But it’s not a major upgrade. Apple has stressed that this OS mainly delivers a performance boost for Macs equipped with 64-bit Intel processors. Thus, many of the changes aren’t going to be immediately obvious.
Apple did not provide Wired.com with an official review copy, but we did have a chance to test drive the “Gold Master” version of Snow Leopard, which should be functionally identical to what’s in stores Friday. Based on our tests, here’s a list of things you should know about the OS before installing it on your machine.
It’s a Performance Boost, Not a Roaring Upgrade
The changes in Snow Leopard are, for the most part, invisible. This OS is built to take full advantage of faster 64-bit Intel Macs. That means all apps included with Snow Leopard have been rewritten for 64-bit processors. Apps coded by third-party developers who opt to rewrite their software with 64-bit support will also be snappier.
0digg
If your activities are not very processor-intensive, then you won’t notice a huge difference. If you’re editing movies or photos regularly, you’ll immediately be able to feel the improvement. We tested movie exporting in iMovie and photo editing in iPhoto, and both apps ran much more smoothly than on Leopard.There are a number of other performance improvements that aren’t obvious. For example, when you wake up a MacBook from sleep, the AirPort connection will only take about a second to reconnect to your Wi-Fi network, compared with a few seconds on Leopard. Also, the Finder, which you use to navigate your files, is a lot less laggy than before: Thumbnails display almost immediately, and scanning through folders is smooth. Subtle and sweet.
Not All Third-Party Software Is Guaranteed to Work
As is often the case with OS upgrades, there are going to be some third-party developers who procrastinated on testing their software to ensure compatibility with Snow Leopard. Most applications working on Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard, will most likely work in Snow Leopard. Leopard was a 64-bit system that also supported 32-bit software, and Snow Leopard is still compatible with 32-bit applications.
If a developer hasn’t rewritten his or her application for Snow Leopard, that most likely means it’s just not 64-bit capable. It’ll still work, but just not as fast as it could be if it were optimized for 64-bit computing.
However, if you’re running third-party software that you absolutely need, it’s always smart to check the developer’s website to see if the app has been tested on Snow Leopard. Adobe, for example, has already stated that Creative Suite 3 has not been tested on Snow Leopard and may have compatibility issues. We were able to test Adobe Photoshop CS 3 on Snow Leopard and thus far have had no problems. We also tested QuickSilver, App Zapper, Adium, Tweetie and Evernote, and all seemed to work fine. But do some research and pretest on a nonproduction system if you’re concerned.
Apple has promised that after installing Snow Leopard, the OS will note which applications are incompatible with it. On the test machine we saw, none of the apps became incompatible after upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
In short, if you’re running relatively new software, you probably won’t have to worry. With more dated apps (three years or older) you should consider double-checking.
Minor Tweaks to Interface, Usability
Don’t expect this to be a brand new experience: Most of the UI changes are small. For example, Exposé, the window-management tool, has been implemented into the Dock. Clicking a Dock icon and holding it down will show only the windows of the selected app, which could be useful if you’re a digital clutterbug like I am. (See screenshot at right.)
Another small but good change: When snapping screenshots, the images are assigned a file name containing a time stamp of when they were taken.
The most significant refinement to built-in software occurs in QuickTime, now dubbed QuickTime Player X. The player interface gets a makeover — a gray-and-black gradient (see screenshot at right). Other than that, there are new tools including movie recording from your webcam, audio recording from your microphone, and screencasting.
Hardware Requirements: No Support for PowerPC Macs
If you own an older Mac powered by a PowerPC chip (rather than Intel), then you’re out of luck: Snow Leopard won’t run on your machine. The requirements are as follows: You must own an Intel Mac equipped with at least 1GB of memory, and the install requires at least 5GB of free hard drive space for the install. And of course, you’ll need a DVD drive to be able to read the disc and run the installation. (MacBook Air owners: We hope you have an external optical drive.)
Not sure what kind of processor you own? Click on the Apple icon in the upper-left corner and select “About This Mac.” If the word “PowerPC” comes up in the “Processor” field, then you can not run this upgrade. If it says “Intel,” you’re fine.
You Get up to 7 GB More Hard-Drive Space
Snow Leopard is less bloated with system files than its predecessor, so after upgrading to it, you’ll get some free space. Apple promises the install “frees up to 7 GB of drive space.” The upgrade freed up only 3.5 GB of space for our test machine, but hey — we’re not complaining. More space is always better.
The Upgrade Only Costs $30
Apple is advertising Snow Leopard as a $30 upgrade “for Leopard users.” If you’re upgrading from Tiger, Apple advises you to purchase the full Mac Box Set for $170. However, there don’t appear to be technical reasons preventing a Tiger-to-Snow Leopard upgrade.
Wired.com was able to confirm that the Snow Leopard upgrade can be installed on a machine running Tiger. Of course, the transition isn’t guaranteed to be as smooth as it would be from Leopard to Snow Leopard, and that’s because some older, Tiger-only third-party applications need to be upgraded to newer versions that work with Leopard or Snow Leopard.
Separately, Lifehacker has confirmed that it was able to erase a hard drive and install Snow Leopard. That means if you backup your files on Tiger, you should be technically able to buy Snow Leopard for $30, install it on a clean drive and then migrate your files over. Again, you’ll likely have to download newer versions of third-party software that are Leopard — or Snow Leopard — compatible. That extra work is probably worth it, because this OS is a pretty big performance upgrade if you’re switching from Tiger.
Of course, using the $30 upgrade to go from Tiger to Snow Leopard may violate Apple’s terms of service. We were unable to confirm this with Apple, which did not respond to our queries about Snow Leopard pricing.
Conclusion
This upgrade won’t deliver any radical interface changes to blow you away (not that we would want it to), but the $30 price is more than fair for the number of performance improvements Snow Leopard delivers.
