Apple will let Mac OS Leopard loose on 26 October

Apple has announced that Leopard, the next version of its Mac operating system, will go on sale in the UK and US at 6pm local time on Friday 26 October.

The computer and iPod maker and other retailers have already started taking pre-orders for the Mac OS X 10.5 operating system, otherwise known as Leopard, its first new version since the company migrated its computer products to the Intel x86 processor platform.

The launch of Leopard is a delayed one, having previously been expected back in June. The delay was blamed on developer resources being redeployed to finish the iPhone smartphone.

The new version of Mac OS X costs £85 or £129 for a five-user Family Pack and requires a Mac with an Intel or PowerPC G5 processor, or a G4 at 867MHz or faster processor.

The minimum requirements for Leopard rule out a significant number of legacy machines which run the current 10.4 Tiger relase - legacy support having long been one of the major selling points for Apple's hardware and operating system. However, even modest machines such as first generation Mac mini desktops will be more than capable of running the new OS.

Mac OS X Leopard Server will be available at the same time, priced at £319 (inc VAT) for a 10-client edition and £629 (inc VAT) for an unlimited-client version.

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