Guglielmo Plain has a question I don’t have an answer for:

My question is mainly about older computers not related to the new Intel based computer. I personally own a 1.5ghz G4 PB 17″ and I remember back in the day when I updated my OS from 10.3 to 10.4 that I got a considerable hit in performance or at least that’s what it felt like (I don’t have any tangible number or data to back it up). I remember that I once visited a repair person who specialized in Apple repairs and I mentioned that I felt that 10.4 was slower and he agreed with me and said that if I wanted to get the most out of my computer downgrading to 10.3 would be a good idea. I did not take his advice mainly because there were a few features in 10.4 mainly Spotlight that made my life a lot easier.

I have a feeling that 10.5 is slightly snappier than 10.4. Are my impressions being clouded by the hype and bling of the new OS or is it in fact faster and more efficient? Have you heard anyone else who thinks this or maybe that thinks the opposite and that it is in fact slower. Have you as a user of the newer MBP felt it to be faster/slower.

Well, I can tell you that the same apps on Leopard appear to be faster than they were in Tiger – most notably, VMware Fusion. Given that the minimum requirements for Leopard have been raised a bit, I’m assuming that you may not find the speed boosts that others are seeing.