Apr 03, 2021 Mac OS X Sierra was released on September 20, 2016. A few Macswhich came with 10.6 can install Sierra. Note this tip, and the series of tips from 10.2 (10.2, and 10.3 not mentioned in above links as people must have 10.4.4 or later on an Intel Mac to get to 10.6) to 10.11 I've written here all refer to Mac OS X Client. The first release of the new OS — Mac OS X Server 1.0 — used a modified version of the Mac OS GUI, but all client versions starting with Mac OS X Developer Preview 3 used a new theme known as Aqua. Aqua was a substantial departure from the Mac OS 9 interface, which had evolved with little change from that of the original Macintosh operating.
Article ID = 114 Article Title = Virtualising Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (Server) Article Author(s) = Graham Needham (BH) Article Created On = 3rd February 2014 Article Last Updated = 27th March 2019 Article URL = https://www.macstrategy.com/article.php?114 Article Brief Description: Instructions for installing, setting up and virtualising Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (Server) on a modern Mac so you can use Rosetta (PowerPC) based applications.
Virtualising Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server/Rosetta
The ability to virtualise Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is important and very useful as it is the only way to use Rosetta(PowerPC) based applications on a modern Macintosh computer. MacStrategy presents a special guide to doing just this. You mustvirtualise Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server and not the client version. This is a legal requirement by Apple.You are legally allowed to virtualise the server version but not the normal, client version. This article deals with setting up/installing a virtual machine with Mac OS X 10.6 clean/from scratch. If you would like to transfer an existing Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 to a virtual machine, or take a Mac OS X 10.6 bootable storage device/clone/disk image and convert it into a virtual machine please see this article instead.
Oracle VirtualBox [FREE - Open source under GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2]
Instructions
Some people have reported that if you have a very modern Macintosh computer (one released well after Mac OS X 10.6 existed) it is not easy/possible to install to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server in a virtual environment. We're looking into that and will update this article with more information when we have it. We'll test with other Macs as and when we can and update this article accordingly. For this article we have tested using the following Macs:
MacBook Pro 15' (Early 2011 model - MacBookPro8,2) [released after 10.6.3]
Mac mini (Late 2012 model - Macmini6,2) [released after 10.6.3]
If you do have an older Mac that should support Mac OS X 10.6 but get an error message along the lines of 'Mac OS virtual machines can run only on computers having Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5.1 or higher) or Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4.11 or higher) installed' specifically listing 'Problem ID: 397' then follow Parallel's instructions here and try again.
Preparation
NOTE: You will need a Mac with a physical, optical drive to create an ISO disk image of the Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD. This does not need to be the Mac you ultimately install the virtual machine on, you just need a Mac with an optical drive to create the ISO disk image of the Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD in the first place.
Obtain your preferred virtualisation software (see list above)
Obtain the Mac OS X 10.6 Server install disc:
If you don't have one, it is available by calling the Apple Store (in the UK 0800 048 0408) - you cannot buy it via the Apple online store
You need part number 'MC588Z/A' which is specifically 'Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard Server Unlimited Clients Single Licence International' (£14.00 inc VAT in the UK) - not the normal client edition (part number MC573Z/A)
Create an ISO disk image of the Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD:
Go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
Insert your Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD
In Disk Utility, in the top left, click on the icon for the optical drive not the indented line for the disc volume
Go to File menu > New > Disk Image from device name, where device name is the OS name of your optical drive e.g. disk1
In the save dialogue box enter a suitable filename e.g. 'Mac OS X Server 10.6.3 ISO.dmg'. Leave Image Format with the default setting of compressed.
