Buying Mac Mini 2009 but will wait until June (Snow Leopard)

[iLog.Genius]

Seeing how Leopard came out with quite a few bugs, some serious, I would definitely wait a few months before purchasing Snow Leopard. I mean, Apple doesn't have the best track record on first attempts whether be software or hardware (all companies have the same but I've grown more annoyed at Apple's faults than others.).

 

[dacreativeguy]

Like many of you, I am wanting to buy the new Mac Mini (feverishly so!), and finally make the jump from Windows. However, with the WWDC coming in June and murmurs that Snow Leopard may well be released (who knows) then, I am taking the hard route and holding off my purchase until then. I don't want to purchase it now and have to fork out another ~$100 for a new operating system within two months of course.

Is anyone else holding out like me? It is hard but hey, better to have that extra C-note in my pocket (put it towards the 4GB ram upgrade). 😉

*note - if SL is not released in June..I will, of course, cave and pony up for the Mini then. A man has his limits....heh.

New Mac OSs historically have not been truly ready for prime-time until the 10.x.2 or 10.x.3 release. .0 usually has a lot of crazy bugs that they discovered too late to fix. .1 usually comes out a week or 2 later to address the crazy bugs. .2 is the first true maintenance release. By .3, everything works itself out. So if it comes out in June, you are looking at the end of the summer for .3.

Also don't forget that lot's of your existing software will have issues on day 1. Sure, most are small annoyances, but there have been many important 3rd party apps that just don't work with a new OS on day 1. Waiting a month or 2 will save you a lot of headaches and allow all your app devs to catch up with Apple.

If you REALLY want to wait for stability, wait for Apple to re-release the DVD with the 10.6.(2,3,4,5???) version. Then you know they are happy with it.

 

[LKV11G]

A friend of mine asked me what major upgrades were going to come in SL, I looked on the apple site and it says in black and white that SL is focused more on getting the full potential from dual and quad core processors. Now I'm sure that apple will make a few changes but I don't expect anything to blow me away, which is why I see no reason to hold out for SL. I ordered my iMac with the 4850 card so i have bigger issues...

 

[mrjosh]

Or you could buy it now, love it and use the hell out of it. The when SL comes out you could wait and watch everyone else be the beta testers and find all the little flaws. Let apple fix them for a couple of months and then around december reward yourself with the latest edition of SL with all the early bug fixes.

This is pretty much what I did. Now I just have to wait to receive my imac on Wed.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Here's the deal: if you think that you only have to "hold off" for 2 months, you're probably in for a big surprise.

Here's one scenario:

You'll wait 2 months for WWDC only to find out that SL will be released in early August. Come August, you'll find out that SL doesn't ship with new Mac Minis or iMacs, so you'll wait another 3-4 weeks, maybe a tad more. By the time new machines ship with SL, rumors will start to fly about quad-core processors so you'll end up waiting for this next round of updates, which could easily take 4-6 months.

Can you see the cycle here? There's always something "just around the corner" and it's better to buy a new machine when you need one. If you try holding out, you can end up waiting forever.

Bryan

 

[Moocher]

Like many of you, I am wanting to buy the new Mac Mini (feverishly so!), and finally make the jump from Windows. However, with the WWDC coming in June and murmurs that Snow Leopard may well be released (who knows) then, I am taking the hard route and holding off my purchase until then. I don't want to purchase it now and have to fork out another ~$100 for a new operating system within two months of course.

Is anyone else holding out like me? It is hard but hey, better to have that extra C-note in my pocket (put it towards the 4GB ram upgrade). 😉

*note - if SL is not released in June..I will, of course, cave and pony up for the Mini then. A man has his limits....heh.

That is exactly what I am doing, but I'm also going to wait a week or two beyond the release of 10.6 to make sure that everything works with the mini. I am planning to use the mini with my tv and audio system.

Mooch

 

[Moocher]

Okay, I read the whole thread. The post above was after just reading the OP. You guys have posted some good arguments for buying the mini earlier than the release of 10.6. One argument I find particularly compelling is that it may be awhile before existing software will work with the new system. It would be a drag if Plex did not work for a few months.

I am looking forward to SL because it is supposed to more efficiently and effectively use multiple cores and graphics processors and because it and most of Apple's software will be much leaner. I suspect that old software may not take advantage of this, however.

Consequently, I'll probably buy the mini when it gets to the point that I can't stand not to have it. Saving $100 would have been nice. Thanks everyone for your comments.

Mooch

 

[batistuta]

SL upgrade price?

I might be ignorant here, but how certain is the 100$ price to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard?

 

[jmpage2]

I might be ignorant here, but how certain is the 100$ price to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard?

I believe that's the price that Apple has charged for their other updates, i.e., Tiger, Panther, etc. No reason to believe Snow Leopard would be priced differently.

 

[powerbook911]

For me, the nominal and fair price, to upgrade a Mac OS, would never delay my purchase of a Mac.

Plus, if you have more than one Mac, you would need to buy Snow Leopard, when it comes out, anyway.

Normally it costs $129 by the way.

I actually wonder if Snow Leopard might not be the full $129? I only say that as the casual user won't notice a huge difference, in features, for example. It might be harder for Apple to convince users to upgrade, at the normal price, when the upgrade isn't as shiny improved, more of the internals, which some people don't "get."

I guess we shall see in the coming few months!

 

[OneMike]

I say buy now. If you wait for SL by then the mini will already be several months old. What if you wait and get snow leopard on your mini then say 45 days later they bump the specs on mini. Not saying it will happen, but whole point is when you put off to take advantage of one thing something else may become a disadvantage.

