[!MiKrofT]

You can now pre-order OSX Snow Leopard for $35 canadian.. Shipped to your door from Apple's site. Where else can you get a new OS for so cheap. Apparently can be used as a clean install disc without having an existing OS on your Mac.

[skyxx]

I don't think it's worth it :/ it's odd that it's only 29USD. minor upgrades and speedier load ups.

[CRS]

:lol

I got the e-mail too...

I'm still contemplating whether or not I want it....

[skyxx]

Yeah me too. I was thinking if it's actually a decent improvement. I think I'll wait out till the next major upgrade.

[mrks]

Yeah me too. I was thinking if it's actually a decent improvement. I think I'll wait out till the next major upgrade.

Snow Leopard is one awesome upgrade. Yes, there are no fancy new features, they're all behind the scenes. One thing that is a big change, it will make your computer faster!

Snow Leopard is able to use all the cores in your computer and even use your video card to do calculations.

Look at the video in the review. 2x faster when opening files:

http://gizmodo.com/5346418/snow-leopard-review-lightened-and-enlightened

[rageguy]

going to buy it at the apple store in pc tomorrow! i already have the gm from thepiratebay but will buy it regardless, just to support apple.

[.Renn.Sport]

waiting for it to arrive :(

[skyxx]

Snow Leopard is one awesome upgrade. Yes, there are no fancy new features, they're all behind the scenes. One thing that is a big change, it will make your computer faster!

Snow Leopard is able to use all the cores in your computer and even use your video card to do calculations.

Look at the video in the review. 2x faster when opening files:

http://gizmodo.com/5346418/snow-leopard-review-lightened-and-enlightened

Interesting....I guess I'll have to go buy it now.

[JesseBlue]

imona have my company buy this upgrade for me...i have 4 macs to upgrade..sweet...3 at work and one at home...

[Razor Ramon HG]

It's only 30 bucks.. just make your lunch for like two-three meals.

[threezero]

so this is not an upgrade disc? I can use it to do full erase and install? I have a pirated leopard can I still use this?

[mrks]

so this is not an upgrade disc? I can use it to do full erase and install? I have a pirated leopard can I still use this?

The reviews are saying it is the full version. Yes, you can still use it.

[!Aznboi128]

I can't wait!
it's suppose to be a lot faster, however its been said not a lot of apps has been writen to take advantage of snow leopard

[Armind]

^ Does that include Adobe CS4?

[hoking]

was the free shipping for pre-orders only? They are charging $6 for shipping now... guess i'll just drop by pacific center,....

[wouwou]

crap I was hoping for an actual snow leopard for $35

[!MiKrofT]

was the free shipping for pre-orders only? They are charging $6 for shipping now... guess i'll just drop by pacific center,....
Yeah it looks like it was for pre-orders only. They're charging shipping now.

[hoking]

anyone know if 1 disc can be used for multiple computer upgrades?

I have 2 macs running leopard, don't want to purchase 2 seperate upgrades.

[wouwou]

anyone know if 1 disc can be used for multiple computer upgrades?

I have 2 macs running leopard, don't want to purchase 2 seperate upgrades.

check your user agreement thing, usually if you bought this from an educational institute, you can install it on 2 PCs.

That's the case for Windows at least.

[.Renn.Sport]

anyone know if 1 disc can be used for multiple computer upgrades?

I have 2 macs running leopard, don't want to purchase 2 seperate upgrades.

there is absolutely no copy protection, apple is just doing the honor system

[rageguy]

just bought it from the apple store in pc. lots of stock even at 8pm. the dvd can be used on as many computers as you like. there are no cd keys, no online activations either.

[smk]

Snow Leopard is much faster... spotlight indexing, time machine backup, shutdown startup restart...

[CRS]

just bought it from the apple store in pc. lots of stock even at 8pm. the dvd can be used on as many computers as you like. there are no cd keys, no online activations either.

Really...?

I bought the family pack so that I can get up to 5 users...

Pretty sure you can only use it ONCE.

*edit: nevermind, there doesn't seem to be ANY of that crap. I just paid apple because I'm an honest person. Lame.

Hmmm if I am still running Tiger, do I have to get the mac set or can I just upgrade? According to the website, I must get the mac set....

Can someone confirm?

*edit: You can make the direct upgrade unless you want to upgrade all that crap as well.

