What’s the difference between Snow Leopard and Leopard?

First thing to know: This is not a complete overhaul of Mac OS X. Rather, it’s a series of small to medium-sized improvements, what Apple calls “refinements.” Much of the new shine to OS X 10.6 comes from changes that are under the surface, possibly not obvious to the unobservant. But Apple does say that the improvements make the overall OS much faster, including a 45-percent faster installation than the previous version of the operating system, OS X 10.5, or Leopard. Apple is also promising faster boot times, quicker shut down, a speedier process when joining wireless networks, and faster backups to Time Machine. And it’s not just quicker, Apple says, it’s lighter: Upon install it frees up 6GB of space.

Specific applications have been tinkered with as well, with a lot of attention focused on Quicktime, Expose, and a shiny new Safari 4 browser, which was released in June. For more on that, see here.

Quicktime gets a mysterious new version number, and is now called Quicktime X. It’s a bit slicker, and the new interface appears similar to the iPhone’s media player. The real change is that many features that were previously in the Pro version of Quicktime are now in the free version. You will be able to edit video inside QuickTime using a video timeline ribbon that appears along the bottom of the screen. And there will be fewer steps involved in video uploading. You don’t have to worry about file formats–Quicktime will do any necessary conversion and upload directly to video-hosting sites or MobileMe, Apple’s subscription service that syncs personal files on any of its devices. Apple promises it will take just one click to record audio or video (on a Mac’s built-in mic or camera) with the new Quicktime. It will also support HTTP streaming of a wider variety of file formats (like H.264 and AAC). It’s a feature that many competing media players have long offered, and it automatically adjusts the playback bit rate according to what the connection can handle. It also means you can stream video or audio through more firewalls.

Expose, an operating system UI feature for organizing open application windows, or just the windows from a particular application currently running, gets tweaked a bit too. In Snow Leopard, Expose is integrated with app icons in the dock, which cuts out the need to first switch to the specific application you want before activating Expose to see its open windows. It also means you don’t have to use a keyboard, or use a trackpad gesture to call it up. Clicking and holding an app’s icon will bring all windows open that are associated with that program to the front.

What’s the one killer feature worth upgrading for?

Many people will probably consider support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 the most important new feature of Snow Leopard. Improved Exchange support will be integrated into Mail, iCal, and Address Book in Snow Leopard, which means e-mail, calendar appointments, to-do lists, and contacts from Outlook will be viewable on your personal calendar, mail, and address books. It also allows things like dragging and dropping contacts into iCal to schedule meetings, and your Mac will be able to discover time conflicts between personal and work calendars and change the meeting time and location.

Related: Microsoft is improving its Exchange support for the Mac too. This week Microsoft said that Outlook for Mac will replace Entourage, the current e-mail and calendar program in the Mac Office suite. Although it will still differ from the Windows version of Outlook, it will add support for more Exchange features, such as public folders and rights management features.

How much?
Apple surprised people by putting the price to upgrade to Snow Leopard at a very attractive $29 for a single license, and $49 for a five-user family pack. But there’s a catch: you have to already have Leopard installed to pay those prices. If you’re upgrading from a previous version of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), you’ll have to pay $169, which includes an upgrade to 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard). For a 5-user family pack license, it’ll cost $229. And Snow Leopard is only compatible with Macs containing Intel chips. On the OS front, Leopard is the end of the line for PowerPC Mac owners.

Is it worth upgrading right away, or should I wait?

Some people are fans of waiting until the first update, the 0.1 release, which tends to correct any of the immediate issues that inevitably pop up when a new operating system is released to the public. Some who attempted to upgrade to the first version of Leopard ran into trouble after the software was installed, and when they attempted to restart their machines a blue screen would appear instead. But it appeared to hinge on a specific piece of third-party software many had installed that was out of date. The majority had a smooth transition to Leopard.

Overall, we think this will be a worthwhile upgrade if the speed claims turn out to be true. Another way of looking at is that for the price of the Quicktime to Quicktime Pro upgrade, you get most of the Quicktime Pro features plus a newly tweaked core OS. We think it’s a good deal for Apple OS X 10.5 users.

When will it be available?
So far, Apple has said only “September.” Recent rumors have indicated it might be ready earlier than that, No matter what, it’s going to be available before Windows 7 is set to roll out on October 22.

These statements, based on a pre-release copy of Snow Leopard, seem accurate to me. But the implication that the story leaves readers with–that you can’t “go 64 bit” or “boot into the 64-bit version of Snow Leopard” if your Mac isn’t booting into a 64-bit kernel–is completely wrong.

