It’s currently in Beta 1, which means it will blow something up if you’re not careful. But, if you’re interested, take a peek, download, and have fun!

I’ve had Snow Leopard for about a week, and there’s a few things I’ve noticed with Apple’s recent operating system.

First, there’s a slight focus on security. Outside of the introduced malware scanner in Snow Leopard, removing files from the trash has become more security. The default has been changed to secure delete, a feature in Leopard, but was optional. It’s almost as if Apple is trying to stay a step ahead of the game for a looming attack or marketing towards business use. The downfall, deleting a large amount of files now takes a ridiculous amount of time.

The next change with Snow Leopard relates to my interactions with it. I find myself the Finder more often instead of opening applications. With the new thumbnail abilities and an improved Quick Look, I find myself not having to open applications as often to determine what I may or may not need.

Snow Leopard did not change a lot on the surface. All of my old programs work as anticipated and there are plenty of improvements, but I’ve not used half of them. This is not to say they aren’t welcomed, but Snow Leopard is clearly the groundwork for something’s to come.

Apple released Snow Leopard today and I decided to join the early adopters and perform the upgrade. Snow Leopard is Apple’s recent update to OS X and an upgrade to Leopard, building on many of it’s impressive features. Snow Leopard is akin to what Windows 98 was to Windows 95, same interface but new useful features. With a price tag of $29 ($25 on Amazon as of this posting), and a MacBook Pro that’s barely 6 months old, it was a no brainier to perform the upgrade.
Apple claims Snow Leopard is “Better. Faster. Easier.” while many of the new features aren’t Earth shattering they are interesting and add value to any Intel based Mac. The installation process was simple (a few simple clicks) but not quick, roughly 45 minutes long. After installing, some of Apple claims were seen immediately: Snow Leopard does have a smaller footprint then Leopard, recovering  8.41 GB worth of Hard Drive space; the new Dock and Expose features really do help manage screen real estate; and QuickTime X has a new impressive interface. Although Snow Leopard seems to perform faster, but not by much and the start-up and shutdown performance gains don’t seem to be any quicker. Then again, I am using a 17″ MacBook Pro, which has been pretty fast before the upgrade.

It is clear that Snow Leopard is a “refinement” to an already easy and simple operating system. Snow Leopard has been out for several hours and there hasn’t been news of major compatibility issues (just possible software bugs with older software), all of my old software works well in Snow Leopard and everything seems to work. Unlike other upgrades, so far this has been the easiest and cheapest computer upgrade I’ve ever made.

The decision to promote a product as a theatrical trailer has been done before; usually with some mention of features, displays of the product, and some cheesy catch line. If anything, Microsoft is promoting keyboards, Pac-Man, and Blackberries with this video. Of all the things to waste money on, a movie trailer for your software isn’t one of them.

The release of Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5 release candidate 2 available for Mac I wanted to know which browser performs the best. Other websites have performed benchmarks comparing a bevy of browsers within a Windows environment. While the results may be similar, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome are not available for Mac (Chrome is currently in Alpha). I wanted to provide a benchmark for Mac users comparing the two major browsers in their ability to render JavaScript, their ability to display websites, the amount of memory they used, and their adherence to web standards. For this test I compared Safari 4.0.1 and Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 2 using my 2.66 GHz MacBook Pro 17” with 4 GB of RAM.

JavaScript Performance

Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5 sport new JavaScript engines. In today’s Web 2.0 world, websites are becoming increasingly dependent on JavaScript to provide useful and powerful features. The faster a web browser is able to manage JavaScript the quicker today’s web experience would be. Using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, I ran two tests and compared their results. In each test, Safari 4 clocked faster than Firefox. In individual tests, there were Firefox was significantly faster than Safari, especially during the Math computation. Overall, Safari 4 runs JavaScript faster than Firefox 3.5 RC 2.

See the Full JavaScript Benchmark Results

Browsing Speed

Apple claims Safari 4 is the fastest browser available, a claim that has been disputed. The question asked here is if Safari 4 is faster than Firefox 3.5 and by how much? To compare the speeds of each browser, I chose 11 websites (my website, plus 10 other popular sites) and used the development tools in each browser to determine their loading speed. In Safari this meant using the integrated developer tools, and in Firefox I used the Firebug plugin.

