Benefits of Snow Leopard?

I'm confused.  I bought MacOSX Snow Leopard because I thought it was the newest/best upgrade and would allow me to use ICloud.  Now I see it doesn't work with ICloud, according to these discussions. So what are the benefits of Snow Leopard?  Looks like I wasted $30. 

It allows you to access the App Store, to purchase and download Lion which will give you iCloud. So you haven't wasted $30.00 unless you already have Lion in which case I don't know why you bought Snow Leopard nor why you think you can't use iCloud.

Similar Messages

  • Any real benefits from Snow Leopard?

    We are thinking about upgrading our office from 10.4.11 to 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Can anyone that has already upgraded tell me what they think the benefits are of upgrading. Thanks alot!

    if everything in your office is working fine, there is no immediate benefit to an upgrade. As time goes on, you might find that newer versions/updates to applications and devices you use drop support for older OSX versions, at which point you'll have to upgrade.
    My suggestion would be to upgrade one of your machines (one that does a typical range of work) as a pilot. If everything works, you can plan a wider upgrade when it suits you. If some things don't work, you'll know what problems need to be resolved before you go the rest of the way.

  • Available upgrades/benefits from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion?

    If I download Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, do I also gain all of the benefits and upgrades of Lion even though I am bypassing it? Or is downloading both recommended?

    Also make sure your machine meets the system requirements for Mountain Lion:
    http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

  • Should we upgrade to Snow leopard?

    Basically, I'd suggest: don't upgrade --- but I would love to hear from those who have found any real or substantial benefits from doing so (the extreme number of messages re problems and disadvantages are already overwhelming and cover that side thoroughly)
    My experience:
    I should have remembered: if it ain't broke, don't fix it (and all I was even hoping for or expecting was for my (fairly new) Mac to operate about the same with maybe a minor 64 bit speed increase).
    I have encountered numerous problems and disadvantages related to SL (Snow Leopard) (though my actual several-hour upgrade/installation worked flawlessly), and what is worse, even after getting some of the problems sorted out (and some not yet) and using SL for about a week, I very much regret 'upgrading' to SL (and will be working on restoring (non-snow) Leopard tonight/tomorrow).
    I have looked at every upgraded and new aspect of SL, trying to find a reason to keep it, and there is nothing of any significance to me (and, I expect, to most people) that was not already in (non-snow) Leopard in one way or another - and some advertised things like new Safari features were already available with (non-snow) Leopard as automatic/free updates (and Safari 4 works perfectly for me there). It's nice to look at the advertising and try and justify the upgrade, but do those things (some about the most minor differences - 'refined, not reinvented' as they say), make any real difference in the hours we spend using our computers each day? I couldn't find any that truly saved me time, effort or let me do more, and I looked hard.
    Now the down side...
    I have a fairly new iMac (well less than a year old) with a dual core processor and 3GB RAM (and it is what I consider a very basic, typical, 'safe' setup, using the most popular brand name hardware/software, no games and very little software in general - i.e. my computer is not loaded with all sorts of 'stuff', or any uncommon 'stuff'). With SL, the OS related software (e.g. Safari) now runs in 64 bit (confirmed), but I have found no perceptible speed increase in anything from the basic to the graphic intensive - in fact, I have found quite the opposite - very significant lags, commonly in saving files, opening dialogs and certain operations (sometimes consistently, sometimes intermittently) in many software programs (including Apple OS related programs, other Apple software, and 3rd party software such as Adobe CS4) - even simply saving an image in Safari now takes a painfully long time to simply display the dialog. The 'beach ball' has become a very common sight (where it wasn't in non-snow Leopard), and a great many of the other lags and slowness occurs without the beach-ball appearing at all (which is disturbing for a number of reasons). That, combined with (for me) the system crashing, the system simply hanging when left on overnight (set to never sleep/etc), printer driver problems, UPS status problems, screen zoom problems, various program crashes, and the Finder not working properly (doesn't crash but doesn't find consistently/reliably), all means that the SL 'upgrade' is 0% benefit and 100% detrimental for me. Even without any of the specific (to me perhaps) problems/bugs above, the lags and sluggishness alone has turned a beautiful Mac into something frustrating to use (especially since I'm very used to and LOVED how consistently responsive it was with non-snow Leopard).
    With (non-snow) Leopard, my Mac was basically perfect, reliable, fast, everything ran right and flawlessly, etc - all the stuff Apple talks about in their commercials. With SL, Apple has severely disappointed, and added 0 significant advantages/features and made my Mac slow, sluggish, unreliable, unstable and problematic - just like the PC they compare to in their commercials. I have also been waiting/checking for a 'software update' re the countless problems I and others have found in SL - nothing has come, or seems to be forthcoming (perhaps I have missed some acknowledgement of the problems or pending fixes by Apple). I simply hope I will be successful in restoring my Mac (through time machine) to it's pre-snow condition.
    Note: If you do try SL, I'd suggest you do a full image backup beforehand (which the OS install does not suggest/warn you to do, or do itself).
    If anyone has experienced any advantages with SL (other than the few esoteric 'new features' already covered in the advertising) that outweigh the disadvantages/problems and that would affect most users in a REAL/substantial way on a daily basis, please reply. If you have an experience/opinion similar (in general) to mine, a short reply would also be appreciated.
    I hope Apple is taking notice of these discussions, and remembers and returns to their previous quality/standards - sorry, but we already have PC filling the other type of market, and Apple is about something different (isn't it, still, I hope!) --- and, not to be (too) funny, but is it possible SL was really written/released by Microsoft as a sneaky way to level the competition with Apple (reference the latest Apple commercial with 'PC guy' impersonating 'Apple guy')? Forgive this last paragraph - now getting off the soap box

