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Snow Leopard system requirements
Written by Topher Kessler
Apple has announced Snow Leopard's availability, and have links to it from their website's home page. Since this announcement, there have been many inquiries about whether or not a certain system will run the new operating system.
The basic requirements for Snow Leopard are as follows:
An Apple computer with an Intel Processor
1GB of Memory (RAM)
5GB of hard drive space (Storage)
DVD drive for installation
The full set of system requirements can be found at Apple's website at the following page: http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html.
While the DVD drive is mentioned, it is not actually required to install Leopard though will make things easier. You can use another computer's drive or a disk image to install Snow Leopard. While previous versions of OS X have required you to boot from the installation media, Snow Leopard copies the installer files from the media to the hard drive and then installs from there.
PowerPC Support: NONE!
Snow Leopard will not run on any PowerPC system, even PowerPC G5 systems that are 64-bit capable. If you have a PowerBook G4, iBook G4, PowerMac G4, Mac Mini (G4), iMac G4, iMac G5, or PowerMac G5, do not buy Snow Leopard since you will not be able to install it. Apple has split away from PowerPC, and while there are technical reasons for why the 64-bit architecture in the PowerPC will not work with the latest OS, the fact that Apple has switched architectures is the primary reason for the drop in support.
PowerPC machines will still run Leopard and have most of the features (user experience enhancements) of Snow Leopard, but will not be able to run the optimized code that Apple has put into Snow Leopard. The main differences between Snow Leopard and Leopard are under the hood, so in terms of the operating environment you will not miss much by still running Leopard on your PowerPC system.
You can check to see what kind of processor you have by opening "System Profiler" in your "Utilities" folder and highlighting the "Hardware" section. The processor should be identified in there. Alternatively you can enter the command "machine" in the terminal to see what kind of processor you have. If the output contains "PPC" in the name, then you have a PowerPC processor:
Tophers-Computer:~tkessler$ machine PPC970
Tophers-Laptop:~tkessler$ machine i486
My desktop computer (PPC970) will not run Snow Leopard, but I will be able to install it on my laptop (i486).
UPDATE: An additional and quick way to check what kind of processor you have is to go to the Apple menu and select "About this Mac", then check the processor type in the resulting window.
Snow Leopard Discussion
Previously, we have discussed some of the features of Snow Leopard, and what systems will work with these features. This information is in our article series on preparing for Snow Leopard, which we are continuing to write about and update. Here are the current articles in the series so far, so be sure to read up if you are unsure about the features of the new OS:
Preparing for 10.6 Snow Leopard: Graphics and processor requirements.
Preparing for 10.6 Snow Leopard: Installation procedure changes?
Preparing for 10.6 Snow Leopard: Early release? Early installation?
Questions? Comments? Send us feedback: http://www.macfixit.com/contact
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.
Topher has been an avid Mac user for the past 10-15 years, and has been a contributing author to MacFixIt for just over a year now. One of his diehard passions has been troubleshooting Mac problems and making the best use of Macs and Apple hardware both for family and friends, as well as in the workplace. He and the newly formed MacFixIt team are hoping to bring enhanced and more personable content to our readers, and keep the MacFixIt community going here at CNET. If you have questions or comments for Topher or the other MacFixIt editors, feel free to contact us at http://www.macfixit.com/contact
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> PowerPC machines will still run Leopard and have all the features of Snow Leopard
How will PowerPC machines have the same features of Snow Leopard if PPC machines can't install Snow Leopard? Will Apple be providing an update specifically for PPC machines that will provide these features? If so, will the update be free via Software Update, and if not, how can this be?
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Jeff
Snow Leopard is an optimization to OS X, and not a feature-rich upgrade. As such, items like Expose, Spaces, Time Machine, and other user experience enhancement features that were introduced in Leopard will still be available to PowerPC users. Snow Leopard does not have much new in this respect, and the additions such as OpenCL are under-the-hood technologies that will only boost speed and fluidity, instead of giving new features for enhancing the user experience.
I agree, that's an incredibly lame and misleading statement. There actually are a lot of new features in Snow Leopard that will not be available in Leopard, including an updated Finder written, finally, in Cocoa, and a new QuickTime, also in Cocoa and 64 bit capable. Apple describes the changes in OS X 10.6 as "refinements", but many of these are quite significant. See http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/ and http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html.
