I got my copy of Snow Leopard today. You’ve probably heard the entire internets explode with excitement and opinions and all that junk. So I figured I’d throw my opinion into the ring.
So let’s start with the obvious. Installation. For me, took about forty minutes. Computer did it all itself. I left it alone, came back, login screen to Snow Leopard was waiting for me.
So was there any immediate differences? Not really. All my icons and settings transferred over from Leopard fine, so I didn’t notice anything immediately different.
So I decided to put the new Finder to the test. As you (should) know, the Finder has been rewritten in Cocoa and is now 64-bit. So, theoretically, it should be faster.
As you can see, moving all those files was nearly instantaneous. No slow-down, all nice and butter smooth. This stability and speed is apparent all through the Finder. No more waiting for windows to load up, files to move, or any of that. All of it is silky smooth.
Stacks has also seen a much needed update. It’s actually useful; you can browse your whole filesystem if your’e so inclined. Probably not the best way to browse, but there you go.
Also improved is Quicktime. You’ve probably seen pictures of it all over the net by now, but just as a refresher, it does become nice and borderless, and has a brand new interface. You can also upload straight to YouTube and Apple’s own MobileMe service (here’s hoping for Vimeo support soon)
- With Quicktime X you can upload straight to YouTube and other services.
- New borders and playbuttons in Quicktime X
- Move the mouse away from the window, and you can watch it without borders.
Overall I’d say go for it; I’m diggin’ the new features and the stability increases. At first you won’t notice any features distinctly, but after awhile you’ll realize just how nice everything is. I’d recommend it based on the Finder enhancements alone.