Snow Leopard is here

So, Apple’s latest version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, is out today. You going to run to your closest Apple store and buy it? Not so fast, Sparky. Have you done your homework?

Snow Leopard is loaded with nice improvements, mostly speed improvements. The price is great $29 for the upgrade from Leopard. If you don’t have an Intel based Macintosh, then you are out of luck. Snow Leopard only runs on Intel based Macs. First, have you checked to make certain that the applications that are important to you will run after you upgrade? I found a site with a pretty good list of applications and their compatibility status: http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/. If your application isn’t on that list, then try contacting the developer of that software. How about hardware? It would also be a good idea to make certain that anything that you have attached to your computer also works. Once, again go to the manufacturer’s web site and check it out. You also may want to take a look at MacFixIt to see what people are reporting there.

BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER! Sorry about the shouting. I can’t stress this one enough. Backups are critical. I don’t care how expensive your hard drive is, or what operating system you are running, hard drives can fail. If you have never had a hard drive fail on you, then you have been extremely lucky. It isn’t a question of if hard drives will fail, but when. The longer you work with computers, the more you will come to realize that it can happen. Hard drives have gotten so inexpensive today, there really is no excuse.

Once you have checked to make certain the applications that you need will work, and you have done a backup of your computer, you can upgrade. I plan to upgrade, but not the first weekend.

Oh, and did I say backup your computer?