Share your Snow Leopard Experience/Concerns

[Leukeh]

I'm not too sure if I'm a fan of the new grid system in Exposé. If you've got a few windows open, it makes it incredibly hard to tell the difference between the two - it doesn't tessellate like it used to and shrinks everything too much. I know I can hover+space to preview but it just seems like they've added another step to the process, making it seem much less streamlined.

Also, iTunes 9 on SL is so frustrating. I have my 40-something gb library stored on an external HD and two or three times in each song, iTunes will hang for anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds. I've looked into it and I'm not the only one with the problem. The only work around for the moment is to create a small library to store locally until they fix it...

Ahhh... and they got rid of the switch-to-mini-player-with-the-green-button, which in terms of keeping to the same standard as other programs does make sense but having used the button for years, I really miss it. Now I have to hold option to do it... which doesn't sound like much but when something is so habitual, holding an extra key down doesn't come naturally!

I'm impressed with the start up/shut down/wake/sleep times and also just general performance is better but the few little things just really bug me... glad I only paid $14.95 for it!

 

[kelpulation]

Hello all, this is my first post.

My airport card recently died and I went to my campus computer store.

I saw the 30 dollar Snow Leopard and decided to get it but I did ask if it would go ontop of 10.4. The computer store lady said yes and I got my airport card replaced then my system backed up and upgrade. Now my computer runs ok but the airport does not behave the way it should. I ran an airport grapher and instead of 54/54 bits/s I saw that it read -2405/0 and was basically flat lining while working properly. On occasion it drops me off all networks and cannot find them. This is the first of many problems I believe I will encounter if I continue to use the computer. I am gonna phone Apple Support this morning and ask them about it. Im sure they will give me the same sort of answer you posted above.

I just thought everyone would like to know.

Cheers, kelp

So I have spent some time on the phone with the mac support. They did a great job btw and it turns out that Snow Leopard didn't work well on my DNS that was provided by shawcable. So They gave me a new one and all is well.

 

[DarkDTSHD]

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, the problem I had was when I went to shut down an app. The Apple drop down menu (black Apple icon, upper left corner) would keep taking the place of the app exit menu. It would switch back and forth. Doing this maybe 75% of the time.

So I installed 10.5 (Leopard) back on my MBP and all is well again. Good thing 10.6 was only $35 CAD. Perhaps one day when SL is stable I might consider reinstalling it. I mean when they also offer upgrades to fix the many problems. I'm suprised Apple put out such a bad OS upgrade. Windows has never released such a bad version. Their versions usually improve (though some complained about Vista...I had no problems at all).

Good luck to those still having problems with SL. Hope you guys find your solutions soon.

 

[orion30]

Something is up with the 10.6.1 update on my machine. I was really really happy with the SL upgrade as everything thing worked like a charm, and my machine ran so much "better". And 98% of my experience with 10.6.1 is just as good, BUT.... Now Youtube hangs, or does not load at all. Very aggravating as Youtube is a major part of my online experience. I have tried to reset permissions using Onyx, clear the browser cash, reboot, use both Safari and Firefox to open youtube, reset my DSL router, etc. Other online vid sites work just fine (Hulu for example) Any thoughts on whats causing my Mac to have this annoying quirk?

Heres the specs:
iMac 2.16 Ghz core 2 duo; 2.5 gig memory; 250 Gig HD (115 gig free); ATY,RadeonX1600 video 128meg ram;

 

[sa.sims]

I just found out that Apple disabled screenshots of movies and tv shows in iTunes, look: (Numb3rs episode ) http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c272/avataraangar/Screenshot2009-09-18atFridaySep1811.png

Darn Apple!

 

[rocketmouse]

OnyX in Snow Leopard

... I have tried to reset permissions using Onyx, ...

When I try OnyX (2.0.5) in SL I get "OnyX will not work with this version of Mac OS X."
Where did you get the 2.1 update?

 

[bobtomay]

When I try OnyX (2.0.5) in SL I get "OnyX will not work with this version of Mac OS X."
Where did you get the 2.1 update?

