Should You Upgrade to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6)?

Should You Upgrade to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6)?

2009 | August | 25 | 01:21 PM mountain time
SUMMARY

Apple released Mac OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard, on August 28, 2009. As with every major upgrade, the question must be asked: “Should I upgrade?”

BACKGROUND

Snow Leopard is unique in the history of Mac OS upgrades. It does not bring with it hundreds of new features. In fact, new features are not its purpose. Instead, Snow Leopard was designed as a major refinement to Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). Removing all of the legacy code that has been weighing the OS down since it’s introduction in 2000, making it fully 64-bit compliant, leaner, faster, and better able to utilize current and future hardware.


CONSIDERATIONS

When considering the question “should I upgrade?”, keep in mind the reasons to upgrade, and if they apply to you, your computer, and your working environment:
  • What is my intent in upgrading? Better performance, new or needed features, bug elimination, or?
  • Does the upgrade indeed bring these features or benefits that I want or need?
  • Will the upgrade allow me to perform other work that could otherwise not be done?
  • Will upgrading improve my productivity so that it pays for itself in an appropriate time frame (I typically use 3-6 months)?
  • Is the upgrade compatible with my computer, software, and working environment?
  • If the upgrade is not compatible, is it cost-effective to bring my computer, software, and working environment up to standards?
  • Does the upgrade bring bugs or issues that I don’t want, or are deal-killers?
Every IT environment is unique. However, the majority of users will find that upgrading to Snow Leopard will result in their computer functioning from 10-20% faster. Though your CPA will be happy to make your eyes glaze over with page upon page of mathematical cost/benefit analysis, I prefer to keep mine very simple. (Don’t you just love CPA’s? Who along with politicians helped get the world into the current financial mess). The equation I use is:

(Total Cost of Employee per Year)
X (Percentage of Time Employee Works on Computer)
X (Overall Performance Improvement Expected From Upgrade)
- (Labor and Parts Cost for Upgrade and Compatibility).


Please keep in mind that I am assuming your computer is the weak link in the productivity chain. If your employee can only type 5 words per minute - and their job is 100% typing - no amount of digital testosterone will improve your employee productivity.

Let’s use some mythical numbers:
  • John costs the company $100,000 per year (remember, this is your total cost to fill that seat, including salary, insurance, etc).
  • John works 50% of the time on the computer.
  • Snow Leopard is expected to make the computer 20% faster
  • The cost of the upgrade, including labor, upgrading RAM, and new applications is $2,500.
  • ($100,000 x 50% x 20%) - $2,500= $7,500 in productivity savings over a year. Does this make financial sense? Absolutely!

SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY

Verify that your necessary applications are compatible with the OS upgrade. A constantly updated compatibility listing may be found at http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/.


HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY

Running the 32- or 64-bit Kernel Startup Mode Selector utility will display if you have a 32- or 64-bit CPU and EFI, if your Kernel is set to boot in 32- or 64-bit mode, allows you to set Kernel boot mode, and provides all the information you want to know about the 64-bit Snow Leopard universe.




MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

In order to install Snow Leopard on your Macintosh, it must meet the following minimum requirements:

Apple General Requirements

  • Intel Processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 5GB free disk space
  • DVD
  • Photo Booth: iSight camera or USB video class camera or FireWire DV camcorder
  • Screen Sharing: 128Kbps Internet connection (300Kbps recommended)
  • DVD Player: 1.6 GHz Intel processor
  • iChat: Audio chat requires microphone and 56Kbps Internet connection
  • iChat: Video chats require iSight camera, USB video class camera, or FireWire DV camcorder, and a 128Kbps up and down Internet connection
  • MS Exchange Support: MS Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4
  • MS Exchange: Auto-setup requires enabling the Autodiscovery in Exchange Server
  • QuickTime X Movie Capture: iSight camera, USB video class camera, or FireWire DV camcorder
  • QuickTime H.264 Hardware Acceleration: NVIDIA 9400M graphics processor
  • 64-bit Support: 64-bit CPU
  • Grand Central Dispatch: Intel with multicore processor

“Real” Requirements

To get the most productivity from your upgrade, you may need to meet higher standards:

RAM. Though 1GB is the minimum, as always, more is better! I consider 2GB to be the real bare minimum, with 4GB being more realistic. Running Parallels or Fusion? Add in another 1-2GB. Of course if you are using Photoshop or other graphic applications, the sky is the limit.

Free Hard Disk Space. Though Apple states 5GB free, you must have a minimum of 15% free space after upgrading.

OpenCL allows your operating system to use your graphics cpu in addition to your motherboard cpu when it is not being used for other tasks (such as intense screen redraws with video games, or Photoshop rendering). To determine which video system your computer has:
1. Select the Apple Menu > About this Mac.
2. Click the “More info...” button.
3. From the Left-hand side bar select “Graphics/Displays”.
4. At the top of the Right-hand data field will be your video system:

The graphics/video systems that support OpenCL include:
  • NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, GeForce 9400M, GeForce 9600M Gt, GeForce 120, GeForce GT 130, ATI Radeon 4850, or a Radeon 4870 graphics card
The Mac models that came with OEM versions of these graphics cards include:
  • Mid-2007 and later MacBook Pro
  • Late 2008 and later MacBook
  • 2009 and later iMac
  • 2009 and later Mac Mini
  • 2009 and later Mac Pro
  • All Mac Pro model with an appropriate upgraded graphics card

Grand Central Dispatch allows your multi-core Intel Mac to make better, faster use of its multiple cores. Though the vast majority of Intel Macs do come with multi-core cpu’s, not all do. If your Mac has an Intel Core Solo, you may experience some performance improvement due to the cleaned up code of Snow Leopard, but you will not be able to take advantage of improved multi-core processing.

To determine if your Mac has a single- or multi-core cpu:
  1. Select the Apple menu > About this Mac...
  2. In the About this Mac window, check to see your cpu model:



64-Bit Support. Snow Leopard can now fully support 64-bit processing, which means that your computer has almost unlimited access to memory. But for Snow Leopard to be able to process in 64-bit, instead of 32-bit mode, it must have a 64-bit cpu. In the Intel world, this mandates at least a Core 2 Duo cpu, and not a Core Solo or a Core Duo. These Mac’s include:

  • Mac Pro
  • Xserve
  • MacBook Pro 2007 or later
  • MacBook 2007 or later
  • iMac 2007 or later
  • Mac Mini Late 2007 or later

WHAT IF YOUR MAC MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS?

With more than a year in the field, it appears Snow Leopard is a solid winner, and will provide a needed performance boost. I’m giving it a tentative two thumbs way up.


WHAT IF YOUR MAC DOESN’T MEET THE REQUIREMENTS?

I’m a huge believe in replacing your computers every 9-11 months if the computer is, or is part of, a profit center. Every minute such a computer slows you down, it costs you money.

If you do have a “production” computer, and it doesn’t meet the requirements for Snow Leopard, it makes complete sense to sell it for what you can and purchase a new system. In the financial exercise at the beginning of this article we realized a $7,500 savings with only a 20% performance improvement. If your Macintosh is three or more years old, it is very likely you will realize a 100-400% performance improvement with a new computer. If you can’t make that pay for itself in three months, time to change careers!



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