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upgrade to snow leopard or wait for Lion?

Fank

Fank

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 27, 2009
86
1
OH USA
I know Lion is due sometime this summer.

I have 3 imacs and finally have some dollars to upgrade Leopard. Do I buy Snow Leopard now or wait for Lion? Anyone know if I'll be able to upgrade to Lion at a discount if I upgrade to Snow Leopard now?

Planning on getting the 'family pack' option (myself, wife, daughter) for Snow Leopard, and then again for Lion if that's still available.
 
Fank said:
I know Lion is due sometime this summer.

I have 3 imacs and finally have some dollars to upgrade Leopard. Do I buy Snow Leopard now or wait for Lion? Anyone know if I'll be able to upgrade to Lion at a discount if I upgrade to Snow Leopard now?

Planning on getting the 'family pack' option (myself, wife, daughter) for Snow Leopard, and then again for Lion if that's still available.
Click to expand...

It depends on your needs:

If you need stability I would go with Snow Leopard because people who want to be first in line end-up waiting around while things get repaired. So Lion may be around the corner but you can guarantee it will have bugs and potentially even really irritating ones, or data destroying ones.

Personally I intend to buy Lion when it comes out but thats me and I always keep at least one computer on a stable version of the OS (ie not new release).

Cheers
 
Thanks for the replies.

Am leaning toward getting Snow Leopard family pack, and wait for Lion to go through a few upgrades before buying that.
 
Lion might be cheaper if you get it through the Mac App Store, for which you need Snow Leopard. This is pure speculation though, only based on the fact that Aperture is so much cheaper in the App Store.
 
I have upgraded to Snow Leopard during the first week and I regret it later as it was full of bugs.

Right now I it really stable so I think you should better go for SL and wait for 10.7.2-3 before you upgrade.
 
clientsiman said:
I have upgraded to Snow Leopard during the first week and I regret it later as it was full of bugs.

Right now I it really stable so I think you should better go for SL and wait for 10.7.2-3 before you upgrade.
Click to expand...

That's what I've done, installing on daughter's imac as I post. Two of the imacs are older models and I'm not sure how compatible they'll be with Lion (not system requirements, os issues).

I get the feeling I'd have to buy trackpads for the other two imacs to fully appreciate using Lion. The newest imac I have is the 21.5" that came with a Magic Mouse.

After buying an ipad2, I've jumped into the world of touch screen for the first time and see where things seem to be going.

Very curious what kind of imacs will come out after Lion is established.
 
Well system requirements are also important. Some are saying lion might be 64 bit only. You might not be able to even install lion if the old imacs are old and core duo (32 bit only) instead of core 2 duo (64 bit).

And if you don't have 10.5 already installed then you have to pay full price for snow leopard so it won't be the cheap 30-50 dollar package. Not without cheating.

So might as well wait for lion. Other wise if you have 10.5 already then it is 30 dolalrs for snow leopard. Or 50 for family pack.
 
Wait until Lion. Snow Leopard doesn't really have anything different to Leopard, unless you need something that's specifically only compatible with Snow Leopard (Scrolling with Inertia, and stuff like that maybe).

I personally don't find SL any faster or more stable than Leopard, I'm actually having slightly more issue with it than Leopard. Don't pay for a minor OS upgrade that you would only use for 3 months.
 
ivnj said:
Well system requirements are also important. Some are saying lion might be 64 bit only. You might not be able to even install lion if the old imacs are old and core duo (32 bit only) instead of core 2 duo (64 bit).

And if you don't have 10.5 already installed then you have to pay full price for snow leopard so it won't be the cheap 30-50 dollar package. Not without cheating.

So might as well wait for lion. Other wise if you have 10.5 already then it is 30 dolalrs for snow leopard. Or 50 for family pack.
Click to expand...

Speaking of system requirements - the old imacs are core 2 duo, but limited in how much ram can be installed. My new 21.5 imac had 4, I got 4 more from OWC (for $50) so it now has 8 gigs of ram - enough for a long time I hope. I use Creative Suite, so wanted to make sure it could handle it.

But it's my understanding that the old core 2 duos can't handle more than 2-3 gigs of ram. I have 2.5 in both of them. Thought that might be a limiting factor.
 
32 bit can only handle 2gb of ram. 64 bit can handle more. But MAC OS X I don't think handles more than 3 or 4 gb of ram.
 
ivnj said:
32 bit can only handle 2gb of ram. 64 bit can handle more. But MAC OS X I don't think handles more than 3 or 4 gb of ram.
Click to expand...

Any Intel chip from the Core 2 series to present has been a 64-bit chip (with only a few exceptions, but afaik, apple never used those chips) Also, to the extent I know, any mac from late 2008 to present can handle at least 6GB of RAM or more.
 
MRiOS said:
Any Intel chip from the Core 2 series to present has been a 64-bit chip (with only a few exceptions, but afaik, apple never used those chips) Also, to the extent I know, any mac from late 2008 to present can handle at least 6GB of RAM or more.
Click to expand...

Two of the imacs I would be upgrading are the 'blonde' core 2 duos (one 17", one 20"), and the last time I read up on it they can't take more than 3 gigs of ram, unless that later changed.

I have an early aluminum (2 ghz) core 2 duo, (Model Identifier: iMac7,1) and didn't know it could take more than 3 gigs of ram either - guess I'll have to look into that, as I would up it to 4 if that will work, and possibly run OK with Lion.

Am still under the impression that when Lion comes out, I will wish I had faster imacs than the 2 'blonde' imacs to run it, so I believe I made an OK decision to shell out a mere $50 to upgrade 3 imacs to Snow Leopard.


Edit: just checked here -
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/Intel_Core_2_Duo

and apparently my aluminum imac can handle 6; news to me.