    Hi JasonFear...
    Thanks for the info... and to clarify, mine was an upgrade (rather than an erase/clean-install - as per recommendations from Apple and the discussion board, regardless of extra work involved) - I have not tried an erase/clean-install.
    One reason for my (very long) post was to cover my real daily use experience re SL (aside from problems/crashes that may be specific to me or certain software) - on things like Safari, page loads are as fast (perhaps imperceptibly faster) than in non-snow Leopard; however, it is during some user interactions, things like opening dialogs (e.g. save image as one example in Safari, other dialogs, menu/button selections, saves, etc in other software) that there are lags and sluggishness - it is not that my Mac now runs slow overall (it doesn't), it is that crisp responsive interactive aspect that has greatly and very noticeably degraded (and even so, not universally or always consistently). I too have a great deal of experience in doing upgrades/etc to large numbers of systems, but not involving Macs - one thing I've have found over the years is that users will rarely ever mention things like a dialog now taking 3 seconds to appear where before it appeared instantly - if it appears at all, they often just leave it at that. Also, these type of things (lags) were not immediately noticed by me right after the upgrade, or I just wrote them off as a one-time or circumstantial thing, but they persisted and became very noticeable and appeared in more places as I got back into using the computer extensively all day as I have always done.
    I thought of SL as more of an internal upgrade to allow for the future (and was aware it may have limited immediate advantage) - that is also why I put it on rather than waiting (as I would have if it were an 11.0 rather than a 10.6) - I think the reality is that it will still be quite some time before it becomes a real requirement (for future compatibility). The fact that this 'update' is charged-for (though very inexpensive) feels more like a marketing/psychological thing so there is something 'new' to release, to keep up with the other guys, and not leave the Apple users feeling like they don't have something 'new'/current.
    Thanks for replying with your experience and suggestion of an erase/clean-install (though so far it still seems to be a lot of pain for no practical gain, other than being ready for the future way in advance of necessity).
    Though I am encouraged to see several replies reporting no problems, I am still looking forward to some replies with real-life experiences related to real advantages for daily use of most users.

  • I'm running Snow Leopard and want to setup a server.

    Hello everyone!
    This is the situation: I have large amounts of data I want to be able to access from afar. Some friends as well. At some point we would want to share some of that data. Dropbox or similar services are not an option since space is limited and expensive. We prefer spending some money now to paying monthly... So we thought of setting up our own server. Although I'm far from being a computer specialist I proposed myself as some sort of vanguard...
    The idea would be to provide to all four of us some 5 tb for storage that should be accessible from everywhere to each one of us. (I have a small MacBook Air and would like to travel light while having access to my data at home). This "data" would mostly be small files from 500kb to 5mb, a smaller portion is about 50-100mb (mostly pdfs and scans).
    Then sharing: If we set this up and get it running there would still be the question of how to share data... Suggestions?
    I'm running a Mac Pro 3.1 on Snow Leopard. What are my options? What kind of software or whatever this is called will I need to setup a server? For several reasons I don't feel like upgrading to Lion and Mountain Lion, in fact I'm quite stubborn about this. This means (as far as i know) that I won't be able to use OS X Mountain Lion Server...
    Hardware: Any tips? We're thinking of investing some 1000 euro.
    From what I've read some OS X server would be relatively easy to setup; is there other options?
    I would be thankful for a link to good guide as well!
    Thanks to everyone in advance!