[Jmac]

I'll buy it, pirate it, and if the pirated copy works fine, I'll return the un-opened copy.

Apple has screwed me out of so much money, there's no way I'm giving them any if I don't have to. GF wants it, otherwise I wouldn't bother. I never use the Macs because they're such piles of shit.

[Brianrietta]

I'm saddened I can't legitimately download it for free like Windows 7 from our MSDNAA.

[go.mouse]

x2. Very speedy and snappy on loading most Apple applications compared to 10.5 Leopard.

Snow Leopard is much faster... spotlight indexing, time machine backup, shutdown startup restart...

[rageguy]

there has been a lot of talk on macrumors forum saying the $35 discs will let you do an install without leopard being present. have not verified this myself but i'm almost entirely sure this is the case.

basically, almost all of apple's software can be pirated without any problem. they do not require keys and activation. it's all about being honest.

[Tim Budong]

Apple makes an assload anyways
haha

[!MiKrofT]

I'll buy it, pirate it, and if the pirated copy works fine, I'll return the un-opened copy.

Apple has screwed me out of so much money, there's no way I'm giving them any if I don't have to. GF wants it, otherwise I wouldn't bother. I never use the Macs because they're such piles of shit.
It should cause the're just copies of the original disc since they don't employ copy protection or activation.

[Ilagon]

there has been a lot of talk on macrumors forum saying the $35 discs will let you do an install without leopard being present. have not verified this myself but i'm almost entirely sure this is the case.

basically, almost all of apple's software can be pirated without any problem. they do not require keys and activation. it's all about being honest.

My Macbook HD crashed on me, so I bought a MBP HD off Craigslist. I tried installing Leopard from a friend's CD and it didn't work. I also tried a Tiger CD from another friend and didn't work. After much research online, people were saying that I needed to order the original installation discs from Apple Care, and then upgrade from there.

I just came back from the Apple store and bought the $35 Snow Leopard, and it's installing as I type this!! The guy tried to sell me the Mac Box Set for $199, saying that the just the OS disc would not work.

Crossing my fingers that the install goes okay!!:thumbsup:

[skholla]

walked into the apple store at pacific centre yesterday and bought a copy for $39.20 (taxes included), upgraded my macbook pro from 10.5.8 to 10.6 this morning. only played around with the new expose and finder tweaks, havent looked into exchange support or performance gains yet. most of my apps seem to work okay, had to upgrade flip4mac to the latest beta to get snow leopard compatibility.

if you have an intel mac dont sleep on this update.... and for the cost of a retail disc just go out and buy the damn thing. apple doesnt prevent you from installing it on multiple machines, technically you are breaking the law but at least you are paying for one copy and have a legit retail disc.

[Nissan]

You can go and buy it at Best Buy for $29 bucks...

[skholla]

nope! its $34.99 plus taxes... same price everywhere else in canada unless you have a discount. i got mine for $35 plus taxes from the apple store.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10129665&logon=&langid=EN


WOW! shutdown and startup times are much faster!!! time machine is also faster, more detailed and refined too! i backup my MBP to a external hard drive shared off my desktop and it used to show up as a DMG icon on the desktop, now it shows up with the proper time machine icon... cool!

the battery level indicator tells me that my battery needs to be replaced soon... but i already new that, battery life sucks on my MBP... and i just got a new battery last year! oh well, i guess thats what happens when you go through a couple charge cycles a day!

[CRS]

nope! its $34.99 plus taxes... same price everywhere else in canada unless you have a discount. i got mine for $35 plus taxes from the apple store.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10129665&logon=&langid=EN


WOW! shutdown and startup times are much faster!!! time machine is also faster, more detailed and refined too! i backup my MBP to a external hard drive shared off my desktop and it used to show up as a DMG icon on the desktop, now it shows up with the proper time machine icon... cool!

the battery level indicator tells me that my battery needs to be replaced soon... but i already new that, battery life sucks on my MBP... and i just got a new battery last year! oh well, i guess thats what happens when you go through a couple charge cycles a day!

Apparently, my battery needs servicing. Looks like I'll be bringing it to Pac on Monday.

[!MiKrofT]

My Macbook HD crashed on me, so I bought a MBP HD off Craigslist. I tried installing Leopard from a friend's CD and it didn't work. I also tried a Tiger CD from another friend and didn't work. After much research online, people were saying that I needed to order the original installation discs from Apple Care, and then upgrade from there.