OWC suggests that up to 6 gigs of ram can be put in the older imacs also; but I checked here also http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/stats/imac-core-2-duo-2.16-20-inch-specs.html and they state that 'officially' they can only fully use 3 gigs of ram and the most they can handle is 4. Was there a firmware update that increased the ram capability in the (5,1) blonde core 2 duos?
 
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Why didn't you bought a $29 Snow Leopard DVD (Well, or the Family Pack) in August 2009 in the first place? :rolleyes:

Snow Leopard is an update to Leopard, everybody (who doesn't have a PPC Mac) should have installed it the day it came out.

I would HIGHLY recommend against install Snow Leopard now - as you would probably install Lion after the 10.8 announcement then.
 
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Giuly said:
Why didn't you bought a $29 Snow Leopard DVD (Well, or the Family Pack) in August 2009 in the first place? :roll eyes:

Snow Leopard is an update to Leopard, everybody (who doesn't have a PPC Mac) should have installed it the day it came out.

I would HIGHLY recommend against install Snow Leopard now - as you would probably install Lion after the 10.8 announcement then.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the useful information.
:rolleyes:
 
"I have 3 imacs and finally have some dollars to upgrade Leopard. Do I buy Snow Leopard now or wait for Lion?"

Perhaps the most important question to ask yourself is:
Will you need the ability to run PowerPC-based applications, or no?

Snow Leopard includes the "Rosetta" technology which enables the OS to run older applications (such as Quicken) that are written in PowerPC code.

Lion DOES NOT (at least, at this stage of the game) include Rosetta, lets it fall by the wayside. So the ONLY apps you will be able to run on Lion will be "Intel only" or "universal binary" (apps that contain both Intel and PowerPC code).

There are still a number of well-used applications out there that were never upgraded to even the "universal binary" stage, and simply won't run under Lion.

You might consider doing an "inventory of your PowerPC apps" on your existing trio of iMacs.

I think you can check this by opening the System Profiler app (in the utilities folder) and clicking on the "Applications" (on the left). On the right, it should list the apps on each machine, and should indicate what kind of code they're written in.

If you find that you still have important apps that are PowerPC only, Snow Leopard might actually be the "better buy", at least for now.
 
Fishrrman said:
"I have 3 imacs and finally have some dollars to upgrade Leopard. Do I buy Snow Leopard now or wait for Lion?"

Perhaps the most important question to ask yourself is:
Will you need the ability to run PowerPC-based applications, or no?

Snow Leopard includes the "Rosetta" technology which enables the OS to run older applications (such as Quicken) that are written in PowerPC code.

Lion DOES NOT (at least, at this stage of the game) include Rosetta, lets it fall by the wayside. So the ONLY apps you will be able to run on Lion will be "Intel only" or "universal binary" (apps that contain both Intel and PowerPC code).

There are still a number of well-used applications out there that were never upgraded to even the "universal binary" stage, and simply won't run under Lion.

You might consider doing an "inventory of your PowerPC apps" on your existing trio of iMacs.

I think you can check this by opening the System Profiler app (in the utilities folder) and clicking on the "Applications" (on the left). On the right, it should list the apps on each machine, and should indicate what kind of code they're written in.

If you find that you still have important apps that are PowerPC only, Snow Leopard might actually be the "better buy", at least for now.
Click to expand...

Thank you for an informative response.

By the way, Adobe sent me an email a few weeks ago, that as an owner of Photoshop Elements 8, I could get CS5 Photoshop full version for $400 off, but had to act by April 4th. Couldn't pass that up.

My decision is already made as I bought the family pack Snow Leopard at Best Buy; I will wait until Lion is out so I can further scrutinize what effect it will have on what I do on my Macs.

Thanks for all the input pro and con concerning going with SL or Lion.
 
Steps to ensure you can use lion

Ensure you don't have any Major PowerPC Apps as well as have a Core 2 Duo CPU or newer. If you have all of those, I recommend waiting. Otherwise, upgrade now
 
Fank said:
Thank you for an informative response.

By the way, Adobe sent me an email a few weeks ago, that as an owner of Photoshop Elements 8, I could get CS5 Photoshop full version for $400 off, but had to act by April 4th. Couldn't pass that up.

My decision is already made as I bought the family pack Snow Leopard at Best Buy; I will wait until Lion is out so I can further scrutinize what effect it will have on what I do on my Macs.

Thanks for all the input pro and con concerning going with SL or Lion.
Click to expand...
There was no Pro Snow Leopard. There was only Con Lion, namely if you have PPC applications or a Mac running a non 64Bit-capable Core Solo/Core Duo.

As stated earlier, I'd have waited. You ended up now A) using Snow Leopard for the next ~2 month and then upgrade to Lion while pretty much flushing $50 down because you'll have to buy both or B) you stay with Snow Leopard for the next three years, waiting for 10.8 to be released while only seeing the cool Lion stuff on screen shots and youtube.
If you're on a short budget, it would have made more sense to go C) wait and get Lion.
You know, the Osborne effect and that kind of stuff.
Wikipedia said:
When done correctly the sales or cash flow impact to the company is minimal as the revenue drop for the current product is replaced by orders or completed sales of the new product as it becomes available.
Click to expand...
 
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Giuly said:
Why didn't you bought a $29 Snow Leopard DVD (Well, or the Family Pack) in August 2009 in the first place? :rolleyes:

Snow Leopard is an update to Leopard, everybody (who doesn't have a PPC Mac) should have installed it the day it came out.

I would HIGHLY recommend against install Snow Leopard now - as you would probably install Lion after the 10.8 announcement then.
Click to expand...

Snow Leopard also sucked until around 10.6.5 - graphic driver problems, guest user issues, all sorts of funky things. It was a good thing he waited.
 
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