Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Mac OS X 10.5, released on October 26, 2007, was the biggest change to date of Mac OS X since Apple first released OS X 10.0 in March 2001. For the first time, a version of OS X was certified as Unix, and the new unified appearance makes Leopard friendlier and less confusing for users.

Leopard itself was also unified. Where Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger had come in two separate versions for PowerPC and Intel Macs, the Leopard installer could run on both platforms and the version of Mac OS X installed could boot either type of hardware. New features included Time Machine automated backup, Stacks, and Cover Flow.

But with every big step forward in features and performance, the Mac OS leaves some older Macs behind. The number of Macs that had been supported by Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was the biggest for any release of OS X to date: No G3 models were supported, and the installer would not run G4 Macs slower than 857 MHz, although a few workarounds were discovered to address that.

After 22 months as the current version of OS X (only Tiger lasted longer, at 30 months), Leopard was succeeded by 10.6 Snow Leopard on August 28, 2009, the first version of OS X to leave all PowerPC Macs behind.

Leopard List, Low End Mac's email list for Mac OS X 10.5 users.
Unsupported Leopard installation, 2007.10.31. How to install Mac OS X 10.5 on unsupported hardware - plus field reports.
Faking out the Leopard installer with Open Firmware, Dylan McDermond, 2007.12.06. You don't have to hack the installer to make the Mac OS X 10.5 installer run on sub-867 MHz G4 Macs by using this simple Open Firmware trick.

Leopard Links

Why Spaces is my favorite Leopard (and Snow Leopard) feature, Charles Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2009.11.23. Spaces, a feature introduced with OS X 10.5, is like having several monitors on your Mac without the cost and space of using multiple displays.
The Leopard experience at 867 MHz, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2008.12.02. Mac OS X 10.5 requires an 867 MHz G4 with 512 MB of memory, but is performance really acceptable on a minimum spec system?
Does constant Time Machine activity compromise disk longevity?, Charles Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2008.09.15. Time Machine is a marquee feature of Mac OS X 10.5, but isn't all of that disk activity likely to wear our your drive prematurely?
SheepShaver brings Classic Mac OS to Intel Macs and Leopard, Alan Zisman, Mac2Windows, 2008.05.20. Mac OS X 10.5 doesn't support Classic Mode. Neither does Leopard. But SheepShaver lets you emulate a PowerPC Mac and run the Classic Mac OS.
Restoring a crashed Mac with an install disc and Time Machine, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 2008.02.06. Thanks to Leopard's Time Machine backup feature, it's easy to restore your Mac to an earlier setup if you've inadvertently deleted essential files.
Leopard different, a bit buggy, but worth the upgrade, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 2007.11.02. Leopard on a Power Mac G4 and a MacBook Pro: It runs well on both computers, but each has some odd bugs, and some of the changes are a step backwards.

Downloadable Updates

Standalone Updates let you update to a newer version of Mac OS X from your hard drive instead of using Software Update, which requires an Internet connection. Download the one(s) you need and install them after mounting the disk image and launching the Installer program.

There are two types of Standalone Updates: Individual (or Delta) and Combo.

Individual Updates update one version of Mac OS X to the next version. For example, the Mac OS X 10.5.4 Update updates Mac OS X 10.5.3 to version 10.5.4. Individual Updates are also known as Delta Updates.
Combo Updates update the base version of a Mac OS X release to the version specified in the Combo Update, including all intermediate updates. For example, the Mac OS X 10.5.4 Combo Update updates any earlier version of Mac OS X 10.5 to Mac OS X 10.5.4 using a single installer, as opposed to installing the individual Mac OS X 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, and 10.5.4 updates.

Standalone Updates are generally available 24 to 48 hours after the Update is available through Software Update.

If you burn a Standalone Update to CD, its disk image must be copied to your desktop or another location on your Mac OS X startup disk in order to be installed.

This page will be updated as new Standalone Updates become available.

Mac OS X 10.5.1

Mac OS X 10.5.2

Mac OS X 10.5.3

Mac OS X 10.5.4

Mac OS X 10.5.5

Mac OS X 10.5.6

Mac OS X 10.5.7

Mac OS X 10.5.8

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