While there are several factions that can limit the speed of a website (such as the way the website is coded, the amount of images and files used to display a website, and bandwidth), a majority of this relies on the browsers ability to interpret that information. To help compensate for any errors, I loaded each page without using the browsers cache, and then with the browsers cache several times and recorded the highest load speed possible.

Safari 4 vs. Firefox 3.5 RC 2 - Website Performance. Click For Full Results

Safari is a very fast web browser, and for websites like the New York Times speed matters. It’s able to load a massive amount of content quickly. When a website is visited for the second time, Safari becomes faster, in some cases speeding a website’s display time by nearly half. There are some cases were Firefox is faster, especially with Google websites. The presentation of search results look different in Firefox than they do in Safari, and even load a bit faster. Overall, Safari 4 takes the crown in speed!

Memory Use

Memory use is always a concern. The amount of memory a browser uses helps determine it’s footprint and use of resources on a system. In order to test the browsers memory use, I compared each browser against 1 website (mine), 5 websites in tabs (mine including 4 others) and then all 11 websites used in the speed test. By using the Activity Monitor I recorded each browsers memory use.

Safari 4 vs. Firefox 3.5 RC 2 - Memory Use. Click for full results

Between the two browsers, Firefox is the clear winner. Firefox uses significantly less RAM across all tasks. With 11 tabs open, Firefox uses a significantly less RAM than Safrai, almost half the amount. My assumption is, Firefox’s low memory use can be explained by it’s ability to include extensions. Firefox’s footprint grows when extensions are installed, the less RAM Firefox uses, more can be available for installed add-on’s and extensions. Even with several extensions installed, Firefox tends to use less RAM than Safari.

Standardization

I highly believe in web standardization. Code should display the same way across all browsers. The best way to measure this is by pitting the web-browser against the Acid Test. Both Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4 pass Acid1 and Acid2 Tests with 100%, but only Safari 4 passed the Acid3 test with a complete 100/100 score, Firefox 3.5 obtained a slightly lower score of 93/100.

Conclusion

Safari 4 runs better than Firefox based on these benchmarks. While Firefox uses less memory, Safari 4 blows past it when handling web-sites, javaScript and web standards. This is only comparing the browsers benchmarks, not their features or ability to customize. If your concerned about speed on a Mac, Safari 4 is the browser to use.

Image Credit: "Apple Enlightenment" by SeenyaRita on Flickr

30 days later and I’ve come to the end of this journal a different computer user than I entered. At this point, I find it difficult to think about using anything that isn’t a Mac. Its not the applications, the look, the feel, that has swayed my mind, it is the simplicity. The MacBook Pro is a top of the line laptop, regardless of any operating system you use. My computing life is easier, I save more time performing tasks, and I’m able to do more with less.

When I began this journey, I took a look at the costs between a new MacBook Pro and a Dell Studio 16 XPS. After buying a Mac and finding several replacement programs, not needing to replace software that comes with the system, I’ve saved money rather than spend more. I’ve cut mindless tasks from my daily life (such as disk optimization and system clean ups) and have performed actual tasks, such as file organization. On a Mac performing these tasks are easier, managing my time is easier, and yes, my life has become simpler.

Usually, when a person discusses their life with Mac, and why Mac is better than PC it comes off as annoying. It sounds elitist, snobby and makes you feel like your not a part of the “cool” kids. Even though there’s much more to discover, my life and even my thoughts about how technology can be used has changed. It’s because Mac’s are better. There’s a lot more to gain than to loose by switching. Then again I’ve become one of those elitist, snobby Mac users who thinks the world is amazing because of a piece of hardware.

In 30 days, I’ve come to the conclusion that my MacBook Pro enables me to do more than previous Windows based systems. While I didn’t explore every nook and cranny of the Mac (I intend to in the future), I feel these 30 days covered many possibilities and issues for a person migrating to the Mac world. After 30 days, two things are abundantly clear: 1) I won’t go back to Windows and 2) my computer life has changed dramatically.

