Snow Leopard might be cute, but steady-as-she-goes is always good advice with new technology.
(APPLE/AFP)Photos (1 of 1)
Will Snow Leopard be Apple’s Windows Vista?
By Chris Gaylord | 09.04.09
Shortly after Apple’s new Snow Leopard operating system came out this weekend, fellow Horizons blogger Andrew Heining told anxious buyers to take it easy.
“So, should you upgrade?” he asked rhetorically. “That, of course, is up to you, but a smart move (as always) might be to wait until Apple and application makers have time to sort out their compatibility issues, and upgrade then. So, Eoin, if you’re reading this, wait.”
Andrew didn’t know the half of it.
Between the list of more than 100 Mac programs that no longer work because of the update and the rampant reports of bricked machines seemingly tied to Snow Leopard, Apple has had a rough week.
Occasional graphics issues or incompatibilities are common with new OS releases – and Apple will likely correct many of the problems in due time – but the flood of articles, blogs, and forum posts this week has some drawing comparisons between Snow Leopard and a certain infamous Windows OS.
“This is the Vista of Apple’s history,” said CNET’s Brian Cooley on yesterday’s Buzz Out Loud. “Not that much. I know – I’m misconstruing the gravity of it, but this is kinda the closest thing to Apple’s Vista.”
Among the many complications that struck this week:
• “Numerous Mac users are complaining that upgrading their systems to Apple’s new Snow Leopard operating system causes a boot failure that results in an endless display of a rotating icon known colloquially as ‘the spinning wheel of death,’ ” reports Information Week yesterday.
• “Mac users are not informed that Snow Leopard has downgraded their version of Flash without permission, and that they are now exposed to a raft of potential attacks and exploits which have been targeted on Adobe’s software in recent months,” says security company Sophos.
This week, Apple also needed to update the default version of Java that came with Leopard:
• “Red-faced Apple has admitted that its Leopard operating system has an ancient version of Java that’s an open door to hackers,” writes TheInquirer.net. “The Java flaw is important and the patch can be downloaded from Apple. Basically it allows a hacker to take control of the user’s machine if they visit a dodgy webpage. Normally Apple waits six months before releasing Java security patches, so it must have thought this one was bad.”
As that last snippet shows, Apple is aware of the many complaints. If you’ve already upgraded to Snow Leopard, make sure to check for system updates regularly. If you’re still on an earlier version of OS X, consider following Andrew’s prescient advice and wait until everything is ironed out.
Computer bugs come hand in hand with new technology. That’s why there’s virtue in showing patience in an era of “buy, buy, buy!”
––
Have you had any problems with Snow Leopard? Let us know below, or follow us on Twitter for more updates.
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2. Maggie | 09.04.09
No. Why? Because Vista’s shortcomings can’t be fixed in a .1 update, Snow Leopard’s can.
3. Mike | 09.04.09
Nobody reports on buildings that don’t burn. I upgraded my iMac and my wife’s Macbook to Snow Leopard on release day and we have had ZERO problems. Admittedly, this is anecdata, so take it as you will.
5. steven | 09.04.09
seriously?
the java issue was a problem in leopard several __months__ ago, and apple fixed it soon after word of it leaked.
as ANON1244841971440 commented on the information week article that you cited, there are fewer than a dozen complaints with snow leopard (unless you want to count each incompatible application as a complaint, which would be silly).
also, the information week article that you cited refers to apple’s forums. for the sake of your readership, i would like to point out that there are four pages of posts. four pages of posts over the span of one week is excellent for a new operating system, especially considering the fact that apple customers are much more likely to complain about minor problems than windows users are.
if this wasn’t a blog, i would be significantly disappointed in the csmonitor. i wonder whether or not this blog post is commercial in nature.
7. TattedMonkey | 09.04.09
Most of the problems have to do with 64 bit code which in the future all Computers will be running. These problems are trivial and anyone that had an issue and complained probably didn’t back up first. Most people understand that even a minor upgrade can cause problems and the ones that don’t should have read the file marked “Read Me First”.
8. AdamC | 09.04.09
The glitches are mainly due to third party softwares and peripherals like external HD.
I attached my PPC OS firewire HD to my intel mac mini and I have many problems with SL and after ejecting thru a reboot everything is fine.
9. Pats | 09.04.09
Why wouldn’t you upgrade to Snow Leopard. The items you list are part of any major system upgrade. Not all things go perfect so a wise user will make a backup before the upgrade. As far as your comment about Java you really display your ignorance. Why is Apple red faced about Java which was built by Sun. Maybe Sun should be red faced for releasing buggy code and the same can be said for Adobe. I think at a minimum Adobe should be blamed for the Flash bug and Sun for the Java bug. The Snow Leopard GM was built before Adobe fixed the bug so the disk had the most current version when the disk went to manufacturing. All software manufactures update their software on different schedules so it is important to keep your own system up to date. Overall the SL upgrade increased performance on my system and I have not run across any show stopper. For $ 30 and about an hour of time my system was noticeably faster.
10. cr | 09.04.09
I installed Snow Leopard on an iMac and MacPro without any problems. I had a password to reset but that was all. Simple and flawless. But then again, I have only the OS and Office for MAC on the systems. Also, only 1 printer. I keep things simple and it works.
11. solid | 09.04.09
Realllllly reaching for a Vista comparison, eh? Snow pussy is working great on my 3 year old MacBook. The only very minor incovenience I experienced was the old copy of Flash getting installed, but a quick 30 second download and install process corrected that.
The screencasting option in Quicktime X along with the 7 GB of hard drive space I got back was just about worth the $29 by themselves.
12. Sean | 09.04.09
The other day I installed SL on 4 Macs of varying makes and not one single issue.
I installed Windows 7 on my PC and had numerous issues I am still trying to work out.
This is why I switched to Macs. Plain and simple.
PS: I will be dumping the PC in the trash very soon, since it’s not worth a nickel.
13. Bryan | 09.04.09
If you take a look at the programs that “no longer work,” you’ll notice that many of these have outdated version numbers. These are point upgrades (#.x) and even point-point upgrades (#.#.x). Example: EyeTV 3.1.0 won’t work. However, EyeTV 3.1.2, which was released in June BEFORE SNOW LEOPARD, works fine. If you just keep your programs current you should be fine.
14. BrianY | 09.04.09
It seems that the Windows world wants Snow Leopard to fail.
Over-reporting every little bug is for the MS trolls.
Mac users know the truth.
16. nk | 09.04.09
Upgraded two Macs…no problems. Having lived through the Vista nightmare with my PC, the problems with Snow Leopard don’t even come close…the main issue being some incompatible third party apps. Vista had problems top to bottom…hardware, software, too bloated for most hardware…even though machines were called Vista “capable” and “ready”. Before Snow Leopard was released, all of the reviewers advised people with highly customized Macs to wait until the app developers caught up, while people with “off the shelf” Macs should have no problems (that’s me). All of the reports of probs I see mainly involve third party apps.
17. Patrick | 09.04.09
What’s with the FUD campaign against Snow Leopard?
