Snow Leopard Can Be Installed On Tiger Macs
Though users of older Intel-based Macs were led to believe they would have to spend $169 to migrate from Tiger to Snow Leopard, new reports state the $29 upgrade disc will work just fine. Apple Insider
So this is good news, right? I ordered my copy of 5, which will arrive tomorrow. My main computer is due for a wipe so I thought I’d just wait for Snow Leopard and get this done at the same time.
“For owners of Intel-based Macs who are still using the older Tiger version of the Mac OS, Apple is officially making Snow Leopard available only in a “boxed set” that includes other software and costs $169,” Mossberg said. “The reasoning is that these folks never paid the $129 back in 2007 to upgrade to Leopard. But here’s a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140.” Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal
Wired also confirmed that they were able to upgrade a system directly from Tiger to Snow Leopard. In addition, it is possible to completely erase a hard drive and install Snow Leopard without a pre-existing operating system in place, enabling users to bypass the possible headaches of an upgrade and go with a clean install instead. Wired said many users upgrading from Tiger should probably consider backing up their files from Tiger and doing a clean install instead. Apple Insider
So far news of upgrades state that they have been performed smoothly. Not all third party software is guaranteed to work. Do your research before upgrading.
Adobe, for example, has already stated that Creative Suite 3 has not been tested on Snow Leopard and may have compatibility issues. We were able to test Adobe Photoshop CS 3 on Snow Leopard and thus far have had no problems. We also tested QuickSilver, App Zapper, Adium, Tweetie and Evernote, and all seemed to work fine. But do some research and pretest on a nonproduction system if you’re concerned. Wired
Conclusion: Do not expect Earth shattering changes from Snow Leopard. You will see some minor interface changes, you will save some hard drive space but you mostly pay the $29 prize for performance improvements.
