It's now over a week since Apple released Mac OS X 'Snow Leopard'.
What's the verdict?
There are now some great reviews and summaries now available on the web, and if you need the full rundown you can do no better than starting with Ars Technica's 23-page review (yes, that's right, 23 pages).
Gizmodo has posted 'Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Complete Guide'
And Computer World has outlined 'The 7 best features in Mac OS X Snow Leopard'
If you can't be stuffed reading all of that (although the first two definitely are worth your time if you havemore than a passing interest in these things), the key points are:
- Faster and smoother
- Lots of work 'under the hood'
- Will give you back a relatively large slice of HDD space.
- Lots of small interface tweaks
And a few other things.
I've been running 10.6 since last Saturday and have to say it's not hugely different, but some things I do notice:
Snappier: It is definitely* faster and smoother. I've always found Leopard a little bit glitchy compared to Tiger, but Snow Leopard just feels snappier* and to be that bit more robust (*Not scientific in any way, shape or form.)
Quicktime X: I have Quicktime in the dock, so the new logo is a constant reminder that I'm using the latest version. QT itself is also more modern in its appearance. The Ars review says it's been completely reengineered as an app and now offers iShowU/Captivate/Camtasia style video screen capture features.
Super-subtle additions to contextual info: The Ars review also mentions that 10.6 now tells you a little bit more in error messages. "This file cannot be closed beacuse it's still in use' now goes one further and tells you which application is still using it (i.e. Preview, Terminal etc.). No longer do you need to fire up Activity Monitor to tell you what's causing problems.
Screen grabs: Now dated and called 'Screen Shot'. Much more useful than '811100.jpg'.
Different Exposé and menu design: Tweaked, instantly familiar, but new.
And that's about it, day to day.
However, as with most of the reviews and commments on SL so far, I love the idea of a 'new' OS that's focused on improvement, refinement, debugging, compressing etc. I can think of a fair few software companies who should adhere to this idea (it's not a new idea either, but it does take supreme confidence in your product and revenue model/projections). You could argue that Microsoft have done something very similar with Vista and Windows 7, if you look at the work done inbetween the two releases.
So, while it might not blow your socks off with new features, the groundwork done here and the potential it unlocks for the future is seriously clever, especially when you read more into it (yes, go read the Ars review) and especially, especially, at AU$39. Bare in mind the upgrade to Quicktime Pro on its own, which is now defunct as all features are in Quicktime X, will set you back $16 anyway.
If you're currently running Leopard, do a compatibility check for your key Apps and go buy. This is the easiest OS upgrade you'll ever do.