When Apple talks about Snow Leopard being thoroughly 64-bit savvy, what the company means is that almost every application included in Snow Leopard has been recompiled to run in 64-bit mode. There are two reasons this is a good thing. The first is simple: 64-bit computing is necessary if you want one of the programs on your computer to have access to more than 4GB of RAM. Second, there are some speed boosts associated with running in 64-bit mode. The Intel processors that power Macs have built-in math routines that operate more efficiently in 64-bit mode, processing tasks in fewer steps. That means that certain math-intensive tasks will see a speed boost under Snow Leopard’s 64-bit applications.

If you’re running a Mac powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or an Intel Xeon processor, your Mac is 64-bit capable. And Snow Leopard runs 64-bit applications regardless of whether it’s booting into a 64-bit or 32-bit kernel. In fact, the only big advantage of booting into a 64-bit kernel would be the ability to use more than 32 gigabytes of RAM. There aren’t any Macs that can do that now, anyway, due to hardware limitations.

Applications running in Snow Leopard will have access to a full 16 exabyte virtual address space, just the same as if they were running in a 64-bit kernel. As a result, there’s very little difference between booting into the 64-bit kernel and the 32-bit kernel in current Mac systems. (This is not to say that there won’t be a bigger difference in the future, as RAM sizes continue to grow. But presumably new high-end Mac systems will boot into the 64-bit kernel when the need arises.)

So, bottom line: If you’ve got a Core 2 Duo or Xeon based Mac — any Intel Mac not running a Core Duo or Core Solo processor — you’ll be able to run applications in 64-bit mode, which will in turn be able to take advantage of faster 64-bit registers and math routines as well as access massive amounts of memory.

Now all we have to do is wait for Snow Leopard to arrive so we can try out those 64-bit applications for ourselves.

Mac OSX Snow Leopard:

Exposé Interactivity: The feature that shows all windows together is no longer a simple means for switching among them. It will be possible to drag content fromsnow leopard one previewed window to the other. Exposé will also work for individual applications by clicking and holding their icons in the dock. As a workaround for the miniscule preview windows in the dock, these improvements aren’t bad.

Smart Services: Control-clickers will delight in new context-sensitive menus that appear when you perform the Windows-equivalent of a right click. For instance, highlighting and control-clicking text in a Web browser lets you send the text to an e-mail or import it to iTunes as a spoken word track.

Smaller Install: Pony up the $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and you’ll get 7 GB of your hard drive back. That’s not a feature, per se, but it’s certainly an innovation. The last thing we want is an operating system that’s continually gaining weight.

VoiceOver: Though it won’t be used by the majority of Mac owners, VoiceOver is arguably the most expansive addition to OSX. This tool for visually-impaired users essentially turns the trackpad into a screen reader, supporting special gestures to switch between windows and audio feedback when clicking.

Chinese Character Input: Okay, most of us won’t use this feature either, but it’s still pretty cool. After opening an input window, users can draw sketch Chinese characters on their trackpads and then select from a list of possibilities. It’s as good a reason as any to start learning.

Microsoft Windows 7:

Invisible Windows: The answer, of sorts, to OSX’s Exposé lets users turn all open windows into bare outlines by moving the mouse to the screen’s bottom right corner. From there, shaking a window makes all others minimize, and shaking it again brings them back up. A related window-management feature lets you quickly size windows to half the screen, allowing for side-by-side comparisons.

Jump Lists: It’s no longer necessary to hunt through a folder of recent documents to pick up work where you left off. By right-clicking icons Windows 7′s new dock (a feature cribbed from OSX), users can jump to recent documents or perform common tasks, such as resuming an old playlist in Windows Media Player.

Internet Access to Home Media: Got two computers, or a friend who wants to look at photos from your last get-together? Clicking a button within Windows Media Player opens up photos, videos, and music for streaming to other PCs. No party will ever be safe again from your weird musical tastes.

Touch Friendly: Should the touchscreen craze finally take off, Windows 7 will be ready with a mode that’s tailor made for tablets. Start menu and taskbar icons are larger, and Web browsing can be done with a finger. Multitouch is also supported, with pinch and twist gestures for zooming and rotating.

