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Will there be any disadvantage to staying with Snow Leopard?

P

Patrick946

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2009
163
0
I just bought a refurbished 13" 4GB Macbook Air, and I'm considering whether I should upgrade to Lion when it comes out. Aside from mission control/full screen apps, are there going to be any technical reasons why it would be a disadvantage to just stick with Snow Leopard? Will there be software/games that require Lion to run?

I'm happy with Snow Leopard, and the new features that I've seen don't look like they'd be worth $130 to me, so I'm wondering why I shouldn't just stay with what I have.
 
Any software that currently runs in Snow Leopard will run in future too. An update or new software may require a certain version of OS X but in general, they will keep supporting 10.6 as well. Most software still supports Leopard.

There could actually be a gain since it will take awhile for apps to be updated to gain support for Lion.
 
The only disadvantages will be lack of the new features and eventually lack of support off Apple and developers. Just as it is with all OS's.

Stick with Snow Leopard if it works for you. There is no obligation to upgrade to Lion unless you need any of the new features or need to run a program that is Lion only.
 
surely not $130

Patrick946 said:
I'm happy with Snow Leopard, and the new features that I've seen don't look like they'd be worth $130 to me, so I'm wondering why I shouldn't just stay with what I have.
Click to expand...

I can't believe that Apple will price this upgrade at $130. Perhaps it will be $30, like Leopard --> Snow Leopard.

At $130, based on features announced so far, the number of people "upgrading" will be approximately zero.
 
Probably not until software exists that is Lion only, which will be a long time. I still run Leopard happily on two of my machines. In fact I have only one SL machine and the only reason I upgraded was to use the Mac App Store.
 
slu said:
Probably not until software exists that is Lion only, which will be a long time. I still run Leopard happily on two of my machines. In fact I have only one SL machine and the only reason I upgraded was to use the Mac App Store.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what Apple is doing. Trying to force user to upgrade bit by bit. And one of these day, it will bite you.

I've just recently discovered that Leopard does not support the magic track pad. And some MobileMe features are not supported either.
 
Unless there's a specific Lion feature you want or an application that will require 10.7. There's no disadvantages to sticking with 10.6

Personally I prefer to wait a period of time before upgrading. Let others discover the bugs and issues.

In Lion's case, I'm not seeing any features that are very enticing for my needs. Apple has worked hard with 10.7 but their focus is to make it more iPad like. Hack even their preview page says as much. That doesn't really mean much to me so I'm content with 10.6
 
I actually think that Leopard was better than Snow Leopard, when considering Spaces and Exposé, and system stability. In Leopard I never had my system crash, log out, or reboot randomly for no apparent reason, while in SL these do happen to me very rarely.

There's no guarantee that Lion will be a better OS than SL, maybe it will actually be worse, for some people, depending on what you like.

I, for one, am definitely going to upgrade to Lion, as it has features that I am interested in. If it costs more than SL did, then I'll wait some time to collect the money, because I am not paying more than that for anything computer-related anytime soon.
 
maflynn said:
Personally I prefer to wait a period of time before upgrading. Let others discover the bugs and issues.
Click to expand...

In previous releases, the minor versions have been:

.0 release to the public
.1 fixes bugs found between creation of .0 golden master and actual .0 release to the public
.2 fixes major bugs found by the public immediately after .0 release

Therefore, IMO .3 is the first release worth taking a chance on installing.
 
Phantom Gremlin said:
In previous releases, the minor versions have been:

.0 release to the public
.1 fixes bugs found between creation of .0 golden master and actual .0 release to the public
.2 fixes major bugs found by the public immediately after .0 release

Therefore, IMO .3 is the first release worth taking a chance on installing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and sometimes .3 and .4 follow soon to fix things like jerky animations and glitches. An Apple OS truly becomes mature around .6 though.

I don't think I'm going to wait, I'll upgrade right away because I'm too excited, even though I'm aware of the inevitable bugs...
 
Snow Leopard took a few .x updates to be as solid as it is now. I don't remember how 10.5 and 10.4 were at the 10.x.0 level.
 
No. but all new OS features will go to Lion (only security updates for you) and you will pay double when it's time to upgrade to 10.8 Cougar/Mountain Lion.

I'm sticking with SL till 10.7.3.
 
Last edited:
daneoni said:
No. but all new OS features will go to Lion (only security updates for you) and you will pay double when it's time to upgrade to 10.8 Lynx or Bobcat.
Click to expand...

I personally can live with that, and to be honest the new OS features being showcased by apple have not really impressed me anyways. I mean its kind of sad to have as a major feature actual screen maximization and window resize from any corner being highlighted by apple when the competition has had that from the get go.
 
No arguments there for the most part but i actually like the new UI tweaks & Fonts, Open GL 3.2, Versions/Auto Save (huge if MS adopts this) and perhaps most important of all...the price.
 
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Phantom Gremlin said:
Patrick946 said:
I'm happy with Snow Leopard, and the new features that I've seen don't look like they'd be worth $130 to me, so I'm wondering why I shouldn't just stay with what I have.
Click to expand...

I can't believe that Apple will price this upgrade at $130. Perhaps it will be $30, like Leopard --> Snow Leopard.

At $130, based on features announced so far, the number of people "upgrading" will be approximately zero.
Click to expand...

Lion is only 30 dollars
 
Looking at it in a technical view, Snow Leopard in theory can be supported as long as Lion is. Lion is just Snow Leopard with an uglier UI and some gimmicky features. Also they get rid of normal expose in change for mission control and screw with the gestures so people who are comfortable with Snow Leopard gestures cannot get them back if you upgrade to Lion. Since Lion has no new internal things different from Snow Leopard, it should be supported as long as Lion. Therefore I am staying with Snow Leopard

However, Apple will find some way to screw Snow Leopard users in at least 2-3 years time.
 
Squicken said:
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Lion is only 30 dollars
Click to expand...

Which hasn't been in public knowledge when the posts you quoted were made.
 
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