For those who just can’t wait the remaining few hours until Leopard’s release (or are just curious), AppleInsider has posted a gallery of screenshots from Apple’s newest big cat.

Seeing them all laid out like this gave me some overall impressions I hadn’t picked up on yet.

  1. I dislike the new folder icons way more than I dislike the 3D dock;
  2. I absolutely love the finished appearance the unified look gives to the system. I’m not saying it’s the perfect look and can never be improved upon, but the holistic effect of having all windows look the same is striking; and
  3. The new icons are breathtaking (For a great example of this, just look at the texture in the Address Book application — there’s no technical need for this, but it speaks volumes on the values of Apple as a company). The text on what I think is the TextEdit icon is actually legible (the “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” commercial that launched Apple’ s “Think Different” campaign, for those wondering.)

In terms of eye candy, at least, it looks like a great release.