[vwguy60]

I have been following the OSX conversion on Dell Minis for a couple years now... I have done several Mini 9's for for family and friends and I have a question. A few months or so ago my Mini 9 was stolen at work and since we did use it for company business, they bought me a replacement. Since it was upgraded to a runcore 32gb drive, 2gb of ram, it was actually cheaper for them to buy me a new Mini 10V.

Of coarse I upgraded it with a 320gb hard drive, 2gb of ram and I installed 10.5. The reason was because I wanted a computer that just worked and I did not want to worry about the next update. Being highly unlikely that Apple would go to 10.5.9, keeping it at 10.5.8 was easy, it could handle all the updates to software without having to go through a new netbook installer and it related bugs.

Now, my question is, is there is a noticeable difference between 10.5 and 10.6 like on my real Macs? Other than just having the latest and greatest is it worth the hassle? MY 10V works perfect for what I use it for. Do other just leave it if it works or is it just a "stick it to the man" kinda of thing to have the latest and greatest.

To my knowledge, there is nothing I cannot do in 10.5 that can be done in 10.6. I have 10.6 on my Mac Pro and MBA because of the latest and greatest thing but for my netbook, does it make that big of a difference to deal with updates to system software?

I am hoping some of you can shed some light...

[achmeingott]

it does run noticeably faster due to a major overhaul of the os' core. a bigger difference in my opinion than going from 1gb of ram to 2gb of ram on my mini. it also uses significantly less hdd space for system files. i think apple claims you'll see near 7gb of space clear up after upgrading. for $30 i don't see much of a reason not to upgrade.

[vwguy60]

I noticed a pretty big difference on my real Macs but wasn't sure on the single core Atom if it made any worthwhile differences. With 320gb, I am not really concerned with space as I was with my Mini9. I already have a Snow Leopard disk since I purchased it for my other computers, my only concern is out of laziness since I would have to have to repatch it with every system update.

Thanks for your opinion!

[Z25MN6]

I have two portable PCs onto which I've installed Leopard. One I've left 10.5.8, and one I've put 10.6.3 onto. The Mini 10v has 10.6.3, and my HP Compaq 6510b has 10.5.8. Why? Simply put, we have Meklort to help us with the Dell Mini's, but there is no such turnkey support for more obscure Hackintoshes. All you have to do to install 10.6.3 on a 10v is to follow the breadcrumbs that have been left on the ground in this forum. But there are enough descriptions of failed installs to lead me to believe that what I see as elementary can be a challenge to others.

For other kinds of hardware, I'm reluctant to tempt fate for not much gain. Truth be told, running Monolingual and StripPPC against 10.5.8 yields pretty much the same hard drive space/speed gain as installing 10.6.3 does. But there are a few features that are better in 10.6.3, especially if you are having trouble with bluetooth or wifi in 10.5.8. Net, I see it kind of like a BIOS upgrade. If you need it, you know it, because something doesn't work. However, if your computer is working fine, why risk some unintentional consequence by installing an upgrade, just because it is "later and greater?"

Net, if you can think of a good reason to upgrade a 10v, and you have an appropriate tolerance for risk and the experience of doing several Mini 9's, go ahead. Netbook Installer 0.8.4 makes upgrading about as risk free as possible. Just keep in mind that this is a production box that your are describing, not a hobby box. If you can't articulate to yourself WHY you want the latest and greatest, then why risk the kind of "oh my gosh, I really, really need this computer for tomorrow morning, and I screwed up the upgrade. Please, please help me!" threads that are unfortunately present elsewhere in this forum?

[vwguy60]

Thanks Z25MN6... I am not concerned about any hd space and everything seems to work flawless under 10.5.8 on my 10V. I see no real advantage on changing to 10.6 yet, as for speed, since it is a netbook, it will never be used as my FInal Cut Pro editing machine, it is used mainly for the most basic of computing and nothing more.

The support for the Dell Minis here is the best and if I go and upgrade, doing some reading here is the best. I was just wondering if there would be the one feature or that one something that made it all worthwhile to change. It does not sound like it and I value the opinions I got.

I will just go on and enjoy the netbook as a netbook but even more because it is like a real Mac. I have the stock 160gb drive with XP Pro on it and OSX runs way faster and better with more reliability and stability than Windows. I am a Mac guy and in my opinion it is just better except for engineering applications. But on my real Macs, bootcamp and Parallels solved that.

Thanks!