snow leopard Options

[drinksmokefuck]

for a bunch of mac users on this site, was quite surprised to find out there wasn't a topic on this already, anyways, its coming out tomorrow, only $30, new 64-bit, new quicktime, new finder, stacker, etc etc

so who else is getting it

[heyo-captain-jac...]

No, it's a service pack in the sense that Vista SP1 was a service pack for Vista.

Also joseph, I can install Vista SP2 over Windows 3.1 if I want. That doesn't make Vista SP2 a service pack for Windows 3.1

[mipadi]

No, it's a service pack in the sense that Vista SP1 was a service pack for Vista.

Um, no. I don't think technologies like Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL are minor (service pack-type) updates, and those two technologies alone are probably worth about $30. A complete 64-bit rewrite of most of the core OS is a pretty big upgrade, too.

Besides, how would you know whether Snow Leopard is a "service pack" or not? You're not even a Mac user. By that I mean that updated items in Snow Leopard might appear minor, but are actually pretty important. For example, OS X has long had a feature called Services that is awesome in concept, but not implemented very well. It got a pretty big upgrade in Snow Leopard that is also (arguably) worth $30, at least to some people. But if you're not familiar with Mac OS X, it might not seem like a big deal when you see it in a list of updates. Neither would the Cocoa rewrite of the Finder, but that's a pretty big deal.

Plus, if the reports on the performance increases in Snow Leopard are true, that's no minor update, either.

On the other hand, let's look at the improvements Vista had over XP:

1. New user interface
2. Better 64-bit support
3. Security enhancements

And...that's about it. Vista didn't even include the planned WinFS feature (does Windows 7 even include WinFS?). Yet I consider Vista to be a wholly separate version of Windows, as do most people. So yes, I stand by my claim that Snow Leopard is a service pack in the same sense that Vista is a service pack -- which is to say it's not.