Apple Macintosh’s New Operating System – Snow Leopard

Apple’s OS X Snow Leopard is now available for all Macintosh users with the Intel-based Macintosh.  Support for Snow Leopard is not yet available by Information Services.  An announcement will be made when support will be available.

Availability

Once support has been announced, as part of the campus license, Northeastern staff and faculty will be able to check out a copy of the upgrade CD at the InfoCommons in the Snell Library.  Even though some may be tempted to upgrade on their own by purchasing a copy from the Apple Store, I recommend that users wait until we have adequate resources to ensure a good experience.

Things to Do Before You Upgrade

Be sure that your data are backed up and you’ve checked the compatibility list.  Many vendors are still updating their software and it may not work after the upgrade.  Also, software that utilize specific drivers (sound, video, etc) may not be compatible and will either be unusable or will crash the installation.  For software that you use regularly, be sure to check the vendor’s site to see if they have an update and download and install first.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Compatibility List

also see this knowledge base article for additional items – Mac OS X v10.6: About incompatible software

ALERT!

• At the time of this writing, Lotus Notes is currently NOT compatible with Snow Leopard.  Click HERE for more information.
• SPSS vs. 18 is not due out till October.

My Personal Experience

I upgraded two Macbooks, one went very smoothly but the other crashed and burned due to some software incompatibility and I had to reformat the drive.  Fortunately, I had a good backup; without it I would have lost everything.

What’s New?

Finder

• Rewritten for Snow Leopard
• Restore deleted items to original folders
• Enhanced icon view
• Larger icon sizes
• More reliable disk eject
• Change search locations
• Adjust view options
• Sortable search results
• Removable sidebar headers

Dock

• Scroll through your stacks.
• Activate Exposé from the Dock.
• Expose Dock screen
• Navigate folders in stacks.

Systemwide

• Faster shutdown and wake-up.
• Automatic updates for printer drivers.
• HFS+ read support in Boot Camp.
• New Automator templates.
• New split-pane terminal.
• Text substitution.
• Nearby printers.
• Redesigned Services menu.
• Chinese handwriting via trackpad
• Improved Chinese handwriting input.
• Pinyin Chinese input method.
• New fonts.
• Bidirectional text.
• Search iPhoto Faces and Places in Spotlight.
• Signal icon
• Faster Time Machine backup.
• AirPort menu signal strength.
• Cisco VPN.
• More efficient file sharing.
• Gamma 2.2.
• All-new thesaurus.
• Date in menu bar.

Many other changes; check out the web site.