Apple dusts off Snow Leopard

"If it's not getting the new features tested, then what are these beta releases of Snow Leopard really for, anyway? Just marketing hype?"

Seeing as they are being given to developers (much as new Windows releases are given to devs without all the flashy new gumpf), then I'd expect they are for testing application/hardware compatibility, and that the new features will not affect this. A flashy new interface would not affect hardware drivers, and if the UI is written well (which the apple one probably is) it shouldn't affect the application APIs either.

Beta Testers Have "theKNACK". Do Such Testers Get To Lead Normal Life? Noo, that knack is Extreme Intuition of ALL things Mechanical & Electrical. For instance, thought NEW Connectors might help seperate SSD from sata. Now Todays Primier SSD uses sata 4 plugs into one sas, old chord with new SSD use. Heck, maybe you can break whole controller card with HDD, So have Buy Your Own Adapter, yet maybe its enough to Fly Friendlier Skies, United.

Slow Leopard might be awaiting HardWare Break for OS 11 to fit next engineering into timeframe or opps, maybe msr. Stephen really did do it All by ones Knackie Self. Maybe Theres Secret Prize Inside. I Know, Sell Snow Leopard With Real Snow Leopard for Kids to.... enjoy.hehehe, Oh My, What do Snow Leopards EAT? drashek

...just when there was some danger of the lap-dog press writing up Apple's disappointing earnings data.

brit == poseur

I so wish that Snow Leopard will bring my, otherwise beloved, MacBook Air back to life. So tired watching that spinning cursor, loading of a web page making Safari not respond to mouse click or typing, seeing both CPUs at as high as 100% when no real activity on the machine.

And if Apple could work with Adobe to fix that sloooow Flash plugin once and for all, even if Safari is fast, having a Flash slow down pages to a stop will not make the experience of it being "fast" at all. And if Adobe refuses, write a Flash clone that works on Mac OS X as good as Flash do on Windows.

I hope Apple has done the right thing and made Mac OS X what it should be, not only rock solid, but "not in your way" of simple tasks as web browsing, reading email and use irc.....

I understand your dilemma. OS X Leopard is bloated and is Apple's version of Vista. Snow Leopard is suppose to fix that like 7 will fix Vista and be streamlined and speed things up.

Until then I recommend this free OS X web browser "Camino". It had the ability to turn off flash and can run circles around Safari on some pages because of not running the resource hogging Flash adverts.

This story has spread from AppleInsider like a virus. I hope it's not true.

Apple Remote Desktop 3.3 has been in previous seeds including the current 10A314e. That's the first rat I smelt about this story.

Snow Leopard concentrates on SPEED and STABILITY and NOT on new features.
Perhaps the author might consider researching facts before typing.

Re Flash on the Mac - agreed - it is an awful grinding POS - works MUCH better on Linux and even WIndows when comparing mhz to mhz.

Nick Farrell "researching facts before typing"?? Haha, that's a good one.
He's the ultimate ctrl-c ctrl-v man. Some words that were on the page someone ripped out of his dictionnay: 'thruth', 'research', 'accurate', 'fact', etc...

It's not the OS kent. It's a runaway process!!! that's why your CPU is at 100 , there really is something running!!

you can fix it! fast and free! You can either kill the process with activity monitor or look up "archive and install" on apples support pages. that will fix it too.

I don't think a modern OS (where I for Mac OS X include the window handler) should use its resources so badly that a runaway process can make the whole machine unresponsive, I barely can hit any buttons, the mouse pointer gets all jumpy, and I have trouble switch virtual screens or put applications into the foreground. Sure, killing Safari sometimes help, loosing all the windows I have open around all work tasks I do in parallel costing me lots of time to restore.

And the process most often taking all my CPU for no good reason is "kernel_task", don't think it is a good idea to kill that one, you think?

We might use our Macs differently. I have it on for days and weeks, as a serious work tool. Killing applications causes me loose lots of time. A reboot is making me loose an hour or more to get to the point I where when I was forced to reboot.

And a Unix based system should not break down over "incorrect file permissions" or need a "restore of applications". Old Unix systems were running for year without even a reboot.

And there are other "small glitches" never addressed, like the pain drag-selecting text on a web page (any browser so must be in the OS), that just doesn't work until your fifth try or more, selecting all but what you intended.

Don't take me wrong, I love my Mac, I love Mac OS X, I just wish things were improved.

Kent, there is no voodoo in the computers. All of the things have explanations. If they don't, you pay someone who can explaint that too.

Check your memory (both RAM and swap). Check the processes list to find which process is hogging the CPU. If it is kernel_task, try with some permissions repair, some caches delete/re-create (applejack is ok, for instance).

I bet you didn't get the change to use an "old UNIX system" as your primary desktop. Those systems where maintained by professionals, paid to do so and users had restricted access to a part of the system (talking about terminal users). Moreover, today there are systems which are working for years without a glith, but you have access to a single application on them that serves web pages over HTTP.

So, basically, as more as a non-professional user is near the computer, more the chance that that ecosystem (hardware + software) will break.

So, again, there is no voodoo.

Did you check your processes (using "All processes" selection in Activity Monitor)? Did you check your memory usage? Did you perform some cleanup tasks (permissions, caches)? Did you perform Apple Diagonostics from the MBA original DVD (maybe your hard drive is failing)?

Not necessarily talking to you, but for everybody, the equation is simple: a more locked-down system is much better than open systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux etc.). Look at your TV set, your gaming console, your microwave oven. You don't "install" whatever application you want on them (for TV and microwave for sure you don't install applications at all). Do they get messy? Do they show "spinning wheels"? No, because their environment is 100% controlled by their manufacturer.

As a conclusion, I would create a very closed and locked down system for dummy users. Something with few icons on desktop: Internet, Chat, Mail. You can add more fixed apps. No user install, just manufacturer upgrades over the net.