Let’s assume you already know Apple is releasing the next generation of Mac OS X, product name “Snow Leopard” this coming friday. You probably already know most of the new stuff, right?
I’ve been running the betas for a while now, here’s some tips and solutions for problems I’ve encountered along the way that might make the transition even smoother.
Compatibility
- Most software runs great under 10.6. Some doesn’t. Adobe CS4 seems to work quite nicely, CS3 did not, at least not on my upgraded system. Maybe a clean install works better.
- Skitch works, but you need a recent build. Use the built-in auto updating feature and you’ll be fine.
- Cyberduck didn’t run at all. Upgrading to a more recent build worked. (I’ve been running the nightly builts for a while without major problems, although today at 3.3b1 my menu bars are horribly broken.)
- Skype, Adium, Spotify, FontExplorer, Office 2008, Opera, … all work as they did on 10.5
- Most third party screensavers don’t seem to work for some reason.
- For command line geeks there’s good news as well. Most of the CLI tools are updated to quite recent versions. For example, traceroute now includes an -a option that returns the AS numbers for each encountered hop.
- VMware Fusion works great. (I’m running version 2.0.5) The best solution to run Windows or Linux together with Mac OS if you ask me.
- SonicWall’s SSLVPN NetExtender client requires some tweaking. It uses pppd to create a pseudo-interface for the encrypted traffic. The permissions of /usr/sbin/pppd have changed in Snow Leopard, so the NetExtender client doesn’t have access to the binary anymore. A quick and dirty way to fix the problem is to setuid root the pppd binary. It’s probably not the most secure way, and SonicWall should put out a newer version of its client, but at least your connection will keep working. To do this, open terminal and type:
sudo chmod +s /usr/sbin/pppd - Version numbers of other included software (as of build 10A421a) – version number on 10.5.8 between parentheses:
Ruby: 1.8.7 (1.8.6)
Python: 2.6.1 (2.5.1)
Php: 5.3.0 (5.2.8)
Perl: 5.10.0 (5.8.8)
Rails: 2.2.2 (1.2.6)
Upgrading from Leopard
Upgrading is a breeze. Your Keychain still works. Your mail is still there (even though your database gets rebuilt). Your printer will probably still work (especially if it’s supported by Gutenprint). And, as a bonus, you gain about 6 Gb of drive space! Still, like any responsible IT person will tell you, take a backup before you upgrade. External hard drives are dirt cheap nowadays
In an upgrade scenario it’s also a good idea to use SuperDuper. It creates a bootable backup copy of your internal hard drive on an external drive. The free version is fully functional. For $27.95 you unlock scheduling, scripting and, most importantly, “Smart update”. Smart Update makes incremental backups (ie. only what’s changed during the last backup gets copied), which greatly speeds up your backup. Probably not necessary if you just want to create a recovery point before upgrading, but absolutely worth it if you want to keep your disaster boot drive up to date afterwards. I’ve been using SuperDuper for a couple of years now, and it’s been a lifesaver for a couple of times already. (Drive crash, lost files, … It happens.)
Getting it
You can get Snow Leopard at Amazon
Knowing Windows 7 will cost about $119 to upgrade for just the Home version and a whopping $219.99 for Ultimate, I say the $29 for Snow Leopard (or about your local equivalent+tax+crazy Apple conversion rate) is a steal at twice the price. If you’re still on Tiger (and use an Intel Mac) you can buy the box set (which includes the latest releases of iLife and iWork) for about $149 at Amazon
Further reading
This wiki lists the compatibility of lots of apps in great detail. Be sure to check if that one app you absolutely need to do your job has a green checkmark.
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