Mac OS X Leopard

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
A version of the macOS operating system

Screenshot of Mac OS X Leopard. Note how the Dock and window designs are different to previous versions of Mac OS X.
Developer Apple Inc.
OS family
Source model Closed source (with open source components)
Released to
manufacturing
October 26, 2007 (October 26, 2007)
Latest release 10.5.8 (Build 9L31a)[2] / August 13, 2009 (2009-08-13)[3]
Update method Apple Software Update
Platforms IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC
Kernel type Hybrid (XNU)
License Commercial proprietary software[4] with Apple Public Source License (APSL)
Preceded by Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
Succeeded by Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Official website Apple - Mac OS X Leopard at the Wayback Machine (archived May 28, 2009)
Support status
Unsupported as of about June 23, 2011[5][6]

Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth major release of Mac OS X (now named macOS), Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Tiger (version 10.4), and is available in two editions: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a server version, Mac OS X Server. It retailed for $129[7] for the desktop version and $499 for Server.[8] Leopard was superseded by Snow Leopard (version 10.6). Leopard is the final version of Mac OS X to support the PowerPC architecture as Snow Leopard functions solely on Intel based Macs.

According to Apple, Leopard contains over 300 changes and enhancements over its predecessor, Mac OS X Tiger,[9] covering core operating system components as well as included applications and developer tools. Leopard introduces a significantly revised desktop, with a redesigned Dock, Stacks, a semitransparent menu bar, and an updated Finder that incorporates the Cover Flow visual navigation interface first seen in iTunes. Other notable features include support for writing 64-bit graphical user interface applications, an automated backup utility called Time Machine, support for Spotlight searches across multiple machines, and the inclusion of Front Row and Photo Booth, which were previously included with only some Mac models.

Apple missed Leopard's release time frame as originally announced by Apple's CEO Steve Jobs. When first discussed in June 2005, Jobs had stated that Apple intended to release Leopard at the end of 2006 or early 2007.[10] A year later, this was amended to Spring 2007;[11] however on April 12, 2007, Apple issued a statement that its release would be delayed until October 2007 because of the development of the iPhone.[12]

New and changed features

End-user features

Apple advertised that Mac OS X Leopard has 300+ new features,[13] including:

The Finder, showing files in Cover Flow View and viewing a file using Quick Look

Developer technologies

In mid-December 2006, a pre-release version of Leopard appeared to include support for Sun’s ZFS.[47] Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President of Sun Microsystems, boasted on June 6, 2007 that ZFS has become "the file system" for Leopard.[48] However, the senior project marketing director for Mac OS X stated on June 11, 2007 that the existing HFS+, not ZFS, will be used in Leopard. Apple later clarified that a read-only version of ZFS would be included.[49]

Security enhancements

New security features intend to provide better internal resiliency to successful attacks, in addition to preventing attacks from being successful in the first place.

Library Randomization
Leopard implements library randomization,[54] which randomizes the locations of some libraries in memory. Vulnerabilities that corrupt program memory often rely on known addresses for these library routines, which allow injected code to launch processes or change files. Library randomization is presumably a stepping-stone to a more complete implementation of address space layout randomization at a later date.
Application Layer Firewall
Leopard ships with two firewall engines: the original BSD IPFW, which was present in earlier releases of Mac OS X, and the new Leopard Application Layer Firewall. Unlike IPFW, which intercepts and filters IP datagrams before the kernel performs significant processing, the Application Layer Firewall operates at the socket layer, bound to individual processes. The Application Layer Firewall can therefore make filtering decisions on a per-application basis. Of the two firewall engines, only the Application Layer Firewall is fully exposed in the Leopard user interface. The new firewall offers less control over individual packet decisions (users can decide to allow or deny connections system wide or to individual applications, but must use IPFW to set fine-grained TCP/IP header-level policies). It also makes several policy exceptions for system processes: neither mDNSResponder nor programs running with superuser privileges are filtered.[55]
Sandboxes
Leopard includes kernel-level support for role-based access control (RBAC). RBAC is intended to prevent, for example, an application like Mail from editing the password database.
Application Signing
Leopard provides a framework to use public key signatures for code signing to verify, in some circumstances, that code has not been tampered with. Signatures can also be used to ensure that one program replacing another is truly an "update", and carry any special security privileges across to the new version. This reduces the number of user security prompts, and the likelihood of the user being trained to simply clicking "OK" to everything.
Secure Guest Account
Guests can be given access to a Leopard system with an account that the system erases and resets at logout.[56]

