In my opinion when installing a new OS the only way to go is to clean install. This requires a wipe of the entire hard drive which is effort, but can save you countless GB’s of wasted space full of temporary system files that have built up. With this in mind you add the 7GB’s that Snow Leopard promises to save you, I managed to save 20GB’s of space!
Snow Leopard contains no headline new features, but instead offers refinements to existing features and some of these refinements are as small as animation in the spaces navigator; it now slides along with you as you move from space to space (shown right) an other example is the dark menus in the dock, this are just small Ui changes but make Snow Leopard just that bit nicer to use.
Other updates have been more widely publicised such as the new Exposé which not only works from the dock but puts the windows into a grid pattern to help organisation. The addition of a signal strength indicator for all the wifi hotspots around you has also been popularly discussed. One of my favourite new features is the upgraded services menu which is now contextual. I feel services has always been undervalued but with its new design it really makes it much easier for the user.
On the matter of compatibility the only things that I seem to have had any difficultly with are Dropbox and 1Password, everything els seems to be working fine. Everything I use on a day to day basis works fine, even CS3. http://snowleopard.wikidot.com offers a list of all the compatible software they have tested in Snow Leopard, so you can check anything you want. One other incompatibility thing I have come across is when I try to install the FLIQLO screensaver I get a popup saying it can’t be installed. Other software that seems to work fine but has a few quirks are things like Growl and other 32bit preferences which requires Preferences to restart in a 32bit mode before you can access it.
In my opinion Snow Leopard is stable enough and well worth the upgrade. Even from an end user point of view the speed, space and general fresh feel you get from the new OS is worth the £25.