I just came back from the Apple store and bought the $35 Snow Leopard, and it's installing as I type this!! The guy tried to sell me the Mac Box Set for $199, saying that the just the OS disc would not work.

Crossing my fingers that the install goes okay!!:thumbsup:
There are different revisions of the OS discs. Chances are you were using older discs that didn't support the hardware on your MBP as they change slightly from time to time. The SL disc works because it has all the latest drivers included.

[!MiKrofT]

Apparently, my battery needs servicing. Looks like I'll be bringing it to Pac on Monday.
Man I wish I had one of those newer MBP series with the 7 hour battery :(

[roastpuff]

Man I wish I had one of those newer MBP series with the 7 hour battery :(

I'm debating whether or not to get the 2.26Ghz MBP 13" or the refurbished Macbook 13" 2.4Ghz. The battery and the processor speed is the main difference, plus the 250GB HDD (but that's not much of an issue - going to upgrade to a 500GB drive myself and 4GB RAM either way).

Both will come with 10.6, so that's not an issue either. The free iPod deal is nice, but I already have an iPod so not really an issue.

What do you guys think?

[!MiKrofT]

cpu speed not much difference.. but the illuminated keyboard, better screen, firewire, sd card reader, 7 hour battery. Those would be enough to make me get the newer model.

[mrks]

cpu speed not much difference.. but the illuminated keyboard, better screen, firewire, sd card reader, 7 hour battery. Those would be enough to make me get the newer model.

Agreed! The new screen is unbelievable! The battery isn't as spectacular, I can get about 5 hours out of it when I have it set to low performance.

The upside of the built-in battery is that the MacBook feels even more solid. I've seen a few machines with play on the battery door.

[Iceman_2K]

just finished the upgrade - ITS WELL WORTH IT. The boot up time and shutdown time alone was worth the upgrade.

[nabs]

there has been a lot of talk on macrumors forum saying the $35 discs will let you do an install without leopard being present. have not verified this myself but i'm almost entirely sure this is the case.

basically, almost all of apple's software can be pirated without any problem. they do not require keys and activation. it's all about being honest.

nope 35 bucks is just the upgrade to snow leopard from leopard, the actual OS disc costs 135 bucks... check the apple site, i believe i found this info there.

[skholla]

nabs, you are right but i dont think it is actually true. i have an older intel mac mini (running tiger) kicking around and i will try installing snow leopard on it and report back.

rageguy, apple is pretty easy going with osx client os, ilife, and the newest iwork. they are primarily a hardware company and make a lot of money off of that and ipods and iphones. not all apple software is easy to pirate or crack, try osx server, final cut, logic pro. most can be done with serial numbers, logic was a pain in the ass to crack because it used dongles, now they finally switched to serial numbers but they are hard to come by.

[avinayyar]

Does anyone know if you Leopard discs while upgrading to Snow Leopard? I borrowed mine to a friend and never saw them again :S

[smk]

Nope you don't need the Leopard disc... Just stick the Snow Leopard disc in and wait about 45 minutes

[avinayyar]

Nope you don't need the Leopard disc... Just stick the Snow Leopard disc in and wait about 45 minutes

Sweet, Thanks!

[!MiKrofT]

nope 35 bucks is just the upgrade to snow leopard from leopard, the actual OS disc costs 135 bucks... check the apple site, i believe i found this info there.
From all the online sources say you can do a clean install with the upgrade disc. In fact someone on this thread already did so.

[Ilagon]

just finished the upgrade - ITS WELL WORTH IT. The boot up time and shutdown time alone was worth the upgrade.

I can confirm that the upgrade disc works!! A Macbook with a totally clean HD can be upgraded to Snow Leopard. When I first shut it down, I was surprised how fast it shut down, I thought it didn't do a complete shut down!

Starting it up was so quick too, way faster than starting Vista. :thumbsup:

[avinayyar]

Has anyone Upgraded Leopard to Snow Leopard w/ Bootcamp + Windows xp/vista setup on a partition. Any problems? Should I be backing up Windows Partition first?

[ilvtofu]

Do i have to reinstall parallels?

