Pros: Most built-in apps are 64-bit, under-the-hood improvements, Dashboard Expose
Cons: Pretty much the same on the surface, most users will not notice the difference.
The Bottom Line: With the GUI being the same, and very few noticable new features, we'll just have to take Apple's word on that there were under-the-hood improvements.
nad_masters's Full Review: Apple Snow Leopard Family Pack Full Version for Ma...
With Windows 7 on it's way in, Apple released a "new" MacOS X version to try and take the steam away from Microsoft. Apple seem to have tried to do this by releasing Snow Leopard (MacOS X 10.6) much earlier that what the general public anticipated. There was a small buzz, but now, it's been mostly quiet again.
With every new version of MacOS X, Apple have charged their users $129. This time, it's only $29. Plus, it's a new OS that was promised to handle multithreaded applications better. There was a few user interface changes, but not too significant. The buzz was loud because of the amazing price point. However, once everyone bought it, not many people saw a difference between the old and the new. Thus, the noise stopped.
Lets have a bit of persective here: Snow Leopard has a lot of improvements under the hood. It's much like when we moved from XP to Vista. However, unlike that example, imagine if Vista still looked exactly like XP. Yep.
Why change something that isn't broken, I guess. Some say this could have just been an update to Leopard. Others wonder if that's even possible since there's significant changes underneath the familiar GUI.
Upgrading
I have a white MacBook that was upgraded to a 500GB HDD and 4GB of RAM. Originally it came with a 120GB HDD and 2GB of RAM.
I first tried to upgrade my current installation of Leopard (10.5.8) just like how Apple users might. Simply pop the disc in and double-click on the installation file. The set up was straight forward and took about an hour or so. Several reboots later, I was staring at a familar desktop with the same icons I had before.
The programs I had before were still in the Applications folder. However, some didn't work.
Firefox, SuperDuper, and WinCloner just stopped working - they didn't come up or produced an error. WinCloner appeared to work, but after restoring a previous back up, I found that Windows would not boot. That is a dangerous situation, since there were no visible errors or compatibility issues until AFTER you try to restore!
Thankfully, it seems that Mac software writers are keen to how Apple does things, and were on the ball with providing updated versions of their software that worked under Snow Leopard. All three of the above programs just plain worked after downloading their upgraded counterparts.
Snow Leopard seemed to chugged a bit at the begining, but after a day or two, performance seem to go back to how I remembered when I was on Leopard. Maybe I just got used to it, or there may be some optimizations going on in the background. Either way, upgrading Leopard to Snow Leopard was actually painless and straight forward.
One of the touted features is lower disk space requirements. However, this is achieved by removing unused printer drivers. I did notice that it was about 5GB or so lighter after the upgrade. It is quite a nice savings.
Fresh Install
While the $30 version of Snow Leopard (as well as the $50 3-License Family Pack) is considered an upgrade product, you can do a fresh install using these disks. This mean if you have a version of Mac OSX that's older than Leopard, or if you just don't want to upgrade on top of an existing old and cruddy Leopard environment, Apple allows you to do so.
This is a pleasant surprise, since Apple tend to be strict with how their upgrade, retail, and restore discs are used.
Installing Snow Leopard from scratch is actually easier and faster than Leopard. While Leopard checks the DVD for defects at molasses speeds before it actually installs, Snow Leopard does not. I'm actually fine with that.
Also, by default, many things are not installed, such as printer drivers that you don't need, or Rosetta, which allowed PowerPC programs to run. Again, Apple is moving on, and most programs nowadays have a Intel binary counterpart (or at least a universal binary that contains both executable codes). Rosetta is not really used by most people any more.
With more and more things getting cut out, the slimmer the installed footprint. With the smaller footprint comes a faster install as well.
The first time the MacBook boots up a freshly installed Snow Leopard, you're greeted with the familiar Welcome video that basically stylized the word "Welcome" in multiple languages. Then, it asked for basic info, such as name, address, and email. If you have an Apple ID (the one you use for buying things in iTunes), you are asked to put it in here. Also, what's nice is that it will also ask for you to set up a WiFi connection even before you hit the desktop! Of course, when the desktop does come up, you are greeted with a clean desktop with a mostly purple aura wallpaper. The wallpaper of the purple aura is eeriely similar to the one that came with Leopard, but much pinker and brighter. I almost did not notice the difference until I saw the wallpaper side by side.
