Well, it’s been three weeks since I installed Snow Leopard. The product does have some lovely speed enhancements and it’s funny that Apple already released a 10.6.1 update. Slowly, all of the third party developers are releasing new versions of their software to be compatible. However, I am still stuck with a keyboard (Logitech DiNovo Edge for the Mac) that is missing a compatible driver and my email (Mail.app) no longer makes a sound when I receive new messages.

Is this upgrade perfect? No. Has it been painless? No. Will I probably perform a “clean” install once all of my software is fully compatible? Yes. For now, I just limp along with less functionality. However with the 64bit OS, I do it faster…

How about you audience? How has the upgrade been for you?

Tags: Apple, Personal

As we all know, Apple release Snow Leopard, AKA OS X 10.6 on 8/28 to much fanfare. Last weekend, being a drone, I dutifully performed the Snow Leopard upgrade for my iMac. Well, let’s just say that Apple let this cat out of the bag before it was really ready. Here are some initial thoughts about the upgrade:

Pros

1. It is fast. If you have a 64bit Mac (those with Core 2 Duo chipsets), then you’ll definitely see a performance improvement when launching apps, using apps, etc.
2. Saved disk space. It’s true, you do save space – I think I added 10GB back once the install was complete.
3. It has some nice touches when it comes to improving the overall user experience. One item that was missed is all of the new keyboard shortcuts. This definitely improves upon the speed of the OS when there are now built-in keyboard shortcuts for more functions.
4. Printing. Even though the drivers for my Canon MX7600 weren’t updated by Canon until 9/4, I was able to use the older drivers (I performed an upgrade, not a clean install) and still be able to print/scan/etc.
5. The price – $29 is cheap for a performance boost.

Cons

1. A bunch of my apps weren’t really compatible with Snow Leopard. And, for the ones that are compatible, they are not compiled for 64bit, so I lose out on a little performance boost.
2. Upgrading did not resolve an audio issue I am having with my microphone. I am now thinking this could be a software issue or hardware failure.
3. The fact that Apple surprised everyone by launching the OS early is great from a PR standpoint, but horrible for software developers. I would have liked to have seen more apps be ready to take full advantage of the OS on launch day, not weeks, months, or even years later.
4. I had to remove some very useful apps (Growl) because if the incompatibility with Snow Leopard.
5. Price. For all of the functionality, Snow Leopard should have been a feature pack/service pack upgrade for free and/or cost-of-goods (COG) DVD.

Conclusion

Would I recommend upgrading? Well, due to my impatience, I am suffering a little, so no, I wouldn’t recommend upgrading at least until 10.6.1 or 10.6.2 arrives on the scene. Then, I would ensure that all of your apps are compatible. There is a great public wiki page, as well as from Macintouch.

I plan on upgrading my wife’s Macbook with a clean install + waiting for 10.6.1. I think my being the guinea has provided some useful insights.

Still, once 10.6.1 is released, I highly recommend the upgrade. The performance boost alone is worth the overall $29 spent.

Tags: Apple