Hello,

I'm thinking of getting Snow Leopard for my beloved Mac Mini..

I noticed it's £25 from apple, for the upgrade DVD. My question is, are there different kinds of DVDs? I mean, is there one that's an upgrade (needs OSX 10.5 to be already on your Mac), and one that does need anything already on your Mac?

Thanks.

See:

http://store.apple.com/uk/question/answers/product/MC223Z/A?mco=MTI3NTI2MTc&pqid=QXHD2FHKHP97Y2T94UXDCK99UH4CAXTHC

Thanks Graham.

Looks like the upgrade makes more sense; just a bit worried if I upgrade, then later need to reformat and install snow-leopard (would need to install leopard first etc).

Maybe I'm still thinking like a windows user!?..

What's peoples' experiences with snow leopard been like? Stable? Applications all work ok?

The link provided answers your question but to expand upon it you can, as it implies, illegally upgrade from Tiger according to sources I've read - though whether you'd have to do a clean install I don't know. (In the latter case you wouldn't get the extras such as iLife which came with your Mac mini though you might, just might, be able to install them from the system discs which came with it.) I've got five Macs - three PowerPC and two Intel - all running Tiger and have just bought the Leopard Family Pack to upgrade them all with the plan to move the Intel boxes onto Snow Leopard once it settles down. (So, at my "late adopting" rate that'll be in two years' time!) If you want to play the white man and get Leopard - i.e. because you don't have it installed - you'll need to shop around as (annoyingly) it's no longer produced. Beware of rogue traders if you do - I seeing the Family Pack being sold well above the £125-ish RRP/SRP on one site - I paying just £69.99.

As for compatibility... this (http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/) is one of the best sources.

I've already got Leopard, came with the Mini. So upgrade would probably do fine for me.

I'm a bit concerned with application compatibility though! Maybe, upgrading to Snow Leopard isn't something to jump in to so quickly; though I like the idea of the OS making better use of dual core CPU's etc.

Thanks once again both of you for the info and advice. :)

I'm a bit concerned with application compatibility though! Maybe, upgrading to Snow Leopard isn't something to jump in to so quickly; though I like the idea of the OS making better use of dual core CPU's etc.



I updated the day after release and only have 1 ongoing software issue - Fission from Rogue Amoeba crashes on save - but I don't really need that so I'm not too concerned.

Everything else, CS4, Lightroom, Aperture, Open Office, Firefox, Vienna, Skype, Skitch, Visual Hub, Spotify, Audio Hijack Pro, Dropbox, Audio Scrobbler, Little Snitch, Clam, Mailplane, VLC etc all work - so long as you update to the latest versions when prompted.

watch out for this though

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/12/snow_leopard_data_eating_bug/

Remember ALWAYS have a back up!

I saw the above elsewhere but thought it best to keep quiet lest the Mac haters kick off. (It's things like this which make early adopters rue the day.) The bit...

"I had 250GB of data without backup and I lost everything: years and years of documents, pictures, video, music!!! Is it possible to recover something? Please help me!!!!"

...is priceless - and the answer is: "No, mate, you deserve it for being such an idiot and not taking a backup." (You've got to laugh.) Then again s/he could try the Data Rescue application - well-regarded by those in the know.

Yip - the guy who lost all his data and didn't have a back up is a moron who has learned a harsh lesson. What a bellend.

It also seems only to happen in a bizzare set of circumstances involving Guest Accounts and updates.

This is why we have Time Machine!

Just curious, can we use Time Machine on a normal external HD?

Hello,

I'm thinking of getting Snow Leopard for my beloved Mac Mini..

I noticed it's £25 from apple, for the upgrade DVD. My question is, are there different kinds of DVDs? I mean, is there one that's an upgrade (needs OSX 10.5 to be already on your Mac), and one that does need anything already on your Mac?

Thanks.

If you bought your Mac Mini recently then you can get a free upgrade to SL (though you have to pay postage).

Just curious, can we use Time Machine on a normal external HD?

This (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427) tells you.

Just curious, can we use Time Machine on a normal external HD?

Yes - just plug in any USB External Drive.