Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard Mac OS X is the world’s most advanced operating system. Built on a rock-solid UNIX foundation and designed to be simple and intuitive, it’s what makes the Mac innovative, highly secure, compatible, and easy to use. Quite simply there is nothing else like it.
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard Description
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system. In ways big and small, it gets faster, more reliable, and easier to use. New core technologies unleash the power of today’s advanced hardware technology and prepare Mac OS X for future innovation. And Snow Leopard includes built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, so you can use your Mac at home and at work. So upgrade from Mac OS X Leopard with Snow Leopard, a simpler, more powerful, and more refined version of Mac OS X. Out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange – Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 in Mail, iCal, and Address Book, so it’s easier than ever to take your Mac to work. Safari 4 – The latest version of the blazing-fast web browser delivers up to 50 percent faster JavaScript performance and is more resistant to crashes than ever. Universal Access – Every Mac comes standard with a wide range of assistive – or Universal Access – technologies that help people with disabilities experience what the Mac has to offer. Snow Leopard continues this support with a variety of innovative features that advance accessibility even further. System Requirements – Mac computer with an Intel processor, OS X 10.5, 1GB of memory, 5GB of available disk space, DVD drive for installation, Some features require a compatible Internet’s service provider or Apple’s MobileMe service (fees apply)
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard Features
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard is built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability as well as industry-leading support for Internet standards
- Improvements include a more responsive Finder, new look and features for Exposé and Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, faster common tasks and installation, a smaller install footprint, and plenty more
- New core technologies unleash the power of today’s advanced hardware technology and prepare Mac OS X for future innovation: 64-bit computing, multicore-optimization, OpenCL, QuickTime X, and more
- With virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X protects itself–and you–from viruses, malicious applications, and other threats
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard includes built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server, so you can use Mail, iCal, and Address Book at home and at work
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard Reviews
A bargain for the price and an OS for the future
The most remarkable thing about Snow Leopard is simply that it can be installed on a Mac running Tiger. You do not need to pay the money to buy the boxed set to upgrade if you never upgraded to Leopard. This means that you can upgrade a Tiger computer to Leopard using this disk. It is up to the user to determine if they have an ethical problem with that; Apple certainly knew that this was possible when they released the software: they understand and use DRM effectively and always have. The fact it is missing here tells me that they are primarily concerned with getting Snow Leopard unto as many computers as possible as fast as possible. I am sure part of that is the desire to have Snow Leopard outperform Windows 7 which debuts in October.
So what do you get with Snow Leopard? The answer is largely performance boosts, although many of those are not really applicable (yet) since few (virtually none) third party applications use the performance gains offered by Snow Leopard. Similar to Windows 7s ability to load share between CPU and GPU, many of the changes in Snow Leopard will take several years for developers to really start to use and write programs for.
Relying on 64-bit architecture through the entire OS, Snow Leopard is essentially an upgrade for the future: as developers write programs that take advantage of the new, higher ceiling, end users like you and I will benefit. For now, most of the performance increases are only applicable to Apple’s own software. However, that’s not to say these aren’t nice or useful, and in some cases very impressive:
1) Opening large photos is faster in preview mode
2) Quicktime uses significantly less CPU on all Macs regardless of generation. Older Macs benefit the most with as much as 40% performance gains.
3) Time Machine backups take about 20% less time
4) Snow Leopard itself installs faster than Leopard
5) Boot times are faster with Snow Leopard by 5-10%; Shut down times are slightly faster as well.
6) File compression is also faster by 10-15%
(These are somewhat simplified. If you want the exact numbers you can find them online: Google “Snow Leopard Performance”)
Of all of these, the performance increases afforded to older first generation Macbooks are the most significant. Breathing new life into older hardware isn’t easy, especially not significant improvements. Snow Leopard manages to do just that and make even slower 1.6ghz MacBooks that much more useful.
Installation itself is a SNAP (did I mention it takes less time than Leopard?). I’ve already upgraded a MacBook and MacBook Pro, and installation was simple, fast, and easy. I plan to install Snow Leopard on another older Macbook later in the week and will upgrade this review once I have.
The few new visual tweaks are nice, but not the reason to upgrade. Better stacks is useful, as is the quickness of Finder, but overall I don’t find myself blown away by the upgrade. This isn’t an entirely new OS with a fantastic array of improvements, aside from the welcome and useful performance increases. That said, if you are a power user or just observant, you WILL NOTICE the speed increase, especially in Finder.
