Is now a good time to upgrade to SL?

[mossme89]

Hey guys,

Lately i have been trying to decide whether now is a good time to upgrade to SL, or if i should wait. I'm hoping you guys can give me some advice.

First of all, the main reason i want to upgrade is after playing with my friend's MBP with Snow Leopard, i am frustrated with the slowness of the finder and other stock apps. Even when i first got my MBP in September (refurb), i was surprised that apps like iMovie, iPhoto, & iTunes took a while to load and that there was a lag in responsiveness. I was SHOCKED that after installing bootcamp that windows actually ran better and was more responsive.

As for compatibility, that shouldn't be much of an issue for me because aside from the stock apps, i only use utorrent, MS Office, & handbrake. Out of those, handbrake is the only one i would say i would want to keep. The other 2 i am fine without. How is the compatibility of other stock apps? My friends tell me iChat doesn't work well, which i guess is ok, because i rarely use iChat, but are there any more incompatibilities?

How is the stability? I hear people complaining about beachballing, but i beachball in iMovie & iPhoto 5-10 seconds on 10.5.8, so is it that bad? 10.6.2 should be due out any day now, do you think that might fix a lot of things?

I'm on a late 2008 MBP unibody btw...

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[GoCubsGo]

I'm not experiencing any slowness on three machines. (Mini, MP, MB Air) I did clean installs on all.

I don't really get what the issue is there so I would say upgrade.

 

[Stiss]

I upgraded on my 3 machines. 2 Mine and my GF's iMac. No issues on any of the machines. Though I am considering doing a clean install on my MacBook just because I want to xD

 

[mossme89]

I'm not experiencing any slowness on three machines. (Mini, MP, MB Air) I did clean installs on all.

I don't really get what the issue is there so I would say upgrade.

By slowness, i mean relative to Snow Leopard. After testing SL on my friend's mac (which is basically the same as mine with a 0.26GHZ faster processor), the Finder and the stock apps have seemed slow on my leopard machine compared to my friends.

Since i got my MBP, it's slowed down when i have 2-3 apps open (ex. iMovie & iPhoto). I'll probably upgrade from 2GB-4GB eventually...

Should i upgrade or do a clean install? Again, i only have a few other apps besides the stock apps. I would rather upgrade, but am willing to do a clean install if that might be a safer bet. Basically, i don't want to spend a whole Saturday afternoon installing/reinstalling SL because of errors/issues.

Am i just really OCD, or did anyone else notice a significant load time improvement in apps from 10.5 -> 10.6?

 

[uraniumwilly]

Upgrade, Depending On Machine?

All I can say is "Wow!" I have never experienced anything like this. I wait until 10.6.1 is out, thinking that the system would be stable on my 2.4ghz Macbook Pro and yesterday, after installing SL and upgrading to 10.6.1 I have constant crashes in Safari and system crashes. I'm just flabbergasted.

 

[mossme89]

All I can say is "Wow!" I have never experienced anything like this. I wait until 10.6.1 is out, thinking that the system would be stable on my 2.4ghz Macbook Pro and yesterday, after installing SL and upgrading to 10.6.1 I have constant crashes in Safari and system crashes. I'm just flabbergasted.

Wow....Are you on the late 2008 unibody? Think i should stay on leopard for the time being?

Was Leopard this bad with issues? From what i remember, Leopard had on-the-surface changes from Tiger, but SL is rewritten in the majority of areas. When was the last time Mac OS X underwent major under-the-hood changes? Panther -> Tiger when transitioning from PPC to Intel. Anyone have some insight, i'm trying to figure out when many of the kinks might be worked out,,,

 

[uraniumwilly]

Wow....Are you on the late 2008 unibody? Think i should stay on leopard for the time being?

Was Leopard this bad with issues? From what i remember, Leopard had on-the-surface changes from Tiger, but SL is rewritten in the majority of areas. When was the last time Mac OS X underwent major under-the-hood changes? Panther -> Tiger when transitioning from PPC to Intel. Anyone have some insight, i'm trying to figure out when many of the kinks might be worked out,,,

I can't remember one problem when I installed Leopard. It's been a really great run, actually. I'd recommend staying away until 10.6.2 and then check this forum for performance as it relates to your hardware.

Edit: also, no I'm not on the unibody. I'm on that less sexy body.

 

[mossme89]

I can't remember one problem when I installed Leopard. It's been a really great run, actually. I'd recommend staying away until 10.6.2 and then check this forum for performance as it relates to your hardware.

i'm just trying to think back to the last time when Mac OS X underwent major under-the-hood changes so we can get a feel as to what the timeline might be to work out the kinks and bugs

 

[daneoni]

Snow Leopard is still not ready IMHO unless you're an absolute basic user with little interaction with 3rd party software/hardware

10.6.2/3 would be the ideal versions to upgrade

 

[uraniumwilly]

I'd like to make one point: I have had roughly 4 hours of activity since the SL upgrade and find my 2.4 MBP is running very cool, as in not hot. This is a big change.

