Time for an official Snow Leopard thread (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by JohnRice

Dave, you misunderstood me. I was wondering about being able to just plain reinstall 10.6 from scratch with the upgrade discs. With what you are saying, I would first have to install 10.5 from regular install discs (which I have) then upgrade it to 10.6, which is a huge and pointless hassle. If Keith is correct and I am reading properly, I could take a machine that already has 10.6 (or 10.5 I suppose), erase the HD and start a new install of 10.6 from scratch. Funny I was completely unaware of the "Upgrade" discs vs a full new install package. I guess that is why it was only $29.

That is what I meant: if you erased your harddrive for a clean install, you would then have to first install 10.5 from Leopard DVD and then upgrade to 10.6 from Snow Leopard disk. But I'm working from only a cursory reading of blogs/news, so it could be quite different. Or you meant something different by "clean install" than I understood.

With Bootcamp / Parallels installed, I'm wary of the wipe and reinstall option: I don't like having to reinstall and reactivate Windows. So I'll do the upgrade option.

 

[DaveF]

Hrmmm...I may have to postpone Snow Leopard on my wife's iMac for a year.

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/files/Adobe-SnowLeopard_FAQ.pdf

Q. Will older versions of Adobe creative software—such as Adobe Creative Suite 3 or Macromedia® Studio 8 software—support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?

A. Older versions of Adobe creative software were not included in our testing efforts. While older Adobe and Macromedia applications may install and run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), they were designed, tested, and released to the public several years before this new operating system became available. You may therefore experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).

 

[DavidJ]

Pretty standard response. They have to protect themselves and they aren't going to spend resources on older software when they are one of the more ruthless, you must upgrade, software developers. I'd wait and let other people try it first. I've got machines at work that I'm will have to wait to upgrade until we can upgrade everything we need to. And I've got a laptop with CS3 that I may go ahead and upgrade after I hear some of the initial reports.

 

[DaveF]

Yep. I'd planned to upgrade both machines the same weekend. But I better hold off on my wife's. We're not ready to re-mortgage the house to buy CS5, and if I break CS3, then life is bad.

I wish there was a Cash for Clunkers program for design software

 

[Sam Posten]

http://lifehacker.com/5345690/prep-your-mac-for-snow-leopard

 

[DaveF]

Some good stuff in that LH article. Bookmarked for future reference.

 

[JohnRice]

That article also indicates it MAY be possible to install from scratch with the $29 disc. I guess we'll know Friday. The main reason I want to know is because I have an Intel iMac at work running 10.4 and Parallels and I would like to migrate it to an external disc with 10.6 and either the latest Parallels or Boot Camp without disrupting it's current operation, then once the new boot drive is working properly, just move the external over to the internal drive and go on with life.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Full Macworld review up

Just started reading it, but it says it's a full installer that will let you do a clean install and even let you jump from Tiger directly to Snow Leopard with no checking of the prior OS. As usual Apple is relying on an honor system for buyers and as usual, I'm sure a lot of people will skirt the licensing agreement and jump straight from Tiger to Leopard.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Pogue's NY TImes piece and Mossberg's WSJ take are up too.

 

[Sam Posten]

Ah cool, my co-author David Pogue is always great! I just got my signed copy of his twitter book since he used a quote from me (which my parents stole from Mark Twain). I don't know if I trust Mossberg any more tho, but I cannot wait for John Siracusa's review.

http://gizmodo.com/5346418/snow-leopard-review-lightened-and-enlightened

http://www.loopinsight.com/2009/08/26/mac-os-x-snow-leopard-reviews-posted/

 

[Ted Todorov]

Speaking of Pogue, he tweeted: "@Pogue: RT @bxchen: Our tests confirm that the 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD works for Tiger Macs, too (even though Apple says "requires Leopard")!"

 

[DaveF]

Macworld's review was very helpful to me; Pogue's was too breezy, though the positive tone told me a lot. I'm more upbeat about Snow Leopard; there are some user-facing tweaks to Expose and Dock that sound good. I'm glad Apple is removing some of the suck out of that lousy yellow Minimize orb.

 

[DaveF]

But here’s a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140.

Reviews indicate that the "upgrade" pricing is honor system, like a Family Pack. 10.6 "upgrade" disc works as a complete install disk per se.

Hopefully I'm safe to discard (or eBay) my Leopard Family Pack after upgrading Snow Leopard. No worries should I have to completely reinstall in the future?

 

[KeithAP]

So the upgrade/clean install question seems to be answered. From the Macworld article:

Apple continues to rely on the honor system for Mac OS X. Not only does Snow Leopard not require the entry of any serial numbers, but the standard version of Snow Leopard is a bootable “full install” disc that doesn’t actually check for the presence of Leopard in order to install. This also means that if, at a later time, you want to wipe your hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard, you won’t have to first install Leopard and then run a separate Snow Leopard upgrade on top of it. (That sound you hear is a thousand IT managers sighing with relief.)

I think I will probably pick it up right away now.

-Keith

 

[JohnRice]

According to FedEx it appears mine should be here today. I can't be the only one. I thought the receipt said delivery ON 8/28, but it actually says BY 8/28. Like I said before, I've never had an OS on release date. Not even close. I hope I am safe to install it. Of course, I will make a bootable backup first.

 

[Sam Posten]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/08/26/snow-leopard-review.html

 

[JohnRice]

I can understand the occasional complaints of the new OS lacking lots of dazzling new stuff, but to me it seems like a valuable change. Clearly Apple is laying the groundwork for global improvements that will come with time. Cleaning out the old code and (so it seems) enabling it to be as much as 50% faster across the board, and all for $29. Not bad, in my book.

 

[DaveF]

I think the issue is whether customers should pay for "groundwork" or get it as a free update. As a Mac loon, I'm buying SL without complaint. But part of me wonders why I'm paying for Apple to remove extra printer drivers?

 

[Christian Behrens]

Er, the "groundwork" they are laying is to be able to support a completely new way of writing applications to harness the power of today's computers in a way that just wasn't possible before (Grand Central Dispatch, OpenCL). Why should that be free? Not to mention all the other work they have done, more 64bit, Finder re-written in Cocoa, new Services Automation features, new QT.

Leopard was the first step in modernizing Mac OSX. There was some new eye candy etc., but there weren't that many new features in it compared to Tiger (with Time Machine being the big exception). I remember reading John Siracusa's in-depth report at the time that showed where all the work was really done.

Now with SL we get even more under-the-hood changes that bode well for the future, for a price that is $100 below the one for Leopard.

Also, they didn't just leave out all the printer drivers from the installation, they implemented a new way of basically auto-installing the driver for you.

And finally, sounds like the CS3 situation was totally overblown by Adobe. MacRumours reports that "the Photoshop team has tested Photoshop CS3 on Snow Leopard, and to the best of our knowledge, PS CS3 works fine on Snow Leopard".

The only issues I'm personally aware of with SL is that basically all my OpenGL screensavers currently don't work on SL, and iStat Menus needs an update as well.

-Christian

 

[DaveF]

I hope this is phones only and doesn't apply to our Palm Zire 72's! That would be very bad if Palm devices don't synch with 10.6.

http://www.appscout.com/2009/08/snow_leopard_drops_palm_os_syn.php