Mac OS 10.6: Snow Leopard

The latest Macintosh Operating System, 10.6, a.k.a., Snow Leopard was released August 28, 2009.

A University site-licensed copy of the full operating system (not including iLife or iWork) is now available for installation on University-owned machines, but there are many possible issues with upgrading to consider. While upgrading provides noticable speed increases, especially during startup and shutdown, software incompatibility (e.g., SPSS is not compatible with Snow Leopard) might make an upgrade inadvisable until Snow-Leopard-compatible versions of necessary software are available. There are several websites with information about incompatible software (see below), but your best bet for the latest information is to check with the software vendor for updates.

• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3258
• http://wiki.macworld.com/index.php/Snow_Leopard_Compatibility
• http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/

U of M download site for Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), accessible with x500 authentication: https://download.software.umn.edu/download

Hardware Requirements

Symantec AntiVirus incompatible

The University's current site licensed version of Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) does not work with Snow Leopard. There is no ETA for the arrival of a compatible version. Also, SAV is sometimes difficult to uninstall after upgrading to Snow Leopard. Symantec has a tool available for download from their website for uninstalling SAV:

http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/d654ccc47827b8d088257348007a2527?OpenDocument

ClamXav is a free product that can serve as a stop-gap measure until a Snow-Leopard-compatible version of SAV is available. The 2.0.3 Public Beta is available at http://www.clamxav.com/.

Installation Pre-flight

• Be sure to have a bootable backup of your entire hard drive before you attempt an upgrade! This will ensure that you can restore your previous system if necessary. Once you upgrade, you can't downgrade or revert back to the previous version of the OS. The only way to go back is to restore from backup or do a clean installation of the OS and use Migration Assistant to bring over your applications and user settings from backup.
• Check for software incompatibilities
• Plan for at least an hour for installation, along with additional time for things like installing ClamXav, updated printer drivers, etc.