Leopard Only Applications, the first bunch…

Filed under Apple, Software on October 23rd, 2007

With Leopard delivering lots of exciting frameworks and programing tools to developers (Core Animation, Objective C 2.0, CoreText, etc) it’s no wonder that several independent mac developers have decided to deliver the next version of their app only for Leopard.

While users with older macs might feel betrayed, I believe it’s good for the platform, it’s good for the users and its good for the developers too. It’s good for the platform because by taking advantage of all the new technologies it improves the state of the art in Mac applications. It’s good for the developers because it enables them to add some cool new features that would be either impossible or very hard to replicate with Tiger (plus, they get to play with all those new toys). And it’s cool for us, because we get all those cool new applications taking full advantage of the shiny new OS we paid good money for.

That said, and without further ado, I present a slopilly compiled List of Leopard only applications.

Delicious Library 2.0

Delicious Library needs no introduction. It’s probably the most celebrated OS X app, and it has even spanned a generation of developers inspired by its attention to detail and, er, eye candy. Wil Shipley has announced that version 2 of the popular cataloging app (out any time now), will be Leopard only. Scott Stevenson provides a nice preview of Delicious Library 2.0, which is to be released soon after Leopard ships.

TextMate 2.0

TextMate, everyone’s favorite text editor makes the jump to version 2.0. Allan Odgaard (lead developer) explains the reasoning behind his decision here. The best part? TextMate 2.0 will be a free update for all previous owners.

FlySketch

FlySketch is Gus Mueller’s application for drawing above your desktop windows. You can select a portion of the screen, highlight, add annotations, paint it, crop, and more and then export it as an image. As you have guessed already, the next version of FlySketch, will too be Leopard only. Here’s what Gus thinks about this.

Apple’s own

Some of Apple’s own apps will only run on the latest cat. Boot Camp, for instance, the utility enabling dual booting to Windows will only run on Leopard. Apple has already pulled off the free beta version that was previously available for Tiger users and existing installations were set to expire. There’s also the little mystery about whether there is hidden functionality in iLife and iWork apps that only Leopard takes advantage off. My guess is that there is not, except for any system wide improvements (new file dialogs, etc).

The Rest

The only other app I could find is Cookbook, the “delicious” recipy management application of MyDreamApp fame.

If you are interested to learn the reasons behind Leopard Only apps, you can read Scott Stevenson’s excellent post, aptly titled “The Reasons for Leopard Only Apps“.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 5:56 am.
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