If you feel like I’ve been avoiding you since Halloween, it’s not my fault.  You see, there was this giant Leopard that attacked me, and ever since, I’ve had barely any network connection outside of work.

Geez, where do I begin?  I’ve been an early adopter of most software for as long as I can remember, definitely with each version of Mac OS X since I made the switch from being a Linux user.  I’ve loved it, but now we’ve got a problem.

Leopard’s not so good with wireless.

I know that I’m not alone.  There are thousands of users complaining about this problem, at least three of whom are in my department at work.  It’s okay, though, because I know that Leopard was a gigantic leap forward for Apple.  The real problem comes from the people.

See, Apple doesn’t give direct support in forums for its software.  There’ll be a fix, sooner or later (mostly sooner, sometimes later), but until then, you’re at the mercy of the community for support.  That’s fine with me.  What’s not fine is the attitude.

By far, the most ubiquitous response is, “You should just buy an Airport Extreme.  You know that’ll be compatible.”

I don’t have a problem with hardware incompatibilities.  I know that I run a different operating system than most of the world, and because of that, I can’t expect the best third-party support or the highest-performing native drivers.  You tell me that my Logitech webcam isn’t working because it’s not an iSight?  That’s fine.  You tell me I shouldn’t have bought that Visioneer scanner because they only make Windows drivers?  That’s fine, too.  What you can’t tell me is that I have to use first-party network gear.

The entire point of wireless network connectivity is to be truly mobile.  This means that anywhere you go that has a wifi network, you should be able to connect.  Apple will never own the networking market, neither enterprise or SOHO, and they don’t want to.  What they do have to do, though, is play nice with devices branded by Cisco, Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, and others.

By the way, I name each of those because I’ve seen this problem with each of those vendors.  It’s a driver issue, or a protocol issue.  It’s not a hardware issue.

So out came my MacBook’s restoration CD and in went Tiger.  Once again, I’m happy with my laptop.  There are things about Leopard that I’m missing, but I feel confident that Apple, who has just seeded the second draft of their first update, will fix this in time.  It won’t be until that time, however, until Leopard is ready for me.