to grab your attending — from entirely fresh features to enhanced favorites . But do n’t let that forestall you from have a deeper look at the under - the - hood changes introduced by OS X 10.5 . Terminal , X11 , and Disk Utility may not be the stuff of headlines , but there are enough significant changes here to radically affect how you interact with Mac OS X.

Terminal

Terminal is the software that give way users verbatim memory access to the Unix essence of OS X. As such , it ’s not something that everyone will use every day . However , for folk such as Unix converts and those who like to use OS X ’s Unix programs , it ’s an indispensable app — and it ’s received a square upgrade in Leopard .

What’s new

Apple has given Unix users a friendlier cheek with the late translation to Terminal .

TabsAs with Safari ( and basically every other Web web internet browser ) and iChat , Terminal now sports a tabbed interface — press Command - T or choose Shell - > New Tab , and you ’ll see a new tab appear at the top of your Terminal concealment . tabloid are a great room to keep multiple information sources available at one prison term without push your CRT screen when not in active use .

tab in Terminal window are quite whippy — you may trail them around within one window to rearrange them , drag them out of the tablet bar to make unexampled windows , or scuff and send away to transplant them into another Terminal windowpane . you may even take an subject Terminal windowpane without any pill , show its pill streak ( displacement - Command - T ) , and then sweep up that window into a tabbed Terminal windowpane to create a new tab from the windowpane .

SettingsYou can create a diverseness of Terminal windowpane look , and save each of them in the configurations section of Terminal ’s orientation . Using the newfangled examiner , you could then easily select a different face for each Terminal windowpane — or tab — that you have in utilisation .

you could also set the opaqueness grade of select , normal , and bold text edition ; background signal colour ; and the pointer severally — type O X 10.4 only allowed setting the opacity for the background coloration . If you were a lover of using an image for your Terminal background , though , you ’ll be let down : that feature has been dropped in Leopard .

Window GroupsYou can also create windowpane groups in Terminal , which are collection of loose window and tabs . you’re able to set a workspace as the nonpayment , so it opens when you set up Terminal , or you’re able to switch between them using the Window - > Open Window Group menu item . Unfortunately , there ’s no well-situated way to change which windowpane chemical group is the nonremittal without opening it and save it again .

InspectorThe Inspector has been greatly simplified for OS X 10.5 . There are now only two tabs : Info and preferences . Info lets you change a tab or windowpane ’s form of address and sizing , and shows a list of running game processes . preferences lets you change the look of a window or tab by opt one of the your defined mise en scene .

revise PreferencesIn prior version of OS X ’s Terminal , the Preferences screen was quite basic — just a couple of radio buttons , a bulge out - up menu , and a checkbox . In Leopard , though , there are now four yellow journalism . Startup is most standardised to the old Preferences panel ; configurations and Window Groups are used to manage those several features ; and Encodings lets you delimitate text encoding option .

What we think

The bone X 10.5 Terminal works quite well , and the addition of tabs makes manage set of randomly - localize Terminal windows a thing of the yesteryear . With even more control over window appearance , most user will be quite happy with Terminal 2.0 .

If you reach the Unix side of OS X at all , you ’ll demand a final curriculum to do so . In the past , programs likeiTermhave filled pickle left by features that Apple choose not to let in in Terminal . With Leopard ’s Terminal , however , the number of such mess is much smaller , and more people will find Terminal lawsuit their needs just fine.—ROB GRIFFITHS

X11

X11 is a everlasting ten Window System execution for running X11 - base diligence on Mac OS X. Or to put it another way , X11 permit for many Linux and Unix lotion to be run on the Mac . What sorts of programs ? Well , there’sGIMP , a free competitor to Photoshop , orOpen business office 2.3 , a free choice to Microsoft ’s Office . Neither of these programs have Mac native ports , and yet you could operate them on your Mac using X11 .

However , if you ’re like many other Mac drug user , you ’ve probably never hear of X11 , nor visualise it on your Mac . That ’s because X11 is an optional install ; you have to go out of your way to add it during the OS X installation cognitive process . And you ’d probably only to to the trouble if you already knew you needed X11 . ( you may add it at any time by re - running the installer and choosing to customize the installation . You ’ll notice X11 at the bottom of list of program you could install . )

The biggest alteration for X11 in Leopard is that it ’s now based on a new X11 computer code substructure . Whereas anterior sack were built around the Xfree86 group ’s implementation ( eject 4.4.0 , from 2004 ) , X11 now uses the X.org group ’s X11R7.2 code home . ( The two groups split in 2004 due to differences regarding language in the X11 license . ) Most major Linux distributions have also moved to the X11.org codification , so it seems Apple has made the logical move here .

Beyond the new codification stem , the most visible new lineament is a Security tab in X11 ’s preferences with which you could require attested connexion and allow connections from internet clients .

I tested GIMP ( 2.3 and 2.4 release prospect 3 ) and Open Office 2.3 in X11 on osmium X 10.5 on both an Intel - establish Mac mini and a Mac Pro , and my results were mixed . Open Office race alright on both machines , but I had no luck with either version of GIMP on either machine — the 2.4 version would load then quit , while the 2.2 outlet would n’t charge at all . I suspect that GIMP will require an update to work with Leopard .

If you need X11 , you credibly already lie with you need it , and the new version in OS X 10.5 seems to work just fine — although some of the broadcast you use may need underage updates to run , as I get with GIMP . If you need X11 , there ’s no intellect not to start using the translation that ’s admit with Leopard — just be aware that not all your applications may run without an update.—ROB GRIFFITHS

Disk Utility 11

Perhaps the biggest change to Disk Utility — the built - in coating for formatting , analyzing , and repairing the hard drives on your Mac — is its ability to alter the size of disk partitions without losing data .

In former variant , if you wanted to change the size or number of partitions on a certain drive , Disk Utility would first score out the integral effort and reconstruct the partitions as you requested . Now , you could reapportion your record space to raw partitioning , or expand existing partitions . This feature countenance you keep disjoined , bootable partitions for different operating scheme , for example . I was able to make , delete , and resize multiple sectionalisation without demolish all of the data on the drive .

Leopard ’s Disk Utility also lease you resize disk image . This is a gracious feature for those who practice Disk Utility to make an empty disc image of , say 100 MB , only to find later on that they do n’t need that much space . They can shrink it down to the right size and regain that extra space.—JAMES GALBRAITH

[ Rob Griffiths is a senior editor forMacworld . James Galbraith is Macworld Lab manager . ]