    SL Server runs the Apache Server. To access a remote server you set up would have to access it via a direct IP address, like 292.128.12.144, since you can't assign a pretty name to your broadcasting server such as www.goodstuff.com.
    That's incorrect. If you have a dynamically assigned IP address you're going to need a way to reference it whether it be Wide Area Bonjour else a dynamic DNS service… either way you're not referencing it via an IP address. If you have a static IP address then pointing a domain name or sub-domain to it is really simple.
    The biggest issue to my mind here is the upstream speed as you mentioned. Irrespective of how much storage one can cheaply attach to their server one is going to be limited to how much of that can actually trickle out of their internet connection. Moving 5TB over SATA is painful enough let alone trying to move anywhere near that over DSL or cable internet. Sure you're not going to want to transfer that all at once but that data all came from somewhere right… and all it takes to really bottleneck things is for 2 people to want something at the same time.
    Don't get me wrong as there are plenty of benefits to running your own in-house server. Deprecating via the internet access to services like Dropbox isn't really one of them though. If you're mostly on the local network to your server the sure but if not then there are better solutions.
    For what it's worth I use both OS X Server (Lion) and a web host as both provide a benefit that the other can't.

  • Understanding the limitations of my hardware before Snow Leopard upgrade

    Hi all,
    I am considering upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard and I wanted to find out more about how much I would benefit from the upgrade generally and specifically in terms of 64bit.
    I have a 20" iMac purchased on 16th October 2006. (it is the best piece of technology I have EVER owned (closed followed by my Honda VFR800!), I love it - sorry couldn't help myself...)
    It has the following configuration:
    0010 Z0DH IMAC 20/2.16/SD CTO
    With the following configuration:
    Processor2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
    Graphics Memory256MB VRAM
    Memory2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
    Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA Drive
    Optical DriveSuperDrive 8X (DVDR-DL/CD-RW)
    Modem NO MODEM
    Apple Software Solutions None
    MAC OS LanguageKYBD/MSE/MAC OS KIT-GBR
    Country Kit and BT/APCountry Kit-GBR
    I briefly read about EFI Firmware, 32/64bit Kernals etc etc, but got a bit lost TBH.
    I really just want to know, with my hardware, what benefits can I expect to enjoy and what 'features' or 'advantages' of upgrading to snow leopard will I be missing out on.
    Thanks in advance, Chris

    <<<At some point early next year, I will be buying a MacBook of some description to take abroad when I go on photography holidays. Not sure yet if I will go for new, refurbished or used - but there is a good chance it will have SL on. Perhaps then would be a good time to upgrade the iMac in line with the laptop>>>
    I have one of the first white Macbooks, and recently got the brand new 13" Macbook Pro. The improvement is amazing. Dramatically longer battery life (still over half left after using it for much of a five hour flight), rock solid construction, and even running intense software such as video rendering it stays cool and the fan does not get noisy. If your camera uses SD cards, the built-in slot will be a big plus for you, and also gives the option of using a big SDHC card as your backup device on trips. (I chose instead to get a pocket size 500 GB USB drive, which holds both Time Machine and Super Duper backups very nicely). If you get this computer, look seriously at making it your main machine and get a good external monitor for it rather than upgrading the iMac. But be sure to order it with 4GB of RAM and at least 250 GB internal drive, so it will last for a while without further upgrades.
    Of course this advice is based on what's available today. There's a good chance that there will be new iMacs (and iPods) before the end of this month. And maybe a little touch screen Mac.

  • Snow Leopard X Server

    Can the Snow Leopard X Server be installed on a iMac, and then a user use the same iMac for their own use without using any of the server os. Also, will a MacBook Pro connect and work to the network.
    I ahve a small company and want to connect a MacBook Pro and use an iMac as a pc and also as a server to gain the benefits of push e-mail, calendar, etc.

    I really wanted to use the server for sharing files
    As mentioned, unless you're going to have more than 10 people connecting to the machine at one time, you don't need the server... normal Mac OS X is basically a pretty powerful server, just not as full-featured one as Mac OS X Server. File sharing is pretty easy.
    security
    Not sure what you mean there.
    push e-mail
    Unless this is in-house e-mail only, you are potentially getting into a major can of worms and a lot of complexity trying to supply your own e-mail server. You'll have to ensure that your server has a static IP address (which costs money) and can be accessed from outside your local intranet (which may require changing your networking hardware), and you'll have to make sure it's always running (which may require buying monitoring software and hiring someone to be on-call to come fix the server any time it has a problem). You'd be better off getting e-mail accounts with your ISP. For example, my wife's small business has a web hosting account that comes with up to 400 (IIRC) e-mail addresses, all for $10/month.
    calendar functionality.
    What type of calendar functionality? What specific functionality do you need?