 

[Eric S.]

The latest rumors give a likely August release date for Snow Leopard. Can you wait that long?

 

[jjahshik32]

I wouldnt wait for Snow Leopard to buy a Mac Mini.

If anything I'd wait to buy a Mac Pro desktops until SL is released.

I think the MBP, iMac, Mac Pros will benefit the most from SL due to the graphics card and much more powerful processors. Especially the Mac Pro.

I say just go ahead and buy it, not even sure if SL is worth upgrading to on a mac mini IMHO.

 

[batistuta]

upgrade same as buying new?

The current price for Mac OS Leopard (10.5.6) is 129$, so you suggest an upgrade to Snow Leopard will be the same price, so no 'discount' to existing users?
I guess MS' pricing is similar - upgrading to Vista is no cheaper than a new install.

Here in Denmark OSX currently retails for 179$ with the family pack being 50% more (okay for 5 licenses I guess), but this is not news...

 

[AVR2]

not even sure if SL is worth upgrading to on a mac mini IMHO.

What makes you say that, out of interest? Surely the enhancements SL will offer in respect of improved multicore performance could be a real boon to the mini - maybe cut down/eliminate the freezing issues?

 

[djembe1]

The current price for Mac OS Leopard (10.5.6) is 129$, so you suggest an upgrade to Snow Leopard will be the same price, so no 'discount' to existing users?

If you think about it, the Leopard price IS the upgrade price for people on Tiger, etc.

 

[jmpage2]

For me, the nominal and fair price, to upgrade a Mac OS, would never delay my purchase of a Mac.

Plus, if you have more than one Mac, you would need to buy Snow Leopard, when it comes out, anyway.

Normally it costs $129 by the way.

I actually wonder if Snow Leopard might not be the full $129? I only say that as the casual user won't notice a huge difference, in features, for example. It might be harder for Apple to convince users to upgrade, at the normal price, when the upgrade isn't as shiny improved, more of the internals, which some people don't "get."

I guess we shall see in the coming few months!

Apple might have said last year that SL would eschew user interface enhancements and new features to focus on adding speed, but I wouldn't believe it for even one minute.

SL will have the marble interface which will look "new" to users, and it will probably sport a few surprises when it comes out.

They are going up against Win7 and need to make a splash when SL is launched.

 

[Zisa]

Or you could buy it now, love it and use the hell out of it. The when SL comes out you could wait and watch everyone else be the beta testers and find all the little flaws. Let apple fix them for a couple of months and then around december reward yourself with the latest edition of SL with all the early bug fixes.

I agree. This is my take on any software, be it Windows or Mac related. Wait for at least two releases before biting the bullet.

For example, I waited for Leopard .4 before I went out and bought it. You could even chose to skip Snow Leopard and stick with 10.5 for a while - 😀

 

[Bad Paper]

What makes you think it will be June? It could be September.

And even when Snow Leopard is released, it will still be a .0 release of an OS, which is hardly better than a beta. You would do better to ride on the .7 release of Leopard for a while, while the rest of the world deals with Snow Leopard's bugs.

 

[Eric S.]

What makes you think it will be June? It could be September.

It probably will be September.

And even when Snow Leopard is released, it will still be a .0 release of an OS, which is hardly better than a beta. You would do better to ride on the .7 release of Leopard for a while, while the rest of the world deals with Snow Leopard's bugs.

Exactly (but I think we'll see 10.5.8 or 9 by Snow Leopard's release). I'll be waiting for 10.6.2, maybe around December.

 

[d0mth0ma5]

I've been working around a similar dilemma, although with the added time constraint of leaving University in June and thus losing my Student discount. I think i'm gonna just have to wait until my student loan comes through in two weeks and order away.

On a slight side note, does anyone know if there is a difference between the US and UK in terms of apple approved sellers doing RAM upgrades, I spoke to my local dealer and they seemed to think that they would be unable to perform such an upgrade.

 

[Bad Paper]

I've been working around a similar dilemma, although with the added time constraint of leaving University in June and thus losing my Student discount.

Do the math of (computer with discount, plus full-price upgrade) vs (computer without discount, with SL installed). I doubt the difference will be that compelling.

 

[jjahshik32]

What makes you say that, out of interest? Surely the enhancements SL will offer in respect of improved multicore performance could be a real boon to the mini - maybe cut down/eliminate the freezing issues?

What freezing issues are you speaking of? I had the new 2009 mac mini since day 1 and have had 0 issues in freezing. As a matter of fact I havnt had to restart since the first time I booted up the mac mini.

I think SL could make the mini a bit faster overall or more efficient but IMHO the desktops like the Mac Pro will have the most benefits.

OpenCL with a superior GPU such as on a imac, macbook pro, mac pro desktops will benefit greatly as to the mac mini's 9400m gt cards. Also the 2.26GHz or the 2.0GHz from a core 2 duo could be better utilized with grand central but I can see the Mac Pro being much better utilized with more memory 32GB + 8 physical cores + 8 virtual cores.

I think there will be very minor improvements running SL on the current mac minis though.

 

[Aniki]

Wait, it's worth it.

 

[jmpage2]

Wait, it's worth it.

Wait till September to avoid spending $100 on a software update? Peeeshaw. Might as well wait until this time next year. By then all of the bugs will be worked out of Snow Leopard and there will be better hardware to boot.

Of course, then the successor to SL, Cheetah will be on the drawing board and you'd be wise to wait another 18 months for that update.