The 2.1 update is not out yet.

 

[Axxll]

Upgrading to 10.6.1

I upgraded to 10.6.1 today and had no problems at all.
in fact I find the system is blazingly fast
I used to use Entourage for my works exchange, now i am using mail and its about 20x faster than Entourage
i am still investigating/ searching for those apps which are not compatible.

This upgrade is highly recommended.

good luck

just curious, who's upgrading to snow leopard 10.6 this weekend? and who isn't?

i am not new to apple or os x leopard, i have been a user since feb 2008. however, i am wondering how apple is when it comes to OS upgrades. is it like windows, and upon release, it's buggy and full of compatablity problems, or is it a lot smoother (i hope smoother).

just wanting everyones opinion. so post some feedback, either good or bad and why you are or are not upgrading to snow leopard.

thanks

 

[whiskey55]

I just installed SL 2 days ago. I did a clean install for it, that's just the way I prefer it... I haven't notice much in terms of speed yet, but I don't have that many files as most of you probably do. I do like most of the refinements though.

I agree with an earlier comment, I'm not sure about the grid-Expose.

And I disagree with a different earlier comment, did you really come to this thread to troll about Microsoft? I'm going to do my best to not respond to your obvious troll-bait, but something does have to be said. Get off this forum please.

 

[mikemc]

I upgraded to Snow Leopard on Friday. Ran the latest update and almost ALL applications I use are more unstable under Snow Leopard than under Leopard. Photoshop crashes on saving with regular monotony, even Mac Mail (integrated with OSX-SL by Apple !) crashes regularly.

In order to return to normal productivity levels, I have resorted to restoring my system to Leopard. Back to a solid stable Mac system thank God !
My advice to anyone thinking of upgrading......WAIT...!

I am so totally dissappointed with Apple on this one. Stop the self-congratulatory hype, and get busy fixing these horrors !

(iMac, Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM. MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 2BG RAM)

 

[g725s]

I have been using Snow Leopard since about 5 days after its release.

I have noticed that waking from a sleep it takes longer to connect to the internet if I launch Safari or Mail after waking.

I almost always go straight to Safari or Mail when waking my Mac. Both will launch but not download for quite a few seconds.

Whereas before coming from 10.4 I never had this experience.

 

[John F]

This morning I upgraded to Snow Leopard. This evening my MacBook will not connect to the Internet by Airport (tried several wireless access points) or by Ethernet in spite of reboots, DHCP resets etc etc

And I'm leaving for England on Thursday. I guess I will be taking the Linux netbook.

John

 

[MAC_Daddy_Sid13]

MY snow leopard experience

Hi, I have the latest model BlackMacBook b4 the change. 2.4 Core Duo, 2 gig ram, 2500 hard drive.
I got it used. I only had it a few days before I bought the $30 snow leopard. I was told it was nice and read that as well. I did an upgrade not full wipe. I set everything up how I wanted, added my normal programs and what not. Everything worked fine for a while. It seemed slower then it should have been, but I tried not to pay it any mind. Things worked less and less over the weeks. One program would make another not work right. I tried to reinstall and couldn't seem to do a full wipe. I had to make a new user name in the "bios"(don't know the mac name for it exactly) and then just deleted my old user name. The computer had acted as if it had a bad spyware or something. It still didn't work well after being "freshed". So I got me the latest Leopard (what was on the macbook when I got it) and did a full wipe-install. The computer has worked better since. I put less stuff back on and felt a few more things alone just cuz they didn't REALLY need to be bothered with. I stared using Transmission cuz utorrent was messing with yahoo on SL. When trans was on it would work for a sec then make the internet not work (easiest way to say what happen) I would have to unplug my modem and what not and then it would work again. I have since stopped using it and the net works fine. I'm saddened that SL just hasn't seemed to work right for a lot of people. I think apple just pushed too hard to get out b4 windows 7. Having updated all my home PCs with it I can see why. It's the best windows I've used (So far) but I havent been using it long or done much with it so only time will tell. I'll wait for people to start saying snow leopard is working right again b4 i reinstall it. I did pay for it so I will use it. I'm just going to go with something tried and true for now. I just hope this "hickup" doesn't hurt Mac's rep . The ONLY reason to have a Mac is cuz it just works well with itself and it's apps and if that was to change....well, we would start seeing Mac's at Walmart...and that would just be wrong! Not that a Walmart cheap Mac wouldn't be bad if ya know what I mean