HomeGroup: Sharing content between networked computers is nothing new, but Windows 7 makes it easier with HomeGroup. The feature lets any new computer joining your home network link up to existing ones, allowing for file transfers. Printers are also shared automatically, so no one has to be kicked off the master computer to print a document

Amazon has take pre-orders for Snow Leopard, priced at $29 for the single user license and $49 for the five-license family pack. This update price is only for Mac OS X, 10.5 Leopard users and this significant update is only available for Intel-based computers. Good news for those who got bought a qualifying new Mac or a qualifying Apple Certified Refurbished computer on or after June 8, 2009, an even cheaper upgrade is available for them, only $9.95 plus tax.

So, exactly when will this “The World’s most advanced operation system” come out, August 28th, or even earlier August 24th (another circulating expectation), or Sep. as officially announced? Just keep an eye on it.

If you bought a new Mac running OS X Leopard on or after 8 June 2009, you can have an upgrade to Snow Leopard sent to you for £7.95. Prices for everyone else are still to be confirmed, but we expect to know more within the next week or so.

Snow Leopard: Quick facts

When is Snow Leopard released?

Early to mid-September.

How much will it cost?

In the US, $29. That’s about £20. UK prices aren’t official yet, but £20 to £25 is a safe bet.

Is Snow Leopard just a service pack to Leopard?

No more than Windows 7 is a service pack to Vista. It’s more like a new engine for the same car.

Will it work on all Mac computers?

No. Only Macs with Intel processors are supported by Snow Leopard.

Will I lose all my files when I upgrade?

No. Backing up data is always a good idea, but your programs and files will be safe.

How much hard-drive space will it use?

Less than Leopard uses now. In fact you’ll regain 6GB of space after upgrading to Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard: The main benefits

The evolution inside Snow Leopard is divided into two camps: additions and overhauls, and tweaks and refinements. Almost everything focuses on subtle improvements to speed and efficiency, but there are a few enormous rebuilds of OS X’s foundations.

QuickTime X

There are two elements to the new QuickTime X technology: QuickTime X and QuickTime Player. The former is the rewritten media-processing technology built into Snow Leopard. The latter is simply the video-player interface. The most important change is that QuickTime X will utilise your machine’s graphics card to improve video playback, most notably with H.264 video — the default format for iTunes Store movie downloads, for example.

On top of that, the new QuickTime Player loses its application border, leaving just your video file playing in the middle of the screen without a silver frame or play/pause controls. You can edit video clips right inside the player and directly upload them to YouTube, or save them as files compatible with the latest iPods and iPhones.

Speed boosts

Forget about the initial install of the OS taking half the time Leopard took — you’ll probably only do that once. The real benefits come with day-to-day usage. Resuming from sleep is twice as quick as on Leopard, external drives such as iPods eject faster, searching within Spotlight, Finder and Mail is quicker, Time Machine backups are faster, and when you’re finished working, shutdown takes almost half the time it does at the moment.

Much of this is the result of 64-bit code — something almost every app, bar iTunes, DVD Player and Front Row, has been rewritten to utilise — which works with Snow Leopard’s new Grand Central Dispatch architecture for better managing all CPU cores and graphics chips. Bear in mind older Macs using Intel Core Solo or Core Duo chips don’t support 64-bit technology, so they won’t experience as large a speed boost.

Exchange Support

Apple has built in support for Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2007. This is what, on a PC, pushes and synchronises all your email, contact info and calendar entries to Outlook and your phone.

By doing this, OS X’s Mail, iCal and Address Book apps sync up just like Outlook. Note that if your company is still running Exchange Server 2003 (ours is), you will still be able to sync Snow Leopard with your office server. We confirmed this with Microsoft, a spokesperson from which said, “Correct — it will work with Exchange Server 2003 as well.” Our IT boffins here at CBSi confirmed this too.

Snow Leopard: The smaller benefits

If you upgraded from OS 10.4 Tiger to OS 10.5 Leopard, you’ll have seen a change as radical as Windows users noticed after upgrading to Vista from XP. Not so in Snow Leopard. Instead of an overhaul, Apple has simply made Leopard’s UI more functional without changing how it looks.

In Leopard, Exposé brings all open application windows into view on your screen — each often very small if you’re working on a pile of stuff at once. In Snow Leopard, however, you can use Exposé simply to reveal all windows open within a certain application, but right from the application in question’s Dock icon instead of by pressing F10. For example, it’ll show you all open Adobe Photoshop windows, or all your IM conversation boxes.

Some other desktop refinements have been made. As well as being faster, OS X’s Finder has been rewritten to let you play video files within their thumbnails. Handy to check the file you’ve found is the one you want to watch, but only if that file is supported by QuickTime, we expect. As VLC users, this may not be a ground-shattering benefit to us.