[skholla]

Has anyone Upgraded Leopard to Snow Leopard w/ Bootcamp + Windows xp/vista setup on a partition. Any problems? Should I be backing up Windows Partition first?

no you shouldnt have any problems but just in case you can use Winclone to backup and restore your partition if needed. its kind of like a basic version of symantec ghost or acronis true image.

once you have upgrade you should also upgrade your boot camp drivers in windows by booting into windows and then popping in the snow leopard dvd, the latest drivers (v3.0 build 2058) are there.

[skyxx]

Look at the knife :lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxfsVyJSmwg

[skholla]

Do i have to reinstall parallels?

nah shouldnt have too, i just tested my parallels and vmware fusion virtual machines and they work fine.

[Jmac]

I can confirm that the upgrade disc works!! A Macbook with a totally clean HD can be upgraded to Snow Leopard. When I first shut it down, I was surprised how fast it shut down, I thought it didn't do a complete shut down!

Starting it up was so quick too, way faster than starting Vista. :thumbsup: Almost anything is quicker than starting Vista unless you disable all the background services that make Vista better than XP ...

[skyxx]

^ Apparently you gain back quite a significant amount of hard drive space. :)

[avinayyar]

no you shouldnt have any problems but just in case you can use Winclone to backup and restore your partition if needed. its kind of like a basic version of symantec ghost or acronis true image.

on you have upgrade you should also upgrade your boot camp drivers in windows by popping in the snow leopard dvd, the latest drivers (v3.0 build 2058) are there.

Thank you!

[JesseBlue]

does everyone really shutdown their mac's or do you just use sleep function? (i know its a little bit off topic)

[.Renn.Sport]

i just close the lid.......which goes to sleep, and that is enough

[!MiKrofT]

Depends when I'll think I'll use it next. Shutdown if it's awhle.. sleep if it's a day or so.

[hoking]

does everyone really shutdown their mac's or do you just use sleep function? (i know its a little bit off topic)

I shut it down, takes only like 5 seconds anyways with the new upgrade! :thumbsup:

[roastpuff]

I usually just put it to sleep. Never shut down unless I'm leaving it for a while (few days).

[skholla]

SLEEP... on a fully charged battery your mac can sleep for up to a week before the battery completely drains.

[.Renn.Sport]

my snow leopard finally arrived.....
but i've already installed it days ago from downloading it LOL

[SkinnyPupp]

Why would you pay $35 for a Service Pack? And celebrate it like it's a holiday?

And if you really think you just got a bunch of hard drive space freed up, you are an idiot. Sorry.

[JesseBlue]

when win 7 comed up and asks people to fork up 99bucks for it then we'll discuss if its a fair price

[SkinnyPupp]

when win 7 comed up and asks people to fork up 99bucks for it then we'll discuss if its a fair price
So you're comparing a service pack to a full OS revision? Try again.

How much was SP1? SP2? Oh, $0. And you got a real 4-5GB hard drive space increase, not a fake 20GB :lol

[skholla]

right.... snow leopard is leaps and bounds beyond a service pack. forget all the windows vs mac crap and look at the facts. 10.6 brings great performance increases to the table, almost the whole system and apps were rewritten in 64 bit code, grand central dispatch optimizes the use of multi core processors opencl takes advantage of powerful gpus that sit idle. if these things alone are just a mere "service pack" and you can live without them then dont bother upgrading.

its true that 10.6 doesnt have all the flashy upgrades that past versions have had but there are a ton of small enhancements that make the user experience even more polished, take a look... http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/enhancements-refinements.html the new dock/expose features and quicktimex are big ones too.... im really enjoying the faster boot, shutdown, and wake from sleep times, also the faster time machine backups are a real time saver.

another one of the bigger features is exchange support, true it may only support exchange 2007 but this is a huge feature, and definitely one that is worth the $35 alone. entourage is bloated and really blows, until microsoft releases outlook for mac the new 10.6 features may be an answer. snow leopard + open office = :thumbsup:

[SkinnyPupp]

So.... they finally added 64-bit support, which is great. The rest looks like standard SP stuff to me.

I am not making this about "Windows vs Mac". I am making this "Apple People vs. Normal People"

[skyxx]

I'm a mac user as well but I agree with "SkinnyPup" about Apple People(Cult) vs Normal people.

[K-Dub]

So has anyone with Tiger done a clean install/upgrade to Snow Leopard?

[CRS]

So has anyone with Tiger done a clean install/upgrade to Snow Leopard?

I did.

Works fine.

[JesseBlue]

so tiger to snow leopard is an sp hmm...