 

[dadsgravy]

I've had a few hang ups in Finder and Safari from time to time, but that's about it. It shuts down a lot faster. Haven't really noticed much difference from Leopard aside from the obvious. I swear it feels snappier in spots and the icons look better and brighter.

Quick look handles any file I throw at it and I don't have the wireless issues I had before. My external HD loads faster too.

All in all, can't say I'm impressed or unimpressed. I don't really have any problems with it. Except for a few mentioned hang ups, it just works. Lucky me.

 

[emperorminge]

Since upgrading (not a clean re-install) to Snow Leopard, I've been having ongoing memory issues requiring at least daily reboots. It was so bad, I would boot in and without opening any apps at all, be out of memory (down to 10-20 free mb) within 2-3 hours. Safe mode didn't help - the machine still ran out of available memory after a period of time. This was causing beach balls when opening a Finder window, browser crashes, and just a generally sluggish system.

Frustrated, i was heading towards blowing the whole thing away and doing a fresh, sparkly, install from clean format. Welcome back to the world of Windows - get a new OS, get ready to start again...

Anyways, it turns out all my memory management and usage issues were caused by the stock OS random photo screen saver - the one that places your iPhoto pictures randomly onscreen. I turned that off and changed to the default 'Flurry' screen saver. Lo and behold, memory issues are a thing of the past.

 

[cwa107]

I spent an incredible amount of time fighting with Snow Leopard to keep my Mac stable. As much as I tried to prepare for the upgrade, this one was much worse than upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.

Here is what I learned, and what ultimately brought stability to my machine:

1. With Paragon NTFS installed and mounting a Boot Camp partition, you must exclude that partition from Spotlight indexing.

2. Exclude Firefox's cache folder from Spotlight indexing.

3. Do a clean install and import your data using the Migration Assistant. While doing this, do not import the network settings (this fixed a bug with Network Utility).

4. Do not use any utilities like Onyx, MainMenu, AppleJack, etc unless the versions are specifically certified for Snow Leopard. They can and will cause more harm than good.

5. Watch the Console logs religiously. If you keep seeing evidence of a service or application crapping out, it's probably not Snow Leopard compatible (and there's a ton of stuff that is not).

 

[emperorminge]

2. Exclude Firefox's cache folder from Spotlight indexing.

Thanks for all those tips - how do I exclude the Firefox cache from Spotlight indexing?

Cheers, Paul

 

[dtravis7]

Thanks for all those tips - how do I exclude the Firefox cache from Spotlight indexing?

Cheers, Paul

I am pretty sure this is the right location.

First open System Preferences and click on Spotlight. Then click on the privacy tab. You then click on the PLUS sign and point it to the path below.

The Firefox Cache at least on my machine is in:

Users/Username/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/ProfileName/Cache.

Remember Username is your username on your Mac and ProfileName might be different than mine. Just click on whatever appears and inside that you will find the cache folder. That you add to Privacy in Spotlight.

If you can't find the above let us know.

 

[emperorminge]

I am pretty sure this is the right location.

Found it! Many thanks, I'll let you know how the memory usage reacts after excluding the cache.

Cheers, Paul

 

[emperorminge]

Thanks for all those tips - how do I exclude the Firefox cache from Spotlight indexing?

Well, excluding the Firefox cache delivered another chunk of free-ed up memory. Under normal use, Id say around 300-400mb.

With that and the change of screen saver, Ive got a stable and fast Snow Leopard. If anything changes Ill let the forum know.

Thanks for suggestions and help, folks.