OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Now that the world has experienced the full release of Apples OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard the votes are in. The reviews are out. The hype is over. The wait is over. Survey says? That is the question. I think the world of mac users are stunned because, dare I say we expected more? The long awaited OS from apple that has been released is dare I say nothing more than a $29.99 …. gulp …. Service Pack? After doing both a clean install and upgrade install* I’ve yet to see a vast improvement. Yes its slightly faster, Yes it adds a few new features that the everyday user may or may not use. But overall, it was a $29.99 service pack. It’s how leopard should have been. But I must say eventually I will do a clean install. The difference I see from those wondering wether or not to upgrade to Snow Leopard or not. For $29.99 why not? If you are currently running Tiger (OS X 10.4) then its a bargain. The hype surrounding Quicktime X was a bit over rated. They stripped a large chunk of features out of it. It’s almost as if they are making us keep Quicktime Pro 7 around. Then what’s the point? Now being a mainly apple user, I of course pre-ordered the software and couldn’t wait to get it on my machine. Overall the install and upgrade was seamless. Even the install process was almost exactly like Leopard. Even the intro video on clean install was the same.

The biggest question from the consumers out there is should I upgrade or should I wait? Now its in my opinion both professional and personal to determine this based upon this criteria.

1. Do you have a relatively new mac (Mac made in the last 3 years)?

2. Does your machine need to be reformatted due to installations and other software put on or taken off over the course of the year?

3. Do you have the money to get this upgrade?

If you can answer all three or just one of these then you should upgrade. You are getting your moneys worth. But if you can answer the next three questions maybe it’s best to wait.

1. Do you depend on your mac for work?

2. Do you run PPC (power pc) applications?

3. Do you need certain programs that are in question?

If you can answer all three or just one of these then you should NOT upgrade. Maybe wait until there is a software update and some of the know conflicts and bugs are worked out. My thoughts that we won’t see a dynamic snow leopard until 10.6.3 which could be 3-6 months away. Are you willing to wait that long?

Overall I think Snow Leopard is a great OS I personally don’t run any incompatible programs and it’s running slightly faster than its brother Leopard. Some of the new features in it for me have been long awaited. Scrolling in stacks, the ability to access expose from the dock, opening folders in stacks without going to finder. These have been long awaited by me since leopards debut.

I hope you found this review well informative and entertaining. Until next time guys, Keep it Buzzin’

*For the record it is better to clean install rather than install a new OS over an old one.