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Thoughts on Snow Leopard

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For me SL is both snappy for some apps and very buggy for others - I use a lot of pro apps like Logic Pro which have lots of 3rd party plugins and I suspect these to be the culprits.

That said Logic Pro 9 and Aperture run worse in SL (ie much more slowly and with more crashes) than on Leopard even without using the 3rd party plugins and despite the recent updates.

Sensibly I did a clean install on a separate cloned drive so it wasn't a problem going back to leopard. I've got them on dual boot now so I can keep checking back on how the SL updates are progressing but I'm primarily still on Leopard.

Windows 7 is better and less bloated than Vista but I still think it is hampered by the fact that it is trying to be all things to all people. If I was running Microsoft I'd split it into at least 2 completely different operating systems with different names - one designed for enterprise and legacy applications, the other an up to date rapidly advancing high performance version to run on the latest hardware. Then I'd market them both completely differently and separately. The current Windows 7 marketing is total crap and I feel embarrassed watching it.
 
Curious about Snow Leopard. I'm thinking you must have something else causing that slowdown, since every benchmark I've seen with Snow Leopard shows that it's actually a little faster than Leopard in some respects.

I don't use Aperture, but the latest Logic seems to run just fine (did you get the 9.0.2 update)?
 
Hi Gene,

Yes I did install the latest update. It still seems slightly slower than on leopard, but it may well be that the vast number of 3rd party plugins I've installed is somehow having an unforeseen effect on the application itself.

It may well also relate to a memory bug specifically on Mac Pros. I have 16Gb installed and some people have reported slower performance when they have more than 8Gb Ram in SL. I'll try taking some sticks out when I get a chance.

Whatever the cause outside of Logic and Aperture everything else does seem more snappy in SL and I'm happy to wait a while before moving over to it completely.

My Leopard system works perfectly and to be honest my only real frustrations are when I have to boot into Windows - and Apple can't really do much about that! All OSs no matter how good have teething troubles and that's why I always keep clones and backups of everything.

Since I switched to the Mac about 2 years ago, I've never regretted the decision. I may have some frustrations with some things Apple do but they still build the best computers and OS, plus they listen to their customers (e.g with firewire and matt screens). Microsoft are too big and bloated to ever do anything other than playing catch up to the lead that Apple provides. They never really listen to customers they just blunder along making the same mistakes over and over again.

So Windows 7 is fantastic compared to Vista - so what? It's 3 years too late and it still doesn't have many of the features which they took out of Vista at the last minute. Also the interface is still awful compared to OS X. It still crashes and needs more restarts. It is far too expensive with too many features crippled so that they can force people to buy the extortionately priced Ultimate edition. It's sad but inevitably when companies get to a certain size they lose all touch with reality and ultimately their customers.
 
I used to write for CNET. Many of their editors are total idiots, and the author of that article is no different. The facts are these: Snow Leopard, typical of any operating system, was released with some bugs. Apple has, as of today, released two maintenance updates that address all or most of the known issues. And, no, they largely had nothing whatever to do with what the CNET piece mentions.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
I used to write for CNET. Many of their editors are total idiots, and the author of that article is no different. The facts are these: Snow Leopard, typical of any operating system, was released with some bugs. Apple has, as of today, released two maintenance updates that address all or most of the known issues. And, no, they largely had nothing whatever to do with what the CNET piece mentions.
Click to expand...

I heard on the 404 (a cnet podcast) that the reason Snow Leopard clears up a bunch of gigs of HD space is because previous apple OS's included a bunch of printer drivers, whereas S.L took them all out b/c you can just dl them off of the printer manufacturers website.
 
They never get it right over there. When you do an upgrade installation of Snow Leopard, it will only install drivers for the manufacturers of the printers you already have hooked up to a Mac. Otherwise, as indicated clearly on Apple's support site, thousands of printer drivers are included with 10.6. How could they be so stupid?

Actually, the space saved came in other areas, such as stripping out PowerPC code, making system frameworks more efficient (they updated 90% of them), and compressing binary files. It was a little bit of everything, and, actually, you are expected to get your printer drivers first from your Snow Leopard installation and not the manufacturer's site.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
They never get it right over there. When you do an upgrade installation of Snow Leopard, it will only install drivers for the manufacturers of the printers you already have hooked up to a Mac. Otherwise, as indicated clearly on Apple's support site, thousands of printer drivers are included with 10.6. How could they be so stupid?

Actually, the space saved came in other areas, such as stripping out PowerPC code, making system frameworks more efficient (they updated 90% of them), and compressing binary files. It was a little bit of everything, and, actually, you are expected to get your printer drivers first from your Snow Leopard installation and not the manufacturer's site.
Click to expand...

Tis be why I brought that point up, it didn't seem like something apple would do. Little bass ackwards to install every driver out there.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Snow Leopard, typical of any operating system, was released with some bugs.
Click to expand...

That is the reason why I'll wait to upgrade. I've been with Apple since OS 7.5 and have learned it may take a few tries before the OS is relatively ironed out. I just upgraded to Ubuntu 9.1 and new issues have emerged on the computer I use it on. Since that machine is just a backup I can tolerate it.
 
7.5 was a nightmare, and that's true of pretty much all of the OS 7 releases. As far as Snow Leopard is concerned, the second maintenance update, 10.6.2, is now out, and it's getting good early marks.
 
You've got some pretty old stuff there. Toast is at version 10 now. GraphicConverter is at version 6.5.2, and you can probably get a later version of Epson's scanning software at their site.

AppleWorks? Really! Get iWork. :)
 
Gene Steinberg said:
You've got some pretty old stuff there. Toast is at version 10 now. GraphicConverter is at version 6.5.2, and you can probably get a later version of Epson's scanning software at their site.

AppleWorks? Really! Get iWork. :)
Click to expand...

I know. Oldies but goodies. I now know my Graphic Converter will have to be updated. I was thinking about getting iWork 09. I have used it before and it can open up my Appleworks 6 docs. Appleworks 6 works well for me because I can use it to open my older Clarisworks and Appleworks docs and I use the PC version on one of my work computers as well.
 
If you are a Graphic Designer with Type one fonts BEWARE!
Snow leopard changes the metrics on older fonts effectively re-flowing your old documents. This is a huge problem for me.
 
kipspritely said:
If you are a Graphic Designer with Type one fonts BEWARE!
Snow leopard changes the metrics on older fonts effectively re-flowing your old documents. This is a huge problem for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up! This is HUGE for us here at the office as we do a lot of POS and print stuff.
 
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