Wait for the image to be created and then eject the original DVD
Archive/backup the 'Mac OS X Server 10.6.3 ISO.dmg' disc image that you just created
Purchase/install/update your preferred virtualisation software
Make sure you have plenty of free hard disk space (a basic 10.6 Server install is about ~8.5GB before your own applications and you'll need at least twice that if you need to clone it for multiple installations), so we recommend at least 25GB of free space
Make sure your actual, physical Mac has a working internet connection e.g. use a web browser to go to https://www.apple.com and see if you can view a web page
Create a dedicated folder to share files/documents with the virtual environment e.g. in your Documents folder create a folder titled '106SharedFolder'
Instructions for installing Mac OS X 10.6 Server with:
Parallels Desktop v9 (or later) Instructions
Open Parallels
Go to File menu > New
Click on 'Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file' and click Continue
Click on 'Image File'
Drag your Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD ISO image file to the area in the window
Click Continue to begin installing Mac OS X
Name your virtual machine e.g. 'Mac OS X 10.6 Server'
Tick the 'Customize settings before installation' option
Choose your required custom settings. We recommend:
General > CPUs and Memory e.g. 2 CPUs and 4GB RAM)
Options > Sharing - for best security set 'Share Folders' to 'None', untick 'SmartMount' 'Map mac volumes to virtual Machine and click 'Custom Folders…' and add your dedicated shared folder e.g. in your Documents > '106SharedFolder' (as per the preparation section above)
Hardware > Video > Video memory - the more memory assigned the higher the resolution available for the virtual environment
Hardware > Network 1 > Type > Bridged Network: 'Built-in Ethernet' - the virtual environment will use your physical Mac's Ethernet network configuration
Security > Time Machine > Do not back up virtual machine
Close settings window and click 'Continue'
The virtual machine will reboot to the OS X Server install disc (Apple logo + whirling wheel underneath)
Follow the on screen instructions
At the Install Mac OS X Server screen, click 'Customize…' in the bottom left and select custom options as required, specifically tick 'Rosetta' and 'QuickTime 7'. Only tick 'Langauge Translations' or 'X11' if you specifically need them otherwise you are just wasting space. No need to tick 'Printer Support' as it's a virtual environment and if drivers are needed OS X will automatically download and install the latest driver versions as required.
After the installation completes and the virtual machine reboots please be patient, especially with any black screens - everything is slightly slower in a virtual environment
At the Welcome screen follow the on screen instructions
NOTE: If 10.6 Server needs to be installed on multiple Macs using different serial numbers that you have no control over make a copy or clone of the virtual machine before entering the serial number:
In Parallels 'Shut down' the virtual machine and choose shut down again to force the Mac to shut down if necessary
In the Finder go to the Parallels virtual machine folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Parallels)
Copy/duplicate/archive the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine file (pvm)
Copy this file to the same place on additional Macs with Parallels as required (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Parallels)
OR make a clone:
In Parallels go to Window menu > Virtual Machines List
Select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine (don't open it or start it)
Go to File menu > Clone and make a clone of the virtual machine
Copy the clone to additional Macs with Parallels as required
Start up the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine again and complete the initial installation (and enter your serial number)
Set up as a new server
If you don't want to register at the registration page click inside the virtual machine and window and press (Apple+q) then click the 'Skip' button
At the Administrator Account screen untick 'Enable administrators to log in remotely using SSH' and 'Enable administrators to manage this server remotely' and create an admin account
At the Network screen select Ethernet on the left and on the right set 'Configure IPv4' to 'Using DHCP'
At the Network Names screen set 'Primary DNS Name' to 'my106server.private' and 'Computer Name' to 'my106server' (use different, identifiable names if you are installing on multiple Macs e.g. 106server01.private / 106server01, then 106server02.private / 106server02, and so on… - these can be changed later if required)
At the Users and Groups screen choose 'Configure Manually'
At the Connect to a Directory Server screen untick 'Connect to a Directory Server'
At the Directory Services screen untick 'Set up an Open Directory master'
Click 'Setup' and Mac OS X Server will configure itself
Now the Finder will appear and the Server Admin application will open
NOTE: Under Settings >
General tab you can change the serial number
Network tab you can change the Computer Name and/or Local Hostname
Quit Server Admin
Unmount the 'Mac OS X Server Install Disc'
Go to Virtual Machine menu > Install Parallels Tools…
Install Parallels Tools, following the on screen instructions and restart the virtual machine when complete
Set the screen resolution as required
Set your Finder > Preferences
Move or delete the 'Mac OS X Server Next Steps.pdf' from the Desktop - you do not need to do any of this.