Security features in Leopard have been criticized as weak or ineffective, with the publisher Heise Security documenting that the Leopard installer downgraded firewall protection and exposed services to attack even when the firewall was re-enabled.[57][58] Several researchers noted that the Library Randomization feature added to Leopard was ineffective compared to mature implementations on other platforms, and that the new "secure Guest account" could be abused by Guests to retain access to the system even after the Leopard log out process erased their home directory.[59][60]

System requirements

Apple states the following basic Leopard system requirements, although, for some specific applications and actions (such as iChat backdrops) an Intel processor is required:[61]

Leopard’s retail version was not released in separate versions for each type of processor, but instead consisted of one universal release that could run on both PowerPC and Intel processors.[40] However, the install discs that ship with Intel-based Macs only contain Intel binaries.

Processor type and speed are checked during installation and installation halted if insufficient; however, Leopard will run on slower G4 processor machines (e.g., a 733mhz Quicksilver) if the installation is performed on a supported Mac and its hard drive then moved to a slower/unsupported one (the drive may either be an internal mechanism or a Firewire external).

Supported machines

Leopard can run on the later flat-panel iMac G4s, the first iMac G5, second iMac G5 (with the ambient light sensor), third iMac G5 (with iSight), iMac Intel Core Duo and iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, PowerBook G4, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G5, iBook G4, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, Xserve, Xserve G5, Xserve RAID, Macintosh Server G4, and later eMac models. Leopard can run on older hardware as long as they have a G4 upgrade installed running at the 867 MHz or faster, have at least 9 GB free of hard drive space, 512 MB RAM and have a DVD drive. Leopard however will not run on the 900 MHz iBook G3 models even though they exceed the minimum 867 MHz requirement. This is due to the lack of AltiVec support in the G3 line of processors. Leopard can be "hacked" (see below) to install on these G3 and pre-867 MHz G4 machines but the system may behave erratically and many of the programs, features, and functions may not work properly or at all. As of Mid 2010, some Apple computers have firmware factory installed which will no longer allow installation of Mac OS X Leopard. These computers only allow installation of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. However, some computers (such as the 2011 model of the Mac mini) can have Leopard installed on them without hacking.

Usage on unsupported hardware

Some ways of running Leopard on certain unsupported hardware, primarily PowerPC G4 computers with CPU speeds lower than the official requirement of 867 MHz, have been discovered. A common way is use of the program LeopardAssist, which is a bootloader similar in some respects to XPostFacto (used for installing earlier releases of Mac OS X on unsupported G3 and pre-G3 Macs) that uses the Mac’s Open Firmware to tell Leopard that the machine does have a CPU meeting the 867 MHz minimum requirement that the Installer checks for before installation is allowed to commence, when in reality the CPU is slower.[62] Currently, LeopardAssist only runs on slower G4s and many people have installed Leopard successfully on these older machines.

Users who have access to supported hardware have installed Leopard on the supported machine then simply moved the hard drive to the unsupported machine. Alternatively, the Leopard Installation DVD was booted on a supported Mac, then installed on an unsupported Mac via Firewire Target Disk Mode. Leopard is only compiled for AltiVec-enabled PowerPC processors (G4 and G5) though, as well as Intel, so both of these methods will only work on Macs with G4 or later CPUs. While some of the earlier beta releases were made to run on some later G3 machines (mostly later 800–900 MHz iBooks), no success with the retail version has been officially reported on G3 Macs except for some later iMacs and "Pismo" PowerBook G3s with G4 processor upgrades installed.