A small but useful feature for us concerns sleep. Today, if a Mac goes to sleep for just a few seconds, you need to punch in your password to wake it up. Snow Leopard lets you specify how long the computer needs to have been asleep before asking for your password. This simple change in functionality highlights almost everything about Snow Leopard: small updates that make common tasks just that little bit less time-consuming.

Snow Leopard: The unanswerable questions

Much of what we know about Snow Leopard comes from documentation and developer preview editions of the new code. But there are a few major questions we still want answering.

* iTunes is one of the few apps not to be rewritten with 64-bit code, so will iTunes’ video playback fail to take advantage of the new QuickTime X technologies, such as for rendering H.264 video?
* New QuickTime technologies are, we believe, essentially two umbrella components: QuickTime X (backend) and a new QuickTime Player (frontend). As we understand it, the backend tech is Snow Leopard-only, but does that mean the revised Player could land on Leopard, just without the features such as GPU-accelerated H.264 processing?
* Finally, Snow Leopard will only work on Intel chips. Are we correct in thinking the Snow Leopard kernel is a hybrid of both 32-bit and 64-bit, and therefore Intel Core Solo and Core Duo Macs will run as a 32-bit OS, but Core 2 Duo Macs will run as a full-blown 64-bit OS?
We hope to snag some answers to this in our full and comprehensive test of Snow Leopard following its release.

So, should you upgrade?

If your Mac runs an Intel Core 2 CPU, then probably, yes. More so if you want to use your company’s Exchange server for email without buying Microsoft Office.

But for everyone else, we’re going to hold off on our final word until we’ve given Snow Leopard a full, detailed and thorough test when it’s released next month.

Should this be a free service-pack download? Are you going to rush out and cough up the cash? Let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments.

Interface design
Unlike Leopard, which had visibly different spots to Tiger, Snow Leopard is more about refinement. There are visual touches here and there – like semi-transparent context menus on the dock – but no major changes. On the plus side, at least you’ll know where everything is without having to go a hunting.

Speed
Speed is big focus for Snow Leopard, with the bulk of tweaks going on making things happen faster. Finder, for example, has been completely rewritten so it’s more responsive and much snappier. Shutdown is up to 75 percent faster while waking from sleep is twice as snappy. Even areas like Time Machine have received a speed boost – initial backup to Time Capsule is now 50 percent faster.

New features
There are still some new toys to play with in Snow Leopard. For example, QuickTime X has a brand new interface, with controls that fade away leaving just the video centre stage. With an eye on the corporates, Mail now supports Microsoft Exchange out of the box and this also stretches across iCal and Contacts too.

Advanced technologies
Under hood, Apple’s engineers have been busy rewriting the key system apps in 64bit. Snow Leopard can also make the most of multicore processors thanks to Grand Central Dispatch which monitors processors and makes sure every spare processor cycle is being used in your machine. Finally OpenCL support lets all applications tap into the immense computing power in your Mac’s graphics chip so it doesn’t go to waste.

One more thing?
Apple wouldn’t be Apple if it didn’t keep a few things back for the big launch. Perhaps the biggest missing item is Blu-ray support. Now that HD DVD is dead and buried, it’s time the Mac got itself some high def optics. In the more possible, but definitely cool, camp is multitouch gestures – as seen on the iPhone. Supporting them through out the OS wouldn’t go amiss, after all it’d be perfect should Apple be planning o release some sort of tablet anytime soon…

For consumers, there won’t be a Pro version. Any version will allow simple editing, video/audio capture, and allow you to “publish your media to MobileMe or YouTube — without worrying about codec formats or resolutions.” We’re not sure if you’ll be able to save as a QuickTime movie or source file as before, but the removal of some previous limits will make QuickTime the snappy iMovie substitute it could be. Plus, QuickTime X will allow you to use any web server to stream live video over HTTP.

This upgrade is only for Intel-based Mac. So if your Mac has a PowerPC processor, it is not compatible with Snow Leopard. Intel-based Mac users can order upgrade either from Apple’s official website or Amazon, which is the first to offer preorder for Snow Leopard.

Tips: How to determine the type of processor of your Mac?

1. In the Finder, go to the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your Mac and choose “About this Mac”

2. In “About this Mac” window, you’ll find the version and the processor of your Mac.

Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard) users can upgrade their Mac by purchasing Mac OS X Snow Leopard for $29.

For Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger) users, they can get this upgrade by purchasing the Mac Box Set, which includes Snow Leopard, iLife ’09, and iWork ’09, for $169.