To avoid confusion rename the hard disk from Macintosh HD to something that is different to your current hard disk e.g. '106 Server HD'
Remove unneeded server administration tools icons from the Dock
Go to Apple menu > Software Update and install all available updates (there will be quite a lot of updates and the 10.6.8 server update is over 1GB in size so they could take some time to download/install)
Keep going to Apple menu > Software Update and installing all available updates until there are no more updates to install
NOTE: If you are going to install 10.6 Server on multiple Macs and you have control over the serial numbers you can now make a copy or clone of the virtual machine and simply change the serial number on each installation:
In Parallels 'Shut down' the virtual machine and choose shut down again to force the Mac to shut down if necessary
In the Finder go to the Parallels virtual machine folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Parallels)
Copy/duplicate/archive the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine file (pvm)
Copy this file to the same place on additional Macs with Parallels as required (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Parallels)
NOTE: On the Mac with a new installation, open Server Admin and go to Settings > General tab to change the serial number
OR make a clone:
In Parallels go to Window menu > Virtual Machines List
Select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine (don't open it or start it)
Go to File menu > Clone and make a clone of the virtual machine
Copy the clone to additional Macs with Parallels as required
NOTE: On the Mac with a new installation, open Server Admin and go to Settings > General tab to change the serial number
Install your required Rosetta/PowerPC/10.6 compatible software
Check the Mac OS X 10.6 Server Notes
NOTE: You cannot drag and drop between the Mac OS X virtual environment and your normal Mac/primary OS but you can configure the Virtual Machine to have a shared folder with your primary OS though - go to Parallels, Virtual Machine menu > Configure… > Options > Sharing - for best security set 'Share Folders' to 'None', untick 'SmartMount' 'Map mac volumes to virtual Machine and click 'Custom Folders…' and add shared folder(s) as required e.g. use the dedicated Documents > '106SharedFolder' folder in your primary OS as per the preparation section above
VMWare Fusion
Open VMWare Fusion
Go to File menu > New
At the 'Select the Installation Method' screen click on 'Install from disc or image' and click Continue
Drag your Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD ISO image file to the area in the window and click Continue
At the 'Choose Operating System' screen select Apple Mac OS X > Mac OS X Server 10.6
Mac OS X Server 10.6'/>
At the 'Virtual Machine Summary' click 'Customize Settings'
Name your virtual machine e.g. 'Mac OS X 10.6 Server'
Choose your required custom settings
We recommend:
Processors & Memory > CPUs and Memory e.g. 2 CPUs and 4GB/4096MB RAM)
Hard Disk (SATA) > virtual machine drive size of 64GB
Close the settings window and click 'Finish'
Click the start button/triangle in the middle of the screen to begin installing Mac OS X
The virtual machine will reboot to the OS X Server install disc (Apple logo + whirling wheel underneath)
Follow the on screen instructions
At the Install Mac OS X Server screen, click 'Customize…' in the bottom left and select custom options as required, specifically tick 'Rosetta' and 'QuickTime 7'. Only tick 'Langauge Translations' or 'X11' if you specifically need them otherwise you are just wasting space. No need to tick 'Printer Support' as it's a virtual environment and if drivers are needed OS X will automatically download and install the latest driver versions as required.
After the installation completes and the virtual machine reboots please be patient, especially with any black screens - everything is slightly slower in a virtual environment
At the Welcome screen follow the on screen instructions
NOTE: If 10.6 Server needs to be installed on multiple Macs using different serial numbers that you have no control over make a copy or clone of the virtual machine before entering the serial number:
Go to Virtual Machine menu > Shut down and click the 'Shut Down' button
Quit VMWare Fusion
In the Finder go to the Fusion virtual machine folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Virtual Machines)
Copy/duplicate/archive the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine file (pvm)
Copy this file to the same place on additional Macs with Fusion as required (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Virtual Machines)
OR make a clone:
If you have Fusion 'Professional', in Fusion select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine from the Virtual Machine Library (you cannot create clones using the standard version of Fusion - use the copy method above instead)
Click Virtual Machine and select 'Create Full Clone'
Type a name for the clone e.g. 'Mac OS X 10.6 Server Clone' and click Save to make a clone of the virtual machine
The clone file is created in the Fusion Virtual Machines folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Virtual Machines)
Copy the clone to additional Macs with Fusion as required
