Snow Leopard review
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Aug 26th 2009 9:01PM
posted Aug 26th 2009 9:01PM
But underneath the customary OS X fit and finish there's a lot of new plumbing at work here. The entire OS is now 64-bit, meaning apps can address massive amounts of RAM and other tasks go much faster. The Finder has been entirely re-written in Cocoa, which Mac fans have been clamoring for since 10.0. There's a new version of QuickTime, which affects media playback on almost every level of the system. And on top of all that, there's now Exchange support in Mail, iCal, and Address Book, making OS X finally play nice with corporate networks out of the box.
So you won't notice much new when you first restart into 10.6 -- apart from some minor visual tweaks here and there there's just not that much that stands out. But in a way that means the pressure's on even more: Apple took the unusual and somewhat daring step of slowing feature creep in a major OS to focus on speed, reliability, and stability, and if Snow Leopard doesn't deliver on those fronts, it's not worth $30... it's not worth anything. So did Apple pull it off? Read on to find out!
Installation
Installation itself took about 45 minutes on most of the machines we tried, although we did run into some snags once things were complete. We didn't have any problems with the more pristine MacBook Pros in our fleet, but one of our production machines is a cranky older iMac that's been in constant use for over two years without a system rebuild, and when it restarted the desktop pictures were all set to the defaults, the System Preferences app wouldn't launch from the Apple Menu, our MobileMe sync states were a little confused and Spotlight began reindexing all the external drives. Fixing these problems didn't take much, but if your machine is already acting up don't expect everything to go perfectly.
Other installation notes: We were promised 6GB of storage savings with 10.6, and Apple more than delivered -- we got anywhere from 10GB to a whopping 20GB back after installation. Rosetta is no longer installed by default, so if you're still rocking some legacy non-Universal apps you'll want to make sure and install it. Printer driver installation is much smarter, installing drivers only for those printers you've used in the past and printers that appear on your local network. We have no idea why Apple continues to insist on installing language translations by default, but they're much smaller now at 250MB.
Overall, installing Snow Leopard is just like installing any other major OS update: it works great, except when it doesn't. The process itself is fine (in fact, Apple has even built in some safeguards to let you pick up an install if your computer dies or is shut off half way through), but it's the little kinks you have to work out afterwards that can be tricky. If you haven't loaded up your system with hacks and tweaks chances are you'll be fine -- and if you're living on the edge, well, you're probably used to doing some extra work around upgrade time.
UI enhancements
Dock Expose
Stacks
We've never been huge users of the Stacks feature, but it's been tweaked and is much more usable in 10.6 -- as long as you're using grid view, which is now scrollable and offers the ability to drill down into folders just like a Finder window. All the other views are essentially the same -- and for whatever reason, dragging a file onto a stack icon doesn't open the stack, but instead opens a Finder window. While we're on the subject of folders in the dock, explain this nonsensical operation to us: command-clicking a stack icon doesn't open the folder (as you might expect), but instead pops open the enclosing folder. This counter-intuitive (and frankly frustrating) glitch has been around since Tiger -- and we have no idea why. Here's some video:
Finder file previews
We'll get to the big Finder changes shortly -- the Cocoa rewrite definitely improved things -- but the big UI tweak here is live file previews. That means you can watch a video, flip through a document, and generally peek at things without having to open an app or even hit the space bar for Quick Look. It's quite handy -- but again, not earth-shattering.
Finder file previews
We'll get to the big Finder changes shortly -- the Cocoa rewrite definitely improved things -- but the big UI tweak here is live file previews. That means you can watch a video, flip through a document, and generally peek at things without having to open an app or even hit the space bar for Quick Look. It's quite handy -- but again, not earth-shattering.
Notable app changes
Finder
QuickTime X
That said, there are some notable changes with QuickTime Player: there's a new screen recording tool (we made all the videos in this post with it), you can record right off your built-in iSight, and there's a new iPhone 3GS-like "Trim" tool to cut your videos fast.
