Snow Leopard comes out Friday (8/28).

[zjpj83]

I just ordered a new laptop and it will have it.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by sonlegoman

I upgraded and it appears to be under the hood improvements. nothing wow.
Engadget and Gizmodo reviews basically said that it's just faster. At least that's what I got out of it. So I wouldn't say your impression is too far off.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Snow Leopard proves no threat to Windows 7 After months of headlines about the phenomenon known as Snow Leopard, it has hit the streets and reality has set in. It turns out that the updated Mac OS X is.....well, it's simply an updated Mac OS X. After all of the hype in the media regarding the Snow Leopard frenzy, Friday's official release seemed lacking. Not to say Snow Leopard is a dud. By all accounts it puts some zip into lagging Mac OS X systems, but it offers little else to impact the day-to-day experience of most Mac OS X users. To be fair, Apple has been clear from the start that the focus of Snow Leopard was performance and that the update offers little in the way of new features. But, some in the media have tried to turn the coincidental timing of the Snow Leopard and Windows 7 releases into a battle of the titans with Snow Leopard playing the role of underdog to challenge Microsoft for desktop dominance. Not. I wrote recently about the various ways that Snow Leopard demonstrates that Mac OS X is maturing into an operating system that can be used in an enterprise, but that doesn't mean it can take on Windows 7 or threaten Microsoft's desktop dominance. Let's examine the ways that the Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7 OS battle is delusional: 1. Existing hardware. Windows 7 will work on existing PC hardware. Obviously a faster processor and more RAM will improve performance, but it only requires a 1GHz CPU and 1Gb of RAM- requirements met by the vast majority of systems in use now. By contrast, Snow Leopard will only work on Intel-based Mac systems. That means that not only will Snow Leopard not work on the hardware most people use, it won't even work on much of the hardware used by current Mac OS X users. 2. Incremental vs. Monumental: Despite the hype, Snow Leopard is not a new operating system. It is a performance update with some feature tweaks. Microsoft does those as well- they're called Service Packs and they're free. Windows 7 is a new operating system. The "I'm a Mac" crowd might suggest that Windows 7 is simply a flashy update of Windows Vista, but Microsoft already provided Snow Leopard-like updates to Windows Vista- twice. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 already addressed Windows Vista issues. Windows 7 has a similar UI, but delivers a completely new operating system. Ask anyone who has used Windows Vista and hated it, but fell in love with the Windows 7 Beta and see what they think of comparisons between the two. Snow Leopard has a significant number of feature enhancements and updates, but with the exception of the built-in support for Microsoft Exchange none of them is really blazing new territory. In fact, contrary to surpassing Windows 7, many of the features seem to just catch Mac OS X up to the capabilities of Windows Vista. 3. Netbooks. Sorry Apple fanboi's- netbooks are a very attractive platform for the core Mac market. College students, the young, hip market that the "I'm a Mac" dude is supposed to represent, are generally broke. Its hard to justify investing this semester's beer book money and rent to purchase a Macbook when you can get a netbook for peanuts just by signing up for a contract with Verizon or AT&T. Rumors have gone back and forth about Apple possibly developing a netbook of its own. History seems to guarantee one thing: any netbook Apple will make will be more expensive than its competitors and proprietary in nature. A Mac netbook might allow Apple to put a finger in the dike, but cost-conscious users will still struggle to justify the steeper investment in an Apple alternative. Snow Leopard seems to be a relative success. Like Apple's sensational claims about the number of Safari downloads earlier this year, the sales volume of Snow Leopard is a tad dubious though. Microsoft would be able to report fairly significant operating system sales if they sold Service Packs as new versions as well. It's a ‘captive audience'. At $29 Snow Leopard seems like a reasonable investment for existing Mac OS X users fortunate enough to have hardware compatible with the upgrade and who will not be significantly impacted by the various application incompatibilities introduced by Snow Leopard. As far as the desktop market goes, Windows 7 probably faces more of a threat from Linux operating systems like Ubuntu or Fedora that run on the same hardware and are available for free.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...windows_7.html

 

[emakris]

I upgraded on the day it came out.

It's worth every penny I paid just because it saved me about 8GB of HD space. Indeed, the first thing I noticed after installation was the extra 8GB free on my rather small 128GB SSD. The second thing I noticed was how much faster general Finder operations are.

There are also minor tweaks in the UI that improve the overall user experience. With regards to compatibility, the only problem I had was with my screensaver. That's it.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by emakris

I upgraded on the day it came out.

It's worth every penny I paid just because it saved me about 8GB of HD space. Indeed, the first thing I noticed after installation was the extra 8GB free on my rather small 128GB SSD. .
Which is cause they removed the PPC support and made it Intel only.

