Courtesy Leopard comes in a single-user license for $129 and a five-user Family Pack license for $199. If you bought a qualifying Mac on or after Oct. 1, you can get Leopard free via the Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade.

So it's not another iPhone or iPod. Mac OS Leopard, the new Mac computer operating system, still marks another big Apple product debut when it enters the wild Friday, Oct. 26. That's because this Leopard has plenty of cool spots. With more than 300 new features, Leopard could indeed be like adding “a new Mac to your Mac.” Here are some of those features worth noting.
 

New and improved desktop. Behold, a reflective 3D Dock with Stacks — files that spring from a Dock item into an arc or grid for easy access. Documents and Downloads come with pre-made stacks to minimize desktop clutter, but you can create as many stacks as you want. Oh, and the menu bar now looks semitransparent.

Spaces for work or whatever. Think of Spaces as multiple desktops for better organization. With Spaces, you can create, say, a space for a work project with its necessary applications, another space for Web browsing, another space for music stuff, etc. And you can switch from space to space with ease.

Files get the Cover Flow. Talk about music to the eyes. Now Finder has Cover Flow so you can flip through files as images just like you would with album art in iTunes.

Have a Quick Look. Another piece of user-friendly eye candy, Quick Look lets you view file content without opening an application. It works with documents, images, video and music.

Eye-catching iChat. Video chat gets picturesque in iChat with backdrops and other Photoshop-like effects, so you can look like you're chatting underwater, as an X-ray and more. You can also see and control the same desktop with your chatting chum for shared Web browsing and other collaboration.

Get back with Time Machine. Time Machine is a simple way to backup your Mac with an external drive. It backs up everything on your Mac (i.e. system files, applications, photos) and lets you go back to how your Mac looked on a certain day.

Take PC work to Boot Camp. Want a PC experience on a Mac? Boot Camp on Leopard lets you run Windows XP and Windows Vista. (XP and Vista sold separately.)

René A. Guzman | 210SA Contributor