While Apple has abandoned the Power PC going forward, as far as I know they have posted no deadline for OS X 10.5x, Leopard, support. The feature set in Leopard may see no more improvement, but we can expect bug fixes and security patches for some time to come - given that they are still supporting OS X 10.4.11, Tiger, in this way. Support for Tiger, though, may not be long for this world.
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Don't anthropomorphize computers.
They hate that.
Its not a lame statement at all. I will clarify it by stating "user experience enhancements", but the notion still stands that these aspects of Leopard and Snow Leopard are virtually the same. The interface is nearly identical, and items such as Expose and Dashboard are refined by no different in usability or features. There is nothing new to the user experience, and the only new "features" are under the hood, which is unimportant to the majority of users.
The "Processor" field will show either "PowerPC" or "Intel".
Are you kidding me? Grand Central, Open CL, Quicktime X, the new Expose, support for Microsoft Exchange Server, etc., etc.
Your credibility just took a major hit my friend!
I still stand by the statement. While there are new features, most of them are under-the-hood enhancements that do not differentiate the user experience much from Leopard. Exchange support and QuickTime X are the only real new features. The rest are there to boost speed and efficiency of the system as opposed to providing a new user experience.
Credibility is what you make of it, and I am defending my position here. Snow Leopard is not a big feature-rich upgrade like each other OS X upgrade has been. Apple has touted this, and I am basically reiterating this standpoint.
I think we're splitting hairs here to some degree. I'd say "MOST of rest are there to boost speed and efficiency of the system". There are a few more new things than just Exchange support and Quicktime X, which could be called something like "new features as part of existing features" (but I'll stick with Apple's term "feature enhancements"), some of which can make SOME parts of Snow Leopard's interface substantially different than Leopard's, if you use those new feature enhancements (new ways to preview files in the Finder, etc.). There's also: automatic printer driver updating, HFS+ read support in Boot Camp, the ability to enter Chinese characters directly on a multi-touch trackpad, and a few other things. But not anything feature-wise as big as the introduction of Spotlight, etc.
Many of these "feature enhancements" could be done in an update to Leopard, since they don't depend on a 64-bit OS or most of the other under-the-hood improvements in Snow Leopard, but probably won't be.
Bottom line is, people who are curious should check the list of improvements and additions on Apple's web page, and decide if any of them are for them.
Is Snow Leopard *just* an upgrade - meaning you have to have Leopard already installed, or will I be able to wipe Leopard from my HD and do a *full* install from scratch. I'd much rather do the latter if possible. Thanks in advance.
As I understand it, if you wiped your drive, you'd have to do a full Leopard install, followed by a Snow Leopard update.
If you buy the $29 upgrade, I presume you have to install over the existing Leopard. If you buy the full retail version(Mac Box Set) for $169, you can install to a blank disk. The latter is a good deal, by the way as it includes:
- Life ?09, featuring iPhoto ?09, iMovie ?09, GarageBand ?09, iWeb ?09, and iDVD
- iWork ?09, Apple?s productivity suite for home and office including Pages ?09, Numbers ?09, and Keynote ?09
The betas, as recently as 10A432 - rumoured to be the release version - would allow you to install onto a blank hard drive. If that's no longer possible, then the alleged 'golden master' can't be.
Thanks for the comments. I wish they would just come out with a $129.00 *full* retail version. I'd pay the extra $100 to be able to do a total fresh install. What's weird is that I just got off the phone with the (online) Apple Store, and the person is telling me that the box set doesn't even include the full install DVD! I was told it upgrades Tiger to Snow. I find that hard to believe, in fact, I think it's flat out wrong. I'll buy the box set if I have to to get the full install DVD, but I only use iPhoto '09 and the full iWork '09 suite (but I already have those).
- by lumitech_1 August 25, 2009 11:26 AM PDT
- OK, which is it...
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(14 Comments)>> PowerPC machines will still run Leopard and have all the features of Snow Leopard
...or...
> Exchange support and QuickTime X are the only real new features.
I have guessed by now that there is not a way to install Exchange support and QuickTime X onto a PowerPC. Therefore, PPC machines will NOT "have all the features of Snow Leopard." Have I got this straight now, or is there a planned way, yet to be revealed, to install these two items onto a PPC machine?
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Jeff