That glossy title might come at a steep price for some of us -- at least at first glance. QuickTime Player X has certainly added some welcome new options for most, but for QuickTime 7 Pro users, things get a little confusing. If you've already got Pro on your system and do a straight install, you'll end up with the standard new QuickTime -- which means a lot of what you're used to will be missing. Hell, there isn't even a preferences dialog -- so say goodbye to presenting movies on a different monitor, or choosing a default full screen setting. The changes also means that you can't do quick'n'dirty edits by copy-and-pasting anymore (a favorite of Engadget editors), and export options have been reduced to presets for iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, MobileMe, and YouTube.
On top of that, some QuickTime-dependent apps seem like they need a rewrite to work correctly -- we couldn't get our Turbo.264 HD stick to function, and other QuickTime programs we tried seemed similarly stressed. Oh, and those screen recordings? They're encoded with some combination of H.264 and AAC audio that didn't play nice with Viddler out of the box -- and YouTube's uploader refused to load under Snow Leopard (we had a number of server errors), so we ended up uploading all these screencasts from a Windows machine. That may not be the case for all, but it was for us.
This won't be too much of an issue for users who are sticking with the basic QuickTime functionality, but for those of us who've become accustomed to Pro, it may be a little shock. Interestingly, Apple let us know that you can actually re-install QuickTime 7 Pro from the Snow Leopard disc (and from your Utilities folder, oddly), but if you hop right into a standard upgrade, it's amazingly easy to miss (we did on multiple systems).
Safari 4
If you're thinking of upgrading to Snow Leopard on day one, chances are you're already running Safari 4, since it's been available since June. The big changes in 10.6 are (obviously) 64-bit support, which here translates into much faster Javascript performance, and a new browser plugin architecture that runs individual plugins as separate instances. That means if a plugin like Flash crashes it won't take the whole app down with it, but sadly, we weren't able to test it -- for maybe the first time ever, we couldn't crash a browser. Hopefully our good luck rubs off on you.
Exchange
Compatibility
Here's where it gets a little rough. Although Snow Leopard is ostensibly just a polish and repair job on Leopard, there've been enough changes under the hood so that plenty of things are likely to break -- or at least not play nice. As with the installation, if you're running a stock or close-to-stock system, you probably won't run into any problems, but if you've got a setup as tweaked as most of those in the Engadget labs, you're going to run into some issues.
We also noticed problems with old standbys like Growl, GrabUp and Skitch -- really clutch go-to applications that seemed to buckle under the 64-bit noise. Although we could start them in 32-bit mode, nothing seemed to work exactly right, and we're pretty sure we spotted Growl making off with a ton of free memory when we weren't looking. We also had trouble getting our Sprint Novatel U727 3G stick working, although our Verizon card was fine. Again, we're sure all of this is going to be updated, but if you're like us, the bugginess will prove maddening at times -- enough to make us consider waiting out the upgrade on some of our other machines.
There were some other head scratchers we saw on various systems, too. On a 17-inch unibody we were putting through the paces, the WiFi inexplicably has gone out and we have yet to get it working again. On a 15-inch, older generation MacBook Pro (3,1), Spotlight will only fetch search results in the dropdown -- results in a Finder window come up empty. More annoyingly, on two other, newer models we were testing with, Safari crashes out when booting into 32-bit mode -- meaning even Apple's workaround doesn't seem to... er, work.
That's the bad news, though. The good news is that almost all of our regular, non-plugin, non-third-party-framework, non-hack apps worked just fine. Office, Photoshop CS3 and CS4, Tweetie, Firefox 3.5, Ableton, Fluid -- you name it, it ran without a problem. Like we said, if you're running things close to stock you're going to be fine, but we tend to kit out our rigs with a ton of little hacks to really speed up our workflow, and that's the stuff that's broken in Snow Leopard. It's up to you to decide where on that line you fall before you commit to the upgrade.