I installed Snow Leopard on my early 2008 iMac the day after it was released. the installation was flawless and the system is noticeably more responsive.
There are literally dozens of UI tweaks that really improve an already excellent user experience.
Windows sufferers, eat your heart out. Windows 7 might be better than Vista, but it’s no OS X.
18. Greg | 09.04.09
Upgraded three Macs (two Minis and a MacBook). It’s working fine (and quicker than Leopard). I had to update the firmware in Airport Extreme to get the attached printer to work. I’m glad I made the upgrade.
19. TimT | 09.04.09
Lame article. I upgraded and things have been totally smooth. The list of incompatible software is mostly stuff that’s fairly obscure.
And the comparison with Vista is flaky to the extreme:
- Snow Leopard cost $29 , not $299 or $129.
- It’s not trying to have new look and feel or apps like Vista.
- It actually uses 8 GB less disk space than the previous OS. Not something that Vista can promise.
Snow Leopard is more or a developer release than anything. It fully implements 64 bit processing and is a new platform for multiprocessing. From the user perspective, it mostly makes the system faster and more stable.
20. Chase Adams | 09.04.09
Upgrade Time: 25 minutes.
Crashes/Incompatible Software/Incompatible Hardware/Any Problems: 0.
It was like taking a car to a repair shop, and leaving with minor exterior changes, and a brand new sports engine under the hood. I couldn’t be happier with my transition.
Sounds like someone drank the wrong koolaid today.
21. Earl | 09.04.09
I really appreciate the reality checks here.. my MacBook has run flawlessly, and my friends (many Apple users updated) have experienced at most minor problems that have clear fixes on the way.
There is NO story here, and other than increasing hits on your webpage, you should report real news.
22. Shane | 09.04.09
This is what passes for reporting on the christian science monitor? LMAO! Glad I know not to bother coming to a fact free zone again in the future….
23. Kirk | 09.04.09
I guess this headline is supposed to make Windoze users feel good about themselves and to increase the hits. I think the real story will be how many people are going to see problems with Windoze 7. Even though I’m sure it will be a great OS for most PC users, I can just imagine the incompatibility problems waiting to be found out.
24. Don | 09.04.09
I am surprised that a paper with the quality of CSM would allow this to be published. Of the tens of thousands of applications available for OS X, a mere 100 don’t work? That’s a problem? How many of these applications are major ones? I have four that don’t work. They are little things I didn’t even realize were missing and, I have no doubt, will be updated soon. The author quotes a another source describing complaints from “numerous Mac users.” How many is “numerous?” Ten? Fifty? A Thousand? Out of sales of five million, that “numerous” could be major or irrelevant. Right now, without any real statistics, it’s meaningless. And then Mr. Gaylord quotes a company desperately trying to sell their products to Mac users as saying that the Mac is now “exposed to a raft of potential attacks.” And how many of those horrifying attacks have taken place? Ten thousand? Five Hundred? Ten? How about a simple fact: that number is zero.
Spreading propaganda and FUD has been below the CSM’s policy until now. What has that changed?
25. Burt | 09.04.09
Agree with Tim T.
Upgraded a Macbook, a Macbook Pro, and an IMac in less than 3 hours - in succession (1 DVD). On my Mac Book Pro I was prompted to install Rosetta when I tried to launch Word 2004, since it’s a 32 bit app. It installed and launched Word immediately after. All my printers, and scanner works. The only application I had to upgrade was IBM Mobility Client (VPN).
Speed is noticeably improved. Upgraded Mac’s configuration range from 2 - 6 GB RAM. I have not tested all applications yet but Office 2004, iWork, iPhoto, and VMWare Fusion work fine. Lotus Notes 8.5 works but some icons are missing.
Since moving from PC’s 2 years ago I can say that upgrades are far better on a Mac. I remember where I was when I installed Windows 95 upgrade. Now that was painful!
26. Jull | 09.04.09
Gosh. Realize news outlets all craft attention-getting headlines but this is the CSM not the Weekly World News.
27. Helmut | 09.04.09
This article feels like a case of a journalist(s) trying to create a story, rather than report one. I have Snow Leopard running on a few machines and it’s doing fine. You will always find some upgrade problems with a small minority of people, and they become a vocal minority due to their frustration. That’s understandable, but you have to moderate that with the experiences of the vast majority of people.
Snow Leopard runs faster than Leopard. Could Vista say that over XP?
Snow Leopard is $29. Could Vista say that?
The vast vast majority of Mac apps are compatible with Snow Leopard. Vista could not say that.
Etc. etc. etc.
29. Matt | 09.04.09
I agree with Don (comment 24), Helmut (27) and others - this article is total flame-bait and way beneath CSM.
30. Donovan Colbert | 09.04.09
Wow… for less than 8% of the market, the Mac Fanboys sure are disproportionately vocal when upset.
Since I installed Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini 1.8Ghz, Safari simply refuses to completely load Facebook pages and I get lots of transport errors from the FB apps. It has made FB unusable. I appreciate the extra space that the upgrade provides - but I’m thinking it might have been more effective to stay with 10.5.x and void the warranty and put in a bigger hard drive.
But a couple of observations. Reporting on EVERY single bug, regardless of how trivial, is not the way Microsoft oriented journalism has been doing business. It *is* how Apple and Linux advocating journalism has been operating though. A recent Wired article complained about how OS 7 asks what you would like to do every time you insert removable media. A short time later, a Snow Leopard article praised this same behavior in OS X.
The bulk of Win7 reports say that people are highly satisfied with this OS.
I think it is too early to determine if Snow Leopard will or won’t be the Mac “Vista”. Vista wasn’t that bad - but Apple fanboys and pro-Apple press made so much noise about it, it is disproportionately perceived as such.
31. BK | 09.04.09
I’m really glad I read this.
I got to witness the ‘Christian’ Science Monitor using sensationalistic journalism (i.e. ‘deception’ through exaggeration and skewing of data) to increase hits, which I assume translates to more advertising dollars. Nice values. Thanks for wasting my time.
32. Duane Burghard | 09.04.09
This article is so incredibly biased that it is a blatant offense to the Monitor’s name and reputation. As the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 14th largest independent Apple dealer in the United States, I can state categorically that 1. our Snow Leopard launch was, FAR and away, the biggest in our company’s history (with sales more than QUADRUPLE the sales of Leopard on opening weekend); and 2. That we have seen in all 9 of our retail stores COMBINED, so far, THREE problems (which is substantially LESS than ONE PERCENT). To compare Snow Leopard to Vista is like comparing a Corvette to a Pinto. As I grew up (a nearly lifelong subscriber), the name, integrity and lack of bias in the Monitor was as consistent as it was legendary. How terribly sad to see it sink to this level.
33. Buster Brown | 09.04.09
Snow Leopard is a total nightmare. Do not buy Snow Leopard unless you enjoy the spontaneity of never knowing when your computer will restart itself. Apple should stick to making small shiny things that play music and leave the task of creating worthless operating systems to Microsoft.
