Snow Leopard is an upgrade to Leopard and you need to take your computer to that OS first to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Although Snow Leopard only costs $29 for a single license, if you don’t already have Leopard on our computer, you have to purchase a copy of Leopard if you want to use it. The OS also requires a Mac with an Intel processor.
Image courtesy of Apple, Inc.
It will probably take some time before you see the benefit of the most significant enhancement for the new OS- its support of 64-bit software. Once vendors start producing 64-bit code for programs, you should see a marked improvement in processing speed. Until then, not so much. Apple has announced that it has converted its key system applications to 64-bit, so you will see a speed jump there right off the bat.
We are moving from two to four core processor computers. Snow Leopard takes advantage of the new multi-core processors. Intel produces several multi-core processors. Apple has had multiple core processors available in its Mac Pro line for some time. Apple recently announced that it would ship a 27” quad-core processor iMac in November 2009.
Moving to a quad core-processor and code written for a 64 bit OS/processor combination will generate substantial speed improvements for the system. I have discussed some of the new features of Snow Leopard in a review that I wrote for the November issue of the Technology eReport, you will be able to find that review on the ABA’s GPSolo Division web site in the near future. Apple has devoted a section of its web site to Snow Leopard and its features. You may want to take some time to look through the web site to help you decide whether you want to upgrade. You can find the information at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/.
I installed Snow Leopard over existing Leopard installations on two different generations of iMacs, a MacBook, a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro. Each of the installations went smoothly and fairly quickly. Once I completed the installation current versions of my programs worked just as they had before the installation. Some older programs had problems, but Snow Leopard compatible updates e released within the last month solved most of those issues. If you upgrade to Snow Leopard, I strongly recommend that you check out your existing software and make sure that you have the most current versions of the programs you need. If you do that you should have no significant problems from the new OS.
My overall reaction to the new OS is that it provides a good tune-up for the Leopard OS and justifies the $29 price tag. I plan on getting a quad-core iMac and expect that I will see a very significant performance improvement at that time. I will write about it after I have had the chance to use it for a while.
Copyright 2009, Jeffrey Allen, all rights reserved.