Overall speed and stability
Compatibility with our various hackeriffic plugins aside, we found Snow Leopard to be just as stable and free from major hang-ups as Leopard. That cranky iMac we installed it on seemed to perk up a little, and while we don't think anything will ever make Firefox feel perfectly stable, we certainly didn't experience as many beachballs or other hangups while running 10.6. So yes, subjectively things seem fast and reliable, and the new Finder makes day-to-day usage seem positively zippy -- and the objective benchmarks tend to back that up.
As measured by XBench, Snow Leopard affects every Mac a little differently, but the basic outcome is the same: raw CPU performance goes up slightly, while the graphics numbers go down -- OpenGl performance in particular takes a big hit. We're not sure if this is due to our version of XBench not playing nicely with Snow Leopard or something else entirely, but we didn't notice any slowdowns while we actually worked -- or played a little casual CoD4. We're not deep into the benchmark scene, so we'd wait for some hardcore marks to hit before you race into fanboy battle with these numbers -- for now, just know that Snow Leopard certainly "feels" a little snappier than Leopard.
Wrap-up
Update: In the original version of the review we noted that QuickTime 7 Pro wasn't available for Snow Leopard. In fact, the software is available as a separate install on the disc itself and via the QuickTime 7 app in the Utilities folder.
an UPGRADE is getting something better than what you already have. The XP service packs were not upgrades,but exactly that,service pack. They fixed problems in XP. Snow Leopard is an UPGRADE. Better. New stuff. People really hate Apple because they can't afford it. I know I thought iPhones were the dumbest gadget around..."who needs an ipod in their phone?". then i used one for 5 minutes and shut up. use a windows computer for 5 minutes and it'll crash. mac wont.
I was giving a presentation that involved a user with a Windows Vista Laptop (a dell, to be specific) and another user with a Mac leopard laptop. Each user booted up and logged in. Less than 60 seconds into the presentation the Mac froze and I had to wait for the Mac user to get the Mac up and running.
Every computer, every user has a different experience. To say that windows will freeze after 5 minutes and mac won't is an absolutely ridiculous statement. Go ahead and install Snow Leopard. See if 100% of your applications work. I am willing to bet they won't. Just the same as Windows 7 (or any OS for that matter) doesn't work 100%. If you want something that works 100% of the time you aren't going to find it with a computer - Mac or Windows.
regarding the cmd-click on the stack icon....maybe the guys at Apple only use the column view. In this case you have the column of the containing folder and that of the stack icon.
I'm more excited about Windows 7. This just seems like more of the same, without even really living up to the performace gains.
If you are a WIndows Vista user then you should be excited about the Windows 7 update, though VIsta, despite all its bad press, is quite stable now. The only benefit of Windows 7 is that they’ve taken out some the more heavy processes so that it will run better on older/slower HW, but don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s faster than Vista for doing the same task. The only real speed boosts shown in independent testing are from the loss of the heavy processes, but that also makes Vista have more bells and whistles than Win7.
Snow Leopard has lost any bells and whistles, and has actually a few, not much to the GUI, but a few. Yet the performance and efficiency gains are more of a jump than I’ve noticed with any other OS X release in the past 5 years. They have rewritten 90% of the entire codebase, they have added new frameworks and foundations that have really set this version apart from any other OS X. In every way, except the GUI change, it’s the more profound and dramatic change OS X has seen.
You might be the type of person that likes to paint a racing strip on his car and put velvet carpet on the dash to indicate that it’s better than before, but I am one who prefers to leave the visual aspects alone until I can beef up the suspension and retune the engine to add performance. Each has it’s pluses I guess, but I know the one I want to be driving when I have a performance goal to accomplish.
The box cover almost looks like the Snow Leopard has egg on his face, except its snow! Hmmm
He just explained it to you and you are still arguing with him. Snow Leopard has a 64-bit kernel, a whole bunch of 64-bit drivers and extensions, and a whole bunch of 64-bit apps.
