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| | Features | Mac OS X Snow Leopard is built on a rock-solid,Time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability as well as industry-leading support for Internet standardsAnd Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, faster common tasks and installation, a smaller install footprint, and plenty moreMac OS X Snow Leopard includes built-in support for the latest version of Microsoft Exchange Server..So you can use Mail, iCal, and Address Book at home and at work64-bit computing, multicore-optimization, OpenCL, QuickTime X, and moreFaster common tasks and installation, a smaller install footprint, and plenty moreImprovements include a more responsive Finder, new look and features for Exposé and Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup,New core technologies unleash the power of today's advanced hardware technology and prepare Mac OS X for future innovation:With virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X protects itself--and you--from viruses, malicious applications, and other threats
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| | Description | Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard, a simpler, more powerful, and more refined version of Mac OS X. It delivers a wide range of enhancements, next-generation technologies, out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server, and new accessibility features. It's the world's most advanced operating system, finely tuned from installation to shutdown. | |
| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 5.2 inches | | Product Width: | 5.2 inches | | Product Height: | 0.5 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.01 pounds | | Package Length: | 5.3 inches | | Package Width: | 5.2 inches | | Package Height: | 0.5 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.15 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 141 reviews |
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| | System Requirements | | Platform: | Mac OS X | | Media: | DVD-ROM | | Item Quantity: | 1 |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 141 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 56 found the following review helpful:
 Great, but not essential... Aug 29, 2009
By G. Argov
Great, but not essential
Is Apple's latest operating system, Snow Leopard, a strong, reliable OS that demonstrates the versatility of Macs? Yes
That being said, is Snow Leopard an essential upgrade? No, not exactly.
THE DIFFERENCE IS NOT THAT DRASTIC
The differences between Apple's "Tiger" OS (10.4) and "Leopard" (10.5) were very noticeable, and there were many improvements that made the upgrade worthwhile. Such as Time Machine, Boot Camp, Quick Look, and many more The bulk of changes between Leopard (10.5) and this latest release, "Snow Leopard" (10.6), are "under the hood" so to speak, and therefore the average user might not notice as much of a change as they'd expect with an OS upgrade. But then again, why fix a bone that's not broken? Leopard was a success, and Snow Leopard improves on it, without radically altering the user experience. The majority of improvements affect system reliability, speed, and resourcefulness. There is also Microsoft Exchange support, which is great for those who need it.
EXPECTATIONS
I bought the Snow Leopard upgrade knowing full well it wasn't going to be a drastically different OS, so I was by no means disappointed. I've been following the tech news regarding Mac and Windows operating system upgrades very closely, and am well aware that August's release of Apple's Snow Leopard and October's release of Microsoft's
Windows 7 are meant to provide additional stability and implement greater resourcefulness, rather than completely overhaul the user experience. This isn't a bad thing, since greater system reliability is more important than adding bells and whistles that ultimately take away from the user experience (i.e. Vista).
EXPERIENCE
I have only installed it on only one computer so far (running on an Intel chip and 4GB of RAM), but installation was a breeze, and Snow Leopard has been running smoothly so far. I previously strongly disliked `Preview' and `Quicktime' since they were so slow (I preferred freeware `Xee' and `VLC Media Player'). With Snow Leopard, loading times have noticeably improved for both Preview and Quicktime. I haven't yet noticed other improvements in speed, but that might be because my computer was already fast to begin with (4GB is great!).
Additionally, while I personally upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard, it is nice to know that even if you weren't using OS 10.5 (Leopard) and were still on OS 10.4 (Tiger), you can upgrade directly to OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
LAST THOUGHTS
I didn't have issues with Leopard, so I don't think Snow Leopard was to me as essential an upgrade as Windows 7 will be to Windows Vista. That being said, Snow Leopard is a very strong and reliable OS, so I don't regret my purchase. The low price makes this an affordable upgrade solution, but due to the lack of drastic changes between Snow Leopard and its predecessor, one that isn't absolutely necessary.
20 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 Careful, As Always Aug 31, 2009
By Anthony B. Barthel
"Book Author"
It's always a good idea to wait until software has been out a little while before installing it, especially a new operating system. I bought the family pack and started installing it on four of our Macs. The first one went flawlessly, the second one had issues with reinstalling settings from a Time Machine back up and the third one went well until I tried to install Parallels, at which point some of the software running under Parallels didn't work.
So, I went back to plain ol' Leopard on that machine and will wait until some updates come out for Snow Leopard from both Apple and the other software manufacturers from whom we've bought stuff (like Parallels).
There's really no reason to rush into Snow Leopard anyway, honestly there aren't really any new features in it, it's just a refinement. Although for $29 bucks it's a deal, but not one most users should take just yet. Give it and your other software vendors a while to catch up and it'll be a bargain and a half but, until then, just watch goofballs like me pull their hair out.
38 of 46 found the following review helpful:
More than meets the eye Aug 28, 2009
By Nathan Beauchamp
"ConsumerAdvocate"
The most remarkable thing about Snow Leopard is simply that it can be installed on a Mac running Tiger. You do not need to pay the money to buy the boxed set to upgrade if you never upgraded to Leopard. This means that you can upgrade a Tiger computer to Leopard using this disk. It is up to the user to determine if they have an ethical problem with that; Apple certainly knew that this was possible when they released the software: they understand and use DRM effectively and always have. The fact it is missing here tells me that they are primarily concerned with getting Snow Leopard unto as many computers as possible as fast as possible. I am sure part of that is the desire to have Snow Leopard outperform Windows 7 which debuts in October. If you are updating from Leopard, Apple has continued to make it inexpensive for a family using more than one machine by pricing the upgrade at about $10.00 a machine (assuming you use all five). Not bad.
