Snow Leopard

I’ve successfully updated the first of my three Mac computers to Snow Leopard with no issues (so far). Snow Leopard was released on Friday, August 28th. I ordered my copy directly from Apple because they said it would ship to arrive on the 28th. The FedEx delivery man handed it t me and said, “Not sure what this is, but I’m delivering the same package all over town today, there are tons of them.” I told him it was the new Apple operating system and that I wasn’t surprised. He didn’t really seem to care much what it was. It was just making his day much busier, that’s all he seemed to care about.

I immediately upgraded my MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.16 GHz, 3GB memory). When I do a full fledged OS update I always follow this procedure:

1. Back up all information, data and files on the computer that I need.
2. Reformat the hard drive, which wipes it completely clean
3. Install the new operating system on the “brand new” hard drive
4. Reinstall up to date versions all of the programs I use
5. Reload any information, data or files I need.
6.  Run Disk Utility, check the hard drive and repair permissions.

I’ve always found this to be the best way to install a major upgrade of the operating system. It may be overkill for some folks, but it works for me. Sure, it takes a lot longer but there are several very important reasons I do this:

1. It allows me to really clean up my computer, getting rids of lots of programs, files and other things I’m not really using anymore.
2. I don’t like the idea of “upgrading” an old operating system to a new one. I much prefer to simply install the new operating system clean.

Since my MacBook Pro is my “second” computer it’s much easier to upgrade. I have basically the same programs installed as on my Mac Pro, but I don’t have any real info stored on my laptop. So, there’s not a lot to back up before doing the upgrade. Things went very smoothly. I got Snow Leopard installed and then spent most of the day reinstalling my programs. It’s important to remember to “deauthorize” any programs that require authorization. For me that’s mostly the Adobe Design suite and Peak Pro.

Bottom line: everything seems to be working perfectly. Next up is my Mac Pro, which will be a little bit bigger of a job.