Mac users who purchased a qualifying computer or Xserve on or after June 8, 2009 that does not include Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard for $9.95.

It’s easy to take for granted how rapidly Apple upgrades Mac OS X with meaningful new features. After all, with Friday’s Snow Leopard release, the world’s best desktop OS will have seen its fifth major leap forward in the same time it’s taken Microsoft to add only Vista and the promise of Windows 7 (I know it’s coming soon, I’m just impressed Apple’s beaten Microsoft again).

Three days from the next great version of the best great thing, here are 10 reasons why you should upgrade to Snow Leopard.

1. It’s Leopard Done Right
The release of Mac OS X Leopard was fraught with peril. It was late, it ran a bit slow, and it offered amazing new features — some of which weren’t fully ready for prime time. Snow Leopard is all about performance, optimizing features to deliver a great experience. It takes what you know today and makes it perfect.

2. It’s only $30
Recognizing that it has an evolution, not a revolution, on its hands, Apple’s keeping Snow Leopard incredibly cheap for existing Leopard users. At $30, it’s more than we paid to move from 10.0 to 10.1 (which was free), but it’s still one heck of a bargain. And it’s only $50 for a family pack.

3. You’ll add six gigs to your hard drive
This is a no-brainer. If you install Snow Leopard, your hard drive gets bigger — it takes up six or seven fewer gigabytes than Leopard. It’s less bloated in more ways than one.

4. Smarter Stacks and Expose
The OS X Finder already contains some of the most innovative UI elements ever. Snow Leopard makes them smarter. Stacks allows scrolling and advanced support for multiple folders now. And Expose allows you to just click on an app’s icon, thereby allowing you to select between that app’s windows.

5. It’s fully 64-bit, so buy 17.2 billion gigs of RAM!
If you own a recent Mac (anything with a Core 2 Duo), you’ve got a 64-bit processor. And with a fully rewritten Finder and under-the-hood code, Snow Leopard will let you manipulate absolutely gigantic files, up to 17.2 billion gigabytes at a time. Basically, if you’re doing high-end photo or video work, this will be the best platform ever.

6. Killer Multiprocessing with Grand Central
Apple’s been pushing multiprocessing since at least 2000, but the promise has never really paid off for most users. Snow Leopard aims to change that with Grand Central Dispatch, a powerful API for creating multicore-optimized code. Some apps will run faster right away, and it will only get better over time as other developers get caught up. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.

7. Unleash the Power of Your GPU With OpenCL
Time was, Windows lovers could (justifiably) deride the 3-D graphics power being packed by Macs. Anyone who tried to run Quake III Arena on a first-gen iMac can remember the pain we all shared. That’s changed now. The integrated NVIDIA graphics in even Apple’s low-end machines are totally respectable, and the dedicated cards in the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro are downright brawny. Unfortunately, unless you’re a gamer, an architect or an industrial designer, that probably doesn’t matter much to you. That’s why OpenCL is so great — it’s a coding framework that allows ordinary applications to tap into the extra power in your graphics card for all tasks, from web browsing to iPhoto. Snow Leopard’s all about power, and OpenCL’s a big part of it.

8. Native Exchange Support
A lot of factors have kept Macs out of the office over the years, but none has been more significant than the lack of MS Exchange e-mail, address book and calendar support. Outlook is as close to a standard as a proprietary format ever comes, and Apple’s taking its experiments with Exchange on the iPhone to the desktop. From now on, anyone with a Mac can make appointments, view contacts, and send e-mail via Exchange. I don’t know if I’ll ever bring my work computer home again.

9. QuickTime X Restores What the Tech Was Meant to Be
One of the great disappointments of long-time Mac users has been watching the slow decline of QuickTime. Once a legendary consumer multimedia player and editor, it increasingly became over-shadowed by iLife and iMovie. Charging for the Pro version meant that most people steered clear of it entirely (I couldn’t tell you the last time I played a video in QuickTime Player). QuickTime X fixes all of that. A ground-up rewrite, X integrates all former Pro versions into a free version for the rest of us. It’s two-and-a-half times faster than previous versions, plus built-in authoring capabilities, including recording via iSight and microphone, YouTube and Mobile Me uploads, and export to iPhone. Basically, it’s finally Apple giving some love to the multimedia technology that started it all.

10. Because You, Like Me, Are a Gigantic Apple Fanboy or -girl
It’s OK. We have a cult for that. Think it’ll make it here by Saturday?