Xserve is the only Apple HW that will DEFAULT to a 64-bit kernel. This is because servers tend not to have a lot of peripherals attached to them so the driver list is typically within the server itself and therefore well controlled. However, if you need to boot an Xserve into the 32-bit kernel you can easily do so by holding down the ‘3’ and ‘2’ keys.
ALL Macs will boot by DEFAULT into the 32-bit kernel. This is because PCs often have many devices attached to them. A cheap device or an old device is unlikely to have a 64-bit driver for it so the kernel needs to be 32-bit to ensure optimum usability. If you have a newer Mac that is on the list for being 64-bit kernel capable then you can boot into the 64-bit kernel by holding down the ‘6’ and ‘4’ keys. Writing drivers isn’t an easy task and Apple may get some of the older Macs to have the 64-bit kernel, but I doubt it since it’s not really that necessary with the INTELLIGENT way Apple has gone about it in comparison to Microsoft.
You may think that Microsoft is somehow king because they were the first to have a full 64-bit OS, but remember that if you installed the 64-bit version of Windows you also had to make sure all your drivers were 64-bit, that all your apps were 64-bit and that you’d never ever ever need a 32-bit driver or app again. Apple did it differently. They allowed more than 4GB of memory (RAM) addressing on their 32-bit kernel with Leopard, and allow you to NATIVELY run 32-bit and 64-bit apps natively, side-by-side without having to scrape anything to do it. On top of that, if in the future you are running a 64-bit kernel and for some reason need to dig up an old printer or scanner from the last millennium you can easily restart while holding down the ‘3’ and ‘2’ to use the old 32-bit driver it has.
A 64-bit kernel has some benefits, but the real power of 64-bit comes having more than 4GB RAM addressed and having 64-bit apps. All of this is capable regardless of the kernel you are using. This is why MS fails… again. They are marketing things to the consumer as if it’s better because it’s “double than before” without you actually understanding the pros and cons of their solution. Apple has, by far, trounced MS is every single way. There are no limitations to the consumer for this method.
On the MB-pro, can you now turn the discrete graphics processor (NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT) on and off without having to log in and out?
Thanks!
Unfortunately no. That is something that will *at least* require a new driver from Nvidia and will likely not come until later cards are designed from the ground up for that operation. When it happens we’ll see a new option in Energy Saver Preference Pane that will let you check “Turn off discrete GPU to run on integrated GPU when running on battery power”. I’m guessing we won’t see any sign of it until the next MBP releases, at the earliest.
Funny how the Windows zealots crawl out of their holes whenever there is talk about Apple. This article is not about Windows, go away! Is the situation really that dire over in Redmond?
Compatibility list here http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/
The big question is...
Is there going to be an evening launch party or will Snow Leopard be available when the Apple Store opens on Friday?
@Bender
Your post would make sense if 64 bit Vista didn't automatically run 32 bit applications under emulation smoothly. Which it does.
Next please.
This is Apple's way of charging customers for a service pack. :)
Why are people calling this a "service pack" when in reality, it's changing MAJOR features of the underlying OS. A service pack fixes bugs and adds minor features, it does not completely restructure the heart and soul of the OS.
Finder being turned into a native Cocoa app is worth the $30 alone. There are apps that replace Finder that run for more than $30! Not to mention you are getting back 10GB of disk space and a completely redone 64bit architecture.
Cmon, people.
Of course, Tiger users who have to pay the higher price are doing so because as well as getting Snow Leopard, they're also getting all the massive improvements of Leopard which they didn't have before and which people paid for already either as an upgrade or as part of the price of their new machine. It's actually a pretty good deal as an upgrade to Tiger.
So if 10.5.8 to 10.6.0 costs $30... 10.6.0 to 11.0.0 will be... OMG!
And if going from Windows 6.0 to 6.1 costs $220, then 6.1 to 7.0 will be OMGWTFBBQ!
Haha, numbers are fun!
Indeed
Hey,
Why is it that if I double click on a .avi file, QuickTime 7 is launched and not QuickTime X. I guess QT 7 has been left behind for all the other vid featuers, which I don't need any way to just remove QT 7?