So what do you get with Snow Leopard? The answer is largely performance boosts, although many of those are not really applicable (yet) since few (virtually none) third party applications use the performance gains offered by Snow Leopard. Similar to Windows 7s ability to load share between CPU and GPU, many of the changes in Snow Leopard will take several years for developers to really start to use and write programs for.
Relying on 64-bit architecture through the entire OS, Snow Leopard is essentially an upgrade for the future: as developers write programs that take advantage of the new, higher ceiling, end users like you and I will benefit. For now, most of the performance increases are only applicable to Apple's own software. However, that's not to say these aren't nice or useful, and in some cases very impressive:
1) Opening large photos is faster in preview mode
2) Quicktime uses significantly less CPU on all Macs regardless of generation. Older Macs benefit the most with as much as 40% performance gains.
3) Time Machine backups take about 20% less time
4) Snow Leopard itself installs faster than Leopard
5) Boot times are faster with Snow Leopard by 5-10%; Shut down times are slightly faster as well.
6) File compression is also faster by 10-15%
(These are somewhat simplified. If you want the exact numbers you can find them online: Google "Snow Leopard Performance")
Of all of these, the performance increases afforded to older first generation Macbooks are the most significant. Breathing new life into older hardware isn't easy, especially not significant improvements. Snow Leopard manages to do just that and make even slower 1.6ghz MacBooks that much more useful.
Installation itself is a SNAP (did I mention it takes less time than Leopard?). I've already upgraded a MacBook and MacBook Pro, and installation was simple, fast, and easy. I plan to install Snow Leopard on another older Macbook later in the week and will upgrade this review once I have.
The few new visual tweaks are nice, but not the reason to upgrade. Better stacks is useful, as is the quickness of Finder, but overall I don't find myself blown away by the upgrade. This isn't an entirely new OS with a fantastic array of improvements, aside from the welcome and useful performance increases. That said, if you are a power user or just observant, you WILL NOTICE the speed increase, especially in Finder.
*****UPDATE September 2nd 2009*****
A few other changes of minor importance but sometimes great usefulness:
1) Air Port now shows all available wireless networks and their relative signal strength, something Windows has done going back to XP, but that for some strange reason has been absent from OSX 10.X until now. Now when you turn on the Air Port you get a drop down to select which wireless signal you want as well as signal strength.
2) The date has been added to the desktop. This isn't that amazing but it is useful.
3) I am LOVING the way stacks work now. They're so much more intuitive to use and navigate, especially the ability to brows through directories directly from the stack itself.
4) Trash has the ability to restore a file to it's original location right from the trash. This is a feature common to Windows that has been very strangely absent from Mac OS. It's nice to see them catch this omission and correct it, but very odd it took this long to do it.
A MAJOR complaint:
1) Seriously, no support for CS3? Why Apple, why? I don't have the grand to drop on the newest version of CS. This is very, very frustrating, and makes me wish I could take back a star and downgrade this to a 4-star review. CS3 is still so widely used that I'm amazed Apple decided not to offer support for it. If you want to continue to receive support for CS3 or don't have the money to upgrade to CS4, this could be a big deal and even a reason not to upgrade.
A Minor complaint:
1) One of my time machine back-ups for a co-workers Mac was seemingly corrupted by the upgrade. Fortunately they didn't have any old data they needed from that backup so I just made a new one with Snow Leopard that mounts just fine, but this is something to be aware of. If you have a critical time machine backup that you cannot afford to lose, I'd suggest making a backup of the entire drive (clone it) using SuperDuper! or something like it.
*****End of update*****
Snow Leopard will grow in usefulness as time passes. As I said earlier, once third party applications start to be written to take advantage of advancements in the OS, the performance overhead will become more and more useful. Expect to wait 6-12 months for that to happen, but in the mean time at least you're enjoying speedier OS performance for an very inexpensive price!
33 of 42 found the following review helpful:
How dare Apple Sep 02, 2009
By btrvalik
How dare Apple come out with an operating system that..
1) Doesn't require you to buy a new computer to run it
2) Doesn't require a service pack to make it stable
3) Makes old hardware run better
4) Has all I need in an OS
5) Only comes in one flavor
6) Cost me ~ $15/machine
I was planning to add bigger hard drives and more memory to my 3 macs. Now that each has 10+ GB more disk and they run cooler and quicker than before, I have nothing to upgrade. The US economy will directly suffer as a result of Snow Leopard.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Significant speed increase Sep 02, 2009
By V. Vanderbent
"always curious"
It's amusing that some reviewers will give this one or two stars just because they can't get their HP printer to run. Guess what, that's an HP issue - they should have coordinated with Apple to get their code right. Besides, printing is only a very small part of the OS. I'll leave the technical details to Walter Mossberg and other professonals. So far I have only installed it on my 2007 MacBook Pro which handled the install painlessly. The speed increase is definitely there, just like the technical reviews said it would be. What I didn't expect is that the speed increase is noticeable for everything, including my huge Mail database. I applaud the Apple engineers for getting so much improvement out of the underlying software. This is where Apple really outshines the Wintel platform because of the tight hard/software integration. Another selling point! I gained about 8 GB of hard drive space, something else to be happy about. The most significant improvements are of course under the hood, but overall I would highly recommend this upgrade. If you rely heavily on Skype, note that their current version 2.8.0.659 seems to give some people problems. I haven't noticed any but I'd read up on the latest reviews of Skype and Snow Leopard before upgrading. Otherwise, go ahead and welcome this big cat to your home!
See all 141 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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