Snow Leopard will grow in usefulness as time passes. As I said earlier, once third party applications start to be written to take advantage of advancements in the OS, the performance overhead will become more and more useful. Expect to wait 6-12 months for that to happen, but in the mean time at least you’re enjoying speedier OS performance for an very inexpensive price!
10.6: Leopard, revisited.
I love Snow Leopard. First the caveat. I ended up completely reinstalling Mac OS after having issues with the installer on my Macbook. On my first attempt to install 10.6, the install failed about midway and my Macbook shut down. I was frantic, as I hadn’t backed up my data! I booted up, it popped out the Snow Leopard disk, and voila, booted into Mac OS without issue. Even though it had been installing 10.6 for nearly an hour, 10.5.8 was still there and everything worked as if nothing had ever happened. As soon as I ran the 10.6 installer again, it resumed where it left off. Again, it failed. I’ve since determined that the issues I was having are due to a faulty DVD drive, which I worked around.
I decided, after all of this hassle, to just back up my data and reinstall Mac OS 10.6 onto a fresh HD. So, I booted to the 10.6 DVD and wiped my drive with Disk Utility. Started the install, and it ran flawlessly. Once the dust settled, I had a year-old Macbook with a brand new operating system. I installed all of my must-have apps and everything appears to be working fine, with the exception of Perian (which is fine, I watch all of my media on a Win7 PC hooked up to my living room TV). Firefox 3.5, Adium, X-chat Aqua, Tweetie, Remote Desktop Connection all work fine.
I have Mac OS set up to auto-run Adium, Xchat, and Tweetie when I login. In 10.5.8, this added an extra 20 seconds or so to the boot process, as the applications danced endlessly in the dock until finally they popped open and the operating system became responsive. This issue is gone; in 10.6, applications open almost instantly and the OS is responsive almost immediately after logging in. A welcome, and surprising change! Also, sleeping is overall a MUCH more pleasant experience. It wakes from sleep much faster, and with much less hassle, than it did previously.
Interacting with Mac OS is more pleasant than it was before. Overall, minor speed boosts are apparent, especially when dealing with large directories of files. The MAIN IMPROVEMENT I have noticed is a reworked network sharing Finder. With 10.6, when you command-K to connect to a network share, it connects to your selected server nearly instantly, instead of the mysterious ~10 second pause that drove me mad in 10.5.8. Also, if you’re accidentally disconnected to a share while connected to a shared folder or drive, Finder won’t hang or possibly crash; it pops up a nice error message letting you know which drive(s) were disconnected, and lets you Ignore or Disconnect them. Another very welcome, and surprising, change!
Despite reading what I thought was every tidbit written about 10.6 before its release, I’m still finding minor revisions (such as the two above) that nobody had mentioned previously. For instance, in System Preferences, under the keyboard bindings option, they revised the display of the options slightly so they are easier to navigate. It’s such a minor change, but obvious upon reflection; and this appears to be what Snow Leopard is all about.
Snow Leopard’s development must have went something like this. Apple programmers use Mac OS on their own computers, and they were asked to nitpick every little quirk of Mac OS. Like, why won’t it Eject a USB drive when I ask it to? So they made a list, and made all the necessary revisions to remove these quirks. What we end up with, as users, is a refreshed Leopard, with a few new surprises once applications develops hop onboard (better use of multi-core processors, 64-bit support from the OS).
It’s still early in Snow Leopard’s life, and some applications will give you problems. Since Perian does not work, I was unable to view .mkv video files as I had previously with Quicktime… So I tried VLC. VLC is not yet supported well in 10.6 either, and it took up to 30 seconds to open a .mkv in VLC. So I’m now using Mplayer X Extended; not ideal in my opinion, but it works fine and I can live with it until developers catch up. Menumeters is missing 10.6 support as well, so at the moment I’m unable to see processor load in the menu bar, or network transfer rates :/ However, everything I NEED from my Mac is there. Chat applications work, Firefox works, and iCal works. And my experience with those apps is enhanced by a more responsive operating environment. THANK YOU, Apple, for paying as much attention to this operating system as your users do! Snow Leopard is a welcome revisit to Leopard.
If you loved using Leopard, YOU NEED SNOW LEOPARD!