Image Credit: "IMG_3092.JPG" by {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester} on Flickr

The past 29 Days of my life with a new Mac has been an awesome and rewarding experience. I’m surprise how much my life has changed merely by switching to a Mac. It may sound corny that a computer has changed significant parts of your life, but in a world where we rely on computers more often it makes sense. The approach of Apple is very different from Microsoft of the general open-source community and it makes computing approachable, useable, and adaptable. Nothing is perfect and while I believe Apple has made major strides since my last experience with them, there’s are some things missing on Mac.

Major Game Developers

I’ve mentioned this a few days ago, but Mac lacks the hardcore gaming culture. Most gamers are using PC’s, mainly because developers rely on Direct X, and prefer Windows over OS X. In the future there should be an increase of developers should be developing games for Mac’s. I believe a market would exists and broaden if they did so, these machines are powerful and capable of even the most resource hungry video game.

An Understanding of How Secure Mac Is

Mac’s do not suffer from the same amount of viruses and spyware Windows does. There isn’t a Mac virus in the wild, and OS X isn’t attacked as often as Windows. This isn’t to say Mac’s don’t have some security problems. A major Java security hole remains unpatched by Apple (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/20/mac-os-x-java-security-hole-exposed/), even though a fix has been available by Sun many months ago.

I haven’t had a Mac long enough to understand how frequently Apple patches critical items or how often Mac’s are attacked. Leopard feels like a stable and secure system, what scares me is Mac users are convinced they don’t need anti-virus software, with evidence they don’t. It’s a fact I’ve been convinced of and don’t intend to install anti-virus unless I need to.
What’s missing is a clear understanding of Mac’s security. What makes Mac safer than Windows? Why is sandboxing so important? If a virus appears, can Leopard handle it and tell me something is wrong? Being told I’m safe and seeing why I’m safe are two different matters at hand.

A World Without Windows

Windows is a necessary evil in this world. For those, like myself who are migrating from PC, there are some uses to the operating system. We have old programs, files, and tasks that need to be accomplished within that world. While migrating to Mac is easy, there is a cost, either through time, buying alternatives or downloading free codecs. Someday, software developers will release all of their applications for both Mac and PC. Someday the differences between Windows and OS X isn’t the applications needed to be ran for each operating system, but the operating system itself. Apple’s biggest gap is, even in a world with Vista, a buggy, heavy operating system (that I like), it’s still required either through Boot Camp or a virtual machine. There’s some items on Vista that I miss, but can live without entirely. Windows has its place in the world, a place I believe is shrinking because of Mac’s superiority.

Image Credit: "A Mac Playing the Piano" by jochenWolters on Flickr

I’m on my last three days of My Mac experiment. I wanted to use a program that comes with Mac that I haven’t. Something fun and interesting. My choices left me to either trying Front Row or Chess. I never understood the purpose of Front Row until I tried it. I had no clue what Front Row was, did, or provided to the Mac experience. I was delighted when I experimented with the program.

Front Row is what Windows called “Windows XP: Media Center”, and is a self-contained program that turns your Mac into a TiVo like media explorer. Through Front Row, you can listen to music, listen or watch podcasts or video photos. Unlike iTunes or iPhoto (which the application uses for it’s sources of material), it provides a theatre like environment for these items. Turning your laptop into a media center.

When opening Front Row, your computer screen goes back, and a menu appears with your options of music, video, podcasts, or pictures. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you can navigate through these items done by either a scroll down list or screen flow.

Front Row isn’t a break-thru application that provides a major advantage over PC. It’s a simple app that provides a cool feature when warranted.

Image Credit: "Ready to attack" by trekkyandy on Flickr

27 Days Later and I’ve become a Mac Zombie (get the reference win a cookie). Apple has infected me with the evil “I Love Mac” Virus through Avalon (my 17” Mac Book Pro) and I want to spread my evil Mac germs everywhere! So far my life with Mac has been amazing, I don’t have any major complaints and with Snow Leopard around the corner, I’m excited to see what Apple improves.