For a number of months after Leopard's release it appeared that the only G3 Macs on which Leopard could be run were those with both an aftermarket G4 processor and an AGP graphics card, as failures with the OS partially booting before crashing were reported on older Macs such as the original tray-loading iMacs and the Beige and Blue & White Power Mac G3 (all with G4 upgrades as Leopard will not even begin to load without one) whereas it would boot fine on newer Macs where the Installer restriction had been circumvented. However, more recently it has been reported[63][64] that with some more work and use of kernel extensions from XPostFacto, Tiger and beta builds of Leopard, the OS can be made to run on G4-upgraded Macs as old as the Power Macintosh 9500, despite the lack of AGP-based graphics. While Leopard can be run on any Mac with a G4 or later processor, some functionality such as Front Row or Time Machine fails to work without a Quartz Extreme-capable graphics card, which many of the earlier G4s did not include in their factory specification.

Since Apple moved to using Intel processors in their computers, the OSx86 community has developed and now also allows Mac OS X Tiger and later releases to be installed and run successfully on non-Apple x86-based computers, albeit in violation of Apple's licensing agreement for Mac OS X.

Packaging

The retail packaging for Leopard is significantly smaller than that of previous versions of Mac OS X (although later copies of Tiger also came in the new smaller box). It also sports a lenticular cover, making the X appear to float above a purple galaxy, somewhat resembling the default Leopard desktop wallpaper.[65]

Release history

Version Build Date OS name Notes Download
10.5 9A581 October 26, 2007 Darwin 9.0 Original retail DVD release N/A
10.5.1 9B18 November 15, 2007 Darwin 9.1 About the Mac OS X 10.5.1 Update; Second retail DVD release Mac OS X 10.5.1 Update
10.5.2 9C31, 9C7010 February 11, 2008 Darwin 9.2 About the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update
10.5.3 9D34 May 28, 2008 Darwin 9.3 About the Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update
10.5.4 9E17 June 30, 2008 Darwin 9.4 About the Mac OS X 10.5.4 update; Third retail DVD release Mac OS X 10.5.4 Update
10.5.5 9F33 September 15, 2008 Darwin 9.5 About the Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update
10.5.6 9G55 December 15, 2008 Darwin 9.6 About the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update
9G66 January 6, 2009 Fourth retail DVD release (part of Mac Box Set) N/A
10.5.7 9J61 May 12, 2009 Darwin 9.7 About the Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update
10.5.8 9L30 August 5, 2009 Darwin 9.8 About the Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update
Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update Combo

Compatibility

After Leopard’s release, there were widely reported incidents of new Leopard installs hanging during boot on the blue screen that appears just before the login process starts.[66] Apple attributed these problems to an outdated version of an unsupported add-on extension called Application Enhancer (APE), from Unsanity which had been incompatible with Leopard. Some users were unaware that APE had been silently installed during installation of Logitech mouse drivers. However, only the users who did not have the latest version of APE installed (2.0.3 at that time) were affected.[67] Apple published a knowledge base article on how to solve this problem.[68]

Google announced that the Chrome browser will be dropping support for Leopard starting on Chrome 21. By that time Chrome will no longer auto-update, and new Chrome installations are not allowed. Their rationale for removal of support is that Leopard is an "OS X version also no longer being updated by Apple."[69]

Firefox also dropped support for Leopard after it shipped Firefox 16 in October 2012.[70] TenFourFox is a port of Firefox for the PPC architecture, released after Firefox dropped support for Leopard.

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Preceded by
Mac OS X 10.4
Mac OS X 10.5
2007
Succeeded by
Mac OS X 10.6
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