Why wait till October when you can get Leopard now? No, I don’t mean downloading a torrent. I’m talking about making the Tiger desktop look and feel like Leopard. Here are four ways to upgrade your cat, today.

1. Grass

First up is the new Leopard wallpaper. Whether you like the new grass or just plain ol’ Aqua, you can now download the new wallpaper at any resolution; all the way from the little 13.3-inch MacBooks to the massive 30-inch Cinema Displays. Take your pick.

• Grass - 2560×1600 - 30in Cinema Display
• Grass - 1920×1200 - 23in Cinema Display, 17in MBP, 24in iMac
• Grass - 1680×1050 - 20in Cinema Display, 17in MBP, 20in iMac
• Grass - 1440×900 - 15in MBP, 17in iMac
• Grass - 1280×800 - 13in MacBook

2. MenuBar

Personally, I’m not too fond of this. The translucent menubar makes Leopard look more like Vista. However, if you’re still keen on getting the Leopard look, may I suggest MenuShade? This little app allows you to adjust the opacity of the menubar.

Thank goodness MenuShade is available from NullRiver Software as a free download. Don’t we all love free stuff?

3. Spaces

Luckily for us all, there are several apps out there that can do this in Tiger. I strongly recommend VirtueDesktops because it has a truckload of features and also lots of transitions to choose from. Other options include You Control: Desktop and Desktop Manager.

VirtueDesktops is another freebie, although it is no longer in active development. Head on over to VirtueDesktops.info to download it.

4. Stacks

Until Core Animation lands, you won’t be able to enjoy those snazzy effects that Steve Jobs demonstrated during the keynote. However, Stunt Software currently offers Overflow, an application launcher that can group items into, erm, stacks?

Overflow will cost you $14.95, although a 14-day demo is available.

5. The Dock and Everything Else

Unfortunately, there aren’t any practical solutions for the Dock, Time Machine and everything else. You can either wait till October or try snatching a copy of the Developers’ Preview from somewhere. Though if someone has a solution for either of those two, I wouldn’t mind hearing about it.