Apple has once again shown they are starting to evolve into a Microsoft-esque entity with the release of the latest OS X upgrade, Leopard.

The software release, for the most part, has been a complete nightmare for Apple and its customers with their technical support forum being bombarded by complaints from buyers claiming the OS had crashed their system (337 replies and counting).

The problem occurs when rebooting the Mac close to completing the installation process - the machine will lock up and a screen, ironically similar to the BSOD (blue screen of death) on Windows, will appear on the Mac rendering the machine virtually inoperable.

Apple has released 2 solutions to the install problem on Leopard, though they also chose to blame incompatible third party enhancement software as the culprit. However users have still reported the fault occurring despite having no third-party enhancement software installed on their machines.

Unsanity’s Application Enhancer was also identified as a possible cause, as it is believed to be incompatible with the upgrade.

The fault is so widespread that Apple’s telephone hotline is struggling to keep up with support calls, with callers waiting over an hour and more before reaching tech support.

I currently use a 2007 17″ Macbook Pro, so news of the disastrous release of the Leopard OS X software will ensure that I do not upgrade anytime soon. It is common for MS Windows releases to be super buggy until the first service pack is released (and that’s when the savvy buyers get the OS as they know the majority of release bugs are fixed) - Perhaps it is time for Apple users to adopt the same strategy. Wait till the 2nd or 3rd version of the release, to be sure they won’t experience the same issues.