  • Upgrading 10.6.8 to Snow Leopard Server?

    After a recent servicing at the Apple Retail store, my mid-2010 MacMini has a clean installation of OS X 10.6.8 (client, i.e., non-Server). I want to re-install OS X Snow Leopard Server that came with the machine when it was purchased. Can it be installed on top of 10.6.8, or do I need to wipe the disks again and re-install from scratch using the Snow Leopard Server Install DVD?

    Thanks mende1, I appreciate the quick response.
    What is the general consensus within the community about the relative benefits of upgrading to Mountain Lion (particularly within a server environment)? I'm thinking that if I have to do a complete OS install, I might as well upgrade to Mountain Lion and then apply the Server.app on top of that.

  • Worth upgrading to Mountain Lion or stick with Snow Leopard?

    A few weeks ago some of you helped me navigate the pros/cons of buying a spanking new Imac vs a mid 2011 (I decided the 2011 was plenty worthy).   I thank you for that, and now I want to ask: if I were to get a mid 2011 Imac, is it worth to upgrade to the latest OS, or is sticking with Snow Leopard (my current OS) fine?
    I'm using some older software like FCP 6 and its associated suite of programs, and probably plenty of other applications I'm not thinking of at the moment, that I got back in '08 or so when I got the Imac I have now.   I think I've heard that Lion/Mountain is a total overhaul of the OS compared to Snow Leopard, and that makes me wonder if there are compatibility issues/problems associated with trying to use these older pieces of software with the new OS.  What are the super amazing benefits of Lion or Mountain Lion vs Snow Leopard?  Are they worth it?  Do the aforementioned issues exist? Thanks.

    Someone else will need to answer your Time Machine question because I do not use it. It may work because it should port over all the applications, settings, etc. I was going on the assumption that you would be reinstalling your apps from scratch (I guess I thought that because that is what I did - I wanted as clean an install as possible). Anyway, TM should just transfer things - just remember, if any of those transferred apps have PPC installers and you get rid of your Snow Leopard machine, you'll never be able to reinstall them.
    You might want to check these links (and by doing a search here on the forums, there'll be more):
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/18179294#18179294
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/16964725#16964725
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/17434537#17434537

  • 64 bit and snow leopard

    Hi guys, I´ve read the spec about the new snow leopard and i started to wonder: how many apps out there are 64 bit ready for Mac? I know about next Photoshop should have it (for windows CS4 there is already 64 bit version). So, does anyone know about other apps that are suppose to have a 64 bit version for mac? I use Maya, Illustrator, After Effect mainly, occasionally also Flash, Dreamweaver, Premiere.
    Thanks!

    In this case, yes, I think so. 64-bit computing is becoming an issue now where it never was before except for a very small number of users. So ascribing the word "racket" to any developer - Apple, Adobe or anyone else - because they now are moving to 64-bit application support and expect to charge for that new feature is, IMHO, far too harsh. If Apple said that Snow Leopard would only run 64-bit applications and then was the only source for said apps and so forced users to upgrade, that might be in some ways considered a "racket". But that's not the case; Snow Leopard will quite happily run 32-bit applications. If, however, a user wants the benefits of 64-bit (in the case of the Adobe and Autodesk apps, primarily the ability to address >4GB of RAM), it's by no means unreasonable for them to expect us to pay for that new feature. Whether you feel that it will be worth the price of upgrade, whatever that price turns out to be, will off course be up to you.

  • What has Snow Leopard done to iPhoto?

    I've recently installed Snow Leopard & have yet to see any great differences or benefits.
    The big problem I am having is that iPhoto is incredibly slow now in panning zoomed images.
    e.g. I open an image in full screen and zoom in (which is slower than previously) and then use the multitouch function on the touchpad to pan... And I am presented with lag which appears to be buffered - i.e. I move my fingers in a certain pattern and then remove them & the software gradually follows this path with a lengthy delay.
    Any ideas or help?

    Danesmoor wrote:
    I've recently installed Snow Leopard & have yet to see any great differences or benefits.
    The big problem I am having is that iPhoto is incredibly slow now in panning zoomed images.
    e.g. I open an image in full screen and zoom in (which is slower than previously) and then use the multitouch function on the touchpad to pan... And I am presented with lag which appears to be buffered - i.e. I move my fingers in a certain pattern and then remove them & the software gradually follows this path with a lengthy delay.
    Any ideas or help?
    I know what you mean. Ever since I purchased Snow Leopard, my Mac has been acting un-Mac like. iPhoto hangs during simple operations. I've had to do a forced shut down. This is getting a little irritating, I hope they resolve these issues soon.