In Use
All the built-in programs look, act, and feel the same. If you already keep your Leopard install up to date, then the new Safari won't have anything new to offer you.
The biggest change for me was the exclusion of Quicktime 7. Instead, a newer version called QuickTime X was available. Apple touts this as a slimmed version of QuickTime, giving it a cleaner look. It allows you to edit videos much like you can on the iPhone 3GS by trimming the video clip. It's a very primitive form of editing, but it's a nice feature that no other OS-bundled video player offers (ahem... Windows Media Player!). If you have a QuickTime Pro 7 license, it will not work with the X version, however. Instead, you can install QuickTime 7 as a separate component off the Snow Leopard DVD.
I think for those who already have custom codecs installed for QuickTime 7, or people with a Pro license, will lament that fact. QuickTime X will not work with the current codecs for 7, and for Pro users, it doesn't offer the same functionality in terms of capturing video and transcoding. It may not be a huge loss since there are many free utilities out there that can take care of those jobs, but for those who shelled out $30 to upgrade to Pro, they can't be sitting comfortably.
The Dock Expose is one noticeable UI feature which isn't one of those "under the hood" improvements. Finally, you can access multiple instances of just that program! It acts a bit like Windows 7's pop-up preview for minimized programs, but it gives a larger view since it takes up more of the screen's space.
Surprisingly, iStat and Screenshot Plus Dashboard Widgets still works under Snow Leopard without any updates. iStat shows you more details about your hardware, such as CPU, memory, and hard drive utilization, network and disk activity, CPU and hard drive temperatures, CPU fan speed, as well as your battery status (overall health in cycles used). Screenshot Plus is a very flexible screenshot program that allows you to take a screenshot of the whole desktop, a program, a widget, or just a small selection of your choice.
I didn't notice any performance difference between Leopard and Snow Leopard at all. Both were just as snappy, and seem to bog down in the same areas.
I'm not a power Mac user, so there may be other things that are new, but if I didn't notice anything, I'm sure many of the mainstream users won't either. This can be a good thing, especially if you are used to the Mac interface. In fact, my friend has a old PowerBook G4 running Tiger (10.4), and it looked and felt just like my current Mac OSX!
Issues
Not everything is rosey, however. I had a few issues with Snow Leopard. For one, software compatibility. This was short lived, of course, since the updated version came out (SuperDuper, WinCloner, etc). Firefox was one of those that were quickly resolved, but LogMeIn.com had a plugin that errors out and crashes FireFox and Safari. It took them more than a week to come out with an updated plugin that works under Snow Leopard.
Again, since everything was updated, software incompatibilities were minor once again.
I did get another issue that may or may not be hardware related. However, since I am getting this on Snow Leopard now, but not on Leopard, I'll just throw it out there. The issue is that I get graphical glitches and corruption once in a while. This happens after a few minutes of use, or sometimes hours. I've since returned the MacBook to the Genius Bar, to which they will replace the motherboard. I'm hoping it's a hardware issue that can be resolved.
Because of this, I am not going to attribute the visual glitches to Snow Leopard just yet until I get my repaired MacBook back.
Conclusion
Some say to wait until you really need Snow Leopard. Perhaps, when you run into an application that just flat out refuses to run on Leopard. Knowing Apple, that may be sooner than we think. Unlike Microsoft, they aren't known for supporting previous OSes or platforms (look at how Apple treat their G4s and G5s now!). But that's the other argument, isn't it? I've moved on to Snow Leopard and did not have a rocky transition at all. However, I'm new to the whole Mac garden, so your experience may vary.
It's true of any platform, really. If you have lived in the same environment for a while, you wouldn't want to change all too much, be it Windows or Mac. So if that's the case, there really isn't a reason to move away from Leopard. If you're on Tiger, you can actually use the $30 upgrade or $50 Family Pack upgrade and do a fresh install. It'll give you a reason to start with a fresh clean OS.
Apple basically priced the OS to get everyone on the same playing field. Unfortunately, Snow Leopard cut off support for all G4 and G5 based machines. Those users will have to purchase a new Intel-based Mac, which will come with Snow Leopard anyways.
So my recommendation? Well, Apple users don't have much choice. We will have to dance to the beat of Steve's drum - so yes - I'd have to recommend Snow Leopard if your machine can take it. Why?
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