[!MiKrofT]

I lost my leopard install disc so this is just in case I resell. Worth it for me.

[skholla]

so tiger to snow leopard is an sp hmm...

nah, there are too many changes from tiger to leopard to make that a simple SP, also going from leopard to snow leopard seems to be just a SP to most but in reality theres a WHOLE LOT that has been tweaked under the hood. IMHO its well worth the $30. i think that apple is being very lenient with upgrade paths and have set a low price point to promote adoption. 10.6 is great and but it does not wow you like when you first upgraded to 10.5 from 10.4. just wait, 10.6 has paved the way for major changes to come in 10.7.

on the topic on SP's... when was the last time MS re-wrote the windows code. even with windows 7 (which i used and think is way better than vista), they are still recycling age old code and programming and tweaking the shit out of it. with the SP's for windows ME-2 (aka vista) there were significant performance gains when compared to the original release but not a re-write. also you still have to buy a totally separate edition if you want to use 64-bit. and if you got stuck using a 32bit version of windows the os would only see 3gb of ram, if you had 4gb or more then the rest is just wasted. software compatibility can be a pain as some apps dont support windows x64.

snow leopard throws everything on one disc, depending on your hardware it will boot into the appropriate OS, even if your mac doesnt support it now its sitting waiting for your next hardware upgrade, just clone the drive and reboot and you are ready to go... even better just restore from a time machine backup on your new mac.

[SkinnyPupp]

I think this (http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/17508) is a good article on the SP, written by a non-delusional Mac user.

[hi-revs]

What changes am i supposed to see after installing Snow Leopard?
The ONLY difference i see is when i right click on an icon on the dock, and a black list pops up.
NOTHING else is new! WTF?

[SkinnyPupp]

What changes am i supposed to see after installing Snow Leopard?
The ONLY difference i see is when i right click on an icon on the dock, and a black list pops up.
NOTHING else is new! WTF?
Like I was saying... :lol

[Iceman_2K]

This is a better article:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars

[hi-revs]

No. Seriously! How the hell can u tell that youve "upgraded" to snow leopard???
I didnt even get any new icons on my dock or anything like that. Where the fuck is my Microsoft Exchange program??? shouldnt that be installed along with snow leopard??

[Manic!]

No. Seriously! How the hell can u tell that youve "upgraded" to snow leopard???
I didnt even get any new icons on my dock or anything like that. Where the fuck is my Microsoft Exchange program??? shouldnt that be installed along with snow leopard??
Microsoft software installed using a mac OS disc???
How does that work???

I have a feeling that there were a bunch of problems with Leopard but instead of making a free service pack update like Microsoft does they decided to make some extra money and call it a new OS when most of the stuff is the same. But I'm no mac expert.

[hi-revs]

And how the heck can i start writing chinese words on the trackpad after installing Snow Leopard? is there an additional program that i have to download/buy?

[roastpuff]

And how the heck can i start writing chinese words on the trackpad after installing Snow Leopard? is there an additional program that i have to download/buy?

No, just activate it from system preferences.

[hi-revs]

No, just activate it from system preferences.

how?

[Manic!]

For all the people who upgraded make sure to update your flash player. Snow leopard
installs an older ver of flash that has a bunch of security holes.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=16161

[TekDragon]

So, I see a lot of comments here. I just want to know how you all feel about the service pack Apple put out.

[hi-revs]

So, I see a lot of comments here. I just want to know how you all feel about the service pack Apple put out.

Next to no noticeable changes!!! >.<



......but this is coming from a guy that just started using a mac.
An upgrades an upgrade, right? And for $35, its "worth it", i guess.

[Iceman_2K]

on the onset apple advised that there wasn't going to be much visual upgrades - most of the upgrading was being done under the hood. I've found that my system does run much faster and smoother than it did before, shutdown times are at an average of 3 seconds or less, bootup times are at 20 seconds or less, and I did have reduced disk usage. I got back 4 gigs of space. i can't remember the last time any OS being able to get that kind of experience after an upgrade of any kind.

[CRS]

on the onset apple advised that there wasn't going to be much visual upgrades - most of the upgrading was being done under the hood. I've found that my system does run much faster and smoother than it did before, shutdown times are at an average of 3 seconds or less, bootup times are at 20 seconds or less, and I did have reduced disk usage. I got back 4 gigs of space. i can't remember the last time any OS being able to get that kind of experience after an upgrade of any kind.

