On our second try, the OS installed perfectly on our test machine and no files were harmed. Fortunately the new installer is designed for safely reinstalling the OS in the event you encounter any hiccups during your initial installation. Mostly we had no problems, but on one test machine we needed to reinstall the OS when it had trouble rebooting. The default setting installs Snow Leopard without tampering with any of your saved files, music, photos, or documents. On our test machine, the process took about an hour, including two automatic restarts. Installation of Snow Leopard is dead simple and (according to Apple) up to 45 percent faster than Leopard using a newly designed installer that asks only one question during the process. Unfortunately, for those on PowerPC systems, Snow Leopard only works with Intel Macs. Snow Leopard is offered on a single install disk-there are no separate, tiered pricing structures to worry about-and you're getting every feature and technical enhancement available in a single install. Finally you will be able to connect with Exchange Servers (without using Microsoft's Entourage), but only if your company is using Microsoft Exchange 2007 many still aren't. The user interface and everyday tasks feel faster in general, although we didn't notice a substantive improvement in application performance.Įven if you're not a current Leopard user, the $169 package that includes Snow Leopard, iLife, and iWork is a steal for the system upgrade and two of Apple's major software suites, not to mention the long-pined-after inclusion of Microsoft Exchange compatibility. Hidden among smaller tweaks are some technical improvements that result in a smoother, easier-to-use Leopard with plenty for Mac fans to be excited about.

Apple is careful to point out that Snow Leopard isn't a complete system overhaul, but rather a collection of hundreds of smaller refinements to make Leopard run more gracefully.

Sneaking in a few days before its promised September release, the tune-up for Mac OS X Leopard costs $29 for current Leopard users, and packs just enough punch to be worth your money.

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