Just wrapped up the Snow Leopard (10.6) install while I was whipping up a dish for a work potluck tomorrow. I’m recording my impressions as I have them.
Install and Login
- The install process is a little different, at least for the upgrade from 10.5.8. The first 10-15 minutes of the install occurred before the first reboot, followed by the normal, expected Installer after rebooting.
- The install seemed rather quick. Nick called it at about an hour an a half. Seemed about right to me, give or take 10 min.
- I love the new login screen default background. It’s like Leopard’s default background, but better. Very cool.
- First login takes a little while. I’m not concerned, just sayin’.
- Modified version of 10.5’s Welcome Video. It’s interesting how thorough they were with the “Leopard, but better” theme.
- Man. My CandyBar‘d dock is gone.
- Things do seem a bit snappier. Might be kool-aid, though.
- What. Screenshots are no longer saved as “Picture 1.png,” “Picture 2.png,” but as “Screenshot [Date] [Time].png.” So simple, but such a vast improvement.
System Preferences
- Turned on the Translucent menu bar. It’s much less translucent. Maybe 90% opaque?
- My screensaver, Wordclock, doesn’t work. Hoping that gets updated quickly.
- Exposé Preference Pane has the Hot Corners settings in it, now. That kind-of makes sense. (Apparently this was the case in later versions of 10.5, too. It still only kind-of makes sense)
- I never really used Spaces much. I’ll leave that to more qualified people to talk about.
- New setting in Security for when to require the password after sleep or screen saver activation. Nice addition.
- HA. Energy Saver says “Battery condition: Replace soon. Battery is charged.” Just got the quote, today. Thanks, Ben.
- New “Keyboard & Character Viewer” menubar item. Interesting.
- Keyboard Shortcuts tab in the KB preference pane is totally redone. Makes -much- more sense, now.
- Mouse pane looks a lot different. Don’t have a mouse here, but I’ll follow up on this tomorrow.
- New clock in the Date & Time preference pane. Meh. It’s rather busy.
- New Time Zone map, too, with imagery from NASA. That’s kind of cool. New feature to automatically set the time zone based on your current location. I assume this is done by public IP address, but I don’t know for sure. If so, it’ll be inaccurate in some environments.
- Option for an analog clock in the menubar. ♥.
- Wait. I got notifications, earlier. Growl works. Mmmmm.
Dock
- Software Update showed up when I opened iTunes. Apparently it’s for updates to ARD Client, Aperture, and some Ricoh printers.
- I didn’t notice at first, but there are new folder icons. They’re beautiful, and very similar to the Leopard system replacement icons I was using. A huge improvement over 10.5’s default iconset, even though the Application, Documents, Downloads folders are still low-contrast.
- New dock menus. I’m going to have to take some time getting used to these before I form an opinion on them. They’re a dramatic departure.
- Nice change in big stacks: If a stack is set to grid, even if you have more items than the grid can display, the stack stays in grid view. You can use the keyboard, mouse, or trackpad to scroll through the grid. Very welcome improvement.
Applications
- Stickies still sucks.
- Ah, yes. The new Quicktime icon. Quicktime 10 is full of welcome improvements. Recording is built in, instead of bundled with a “Pro” version. Includes screencasts. Nice.
- Mail.app needed to upgrade my mail DB on the first open. Took no time at all on my tiny inbox. Mail.app itself seems very quick. The real test will come tomorrow when I add my office Exchange account.
- Mail.app doesn’t work with GrowlMail anymore. Too bad.
- iChat now has icons to identify bots. Rad.
- iChat also now has a “Send SMS” menu item. It’s been a feature of iChat for a long time, but they’re finally advertising it. Nice.
- Chax is broken. Not the end of the world, it was causing some issues in 10.5, so I’m not terribly upset.
There’s a few things that I need to spend more time with to cover. Specifically, Services, Exchange in iCal and Mail.app, and the changes to dock menus. You’ll hear more as I sort it out.