“Apple’s 10.6 release – aka Snow Leopard – faces even more than the usual challenge. It’s an important engineering release that isn’t being sold on features – because there aren’t really that many new ones. It also leaves behind Macs as recent as three years old – it will only install on Intel hardware,” Andrew Orlowski reports for Register Hardware. “And Leopard now works so well, many will wonder why they should risk things at all?”
“Consequently, Snow Leopard has got a price to match: just $29/£25 for a single-user upgrade from 10.5,” Orlowski reports.
“I’ve been using a release candidate cut of the OS, and found plenty to like. Whizz-bang features are thin on the ground, but it’s undoubtedly faster and more responsive than its predecessor,” Orlowski reports. “And despite radical under-the-hood changes, such as the move to 64-bit and a new scheduler, it provides excellent compatibility.”
“I like Snow Leopard, and found moving back to Leopard quite surprisingly painful,” Orlowski reports. “Was it really so slow? It didn’t feel so a week ago.”
Orlowski reports, “By setting expectations low for its successor, and with a price to match, I’m sure a lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised. If performance matters, it could be $29/£25 very well spent.”
The full article, which contains seven pages of screenshots and initial impressions of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, is here.
The first person who mentions the “s” word has to buy beers for the rest of us.
Clicked the Amazon ad and placed order – hope you get a cut MDN!
I’m so excited. Even my iPod touch feels snappier in anticipation!
SNAPPY! SNAPPY! SNAPPY! SNAPPY!
just my $0.02
@ ROFLCOPTER
Hey! ya know you’re buying the beers… make mine Sam Adams Summer Ale.
I suppose the writer is a far more advanced user than me, but I couldn’t help trying to figure out whether this was an endorsement or a “hit piece”.
I, myself, hope to avoid most of the install navigation labors by purchasing new machine. My MDD is now seven years old.
I realize I will have substantial transition because I’m moving from Tiger, but I’m looking forward to an upgrade experience. It certainly seemed a miraculous move, from an early iMac to a dual G4.
I’m hoping the new Intel mobile chips are coming soon, as well as new bigger, faster, and cheaper SSDs. I really want to buy a suite of products including a desktop, 30 inch ACD, laptop, iPhone and a laser printer.
On laser printers.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
I purchased a color laser Brother HL-4040cdn (duplex) for $250.
Pictures look pretty darn good.
It works great connected to AirPort Express Base Station.
Guinness!!!
What’s the only thing that makes an Apple product look bad?
The newer version of that product.
I’m using the pre-GM release of Snow Leopard as well and it does feel a bit faster. After using it for a week, I couldn’t go back to Leopard either. There seems to be just enough interferface tweeks to make a difference. I will be buying the Mac Pack as my iMac is 3 1/2 years old now and so are the iApps that shipped with it… Time to update.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Sorting icons by different criteria, ie. by “date modified”, in “Column View” is worth the price of admission alone. Been wanting that since day one of OSX.
“It also leaves behind Macs as recent as three years old… And Leopard now works so well, many will wonder why they should risk things at all?”
That’s the nice thing about Mac OSX upgrades, it is possible to skip one and still keep working. (My iMac G5 is staying, the MacBook Pro will move on.)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for me, please.
On topic, I’m looking forward to SL on my iMac. I have to admit, though, that because I’m shackled to Windows at work, I’m happy to be hearing that Windows 7 is actually pretty decent. We won’t upgrade to it until at least next year, so I’m still going to be stuck with XP until, what, its tenth anniversary? It looks like a relic from another era next to Leopard.
OGWAB (Old Guy With A Beard) will wait a few months for all of you early adopters to sort out what few bugs there may be.
My computers MUST work. Change is bad.
After a few of you tear out your hair and lose a day or two working things out, I will happily upgrade all of my office.
But on the first day the new system is released?
Not a chance!
I’ve seen you say that about the last 10 OSX updates and you know what? You are BORING. Because – not once have you been able to come back to us and say I told you so”.
It is you who is the fool around here!
You sound weird…. you want to see us have problems?
And then gloat that you waited? Or are you trying to stop us from upgrading this Friday? I mean, really… what is your function here?
@Mark
I agree. The history of MacOS X has been pretty darn good for upgrading old machines. Leopard is a solid OS for everyone who cannot upgrade to SL. For those with Intel Macs and Macbooks, Snow Leopard is another welcome advancement.
People are complaining about not being able to install SL on an older Mac. But what is the alternative in the Windows world? Sticking with XP or waiting for Windows 7… You may not hear as much griping in the Wintel world because they are often low-budget “disposable” machines. But you may recall Microsoft pushing “Vista Capable” labeling on PCs that were ill-equipped to handle the Vista OS that was released soon afterwards. We actually have it quite good in the Mac world, with few exceptions.
“What’s the only thing that makes an Apple product look bad?
The newer version of that product.”
and what Apple fans expected.
Chris Copter Ray Doggie Morm … and anyone I’ve missed
Is only ONE Beverage befitting this Occasion
Old Topper Snappy Ale
Bottom’s Up …
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cool smile” style=”border:0;” />
BC
awww, f’king html
try this one
Er, guys, not wanting to spoil the party:
Leopard’s Finder cannot cut and paste a folder from one location to another, whereas Windows can.
Leopard’s Finder does not have a MOVE TO new location, whereas Windows does.
Leopard’s Finder is really, really rudimentary.
I’m really truly grateful for all you guys being willing to spend $29 to sign up as Snow Leopard public beta testers, so that by the time I come on board when it’s 10.6.5 it’ll be nice and perfect by that time. Thanks a million. Apple couldn’t have done it without you.
JS … Bless Your Heart
Appears your understanding and definition of “Finder” is “really rudimentary”
Will leave it to any Fellow MDN’ers with more erudite skills to explain and elaborate
BC
Reality Check:
So let me get this right:
Every single full number upgrade of Mac OS X has been FASTER than the previous version.
And now Snow Leopard is not only faster, it is SMALLER in hard drive and memory foot print.
So WHY is anyone using the slower Slower SLOWER bigger Bigger BIGGER crap from Microsoft?
Well, to be fair, I have heard the beta of 7ista, aka Vista Service Pack 7, is a little bit faster than the sloth known as Vista, that OS that higher hardware requirements than Microsoft were willing to admit to anyone, including their hardware partners.
Oh, wouldn’t the Windows users just LOVE to have a FASTER and SMALLER operating system right about now, on all 64-Bit hardware with a 100% 64-Bit operating system? Think so? Dream on Win-Kiddies.
How long has Microsoft been promising a full Windows OVERHAUL?
Since 1996.
Even the switch over to the NT kernel with Windows 2000 was NOT an OS overhaul. XP was supposed to do it. Oops. No. Vista was supposed to do it! Oops. No. 7ista? Oops. No.
The fact is that the spaghetti horror of code in Windows is far beyond anyone’s ability to straighten out, let alone re-write into a sleeker, faster, efficient, non-DOS based OS.
Oh what was that? Vista doesn’t run on DOS? Boot your PC in verbose mode, showing each step in the boot process. What do you see? The initial boot is into DOS. See that 640 kilobytes of boot RAM, aka ‘conventional memory’? That’s DOS.
Why is Windows memory management still, to this day, based off DOS booting? Probably because Microsoft don’t have a clue how to do it any other way. They bought DOS. They never wrote DOS. Darn.
Oh, and why do PCs still use ye olde BIOS firmware? Antiquated much? Go ask the manufacturers why. Go ask Microsoft why.
Macs? Never bothered with BIOS. Currently: Intel’s EFI firmware since 2006.
So the story ever goes…