Apple

Wherever you are, Friday, October 26, at 6 p.m. local time, Leopard will be available. If you’re one of the Mac faithful, you may line up at your local Apple store, or you may have already ordered Leopard from Apple’s online store, so you can be among the first to install the newest version of Mac OS X.

But, first, you should make sure that you’re ready to run Leopard. You’ll need a G4 867 MHz processor in your Mac, or better. You’ll need a Mac with a DVD drive, to install the OS, and about 9 GB of hard disk space (though you’d better have more than that if you want to do anything with your Mac). Apple says you need a minimum of 512 MB of RAM, but we all know that you need at least twice that for OS X to work smoothly, if you’re planning to use multiple applications, or any programs that hit the memory.

Also, make sure you update all your Intego software. Intego’s software is all Leopard-compatible, so just run NetUpdate and get the latest versions of your programs, if you haven’t done so recently. Check again just before installing Leopard in case there are any late-breaking changes.

But most important, back up your Mac before updating. Use Intego Personal Backup to make a full clone of your startup disk, and to back up any other volumes you have. You never know if installation may go wrong. If you do have a problem, you’ll be able to restore your clone immediately and start again.

Tune in here on Friday to find out more about Intego software and Leopard. We’ll be telling you why Personal Backup is still important, in spite of Apple’s Time Machine, and we’ll give you an overview of the features that make Intego ContentBarrier far more effective at protecting your kids than Apple’s built-in parental controls.