35. Laurie D | 09.04.09
This article is piffle. The author must have been given a brief to collate all the complaints from about an hour’s worth of ‘googling’ on the subject. The 10.6 upgrade has been one of the easiest in my 20 + years as Mac user. I’m delighted with the way in which numerous small developers have gotten their updates out to users despite Apple’s early release date. The major shortcoming appears to be with printer drivers. Hewlett Packard has ‘messed up’ by having too many gaps in its range of 10.6 drivers available to users at the moment. 10.6 has definite speed and usability advantages to justify the modest upgrade cost. There is also enough there [eg Quicktime X] to indicate that it is more than a ’service pack’. My work installation of MS Vista, by contrast has taken months of updates to finally start to look like a half way decent OS. On this occasion Apple got it about 95% right, in my view.
36. galaxian1980 | 09.04.09
Reading the headline I almost regretted placing an order for SL. Now, however, I appreciate the savvy and prowess of my fellow Mac users. Stating and relating (in various ways) the real fact of the matter, that Mac Rules… plain and simple.
37. Ben S | 09.04.09
There are always some things to work out in the very first release, and most Apple customers have learned to wait until the .1 or .2 release if they.
Vista’s problems were a result of bad planning and design–it was a bohemoth that only looked slightly better but was a really bad OS.
On the other hand Snow Leopard is smaller, faster and has improved a lot of small things. Check out David Pogue’s review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html
38. rose | 09.04.09
i love this article on the ever-feline operating systems of apple: http://onthebutton.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/apple-snow-leopard/
39. rolling back | 09.04.09
upgraded and I’m now uninstalling it. this is trully the windows vista of apple. I’m thinking about waiting until the next OS from apple. hopefully it will be better. Or I may try out windows 7 instead. apple isn’t what they used to be. they are now all about phones and ipods. their mac os seems sooo neglected it is a sad story.
40. Orrnge | 09.04.09
CSM is trolling for ad hits with loaded language and a complete misrepresentation of the facts. I am saddened.
Something good could be written about Snow Leopard and the changes it brings, and comparing the (amazingly few) problems to those that have occurred with PAST updates (both of Mac and Windows). That would be useful and interesting. But that would take effort. Trolling is easy. Bravo CSM. Who needs journalism?
41. reality check | 09.04.09
apple fanboys are ridiculous .. its a computer, not a god - you dont have to worship it
come back down to planet earth fpr a minute
im an apple certified technician - i fix them on a daily basis, they are far from perfect machines.. and a freaking NIGHTMARE to repair when compared to PCs, due to apples obsession with aesthetics at the expense of all else
the best thing about apple by far is the Unix based OS, but the majority of the appeal is simple branding.. like “gucci” or “louis vuitton” or “lexus”
regardless of what you fanboys think, it doesnt make you “cool”
42. GP | 09.04.09
The article was neither Christian in its honesty or Scientific in its integrity. Shame on you.
43. osXforEver | 09.04.09
Nonsense. Silly article that bends the facts and provides no concrete numbers.
44. Trail Nut | 09.04.09
This is an upgrade from 32-bit operating system to a 64-bit operating system. The effect is that major applications are supposed to run 25% faster, I think.
I’m really puzzled by this one-sided article. cnet.com reports that this is Apple’s most compatible operating system release ever. It also goes on to say that Apple alerted shareware developers of impending incompatibilities to ward of problems.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10345768-37.html
Why wasn’t the CSM objective this time?
45. abode cs4 issues | 09.04.09
I upgraded 2 macbooks. The installs went flawlessly. My only issue is that I am have a severe problem with Adobe CS4, Photoshop in particular which is crashing and hanging every time I save a file. I’m a graphic designer, and not having Photoshop is a BIG deal. I know many people who are not having these issues, but there seem to be several in my shoes as well. I hope that Adobe/Apple update soon. I wish I had waited to update my machines.
46. U R Kidding | 09.04.09
Since when does the Christian Science Monitor do FUD? A few million Macs upgraded, and a few hundred people with problems, some of which are running Mac OS X illegally on PeeCees instead of Macs. If your technology reviews have stooped to such levels as to compare Snow Leopard to Vista, which is totally ridiculous as well as totally wrong, your publication has no business even doing technology reviews. There is no factual basis for the above written article. So sad!!!!!!
47. ComputerAddict | 09.04.09
I’ve been running Snow Leopard for a week now. It’s wonderful! Really wonderful!
48. jj Toronto | 09.04.09
I am a long time apple fan and user and this upgrade has been a major blunder. At the moment I am using my MacBook Pro (not using Snow Leopard) since my MacPro is completely dead as a result of the attempted new OS X install. I have to wait to 9 am and try to get someone from mac to talk me off the edge of this cliff. My most recent back up is not recent enough and I stand to lose thousands of photos. Wish me luck…word to the wise…wait a few weeks more to have Apple work out the kinks.
49. Dan Clark | 09.05.09
Did anyone else notice that in the linked article for the “100 Products” that don’t work with Snow Leopard, “District 9 Official Movie Screen Saver” is one of the first few apps listed? Sounds like they were really reaching.
51. Fred | 09.05.09
Ah, the “question” smear tactic!
“Will Snow Leopard be Apple’s Windows Vista?”
Will this article be the end of CSM’s credibility?
Is Obama a secret sleeper Kenyan agent who’s infiltrated the highest office in the land?
Was the moon landing a fake?
The answer to these is NO, except perhaps for the 2nd one.
52. IT Guy | 09.05.09
I’m an IT Director managing a .mixed collegiate environment of Macs and PC’s. While both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 arrived too late to be of much use to us this academic year, both appear to strong releases that we will upgrade to next summer (Snow Leopard possibly even over the winter break). I’m currently running Snow Leopard and for a .0 release it’s fantastic–a real pleasure to use. I have that sense that almost interaction with the computer has been been incrementally sped up or improved, which undeniably boosts productivity over time. The article is silly. For a serious review of Snow Leopard, check out John Siracusa’s article on Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars
53. Any | 09.05.09
I just migrated from Vista to Mac and installed Snow Leopard.
It works perfect and balls to people to think it is anywhere close to vista.
have they even worked on vista ever ?
Vista stooped so low as compared to XP for MS that it made history. I hope no other company does the same with its product line, let alone Apple.
54. smarter than jj Toronto | 09.05.09
jj Toronto says “My most recent back up is not recent enough and I stand to lose thousands of photos.”
Well, why didn’t you backup IMMEDIATELY before you upgraded, if you had thousands of photos that weren’t backed up?
55. Brady | 09.05.09
Sounds like a bunch of zealots -how dare the CSM raise any questions about Apple.Wake up folks some people will have problems- that’s a given, but it doesn’t take away from probably the best propriatary operating system in the world.
56. Harvey | 09.05.09
Wow! Here is another anti-Apple article written by someone who gets the facts soooo wrong.
When you refer to a Information Week article that reports wide=spread crashes (which is not the case) in that article the person they quote writes “Seriously, how can so many people have their Macs bricked by this paid for ’service pack’,”. As any Mac user knows, the term “service pack” is used only by Microsoft and Windows users. So here we have a Windows user complaining about a crash that he could not be experiencing because he is using Windows, not Snow Leopard.