  • Running snow leopard 10.6.8,safari 5.1.10-yahoo mail keeps asking me to update my browser but there's no link. Does it think I'm running Mavericks or what;s going on. Have carried out updates

    Running Snow Leopard 10.6.7 & Safari 5.1.10
    Problem is with Yahoo mail which keeps asking me to update my Safari browser but everything is up to date as far as I can tell. Have reset Safari & empties cache.
    But no change- every time I go to open Yahoo mail it goes to a page with update boxes for Firefox & Safari asking me to upgrade but on hitting Safari upgrade box it just takes me to an Apple page that explains the benefits of the new Safari ( Mavericks maybe ) with no option to upgrade. Can anyone suggest an answer to this annoyance.
    Thanks very much,
    Dino.

    Your post is pretty lengthy and I have to admit I didn't read it all. Please try restarting in Safe Mode, if that doesn't work please do both a SMC and PRAM reset. These may take 2-3 attempts.
    SMC RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
    Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
    Release the power button.
    Attach the computers power cable.
    Press the power button to turn on the computer.
    PRAM RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
    Turn on the computer.
    Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
    Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    Release the keys.

  • Unable to install snow leopard 10.6.3

    Hi
    My iMac is more than 6 years old. The version is 10.5.8
    With this version, I am unable to sync my itunes with the the latest iphone and hence I have to upgrade my iMac OS now. I bought the snow leopard 10.6.3 dvd but I cannot seem to start the installation process. The screen for the installation appears but when I click install, the icon appears at the bottom of the screen and then disappears. Sometimes, the entire screen flashes also. Please help!
    Regards,
    Sarah

    So you are on 10.5.8 ... and not 10.5.3 as per your profile.   Please confirm.
    If you are on 10.5.3, download and apply the Combo update below.  Then try software update.
    Mac OS X 10.5.8 Combo Update
    Many people on these forums speak well of the following suppliers.
    OWC …        Upgrade Apple iMac Memory
    Crucial.com  …       RAM Memory Upgrade
    Both companies have facilities to guide you and will recommend the correct memory package to meet whatever needs you describe to them.  
    There may be benefits buying from whichever of these companie are in your own geographical location insofar as Shipping charges, Local sales taxes and Exchange rates.  Check out the basic memory costs and do your sums.
    Guide to required RAM.    Lookup Mac Specs By Serial Number, Order, Model & EMC Number, Model ID @ EveryMac.com

  • Can you install snow leopard on Intel based mac with less than one GB of ra

    As the subject relay I have an Intel mac mini with 750GB of ram? will th einstaller let me install Snow Leopard?

    No, the installer will not let you install Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac with less than 1 GB of RAM. Even if it did, performance would be unacceptable & the OS would probably be unstable.
    If you want to run Snow Leopard you will need to upgrade to at least 1 GB of installed RAM. If you want it to run efficiently, you should install more. Typically, 2 GB will get you most of the benefits of a larger memory space but if your Mac supports more & you want the best possible performance, install the maximum the Mac can handle.

  • Epson Stylus Photo 1400 profiles missing after Snow Leopard!

    After installing Snow Leopard, I am no longer able to see the color profiles for my Epson 1400 printer in Adobe InDesign CS3 or Illustrator CS3. They do show up in Photoshop CS3 as well as Apple's Mail.app and Safari. But, they are most needed for the Adobe print programs.
    I found another post that explained how to open an Epson package and copy the files to the ColorSync folder. This did not help; but, I was able to copy the profiles to the Adobe Color folder. Now they show up in InDesign. Haven't tried printing, yet, to see if they work properly. That's next. But, Apple and Adobe and Epson should fix this so others do not have this problem.

    I've just upgraded from Leopard to SL on my 24in iMac.
    I have an Epson SP R800 and an Epson SP 1400. Using Epson drivers for SL the 800 printer runs several blank sheets through before printing the first page. The colours are terrible. I use Adobe CS3 suite (final output in inDesign) for my brochures and can no longer print them to any decent quality.
    With 1400 I just get an error mesage. I've tried the Gutenpress (or whatever it's called) alternative and while the 1400 prints with it the quality is atrocious. I've tried deleting and reinstalling the printers, resetting the lot and adding again, and no difference. I wish I had never switched from Leopard to be honest. SL may be slick (can't see any obvious benefits myself), but they could have developed it so that expensive printers still worked properly.
    It also will not support Filemaker 8.5 Pro or Word 2004 - why not? A very unsatisfactory development all round that has offered no benefit that I can see at all.
    If I reinstall Leopard and chuck SL in the bin would that be the best solution?
    Message was edited by: DominicM
    Message was edited by: DominicM

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