 

[Amdahl]

Yep, I would wait until 10.6.4, 10.6.3 at the earliest. 10.6.2 is only the first real serious update. There will be more.

 

[mossme89]

Yep, I would wait until 10.6.4, 10.6.3 at the earliest. 10.6.2 is only the first real serious update. There will be more.

ok, so 10.6.2 should some of the more common bugs we are seeing (like beachballing, the guest account bug, etc)? And versions after that will likely include any other found bug fixes (along with possible new features)?

Wait, then did 10.6.1 fix anything."? Or was that version just implementing new features like iTunes 9?

I'm a long time iPod/iPhone user, but I'm new to the mac community, so I apologize for being a noob.

 

[daneoni]

ok, so 10.6.2 should some of the more common bugs we are seeing (like beachballing, the guest account bug, etc)? And versions after that will likely include any other found bug fixes (along with possible new features)?

Wait, then did 10.6.1 fix anything."? Or was that version just implementing new features like iTunes 9?

I'm a long time iPod/iPhone user, but I'm new to the mac community, so I apologize for being a noob.

0.1 updates are usually 'OMG how the heck did we let that leave the factory'...updates

0.2 updates then do tweaking and address significant outstanding issues to be fixed

0.3 onwards continue tweaking and addresses any other bugs as and when they become apparent

 

[MythicFrost]

Most of the problems you hear around here are from upgrades gone wrong, I don't think very many (if any) were clean installs, I did an upgrade and it went fine. I later did a clean install on a new SSD and it's great too.
I did a clean install on my mums MBP, it's faster and everything is snappier.

I recommend you do a clean install, upgrade at your own risk (you could always update and then clean install if the upgrade doesn't work, but I'd just do the clean install), but first: Have time machine do a backup, copy your entire user folder (and any other important files) to an external drive (preferably not the Time Machine drive), and if you want you can make another backup of the user folder on another drive. (You could could also use an internal drive as long as it's not the one your OS is on) (FYI a clean install does not include installing from Time Machine or migrating from an existing hard drive, and obviously upgrading)

I'd also make sure all the applications you need are compatible.

 

[mossme89]

0.1 updates are usually 'OMG how the heck did we let that leave the factory'...updates

0.2 updates then do tweaking and address significant outstanding issues to be fixed

0.3 onwards continue tweaking and addresses any other bugs as and when they become apparent

I'm shocked they even forget things in the factory version. I mean most companies I can understand, but at Apple, I would almost expect Jobs to test the new OS personally, with him being a huge perfectionist and all.

Is leopard still supported from apple? Do you think there might be more updates or a 10.5.9? I wouldn't mind waiting to update but I don't want to be on an OS that isn't supported with security updates & bug fixes.

 

[Amdahl]

I'm shocked they even forget things in the factory version. I mean most companies I can understand, but at Apple, I would almost expect Jobs to test the new OS personally, with him being a huge perfectionist and all.

Ha ha. Guess they fooled ya!

Is leopard still supported from apple? Do you think there might be more updates or a 10.5.9? I wouldn't mind waiting to update but I don't want to be on an OS that isn't supported with security updates & bug fixes.

Apple does have some of the worst product support in the biz, but they do still do about 18 to 24 months of security support for an OS after it is replaced by a newer version.

 

[brasscat]

All I can say is "Wow!" I have never experienced anything like this. I wait until 10.6.1 is out, thinking that the system would be stable on my 2.4ghz Macbook Pro and yesterday, after installing SL and upgrading to 10.6.1 I have constant crashes in Safari and system crashes. I'm just flabbergasted.

I have Safari crashes all the time as well in SL. Other than that, never had a system crash. I reinstalled Flash and repaired permissions on the drive, and that seemed to reduce (not eliminate) the crashes.

 

[uraniumwilly]

I have Safari crashes all the time as well in SL. Other than that, never had a system crash. I reinstalled Flash and repaired permissions on the drive, and that seemed to reduce (not eliminate) the crashes.

I'm no longer experiencing any system crashes or Safari crashes. It's as if everything has sort-of settled in and the OS has made itself at home. The problems I had were within the first couple of hours and all (now that I'm in my 7th hour or so of SL computing) problems have disappeared.

So far, it's not anywhere near as bad as I thought things were.

 

[SolRayz]

As far as Safari is concerned, I get the occasional frozen screen, where you can't scroll up or down. I'm forced to close out. I do have the latest Glims installed.

I also get occasional beachballs with Safari, iTunes, and iPhoto in particular.

I did a clean install then restored from time machine.


edit: Forgot to add...it seems that I am incapable of changing the default app when opening certain file types. You assign it, check the "Always Open With" box, but it fails to default to the new app.