I love how people keep comparing Snow Leopard to a Microsoft Service Pack. Snow Leopard is not a service pack. It's a complete structural redesign of OS X. Visual differences aren't what matter in this case. It's the implementation of Open CL, Grand Central Dispatch and a new, faster, stronger Finder.
When Microsoft sends out one of their many Service Packs, their patching holes in a sinking boat. When Apple sends out Snow Leopard, they're sending out yet another operating system that does what it claims to do without the constant security threats or UAC pop up windows.
Anyone else wish they kept the leopard dock?
:O I didn't notice! Although you can just change the pngs in the Dock.app
I modded mine to black glass for increased visivility
I like the features mention in 10.6 - I am a user of both 10.5 and windows 7 - I like what Win 7 is doing, one shining star is how explorer ( THE filemanger) how it's clean, crisp and I'm so bloody used to it and the biggy : you can resize some all side ( i still think that the finder needs to be able to do that - but getting used to it!) Now for the experience of both OS's - To get windows 7 up to speed with comparable apps codecs etc... out of the box OS X runs all of my basics needs - ok so I'll buy iWorks or office - would have to to that for windows 7( office only) too - win 7, you have to go and get a lot of stuff (buy or hack) expose is one thing i have come to rely on - there are win version but buggy and they cost - getting a comparable iphoto app on windows it costly and is not as intuitive - itunes is build it and works better (I'm running itunes of both platform) iMovie ... enough said on that one. garage band : don't use it much but i haven't since a free app on windows 7 that compares - safari is practically the same - I use safari more often on windows 7 now. haven't seen a free iDVD for windows 7 comparison yet! Oh yeah I do like the new windows 7 start bar - but 10.6 improves their dock - not winner there for me! Address book iCal, out of the box work well - the new exchange tie in is really welcome! that will cost you on win 7 - I can go on but suffice it to say, what Mac cost extra in hardware windows 7 cost extra in software - so for convenience and ease ie less headache I choose Mac , definitely for my home ! ( plus apple hardware is pretty cool)
$30 for a service pack, nice. If Microsoft pulled this, there'd be a riot.
You should be shaking your pitchfork and torch at Microsoft for charging you $219 for service pack Windows 6.1 (a.k.a. Windows 7). Everyone knows it is just a bag of fixes for the disaster that Vista was plus some lipstick (a.k.a. Aero) added. The underlying foundations are still rotten and unfortunately Microsoft is not doing anything about it.
Just a side note... anyone that uses tasks on there exchange server should look out... There is no Tasks support on Snow leopard... So your tasks on your machine will not sync to your tasks on your exchange server... just an FYI...
I have a macbook pro core duo (32 bit processor.) it seems like there is very little point in upgrading this from leopard since the main draw is 64 bit support. Is there something I am missing?
Didn't check to see if anyone had mentioned this but I was able to get growl working properly by checking out the source and building it myself in xcode.
So, Quicktime X is still a crippled little media player... but now it edits videos! (Except Mpeg 2, so if you expect Cletus McGee to use it with his digital video camera, you'd better buy those codecs for him).
Bender, why did you even drag Microsoft into this? Thanks for making assumptions.
Are you guys seriously daft? The Kernel is 32bit because the consumer version does not need 64bit. I doubt it places much emphasis on hardware limitation. If that was the case, Apple would have newer C2D models autoboot to 64. Like I said, it will be 32bit unless you're running Xserve. Like I said, it doesn't really matter as both 32 and 64 fully take advantage of 64bit apps. The only difference is that the 32bit cannot utilize 32GB+ of memory. All I'm saying is that the OS is not ENTIRELY 64bit. Hey, if you want to hold 6+4 all the time, that's fine, but ever so unpractical.
64bit Windows requires 64bit Drivers to operate the HW in a 64bit environment. It does not require 64bit applications like you indicated.
My apologies for not being so thorough on the initial post, I figure some people have the ability to click on the link and read an article for a change. I was merely stating the facts, that the OS is not 64bit for the consumers. Done.
