Thanks to a pre-order from Amazon on August 3, a copy of Snow Leopard arrived on my doorstep August 28. The install was uneventful–typical of Mac OS X installs. I put in the DVD, clicked through a few dialog boxes, went to run a couple of errands. When I got back, I logged in as usual.
So far, I haven’t noticed many differences between Leopard and Snow Leopard. The few of note:
- Hard drive space. Before installing Snow Leopard, I had around 14GB of free space. After installing Snow Leopard (and the latest version of XCode) I have 27GB of free space. It’s quite a bit more freed space than the 7GB Apple advertised
- Printing. I have a HP LaserJet 1022. I had to re-install it after upgrading to Snow Leopard and use an Apple driver. It still works just fine.
- Battery Status. Apple added information on battery health. Since my MacBook Pro is closing in on 3 years old, the “Service Battery” message is most likely correct. Apple Support already has a thread about it. Another thing I’ve noticed which may also be new to Snow Leopard is that I’m getting battery life percentages for my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse as well.
- Character/Keyboard Viewer. A new widget in the upper-right of the screen. I haven’t found any particular use for it yet.
- Mail. When I first started it, the app prompted me for some sort of upgrade. Once it was done, the notes from my iPhone showed up under a Reminders item.
- Quicken. I’m still using Quicken 2007 for Mac, so I saw a little prompt about Rosetta when I first launched it. What I really need to do is get out of Quicken 2007 into something else, but that’s a subject for another post.
I can’t say I’ve noticed any speed differences one way or the other so far–but it’s only been a couple of days.