More like Slow Leopard (snicker, snicker)

A little while ago I made a post about Snow Leopard and how users shouldn’t fall for Apple’s scam and buy a much more expensive version than they really need.

Well, I’m back with another Snow Leopard post.

If you plan on upgrading, do not under any circumstances do so without wiping your drive clean first. If you go the upgrade route, you may very well find yourself in the same position I and many, many other upgraders found themselves in: With a neutered computer where the internet connection has slowed to a crawl, where the DVD burner no longer can burn new discs, where certain applications stop working, where some expansion cards inside your Mac stop working, and with system crashes making you so paranoid you set the autosave feature of your favourite program to save every 3 minutes.

I know, I know, it’s silly to do a system upgrade without starting from scratch. It’s a rule I’ve always obeyed and should’ve obeyed this time around. I didn’t for two reasons:

1) It’s a Mac. I’ve heard, read and been told that Macs are different. That you don’t need to format the drive for upgrades. That you don’t need to restart the computer after installing a new program. Blah, blah, blah.

2) I was in the middle of a project and couldn’t afford the downtime, but I needed the upgrade to get a new plugin package to work.

So I took the plunge.

After a month of discovering annoyance after annoyance I decided to take the time and do it right. Only, since Apple’s removed the “Erase and Install” options from Snow Leopard, reportedly to protect users from accidentally erasing all their data, I had to first figure out how to do it.

After some searching online I found out it’s pretty straight forward. Here’s how:

1. Backup everything
2. Put the Snow Leopard disc in your DVD drive
3. Reboot the Mac.
4. At the beginning of the new boot, hold down the C key on your keyboard
5. Once you see the loading wheel (not the rainbow coloured one, but the black bars) you can release the C
6. After a few moments the computer will boot from the Snow Leopard install DVD
7. From the menu bar at the top, select Utilities->Disc Utility
8. Using the Disc Utility, erase your hard drive
9. Quit Disc Utility when the erase is complete
10. Proceed with the install of Snow Leopard. It should take maybe 30 minutes.

If you need more hand-holding than the above provides, you can check out this article:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/mac-platform/articles/48174.aspx

Opera 10 (or: the first browser with Turbo mode)

I’ve been using Opera as my internet browser for a while now, and I really like it. By far the best thing about Opera has always been its speed. It’s faster than both IE and Firefox, and that’s without the kind of tweaking that Firefox requires to optimize its speed.

This has never been more true than now with Opera 10, which has a feature never before seen in web browsers: turbo mode. In a nutshell, Opera’s turbo mode utilizes Opera proxy servers to compress the web site data being sent to your browser, so websites load much faster than they would with any other web browser using the same connection speed.

Turbo mode has three settings: off, on or automatic. Off or on are self-explanatory, and automatic monitors your connection speed and if there’s a dip in speed, it turns turbo mode on so as to not slow down your browsing.

I was skeptical at first, but after having used it, I can’t help but sing its praises.

Don’t fall for Apple’s scam

Considering I have stock in Apple, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but I have fewer readers than I have fingers, so what the hell.

If you want to buy the latest version of OS X, Snow Leopard, Apple’s website will tell you that you have two options:

1. Users of Leopard, you can buy the upgrade version. It is $35.
2. Users of OS X versions prior to Leopard, you have to buy the Mac Box Set. It is $199.

I’m here to tell you that’s a bunch of bullshit. Both packages contain the same disc for Snow Leopard. The Mac Box Set also comes with install discs for iLife and iWork, I presume so the Apple execs have something to tell the masses when they come with their torches and pitchforks, but unless you absolutely crave that bloatware you’re much better off to save your money and buy the cheapo version. It’s the same thing.

Now… why is it that no one is crying foul that Apple is charging for this to begin with? Take the last two upgrades… from Tiger to Leopard and now to Snow Leopard. The improvements between the three are no greater than the improvements Microsoft launched for their Vista OS in the same time frame: from Windows Vista to Vista SP1 and then to SP2. Same number of upgrades, similar complexity to the improvements, same time frame. Yet Microsoft is giving theirs away for free while Apple is charging.

Is it because Apple are smart enough to give each new cat a nice shiny makeover? Maybe. Perhaps people feel they’re getting their money’s worth because they can now see their desktop through the top menu bar, or they can browse their files using an iTunes interface. Whatever the reason it’s a bunch of bullshit. And then to charge more for the same thing? More bullshit.

So I’m telling the world. Or, rather, the 7 people who read my blog. Now you know, go tell others.