There is so much FUD being propagated by Windows users who believe this crap and spread it, even though they have no idea what they are talking about.
Next, you go on about how Sophos is telling everyone that they are in danger because they are using a previous version of Flash. Two things to be aware of: 1) Sophos is always screaming “the sky is falling” because they are trying to sell their anti-virus software to Mac users, and 2) Flash is not made by Apple, so they have no control over this flakey software, and from what I’ve read the current version of the Flash plug-in is less stable than the previous one.
Next, you refer to a flaw in Java as an Apple problem. News-flash: Java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. The flaw affects everyone (yes even Windows users, and Linux users).
You were also misleading by giving the impression that the updated, more secure version of Java is not including in the Snow Leopard installer. That is not correct! When you install Snow Leopard, the current version of Java is installed too.
Next, you refer to an article entitled “Should you upgrade to Snow Leopard?”, which also uses the Microsoft/Windows terminology “service pack” and advises Mac users (even though the writer of the article is apparently not one himself) to hold off installing Snow Leopard.
Come on! Get real!
If you are interested in truth, rather than the misleading FUD in this article, read this CNET article entitled “Snow Leopard Apple’s most compatible release ever” written by someone who has actually researched what he is writing about:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10345768-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
And for those Windows users who are calling Snow Leopard a “service pack” (which again is not a term applicable to Apple or Mac OS X) then take a look at these Web pages that list just a fewe of the major advancements in Snow Leopard:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/universal-access/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/exchange/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/compatibility/
This is a generality, but most Mac users know it to be true: Windows users (in general know nothing about Mac OS X and so they are a breeding ground for misinformation to others, and are usually scared off from actually trying a Mac by the FUD that goes around. Mac users on the other hand, have had experience using both Macs and Windows PCs (because of the prevalence of Windows in business). Mac users can make an honest comparison between the two systems, and because of this they choose to stay with Macs.
57. Harvey | 09.05.09
This article explains why the previous version of Flash gets installed with Snow Leopard:
http://daringfireball.net/2009/09/flash_snow_leopard
The current version of Flash installer was released on July 30th… AFTER the GM disk image for Snow Leopard was locked down.
The Snow Leopard disk contained the Flash installer that was current, and could not have included the present version (or future versions) unless Apple had used a DeLorean to go back in time and reissue the Snow Leopard disk image.
58. Michael Linehan | 09.05.09
Re Mike…. “Nobody reports on buildings that don’t burn. I upgraded my iMac and my wife’s Macbook to Snow Leopard on release day and we have had ZERO problems. Admittedly, this is anecdata, so take it as you will.”
Your remarks are of much more value than second hand statements from other Windows-using writers who neither understand Macs nor have done their research. Thanks for writing in.
59. Dan Pouliot | 09.05.09
Horrible article. This is the kinda baseless fearmongering I’d expect from the likes of Fox News, not the Christian Science Monitor.
60. Mezzrow | 09.05.09
The only software I had that didn’t work were some screensavers, and compatible versions of those are coming out every day. The Flash issue is a no-brainer to deal with. I actually expected many more apps not to work in SL, but instead was surprised that an ancient version of an app I’ve had since OS 10.4 still works great.
61. bobby puru | 09.05.09
wow, this is someone who really has nothing to go off of. how about “Could red be the new black?” or “Could Tuesday be the new Sunday?” maybe “Will bears become fish?”
62. sarasotajoe | 09.05.09
It is more than a little odd that on the same day Gaylord call’s Snow Leopard Apple’s Vista, Amazon reports that it’s number 1 software item remains Snow Leopard, and that user reviews are positive.
The most common rating of Snow Leopard on Amazon is a 5. There are more than twice as many 5’s than 1’s.
The most common rating of Vista Home Premium with SP1 is 1. There are more than twice as many 1’s than 5’s.
The stories here may be anecdotal, but there is quite a lot of it here. I’ll add my bit. I run a lot of obscure apps, and a few pretty old ones (like FileMaker 6 which has been upgraded 4 times in the past 7 years without my participation.) Everything I have works fine, except a few Safari plugins. Cooliris reports that they will release an updated plugin soon, and they have already released one for Firefox, if you really need your wall of images. My MacBook is noticeably faster at opening apps, and I like the UI upgrades; even if they are few, they are well thought out.
The most egregious part of this article was the bogus claim of a security breach due to the older version of Flash. This utter nonsense is spreading like a virus from blog to blog. A year and a half into it’s release, a security risk occurred in Leopard - not Snow Leopard - because Adobe does not provide auto updating for Flash, not because there was anything wrong with the OS. Apple posted a notice on it’s site encouraging users to upgrade their Flash at Adobe’s site. All of this occurred month’s ago, had nothing to do with Snow Leopard, was an Adobe not an Apple issue, and resulted in no actual security breach, only the potential for one.
Nice try Gaylord.
63. George Hall | 09.05.09
Only problem I had was with doing a desktop install/upgrade. That was the only time it really had any “spinning beachball of death” or messages telling me it wouldn’t work. So I went to the tried-and-true CD-boot method of installation. Guess what, Windows fanboys…it installed NICELY…and it was an upgrade, not a clean install. I have yet to find any programs not working.
Of course, the 10.6.1 update will fine-tune it even better…but I’ll definitely say the Windows F.U.D. brigade have over-stretched themselves this time. Snow Leopard is actually kinda nice compared to Windows 7…which I’m trying out on a Virtualbox VM which is STILL running perfectly on a Snow Leopard.
If I get WIndows 7, it’s going to be install in a VM on my Mac. Nowhere else. It’ll be trapped inside a mac.
64. Partners in Grime | 09.05.09
Flawless Snow Leopard upgrade.
Isn’t that Java update for Leopard, not Snow Leopard? If you follow the link you kindly provided, you’ll see it’s for 10.5 which is Leopard.
65. Richard | 09.06.09
The complaint about Apple not shipping the most current version of Flash (from TheInquirer.net) is incoherent.
This summer Adobe has released new versions of Flash every few days (or hours), trying to fix numerous bugs and vulnerabilities. At some point Apple has to just pick a version and go with it.
It takes a weeks to test, copy and then ship an operating system. So of course Apple did not ship the most current Flash version. You can’t ship a product that hasn’t been written yet.
66. Wayne | 09.06.09
First, you take problems that small numbers of people are experiencing and use tabloid words like “rampant” to describe them.
Then you don’t understand how a software release works and how a very recent change to FLash — one of the most buggy pieces of software on any computer — might not make it into a major release.
On top of that you mention “100 programs” that don’t work as if they actually don’t work. In fact, some are simply not officially supported, but do in fact work, others are programs that would be expected not to work when the OS changes, most are obscure, and some refer to “some versions”.
One tabloid-style, sensationalist, ill-informed blog entry has dropped the CS Monitor two or three notches in my credibility scale for news organizations.