Yeah, pretty much.

Not many visual updates but it seems as though my processing speed is a lot better for everything. From opening files to shutting/turning on, everything seems faster and smoother.

[.Renn.Sport]

just installed windows 7 using the snow leopard boot camp drivers.... the multi touch track pad actually work as well it is in OSX now

[TekDragon]

on the onset apple advised that there wasn't going to be much visual upgrades - most of the upgrading was being done under the hood. I've found that my system does run much faster and smoother than it did before, shutdown times are at an average of 3 seconds or less, bootup times are at 20 seconds or less, and I did have reduced disk usage. I got back 4 gigs of space. i can't remember the last time any OS being able to get that kind of experience after an upgrade of any kind.

"Reduced disk usage" translates into they didn't install EVERY printer driver like they used to. I'm glad to see they finally did that. I take jabs when I can at mac owners, but in reality, I'm glad to see OSX move forward with improvements.

[mrks]

"Reduced disk usage" translates into they didn't install EVERY printer driver like they used to. I'm glad to see they finally did that. I take jabs when I can at mac owners, but in reality, I'm glad to see OSX move forward with improvements.

Yea, that is a large chunk, but the other more interesting savings are that they have stripped out the old PowerPC code from the applications. Another fundamental change is the way the HFS+ drive structure has changed. A lot of the applications are actually compressed now, but they still run without a performance hit.

The other main reason for gaining space is that Apple is calculating the amount using base 10 math, not base 2. So your 120 gb drive shows up as 120 gb, not 111 gb. This is a lame tho, since on a PC a file might be 10 mb, but on a mac it will be 11 or 12 mb. This will just confuse a hell of a lot of people who need to check file sizes. I wonder if this will affect check sum programs.

[jerche]

is it true that you technically dont need a legit copy and a torrented copy will do justice considering you don't need a cd key? =S

[Xander]

Why the hell do i have to use to fingers and click for right click now? Or am I a reh-tard??

[!MiKrofT]

My right click hasn't changed... still 2 finger tap. Try changing it back in the trackpad settings?

[Narayan]

question for you mac experts... lately for whatever reason my "Finder" has looked different then it has in the past and I dont like it.

it currently looks like this

http://thechapters2.homestead.com/files/Screen_capture_1.png

but before my "desktop" User name, Applications all appeared on the far left.

I'm not sure what I did or pressed but how do I get it back to "normal"

[skholla]

click the button in the top right corner of the window

[CrisQo]

is it true that you technically dont need a legit copy and a torrented copy will do justice considering you don't need a cd key? =S

this is true, unless you want to pay $35 for a service pack. I just upgraded mine yesterday via my ipod

[Narayan]

click the button in the top right corner of the window

Thanks!

[skyxx]

is it true that you technically dont need a legit copy and a torrented copy will do justice considering you don't need a cd key? =S

You can do that with almost all software that is available in the MAC format. :)

[Franjo]

Installed it on my macbook and man does it fly. It is so quick responding to anything and the startup and shutdown time is awesome.

[rk604]

read other threads online...

you won't feel a difference UNLESS the app that you are using supports 64bit. Honestly, i feel that safari is faster, shutdown/turning on is faster, and overall stability is a lot better. But then again, i did a clean install, so maybe the the cleaning part made it faster...

So, I see a lot of comments here. I just want to know how you all feel about the service pack Apple put out.

[KuSouL]

so i have a totally noob question = =
when you change from leopard to snow leopard ... all your files will still stay right?
what about iTunes and iPhoto?

cause somebody told me those things will be deleted ...
i guess what i'm asking is ... what things in the computer get reset?
i'm guessing system preferences resets? but what else?

do all your downloaded applications stay?
and ya ... i care most about iPhoto and iTunes ... the things i have saved in there wont be deleted right?

[roastpuff]

If you do a "clean install" - i.e. you tell it to wipe the hard drive and install on a blank disk, then yes, it's all gone.

If you choose" upgrade" then no, everything will be the same. Nothing will be reset, but some applications/plug-ins may not work anymore because of compatibility issues with the new OS.

If you have a Time Machine disk, you can do a clean install and then reload everything from the Time Machine image.

[KuSouL]

oh ok thank you so much ~ that's exactly what i needed to know haha ...
makes sense = = thanks