On Day 26, I talked about customizing your Mac, mainly though the physical appearance and icons, but I want to highlight some tweaks I found helpful.

Tweaking the Trackpad

Mac is known for it’s one button mouse capability. In a world of left ad right clicks (and an operating system that supports them), I find using the command key annoying to display contextual menus. As my good friend Jeff mentioned on Day 23 you can enable the mouse to right click without any difficulty. To do this enter the Trackpad option in the System Preferences panel. Here, enable the “Secondary Tap” under the two finders portion of the options and viola. By tapping the Trackpad with two fingers, you will “right click.” This is one of my favorite tweaks!

Enable Quicktime to Play All Video Formats

Quicktime is a good video player, but limited, it does not support many video files including Windows Video and Audio files. There are two solutions to access these files without converting them. The first is by ditching Quicktime for VLC, a popular media player, especially on the Windows platform. A Mac version exists and is as simple and agile as Quicktime. your other option, for those who want to Quicktime, is to add the proper video codecs. Microsoft provides a Windows Media codec (made by Flip4Mac) enabling Quicktime to play both Windows Media Video and Audio. Perian adds codecs to more media files (but it excludes .wmv’s). I hope with Quicktime X, these codecs will not be needed.

CPU Fan Management

smcFanControl has become a must need utility for every MacBook users. I’ve previously mentioned how hot the MacBook Pro can get. smcFanControl provides the ability to manage the fan speed and time when they should operate. It’s a great application that does the job!

Tweaking Resources

There are plenty of resources to tweak your Mac. Smashing Magazine had a great article about 30 popular tweaks for the Mac while I don’t see the need for every tweak, many are worth noting, especially the section surrounding firewall control. Macworld has continued to provide as a must read resource for Mac tweaking and knowledge, especially the MacGems section and  two articles recent articles titled Butler at Your Service and Customize the OS X Workspace. Leopard is very tweakable, more so than Windows with the breadth of free and developer software. If you have some favorites, share then here!

Image Credit: "Pimp my mac" by Krudo. on Flickr

I have been afraid to customize Avalon. With Windows, I always feel I may break something when customizing the system. In my new Mac Life, customization is simple and easy. While background and color options can be managed within the system preferences, there are some additional ways to customize the Mac to your preferences.

Dock

The Dock is a wonderful shortcut bar for applications and folders. Adding an application shortcut is as simple as dragging the application to the dock. Further customization can occur within the system preferences, such as it’s location (left, right, or bottom), magnification animation, and icon size. Folders can also be placed on the dock, allowing quick and easy access to often used folders. By command clicking on a folder you can configure the way it displays files, either in a grid or stack, where files are placed one on top of the other. This is really useful as files can be easily organized or dragged from a stack, or grid.

Changing Icons

I have several external hard drives for the system. I really have had the itching to change their icons. Icon changing isn’t a simple process in Windows, but on Mac’s performed through a quick drag and drop process. Apple has a great article in changing Icons, it’s worth reading. To return to any default icon, just open the information window, click on the icon, and press delete. It’s a really simple process. It may seem like a small unimportant feature, but it provides a customization I’ve been seeking in a system.

Background Images

Changing the background image isn’t a hard problem. Unlike Windows, Mac makes it easy to further customize the background to your specifications. In the Desktop & Screen Saver section of the system preferences, you are able to import folders that contain background images. Along with the current beautiful backgrounds, you can also have the system randomly choose a background image randomly from your selection. A process often performed by a third-party program within Windows.

Finding Great Icon’s and Wallpapers

DeviantArt and Flickr are great resource to find new icons or wallpaper’s to customize your computer. Two additional resources are Smashing Magazine’s “Really Stunning Desktop Wallpapers” and the Iconfactory that has a lot of stunning high quality icons. Apple has a guide on customizing the Mac, which also includes the screen saver, windows and additional preferences. For external customization, Skinit provies “skins” or sticker like material that can be applied onto the case of the MacBook Pro. Some designs look amazing, but I’m not going to change Avalon’s external look.