67. arw | 09.06.09
Are you serious? Comparing SL to VIsta is like comparing Apples to Dung. The PC camp wants to trash SL for some reason I have yet to understand. They should at least broach valid points.
68. Berto | 09.06.09
I am extremely happy with the Snow Leopard upgrade. I feel like I have a new computer. I do not understand all the negative press, except for maybe the reporters are biased toward msft. Snow Leopard is fast and does all it said it would do, including run XP thru Fusion faster. Extremely happy and a no brainer upgrade for less than $30.
69. Mark | 09.06.09
I updated five computers and had one small problem with an early 17″ MacBook Pro. That computer is always a pain. I got back 20 gig on my computer which is huge. I didn’t see that when I installed Windows 7.
70. asd | 09.06.09
I don’t understand people comparing the price point of Vista and SL. Sure SL is $29 but remember that most recent Mac adopters are probably running it on their “Just $999″ Macbooks. Vista may be more expensive but I can run it flawlessly on a $400 computer that I built.
As an aside, why is it whenever something negative regarding Apple surfaces all of the zealots come out and rigorously defend Apple as the best computing platform under the sun? If I want to drop $1200 for a computer then another $1000 for upgrades that are not worth anywhere near $1000 I’ll grab a new iMac. I mean for the price you spend on “upgrades” you could build a PC machine that runs circles around the iMac.
71. Don Weiser | 09.06.09
I’m one of those with problems on just one iMac.
If you call MS Word crashing constantly, documents lost, only my Brother laser printer will print and only for the iMac attached directly to it, my 2 HP printers are useless.
Try checking for Help/Updates in Firefox; not pretty.
Honestly, after many years as a Windows user, I was very spoiled by Leopard.
Snow Leopard puts me back in my Windows days full of frustration except, unlike Windows, there is help and good help over at Apple Support.
My advice to you is what Ed said to do, wait 6 months.
I wish I’d listened.
72. Kathy | 09.06.09
I originally purchased a MacBook Pro (MBP) after returned three laptop computers that wouldn’t work properly because of Vista. My Dell laptop motherboard died after 4 years. One year after Vista was released and I couldn’t get a computer with XP, I decided to get a Mac. Although I was a lifetime PC user, the thing that got me over the fence was that a new Apple model was coming in, and I was able to get an old MBP that was a demo for just 3 days for $999 and they threw in a 3 year warranty with accidental damage. That price was cheaper that what comparable laptops were going for. I also found I could also load XP Pro. Once I got my MBP, I truly enjoyed trouble free computing. So I’m one of those few who has both and use them equally. My company gave me Office 2007 enterprise for $20 and regardless of what anyone else says, it’s the finest office suite par none.
On the Apple side the major thing that set it apart from the PCs was Quicktime. It was easily the most versatile software is the business. In looking at Snow Leopard (SL), it’s very clear Apple has reduced functionality to just being a simple player.
Apple has given it’s customer, in exchange for this lesser functionality, a beautiful neat screen…We’ll what good is a screen if there are 60% less things you can do on it. To me, it seems Apple has removed virtually all its multimedia capability. I know there will be some who will argue otherwise, but if you compare the Apple Multimedia with Vista, you will understand what precisely I mean…I speak using facts. In order for a company to be able to see a customer an operating system that has actually less functionality than the previous OS, a few things have to happen: The company has to get to media first and have them parrot internal changes are being the best thing since sliced bread and target testers who’s strength is not really in the areas that Apple is reducing functionality.
If you look at the writers and testers, none of them has any experience in using Quicktime7, quicktime pro. …You will never read an article showing what it can do Vs what it could do with Leopard…All you will hear is how great the screen appears. Apple knows, it must get people busing early and hard, because it they don’t people who purchase the OS and notice this will be able to transmit this information to all.
That said, Apple also has also deliberately made software to block users from gaining access to extra functionality regarding the mouse pad… 2 fingers vs 4. Again, to me, this is another example of Apple being Apple. I am writing this simply to let Apple users understand, from a PC user standpoint what I am seeing and view as clearly unethical…crossing the lines..Again, I’m sure someone will disagree.
Additionally, for people who bought a computer 4 years ago, I find it completely out of line to issue SL without including them. I say this to all who may read this… Today’s Power PC user will have to be tomorrow’s SL user… That means you…
Based on what I’m seeing with the recent decisions Apple has been making, it is abandoning its most loyal users in an effort to try to capture Gamers which is still a market they have not developed proper software and hardware for. There was a graphics problem with Nvadia 8600 chips…Not a problem with the hardware for which Apple charged top dollar but with the software where Apple never wrote the equivalent of Direct X 10..they were way down to Direct X6. This was known for 4 years and was never corrected until SL. So users, after 4 years to today, have not been able to fully utilize their graphics chips while Apple has been marketing their PCs as being better for graphics when they were not even close. The customer has lost depreciation on his hardware and is now reduces to pay Apple to provide the graphics functionality it promised and already charged him top dollar for. Essentially ignoring them despite the literally millions of complaints it received.
In my view, Apple has come very close to the tipping point where software with PCs has caught with with Apples strengths and at the same time Apple is removing functionality and clearly making amazing efforts to sell what amounts to a literal down grade in terms of usable functions that most work with. By pushing out power pc users and, refusing the option of Matte screens in 15″ screens, you are basically telling your core users they are not going to be welcome.
Clearly in order to grow, Apple will need to get a greater share of the business customer, and MS Exchange Server 2007 is critical getting that. Apply by again going to push the promises of future additional functionality while reducing immediate functionality in its must critical and core applications is ridiculous. It is a promise it clearly does not intend to keep and certainly cannot deliver for $25.
To try to convince customer that this upgrade is a total under the hood revamping is also ridiculous…but there are people who swallow it.
All I can tell you when a person indicates he is physically witnessing reduced functionality in critical areas like Quicktime, printers and third party applications… I see the same people saying they has a their installation was flawless. The impression they are trying to convey, is their OS is working fine. But a flawless installation has nothing to do with the reduced functionality that was deliberately removed. I’m not saying that Apple is hiring people to obfuscate the truth, but quite clearly, it appears many are deliberately providing misinformation to overlook or confuse users about the missing features that have been removed. Anyone who uses the OS can see them inmmediately.
Does anyone think it’s strange that not a single author has discovered and written on the features previously in Leopard are no longer in SL? All Apple wants you to hear is how everyone and their mother
73. William C. Case A+ MCSE | 09.07.09
I don’t understand this article! It is so far off the mark, that I must respectfully questions the motives of the author. Perhaps he is write but our extensive experience proves a conclusion the opposite to his.
