Upgrading your operating system can be a stressful experience, raising lots of questions.  Will my current computer even run the new system?  Will it be slower or faster than it was before?  Will I need more memory?  Is there any chance of losing my data?  Will the applications I know and love work as they did?  How long will it take me to get comfortable with the new features?  And, most important, is there any way I can get a free copy of the new system?

Free copy?  You bet.  Next Tuesday, November 13^th, two of you can take home and tame a copy of Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” (a $129 value).  Without stealing or torrenting.  All you need to do is attend the November meeting of the Maine Macintosh Owners & Operators Society (MMOOS).  The MMOOS will gather at 6:30 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room around back on the second floor of Brunswick High School (check our website at mmoos.net for directions).

Next week we’ll get to know Leopard “up close and personal”, from installation to customization.  We’ll demo the new Finder, Quick Look, Spaces, Stacks, Spotlight, iChat – the whole fur ball.  And, we’ll be giving away two copies of Leopard to lucky MacHeads.  Seating is somewhat limited, so get there early – good seats are still available!

Whether you’ve already upgraded to Leopard, are considering it, or don’t even use a Mac yet but wonder what all the hubbub is about, this meeting is for you.  Come see why Apple sold two million copies of Leopard the first weekend it was available.

And now for some tasty irony.  In other operating system news, or, rather, news about that other operating system (Windoze Vista, I mean), PC World magazine recently published an article describing the fastest notebook computer they tested running Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.  Was it an HP? Lenovo?  Toshiba?  Dell?  Gateway?  Some souped-up green Alienware screamer?

No.  It was Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro.  That’s right – the fastest Windows Vista notebook is a Mac.  Now, to tell the whole story, the MacBook Pro bested the Gateway E-256M (catchy name there) by a single point, scoring an 88 in the WorldBench 6 Beta 2 scoring system.  But, a point is a point.

Finally, last week Apple quietly revved its popular MacBook notebook line to include faster “Santa Rosa” Core 2 Duo processors.  Same price, faster Macs.  Sweet.