Snow Leopard may not be the earth shattering change we dreamed of, but its seemingly small differences are backed by major upgrades. The little tweaks in the interface only hint at the streamlined OS, and you really do have to use it for a little while to fully appreciate the changes in speed and processing.
Not Quite an Overhaul
The biggest change is the switch from 32 bit to 64 bit; Apple finally made the jump. To get the full speed experience you need to check your apps and make sure they’re compatible with the new platform, which isn’t difficult; on install, Snow Leopard actually does it for you. It also sets them aside in a separate folder so you can easily find them and see what kind of housekeeping you need to do, and a lot of programs have already come out with upgrades compatible with Snow Leopard. Many of the new features and upgrades to old features are just as intuitive as this—Apple didn’t want to reinvent this OS, just streamline and refine it.
- Like its namesake feline, Snow Leopard doesn't roar...it purrs.
- It's taken eight years for OS X to integrate with Microsoft Exchange.
Quicker, Smarter, Stronger
With Snow Leopard, everything is faster: pictures load in the blink of an eye, your Mac connects to wifi in one second after you wake it up, finder runs in a flash. Expose has been added to the dock, and now switching between multiple windows in a single application happens with a simple click. Quicktime X supports easy movie making, too, as you can record right from your built in camera and microphone.
- Mac users are far more likely to upgrade than their Windows counterparts.
- Application Association in Snow Leopard deviates from the traditional double-click-open in source program plan; now a "default application" opens your files.
- Voice Over Commanders makes Snow Leopard the first to allow users to assign keys and gestures to open an application for enhanced performance for people with disabilities.
Snow Leopard Slims Down
There are three things that make Snow Leopard light on its feet: new multicore processer support, using your video card for general computing, and the rewriting of apps that ship with the OS to take advantage of all the 64 bit speed. This system is smaller, too—Apple decided to slim down the files that come with Snow Leopard to guarantee some hard drive space will be freed once you install over Leopard. In fact, Apple promises up to 7GB…and that’s no small matter.
- Snow Leopard makes Time Machine work up to 80% faster than ever before.
- If you’ve purchased a qualifying computer or Xserve on or after June 8, 2009 that doesn't have Snow Leopard, you can upgrade for $9.95.
A Small Price to Pay
Although there really isn’t any major change to the way you use the OS, the upgrade from Leopard pricing makes it irresistible: at $30, just skip your morning latte for a week and you’ve got a new system. Upgrading from Tiger is another thing, of course, at $140, and users will have to weigh their options carefully between having the new toy right this second or waiting a bit for more apps and features to be added.
Update
Predictably, a few weeks after the initial Snow Leopard release, Apple gave up the first update: OS 10.6.1.
While its updates are largely minor, Apple recommends all users install it, as it addresses several bugs, including difficulty removing items from your Dock as well as fixing the DVD playback interruptions. It also fixes some big bugs, like sending mail from SMPT servers and compatibility with some wireless modems.