—————————————————————————
I have been using Snow Leopard for a short time now having upgraded some thirty (200+) clients. I have a strong set of experiences with a wide variety of applications from creating relational databases including FileMaker Pro (FSA), Final Cut Pro Studio 3 HDTV, to the entire Adobe suite including Photoshop CS 4, to the traditional Microsoft Office, Appleworks, iLife, and all the Intuit Accounting packages. As far a general productivity issues including an ‘emotional cost’ factor, I appreciate the Macintosh Operating System as it maximizes my real world productivity while minimizing the frustration factor. I am certified in and use the Windows Operating System every day and have great respect for Microsoft in general. I have been using Beta versions of Windows 7 for some time and look forward to its release replacing Vista, which was an improvement over Xp as far as security issues, but still had so many layers of completely avoidable frustration that Windows 7 was needed. That being said, Snow Leopard is really a major Service Pack for Apple, true, but it is well worth it for those who have Macs with Intel Processors. First of all, Snow Leopard appears to be totally 64 bit compliant making it run processor intensive software significantly faster. With the consistent increase in the use of video, including an upcoming explosion in on-line education, this increase in speed is important. Quicktime has been redone and is not just an application but a layer in Snow Leopard. Incompatible software is a minimal issue for me as Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple packages ‘appear’ to work for me even better than before. True, there may be applications that have to be updated for full 64 bit architecture before they work, but that should come quickly. I had to download Rosette for certain older ones to work, but that is not difficult as is Quicktime 7. The point is that Snow Leopard is well worth the effort NOW because of its’ absolute stability, increase of speed, enhanced video layer, and to a lesser extent reduced hard drive space. Having all this in a Windows environment still appears to be a distant dream. Thank You Apple for this well done Service pack.
74. Jan | 09.07.09
Only problem with 10.6 so far is that my Canon i-Sensys MF4320d does not work yet. No problem though I am running Snow Leopard on One of the Drives in my Mac Pro. If I need to print from it I can reboot into 10.5. And the missing driver will be fixed.
75. illiam C. Case A+ MCSE | 09.07.09
TO KATHY — In out video production division, we have both PC and Mac editing workstations. Quicktime X in Snow Leopard does drop enough features that it proved a problem on the surface. The solution was to simply Quicktime 7 and have [u]both]/u] available concurrently.
[b]First the good news:[/b] QuickTime X, the new version of QuickTime that comes with Snow Leopard, has greatly improved performance, and the new QuickTime Player application is slick, beautiful, and unobtrusive. It even gains some capabilities once reserved for owners of QuickTime Pro, a $29.99 purchase.
[b]Now the bad news:[/b] QuickTime X actually loses some features offered by QuickTime 7 in Leopard. For example, QuickTime Player X can no longer play Quartz Composer (.qtz) files nor display QuickTime VR’s interactive, panoramic images. What’s more, there’s currently no Pro version of the new QuickTime Player, so if you purchased a license and rely on QuickTime Pro capabilities (such as detailed control over encoding options), your path forward may be unclear.
[b]Now the Solution:[/b] Luckily, Apple offers a workaround for these QuickTime 7 compatibility problems. You can optionally install QuickTime Player 7 (which does support the older media formats) alongside QuickTime X, and if you have a QuickTime Pro license, it applies to QuickTime Player 7 running under Snow Leopard as well. So you don’t exactly lose any features, but you have to use QuickTime Player 7 to get them. We must use Quicktime Pro and with the supplemental installation of Quicktime 7, “we have our cake and eat it too”; Windows Vista media player works adequately but for the most part is inferior tp Quicktime 7 Pro on almost every count, the most important ones are stability and that Quicktime is a layer in Leopard and Snow Leopard not just an application with links to it as is the case with VISTA. Windows 7 appears to be a great improvement so far as out testing goes. Snow Leopard is hands down superior because of its easy of use, somewhat intuitive interface, and stability.
[i]Our thanks to Joe Kissell for his input.[/i]
76. Harlemite | 09.07.09
Are you folks serious? I expected there to be some problems, but to compare this to what happened to Windows Vista is quite disingenuous. There’s way too much else going on in the tech world for you to have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for this. This is embarrassing!
77. Wayne | 09.07.09
I found the comments interesting reading. I’m a recent MacBook Pro owner and have become a true fan of Apple. Many years on PCs have cured me of any MS nostalgia. The power and reliability of apple products have been impressive. However, unlike the bloggers reporting seamless installs of Snow Leopard, my experience has been different - and it’s unfortunate that citing the problems will likely provoke criticism from the Mac fans who apparently want us to keep our frustrations to ourselves. I have no desire to “trash” the Mac I have enjoyed for the past three months. I simply want answers and not more of the talk about how “stupid” I was for not wiping my hard drive clean to install SL. I’ve been shuttled back and forth between Apple and MS Mac Office techs, everyone eager to point their finger at the other guy - and no one able to resolve the issue. The error messages using Office for Mac are incessant (MS Sync Services, Database error messages, VPN Subsystem error messages, etc) and Entourage won’t even boot up now. I’ve installed SL twice, uninstalled and reinstalled Office for Mac twice, deleted files, disabled fonts, etc. Nothing has resolved the problems. I was truly wanting to blame MS for everything - except that one thing has convinced me that Apple is not without fault in this problem: When I created another user account, pulled files over from the shared file, everything in Office worked under the new user account seamlessly. Now I’m trying to figure a way to get all my critical info from the other user account without having to manually transfer everything back and forth through the shared file - and then I’ll have to reload all programs, and re-sync with the office Exchange Server…not to mention VPN sync, etc. I’m very frustrated with both MS and Apple right now. Anyone with some answers for a new Mac user, explained in my “kindergarten” level language and I’ll try to manage this myself without spending endless hours on the phone with Apple or MS.
78. hendrixrocks41 | 09.07.09
mac and pc are different macs are for people who are either dumb or lazy , vista took a bit of adjustment and some minor hardware upgrades and it works fine.
79. PCDude | 09.07.09
Psst. Are the Mac users (who are obviously so much more computer literate than PC users, hence the sarcastic 20 year old spokes-model…) done whining? I thought they made Macs for people who didn’t want to complain about their computer and all they do is complain about mine? (Which works fine, thank you very much!) And I have so many more choices…
80. stonewallsdaddy | 09.08.09
A lot of people have no problems with Snow Leopard and believe that any issues being reported are minor. That is not always the case.
My wife uses a Mac and I’m on a PC. When I get ready to upgrade to Win 7, I’ll make clones of my current set up on 3 different drives and launch with a rosary in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other. But then I’m paranoid and its Windows. My wife just popped in the Snow Leopard disk and upgraded, because it’s a Mac and its suppose to work. Big mistake. Mail crashes every time she tried to sent a JPEG attachment, but the show stopper was Photoshop CS3 crashing every time she tried to save.
After checking online for issues, Adobe admits that there are 3 main problems with SL/Photoshop. The big one is that CS3 and CS4 crash on saving with some machines but not all. No fix yet. Maybe 10.6.1 will help. I’m happy for those who didn’t have any problems and glad that Apple is releasing an update so quickly. But I can’t wait for that. I reverted to Leopard and other than wasting a whole day, things are back to normal. I’m not an Apple hater, but they shot themselves in the foot with this release.