What really GRINDS MY GEARS....
its $29 for a upgrade from 10.5 to 10.6 which is about right for such meager change log.
BUT $499.99 for the server upgrade to 10.6?!
I would like to upgrade my server to Snow Leopard but at those prices its impossible for IT staff justifying an upgrade with so little changes.
APPLE: Give me Native iSCSI initiator support and we will talk about your 10.6.x upgrade
does anyone know what would happend to bootcamp after the upgrade would it stay intact or do i have to reinstall it again
i know this is a pretty noob question....but when i install Snow Leopard, does that mean it will erase all my files i have saved on the computer already? or will it just upgrade the OS and keep all my applications/files the way they are?
Too little too late. IF they had done this with 10.5 I may have not sold my MBP. Also after 3 years I could still not get use to Finder. I hate all the various views. Windows Explorer and the address menu made navigating around stupidly fast. While I'm happy that Apple FINALLY took the time to clean up the crap that they left undone from version to version. In my case its too late for me to care about OS X ever again. I tried X with 10.4 and 10.5. I simply was not impressed. Less so with the bugs that came with each released version. *shrugs*
Safari isn't that great, but on the Windows review, IE8 doesn't even get explored because of one crash in IE (which has only happened a few times, isolated within the tab). Talk about objectivity.
64-bit Windows can run 320bit apps, but not natively. You can run 32GB RAM on a 32-bit kernel, but you can’t have 32GB RAM on a notebook at this time. It’s limited by the HW. You’ve again completely missed the point that you don’t need a 64-bit kernel to address more than 4GB of RAM under OS X. Also, you don’t “hold 6+4 all the time” to run in 64-bit as you claim/think. You set it and forget it. If you happen to need to get back into a 32-bit kernel you hold down the ‘3’ and ‘2’ keys at startup. It’s absolutely the best of every world from the developer and consumer’s PoV.
Yawn!
I'll have to try it out before I make my final decision but it looks pretty good. I'll probably still use Windows 7 as my main OS but Apple rarely disappoints with their operating systems.
Assuming all adequate precautions, clones, backups, etc. and acknowledging that (with enough time and patience) the "best" way to upgrade from 10.5 to 10.6 would be a clean install, fresh user account (with same name, etc.), fresh install of all apps, and selective copying over of data from the clone, my question is, is there a net difference between:
a) Running the standard 10.6 "upgrade" Install in place
b) Erase & Install followed by Time Machine restore or Migration from a clone of 10.5
c) Any other combination, i.e. E&I followed by Migration of only User and Documents + fresh Application installs, etc.
In short, what's the sanest way from 10.5 to 10.6 with all Users, Applications and settings intact?
If MS broke compatibility with new Windows versions the way Apple does wih Mac OS, there's be an insurrection.
They do.
Thanks for the review. Regarding the Command-click issue on folders in the Dock: it's not a bug, it's that way for consistency. Whenever you hold command, the item under the mouse will be revealed in Finder. It also works for "Recent Documents" in the Apple menu and in many other places. To actually open the folder, just press Command+Option and click on the folder in the Dock.
Exactly
Mmmm, modifier keys...
What is this, Emacs?
Unfortunately, under Snow Leopard, Gmail Contacts sync deletes nicknames when syncing back from Gmail :(
Apparently, Google doesn't do nicknames, and Snow Leopard happily deletes the ones in Address Book. This kinda sucks...
I think the upgrade is a full install if you get rid of the file on the DVD that checks for 10.5... yes?
This was the case with previous OSX upgrades few years back.
Doesn't really matter, I have Leo installed. But would like to wipe the HD and do a clean install.
Don't know if anyone noticed but they changed the gestures on the multitouch glass trackpads. When you 4 finger swipe to use expose you now have to lift your fingers of the trackpad before down swiping to leave expose or it re-expose's everything; Very annoying. you'll see.
Yeah. I'm upgrading.