 

[haganah]

Originally Posted by Jumbie

Which is cause they removed the PPC support and made it Intel only.
The 64 support they added in made up for the PPC support they took out (and I'm still upset about the fact that they took out PPC support).

 

[emakris]

Originally Posted by Jumbie

Which is cause they removed the PPC support and made it Intel only.

Originally Posted by haganah

[...] (I'm still upset about the fact that they took out PPC support).
I appreciate the frustration but didn't Apple introduce Intel based Macs about 5 years ago? Which, in computer terms, is approx. 649 man-years. They still work fine but Apple sells computers for a living... It is a testament to Apple, though, that people not only still want to use their old Macs but they feel very strongly about it as well.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by emakris

I appreciate the frustration but didn't Apple introduce Intel based Macs about 5 years ago?

Lots of users still have them though. My sister, for example. I'm pretty sure if Microsoft did this there'd be a lot of bashing going on. I'm not saying it's the wrong decision as I agree that progress has to be made and supporting legacy code/hardware can significantly hinder that and there comes a point where an upgrade becomes "inevitable".

It is a testament to Apple, though, that people not only still want to use their old Macs but they feel very strongly about it as well.

Not so much want to as there's no real need to upgrade.

I do a shitload with my computer. However the vast majority of the world probably use their own for a few things - e-mail, surfing the web, listening to music and some light "office use" e.g. word processing. You don't need a fast machine to do that.

Of course, having said that, there's no real need to upgrade in that case; other than for perhaps security measures.

 

[dshin]

I just upgraded on my and and wife's mac books. The immediate differences that we noticed were faster start up times and faster browsing.
I also like the browsing history viewer..you can view the previews of the actual pages which I think is kinda cool.

 

[California Dreamer]

My son's tried it and reports that it's incompatible with 3132-based eSATA cards.

I'll probably upgrade, but will wait a month or so for the dust to settle and the bugs to emerge. Unless the kids give me it as a Father's Day present.

 

[Matt]

2. Incremental vs. Monumental: Despite the hype, Snow Leopard is not a new operating system. It is a performance update with some feature tweaks. Microsoft does those as well- they're called Service Packs and they're free.

Windows 7 is a new operating system. The "I'm a Mac" crowd might suggest that Windows 7 is simply a flashy update of Windows Vista, but Microsoft already provided Snow Leopard-like updates to Windows Vista- twice. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 already addressed Windows Vista issues.

Windows 7 has a similar UI, but delivers a completely new operating system. Ask anyone who has used Windows Vista and hated it, but fell in love with the Windows 7 Beta and see what they think of comparisons between the two.

Snow Leopard has a significant number of feature enhancements and updates, but with the exception of the built-in support for Microsoft Exchange none of them is really blazing new territory. In fact, contrary to surpassing Windows 7, many of the features seem to just catch Mac OS X up to the capabilities of Windows Vista.

This is a strange argument to me....preface by saying that I am a long time Mac user (OS 8.6 FTW), but certainly no fanboy. I am pretty regularly critical of the company actually. Still this seems like a strange argument.

XP and OSX launched around the same time (2001 was it?), and since then MS has put out one new OS, the ill fated Vista, and we will give them Windows 7 even though it is still a month away.

We are on our sixth OSX. So a new OSX comes out almost every year. If you totaled up ALL of the new features that have come with those six, would it really still be trailing Windows 7 for 'new features' when compared to Windows innovations in the same time?

Now, I am certainly not saying that Snow Leopard is supposed to be 'The Windows 7 of Mac'. I don't think anyone ever said that 10.5 -> 10.6 = either XP -> 7 (which will be the change that a lot of the market makes) nor even 10.5->10.6 = Vista -> 7... but with some extra historical perspective, I don't think the Mac OS comes out lacking in any way.

I am also not sure about holding up service packs as a beacon of Windows customer commitment....I upgraded to 10.5.8 the other week...that's like 8 mini service packs on 10.5 alone. And they're free.

 

[emakris]

I have little doubt that Windows 7 will be a good product but comparing it to Snow Leopard reminds me the arguments I and my mates had when we were 15 (Atari ST to Amiga 500 and Joan Jett to Doro).

 

[emakris]

Sorry, double post.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by Jumbie

Which is cause they removed the PPC support and made it Intel only.

Also it might be because of the base 10 switchover. Seems like there's a lot of confusion about that.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by emakris

I have little doubt that Windows 7 will be a good product but comparing it to Snow Leopard reminds me the arguments I and my mates had when we were 15 (Atari ST to Amiga 500 and Joan Jett to Doro).

That article and I agree with you. OSX and Win7 are not comparable.