Anyone bothering to google “Snow Leopard Issues” or visit the Adobe forums will can get a feel for what some of us are going through. Here is one of the sites cataloging some of the same problems that I was experiencing before I went back to OS 10.5.8.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/backstage/comments/problems-with-mac-os-x-10.6-snow-leopard-join-the-sizable-minority/
And this is the compatibility list that most people are quoting from. You will find PS CS3 and CS4 listed as partial problems. Adobe is getting hammered on this. Of course they are blaming Apple.
http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/
81. Atom | 09.08.09
I have not been impressed with snow leopard. I installed it and had to reinstall all of my php, mysql, etc software. My imovie, firefox and many other software keeps crashing when I try to do certain things. The benefits have not been worth the cost, I should have waited to buy it when I had to.
83. Ron S | 09.08.09
If you don’t own a Mac and you have to report second hand news from negative sources don’t drum up a lame article to make a deadline..
84. Gavin | 09.08.09
The install (the act of inserting then ejecting the DVD) was smooth as silk for me.
That’s about it though. Trying to actually USE the machine is an exercise in frustration. The majority of my apps (all legit) crash constantly. Even native apps like Preview, iPhoto, Image Capture and TextEdit have been flakey…they all launch fine, but try to open/save/export anything and they crash. Inexcusable. Especially when Leopard rarely crashed on me.
The rare exception (funny enough) seems to be Microsoft Office. Never thought I’d see the day I was actually happy to have Entourage infecting my HD, but it works, so I can too.
Will hobble along until the weekend when I can time machine myself out of this mess.
85. Patrick | 09.09.09
The Mac defense force here is really impressive. You know, all the little nit-picky attacks and criticism of things like security for an operating system originated with Apple, right? It’s ironic that those people who will defend Apple to the death are now defending exactly what they’ve been attacking their whole lives.
You are all blowing this WAY out of proportion. The article isn’t saying Snow Leopard is bad — it’s saying people are attacking it as being bad.
Look, here’s a paragraph from the article:
“Occasional graphics issues or incompatibilities are common with new OS releases – and Apple will likely correct many of the problems in due time – but the flood of articles, blogs, and forum posts this week has some drawing comparisons between Snow Leopard and a certain infamous Windows OS.”
All of you people complaining about how the article is bashing Snow Leopard didn’t realize that it’s merely reporting that lots of people are criticizing it. That’s hardly biased news reporting, it’s just a fact.
86. What??- | 09.09.09
No. this will not be the next vista. vista was actually useful, contrary to all of your ignorant beliefs.
all of the Mac operating systems are not capable of anything except looking pretty. I’m pretty sure a walmart vase has all the same features and computing power of a mac, actually.
Its pretty, not functional. these problems should come as no surprise. they were always there.
87. Dino | 09.09.09
If you haven’t had problems with SL then you most likely don’t do much with your computer. Just have a look in the Mac forums to see for yourselves how many people are have issues.
Just because SL didn’t get great reviews doesn’t mean everybody is out to get Apple.
88. John Bloggs | 09.09.09
I suffered the Vista nightmare and switched to Mac. I was happy without becoming a ‘Four Legs Good Two Legs Bad’ extremist. However when I buy a new product, especially one as hyped by the manufacturer as Snow Leopard is, I have one simple expectation - that it works! If I buy a new car I don’t expect to be told that the engine will work properly following the issue of the 10.6.1 fan belt release or that the door will actually close if I search for a fix on the Which Garage website, do two head stands, and unload and reload the seats three times while pressing the electric windows (bad choice of analogy I know) button with my left fore finger.
I’m no expert but Snow Leopard to date certainly feels a lot like like Vista to me!
89. disappointed | 09.09.09
I upgraded 2 macbooks and it hasn’t been good.
Microsoft Word seems to freeze up regularly.
Finder itself seems to hang or crash, closing all apps and restarting. The macbooks occasionally freeze up altogether and need to be powered off.
None of this happened on 10.5.
Based on my experience, I wish I waited for 10.6.1. I will probably have to downgrade to 10.5.x
I’m disappointed I paid money for this and spent so many hours doing the upgrades. Downgrading will waste a full day, if it works at all, and of course I’ll lose anything I’ve done since I’ve upgraded.
For what its worth I’d still use 10.6 over Vista. 
90. John S | 09.09.09
My question is why all these early adopters complain that things don’t work? The Apple forums on Snow Leopard sound like the Vista forums early on. This software freezes ,that hardware does not work. This program does not support Snow Leopard yet. Did you people not do your homework before you jumped on Snow Leopard. Do Apple fans blindly believe everything will just work as Apple always promises? Sorry but although I think Apple makes good products and software I have never thought any company even Apple to be perfect. When I become a early adopter I accept the fact that some things may not work right out of the box and glitches in todays code are always a given.
But I have had only glitches and problems but then again I made sure all of my software was compatible or at least the software manufactures indicated that it should function. As with most advise I think the best I have heard is don’t upgrade unless you are comfortable accepting the fact you may have to wait a while for some of your software to work. Most IT people would say at least wait 6 months or a couple updates before upgrading. I think that’s wise.
91. eddieclay | 09.09.09
Bad reporting to cite a source that cites a source that sites…eventually Apple’s own support forum. What do you expect on a support forum, posts that say “Thanks for the fish!” ?
BTW, it seems Info Week cites you, while you cite Info Week. What’s the word for that?
92. NPS | 09.12.09
Funny; I’ve installed Snow Leopard on 3 Mac’s (on ONE $49 license family pack)
I’ve had ONE app fail to work (which a new version was available that ran perfectly under Snow Leopard.
I also have EyeTV and it worked (as I always kept it up to date) right out of the box.
Contrast this with the NEW Vista machine I had at work which would not run SEVERAL applications that were newly installed.
Two of my Mac’s are on 24 hours a day; and they range from old hardware to the latest. To state “my system doesn’t work so everyone else’s doesn’t is a false”…
93. Mark | 09.14.09
Upgraded and have had zero problems. I think it’s a good release and not very close to Vista at all. Vista was a new OS, Snow Leopard is an update. With all the variations of settings, hardware and software, of course there will be issues and Apple can’t test every single one prior to release (as Microsoft can’t either). 10.6.1 was also quickly released and after installing that, I still have no problems.
94. MacNWinUser | 09.14.09
Ha, someone compared this update to Vista and I said the same thing the other day. I know a die hard mac fan will deny any of the such comparison, but in reality it is true. I consider most mac users to be casual users of the PC (referencing mac being a pc) and of course some might not notice any of the hiccups that snow leopard has offered. The biggest problem is many 3rd party applications suddenly won’t work and you can almost bet that any of those that required you to go to your system preferences to adjust will definitely not work.
Just like Vista, you need to allow the developers to catchup in upgrading their software. Just like Vista, Apple has to smooth out some wrinkles because as many big software companies, they released it too soon. Why? Because they want their money and they figured it was stable enough to market.
Being a Windows user, I actually utilize my machine and I utilize my mac. I was quick to find a lot of problems with the snow leopard. For example if you have an IR Remote or Apple Remote then you will be surprised to see that Itunes loves to pop his head out when you try to use your remote on other applications. Current workaround is make sure to load quicktime first and then itunes won’t popup. There is a deeper way of doing it, but that disables other features and eventually apple will have a fix (I hope), so why screw up your settings to only have to revert back to them again.
