Helpful hints for Mac users whining and moaning about Snow Leopard
It’s just SO UNFAIR!
Earlier today, Apple took its store down for two hours to add a single product (see How to update your online store, the Apple way for more on that) and, when it returned, large, white cats were everywhere. Yes, Apple had announced that Mac OS X 10.6—Snow Leopard—will start shipping on August 28. And already, Mac users and journos are right behind the company, whining about various things, and so here are three helpful tips.
1. Calling Snow Leopard a ‘service pack’ makes you look stupid
Mac OS X 10.6 has few show-stopping features as far as end-users are concerned—there’s no Quick Look or Spotlight equivalent—but it has plenty to offer. Under the hood, huge chunks of the system have been gutted and rewritten. You’ll get several GB of hard drive space back (great for laptop users), a machine that’ll be faster (meaning this update is like getting a newer Mac for naff-all outlay), Exchange support, and great refinements, such as Dock Exposé.
This is a major upgrade, not a bug-fix, and I suspect only the fact most of the changes are transparent to end users stopped Apple charging full-whack for it.
2. Complaining about the ‘upgrade’ price makes you look stupid
Do you Tiger users really think Apple was going to let you leapfrog Leopard and update to Snow Leopard for £25/$29? If so, you really are crazy. [Update: Wired confirmed Snow Leopard will install right over Tiger, although this possibly breaches the EULA.] And for everyone whining about how Apple’s ‘forcing’ Tiger users to upgrade via a ‘hellishly expensive’ box-set that includes software they don’t need (the £129/$169 Mac Box Set bundles Snow Leopard, iLife and iWork), here’s a tip: buy Leopard instead.
Seriously—it really is that simple. Stop moaning about evil Apple, and nip over to Amazon and grab Leopard (at the time of writing, $93 in the USA and £69 in the UK) along with Snow Leopard, and you’ll be spared the horrors of the Mac Box Set, with all its iLife and iWork goodness, you poor dears.
3. Complaining that you just got a new Mac two days ago and so it’s SO UNFAIR that Apple’s releasing Snow Leopard right now and WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH makes you look stupid
Apple runs Up To Date, giving anyone who grabbed a Mac since June 8 the chance to upgrade for £7.95/$9.95, if they bother to fill in and send an order form within 90 days of buying their Mac. Moan about this and the Mac Box Set and call Snow Leopard a service pack and we hear Steve Jobs himself will come round to your house and punch you in the face—twice if you’re British and rattle on about exchange rate injustices.
This has been a Revert to Saved public service announcement. As you were.
How US$29 becomes £25 is beyond my maths. But ok.
Three cheers for you, Craig. I’m also fed up with boards littered with moans and whines from ignorant, self-centred b4st4rds huffing and puffing about how unfair Apple is. Life (and Apple) isn’t a charity. Pay the money and be happy about it. It’s not as if you’re getting nothing in return.
Pure genius as per usual. Excellent points.
“Do you Tiger users really think Apple was going to let you leapfrog Leopard and update to Snow Leopard for £25/$29? If so, you really are crazy.”
*sniff*
@Gui – It doesn’t, but it’s not far off. Knock VAT off the UK price and you get £21.25. Sterling’s been mostly trading between $1.50 and $1.60, so Apple’s likely using a rate around $1.50 so it doesn’t get stung. Using that, $29 = £19.33. We’re getting ripped off to the tune of two whole pounds.
@Neil – It’s amazing. Every time Apple issues prices, the rip-off brigade come out in force. Never mind the fact Apple’s one of the best US companies when it comes to setting prices. Just compare to Sony or to Wacom’s ‘switch the dollar for a pound sign’ policy. Hell, look at Adobe, where at one point Sterling prices were higher than dollars when compared like-for-like, let alone when exchange rates were taken into account!
@Rob – Wear your crazy hat with pride, sir!
Maybe not so crazy… The word seems to be that the ‘upgrade’ actually is a regular version (i.e. installs fine over Tiger.) Which would explain the ambiguous phrasing in the Apple Store.
According to Wired, Snow Leopard installs fine on any Intel Mac, but doing so does breach the EULA. Ultimately, I doubt Apple will be too concerned if it sells millions of copies of Snow Leopard, though.
The EULA thing seems to be an assumption, with nobody quoting it anywhere I can see. Even still, the news has turned me away from thinking “I can’t justify £130, so off I go to the torrent sites,” back towards, “I’ll get the proper DVD for £23 off Amazon.”
Seems like a wise move: people concerned about doing things ultra ‘properly’ will get the box set, whilst some people who would otherwise pirate a copy will throw them the £25. For once, possible evidence of an understanding that an all-or-nothing, ultra-protective approach to licensing doesn’t necessarily protect revenue (indeed, here the relaxed attitude will make them more money.)
they are forcing you to buy sh!t you don’t want when upgrading from tiger. how can apple fanboys dispute this. i don’t want or need iWork why should i buy it. secondly why should i need to buy an old OS just to get it. you are the one that looks stupid. that is a work around that still cost too much. THE POINT IS WE SHOULD NOT NEED A WORK AROUND. APPLE KNOW WHAT PEOPLE NEED BUT DONT GIVE IT TO THEM. they see it as another opportunity to get unsurspecting consumers’ money. stop defending them.
common sense solution would be offer iLife S/L bundle. you obviously lack this. “it really is that simple”
@gcolley: First, no-one is forcing anything. I don’t see Jobs coming round to people’s houses, pointing a gun at their face and yelling “BUY SNOW LEOPARD!”
As for “why should i need to buy an old OS just to get it,” technically, you don’t have to. Snow Leopard will install right over Tiger. Of course, you’ll break the EULA, but given that you like typing in SHOUTY CAPS, I’m sure that won’t bother you too much.
As for ‘defending’ Apple, I think that’s fair enough in this instance. Apple could easily have released Snow Leopard as a standard upgrade, but, for the first time since 10.1, it gave users a break. It gave them a rewritten OS for 25 quid, _if_ they’d bought the previous version. But this is how upgrades usually work anyway. You don’t get to leap from Photoshop 5 to CS4. Similarly, Apple’s saying you don’t (officially) get to leap from Tiger to Snow Leopard.
I agree with this article. If you don’t like the upgrade then don’t. I have SL and it’s F**king amazing. The only people that will suffer is the bunch that use hack gear and old apps from the powerpc days. Things move on I’m afraid and most of the moaning is from people who are stuck in the past. And common…£29 for an upgrade that’s nothing compared to what the windows people will be paying for there new system 7s.
Bottom line is get rid of a lot old stuff that runs on rossetta don’t overwrite, do a clean install and if don’t have a load a junk apps on your system it will blow your socks off
[…] to Add – I could just follow the advice of this slightly bitchy blog post and upgrade to Leopard now and Snow Leopard on Friday. Saves forty […]