Tech Blog

[#1]

This morning I told you how I was prepping for Snow Leopard, so now it's installed and ...

It's pretty darn good. The install took about 30 mins ish with no hiccups. As I warned, there are some apps that don't want to play with this new feline, as expected a few apps went kablooey. I was ready for pretty much all of them, except for one that I expected to be okay (Blogo one of the two blog editors I often use).

Did I gain back drive space as promised? No, but I also expected that. I recently used a tool to remove all the additional language packs from my machine. That operation freed up gigs of space. With this new OS install, those files are back. I also installed some developer tools that I had been meaning to have on hand for beta testing (sometimes I have to fix preference files).

Is it faster? Yes. Things seem peppier. Mail is good, maybe not perfect (and I didn't have a stop watch), but seems faster too.

So for $35 (the Canadian price) or $60 for the 5-license family pack (which is what I bought), is it worth it?

Yes. This isn't because I'm a geek and would upgrade regardless, it's because of what this update means. Like I said this morning, this is a step towards a better OS X. I'm guessing that the point updates (10.6.1, .2, etc) are going to roll out more improvements to take advantage of the native 64 bit architecture. Remember, going from 32 to 64 bit is like going from a road with two lanes in each direction, to four. It's letting the machine you have (which is pretty **bleep** powerful to start with) the room to play and flex its muscles. As more 64-bit apps roll out (which should be soon I hope), we'll start seeing more and more improvements.

Then what you're saying is to wait until the .1 release and more 64-bit apps? No. This is a cheap, cheap upgrade. I don't know how long Apple will have it readily available. Just grab it now.

There might be some bumps for a couple weeks, but a) most users won't notice and b) those who do aren't really "most users" anyway.

Yes, Future Shop in Downtown Vancouver had plenty of both the single license and five packs there. The guys were in the process of updating the Macs while I was there.

If you do have Snow Leopard issues or questions, leave them here and I'll look for the answers (if I don't have it already).

Here are some of the reviews that I've found (and no they aren't all glowing):

• MacFixIt
• Digital Daily
• TUAW

[#2]

Quick note: Snow Leopard boots with a 32-bit kernel by default (the Mac world is still transitioning over to 64-bit so it's understandable for the time being). If you want to really take advantage of the 64-bit kernel in the time being, hold down the 6 and 4 key as you boot.

It should be noted that if you try to access 32-bit pref panes for your System Preferences, OS X will ask to close and restart System Preferences in 32-bit mode. To go back to 64 bit mode simply close and re-open it when you're done making your changes.

[#3]

Thanks Graham. I found iTweaX (http://www.itweax.net/) to do some of the maintenance that I used to use Onyx for plus being able to turn on the 64 bit kernel. Haven't hat a lot of time to test, but thus far not bad.

[#4]

Graham, long time no see, nice to see you're still checking in.

Great info... I'd heard something about 64-bit not being automatically enabled, so I'm sure people will find it useful to know how to do this.  Weird though how Apple is taking such a different approach from Windows with regards to this.  With Windows, you boot and it automatically runs 64-bit which is compatible with 32-bit applications.

[#5]

@trisshussey, had a flawless upgrade on my Mac mini last night. Thanks for the tips re: updating and backup. Only one app. not compatible -- Parallels. I assume that'll be fixed soon.

[#6]

Brad, yes I would hope Parallels will be updated soon. I've been watching the usual places for updates and nothing yet. Course I have VMWare Fusion, so I was good to go!

I'm going to bump the MB Air up today. It will be interesting to see if a basic user notices the difference.

BTW, I'm booting into the 64 bit kernel, thus far no big issues. Some pref panes do require a flip back and forth as expected.