Apple is known for not being backwards compatible friendly and you should take the author’s warning. If everything is running on your Leopard then stick with it for a few more months until apple irons out the wrinkles. Not to mention as stated the numerous apps that don’t work until developers catchup which again you might want to wait a bit before getting the latest and greatest. If you don’t use any 3rd party applications and only use apple software then this may not be much of a concern (keep in mind some apps may not work the same way as before).
I don’t hate mac nor do I hate windows, but just pointing out the obvious. With any update there is a good chance there will be some issues and especially with 3rd party applications. So don’t get the false idea that your Mac will run perfectly or that it will be virus free. I think the way they market that is a false sense of security and Mac users are just as vulnerable as Windows users. It isn’t hard to make a virus for a Mac, but just not beneficial since there is a smaller crowd of you. Yes, I am saying the mac community is a smaller one which you should keep it that way if you don’t want to be bothered by hackers.
95. ICP Alaska | 09.14.09
Well…standard OS bugs or not, I have to downgrade back to 10.5
When Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4, and Final Cut Pro 6 all give me random crashes throughout the day, my business grinds to a halt.
I love Apple…but Snow Leopard is killing my productivity at the moment.
96. NickLovesLemons | 09.16.09
Snow Leopard is Apple’s vista? Yeah, right..
Installed the upgrade in less than an hour and encountered a tablet pen driver issue .. upgraded the driver and that’s it.
97. tc | 09.16.09
Check out the print world with this new snow leopard. Snow doesn’t support some fonts and in the design world - replacing thousands of font - well we know why this upgrade is so cheap. Google problem with fonts snow leopard. Quarkxpress font problems with Snow leopard.
98. alicia | 09.17.09
Ah yes… the spinning wheel of death… I encounter it frequently now with Snow Leopard. It’s kind of like a PC all over again.
99. apple product specialist | 09.21.09
Actually Leopard was a much bigger issue than ’Snow Leopard’ was. I work as tech support for apple and I can tell you this is the BEST upgrade I have seen. Leopard plagued us with issues for weeks on end. ’Snow Leopard’ was just a weekend and the issues were MINOR.
The people writing the blog and the guy from CNET are way out of touch and probably don’t use macs on a regular basis, why else would they write such trivial information?
100. Me | 09.21.09
Snow Leopard is great, can’t compare to Vista. True, some applications are not compatible due to poor or outdated programming. For example:
- Quickbooks 2009 for MAC - Multiple crashes… until an update was release.
- Adobe CS3 Suite - No significant issues. Application fully functional.
As you may already know, Quickbooks can’t compare in complexity to Adobe CS3. So, why it had so much trouble?
Poor programming, outdated code, programmers are dumb, etc.
So, please do not compare Snow Leopard to Vista. Not even to Windows 7!
And yes people, go buy it. If you want to read reviews about it, read them from a trusted source, not from someone with novice experience.
101. Johnnylakis | 09.22.09
Vista fried my motherboard! So I had to buy a new computer. Say it with me PC Oh no! Mac O YeS! And to think I had second thoughts about buying a Mac. Worth every penny!
102. collegekid491 | 09.23.09
I don’t see how mac fan boys can stand up for snow leopard… its against everything that i bought my mac for at least.
Leopard was great, but despite this I work with many systems. It is a step back, its supposed to be a refinement.. instead it has introduced a stack of problems for a rather large portion of users. Now its not all apple’s fault, there are alot of compatibility issues with many programs themselves which are equally to blame, but this is unacceptable. Rolling back to leopard, this is not a product I will stand behind.
103. collegekid491 | 09.23.09
“As you may already know, Quickbooks can’t compare in complexity to Adobe CS3. So, why it had so much trouble?
Poor programming, outdated code, programmers are dumb, etc”
P.S. Comments like these are completely defensive and emotional. You have shown your ignorance. Most programmers realize that being dumb or outdated has little to do with it, as apple when modifying code modifies the features and the way code reacts. Many companies (YES, that includes apple) will not recode their newest stuff completely as it would be very expensive and delay the program MUCH longer.
104. larryp | 09.24.09
Based on my experience so far, I think Snow Leopard does have the potential to be Apple’s “Vista”, in the sense that it provides users with more perceived pain then gain, and might, as a result, tarnish Apple’s reputation. I am having more application crashes with it than with all previous versions of OS X I have used (starting with 10.3) combined. Many of the crashes are with 3rd party applications; but many have been with Safari, which crashes often in Gmail, or when printing documents to PDF. I expect some problems with new OS versions, but Snow Leopard has crossed the threshold of what I think is acceptable. I hope Apple moves fast to fix the problems.
105. lawworks | 09.24.09
Since installing snow leopard, I have had to remove firefox from my operating system and go with the new safari, although i never liked the safari interface, and have lost all my bookmarks. Each time I try downloading firefox 3.5.3, a downloading window hits the screen and appears to be downloading, but after it’s finished, it never brings up the download icon, and shows 0 bytes downloaded after the full time of downloading. I don’t know what to do about this.
106. Not a fanboi | 09.26.09
An absolutely terrible upgrade. Sure, this all goes “hand in hand” with new technology … but really should have a red warning sticker on the packaging.
The collateral damage the upgrade does is unprecedented in my experience and is a sign of hubris by Apple. Apple deserves to be punished by the market for this release.
What is really surprising are the fanboi apologists running to defend their religion … hahahaha !
107. Paul W | 09.27.09
Just upgraded to SL yesterday on my MB Pro. So far, the only issue I’ve had, apart from 3rd party plugins and the like is the system will not recognize my iPhone as a camera. It syncs with iTunes fine, but neither iPhoto nor Image Capture will recognize the iPhone.
Apart from that everything seems quite smooth and a bit faster than before.
108. David Brenneman | 10.02.09
Since installing SL, I can’t save any graphics files or .jpg, .tiff, etc. Even “Preview” crashes when doing a ‘Save As’. I am an artist and this is not good for me. Photshop Elements 6 crashes as well as all my other 3rd party graphics programs.
I paid $200 extra for the best graphics chip on my new iMac.
I am not a happy camper. I see very little on this subject online.
109. harry | 10.02.09
Vista as it stands now is an excellent OS once MS worked the bugs out just like I’m sure Snow Leoperd will be, So yes SL is like Vista. Why can’t Mac fans just enjoy their computers without bashing Windows? I think alot of it has to do with Apples Get a Mac ads. I find these ads to be hatefull and insulting, It’s just a computer get over yourselves, owning a Mac doesn’t somehow make you smarter than PC owners.
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1. Don’t compare Snow Leopard to Vista. They’re entirely different situations. - Hints, Tips, Tools, and Random Ruminations - The IT Juggler | 09.07.09
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1. vermonster | 09.04.09
“Will Snow Leopard be Apple’s Windows Vista? ”
No! early adapters always have issues. Vista was a disaster for MS; Snow Leopard will be a big win for Apple.