Snow Leopard Coming on Friday

David Pogue wrote in the New York TImes Apple's Sleek Upgrade. "Otherwise, if you’re already running Leopard, paying the $30 for Snow Leopard is a no-brainer. You’ll feel the leap forward in speed polish, and you’ll keep experiencing those “oh, that’s nice” moments for weeks to come. If you’re running something earlier, the decision isn’t as clear cut; you’ll have to pay $170 and get Snow Leopard with Apple’s creative-software suites — whether you want them or not. Either way, the big story here isn’t really Snow Leopard. It’s the radical concept of a software update that’s smaller, faster and better — instead of bigger, slower and more bloated. May the rest of the industry take the hint."

Walt Mossberg in Apple Changes Leopard’s Spots, isn't as convinced, "Overall, I believe Snow Leopard will help keep the Mac an appealing choice for computer buyers, and I can recommend it to existing Mac owners seeking more speed and disk space, or wanting to more easily use Exchange. But I don’t consider Snow Leopard a must-have upgrade for average consumers. It’s more of a nice-to-have upgrade. If you’re happy with Leopard, there’s no reason to rush out and get Snow Leopard."

MacWorld's Snow Leopard Review lists a bunch of tweaks that I wasn't aware of. I think it gives credence to Pogue's position. "But the price of upgrading is so low that I’ve really got to recommend it for all but the most casual, low-impact Mac users...If you’re a user who connects to an Exchange server every day, upgrading to Snow Leopard really is a no-brainer. For everyone else, maybe it’s not quite a no-brainer—but it’s awfully close. Snow Leopard is a great value, and any serious Mac user should upgrade now."

I believe this is a list of 3rd party apps with their Snow Leopard compatibility described, though it seems to be down now.