Finally. Spring has sprung. It’s official. I see signs of it in the back yard. In typical Maine fashion, icicles hang from the buds on the lilac bushes. Squirrels and birds are scampering and flittering. And then there’s the mud, of course.

This year, I’ve been anticipating Spring a bit more than years past. Why? Because last June, at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the next major upgrade to the Mac’s operating system, 10.5 (code-named “Leopard”), would ship “in the Spring of 2007”.

Leopard is to Mac users what Vista is to PC users – with one major difference. Mac users are excited about Leopard. Mac users will wait in line the night before in droves to get their hands on Leopard.

So when do I get to grab my sleeping bag, PowerBook, and iPod and camp out in front of the Rockingham Park Mall with the other zealots?

No one knows for sure. Jobs’ announced “Spring of 2007” could be anytime between today and the 21st of June.

There’s no shortage of opinions and theories amongst the Mac techies on the web. One peerless prognosticator says Leopard will be released tomorrow, April 24th, because tomorrow is six years to the day after Mac OS 10.0 was released. Not gonna happen.

Another theorist believes, based on the intervals between past Apple operating system releases, that Leopard will ship on May 11th. The only problem with May 11th is it’s a Friday. Nobody releases something big on a Friday. The weekend’s sleepy news cycles don’t support hype very well. Big releases come on Monday or Tuesday, so the buzz can permeate the rest of the week.

Some believe that Apple will use the pulpit of this year’s WWDC Keynote Address (conveniently given by Steve Jobs himself) to let Leopard out of the bag. WWDC starts June 11th, which is still in the Spring window. Boy, that seems like a long time from now.

Since last year’s WWDC, Apple has been seeding versions of the new operating system to developers so they can develop applications that take advantage of all the new features promised in Leopard. The most recent seedings have been described as “not ready for prime time”, meaning that the “secret” features Jobs hinted at back in June haven’t showed up yet.

There is one upside. It’ll certainly be warmer in the all-night line at Rockingham if Leopard comes in June. Save me a spot!