Start up the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine again and complete the initial installation (and enter your serial number)
Set up as a new server
If you don't want to register at the registration page click inside the virtual machine and window and press (Apple+q) then click the 'Skip' button
At the Administrator Account screen untick 'Enable administrators to log in remotely using SSH' and 'Enable administrators to manage this server remotely' and create an admin account
At the Network screen select Ethernet on the left and on the right set 'Configure IPv4' to 'Using DHCP'
At the Network Names screen set 'Primary DNS Name' to 'my106server.private' and 'Computer Name' to 'my106server' (use different, identifiable names if you are installing on multiple Macs e.g. 106server01.private / 106server01, then 106server02.private / 106server02, and so on… - these can be changed later if required)
At the Users and Groups screen choose 'Configure Manually'
At the Connect to a Directory Server screen untick 'Connect to a Directory Server'
At the Directory Services screen untick 'Set up an Open Directory master'
Click 'Setup' and Mac OS X Server will configure itself
Now the Finder will appear and the Server Admin application will open
NOTE: Under Settings >
General tab you can change the serial number
Network tab you can change the Computer Name and/or Local Hostname
Quit Server Admin
Unmount the 'Mac OS X Server Install Disc'
Go to Virtual Machine menu > Settings…
Click on Network Adapter, make sure it is switched on then select 'Autodetect' under 'Bridged Networking'
Close Settings window
In your virtual Mac go to Apple menu > Location > Network Preferences
Enter the same numbers for 'DNS Server:' as those on your actual Mac (Apple menu > Location > Network Preferences in your non-virtual, actual OS that is running)
In your virtual Mac close Network Preferences
Go to Virtual Machine menu > Update VMWare Tools
Install VMWare Tools, following the on screen instructions and restart the virtual machine when complete
Set the screen resolution as required
Set your Finder > Preferences
Move or delete the 'Mac OS X Server Next Steps.pdf' from the Desktop - you do not need to do any of this.
To avoid confusion rename the hard disk from Macintosh HD to something that is different to your current hard disk e.g. '106 Server HD'
Remove unneeded server administration tools icons from the Dock
Go to Apple menu > Software Update and install all available updates (there will be quite a lot of updates and the 10.6.8 server update is over 1GB in size so they could take some time to download/install)
Keep going to Apple menu > Software Update and installing all available updates until there are no more updates to install
NOTE: If you are going to install 10.6 Server on multiple Macs and you have control over the serial numbers you can now make a copy or clone of the virtual machine and simply change the serial number on each installation:
Go to Virtual Machine menu > Shut down and click the 'Shut Down' button
Quit VMWare Fusion
In the Finder go to the Fusion virtual machine folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Virtual Machines)
Copy/duplicate/archive the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine file (pvm)
Copy this file to the same place on additional Macs with Fusion as required (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Virtual Machines)
NOTE: On the Mac with a new installation, open Server Admin and go to Settings > General tab to change the serial number
OR make a clone:
If you have Fusion 'Professional', in Fusion select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine from the Virtual Machine Library (you cannot create clones using the standard version of Fusion - use the copy method above instead)
Click Virtual Machine and select 'Create Full Clone'
Type a name for the clone e.g. 'Mac OS X 10.6 Server Clone' and click Save to make a clone of the virtual machine
The clone file is created in the Fusion Virtual Machines folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > Documents > Virtual Machines)
Copy the clone to additional Macs with Fusion as required
NOTE: On the Mac with a new installation, open Server Admin and go to Settings > General tab to change the serial number
Install your required Rosetta/PowerPC/10.6 compatible software
Check the Mac OS X 10.6 Server Notes
NOTE: Although drag and drop (between the Mac OS X virtual environment and your normal Mac/primary OS) is enabled in the virtual machine settings by default it is not supported with Mac OS X 10.6 Server but you can configure the virtual machine to have a shared folder with your primary OS - go to Fusion, Virtual Machine menu > Settings… > Sharing and add shared folder(s) as required e.g. use the dedicated Documents > '106SharedFolder' folder in your primary OS as per the preparation section above
VirtualBox
Open VirtualBox
Go to Machine menu > New
Click on 'Expert Mode'
Name your virtual machine e.g. 'Mac OS X 10.6 Server'
Set 'Type' to 'Mac OS X'
Set 'Version' to 'Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (64-bit)'
Choose your required custom settings. We recommend:
Memory Size > 4096MB (4GB)
Hard Disk > 'Create a virtual hard disk now'
Click 'Create'
Set your virtual disk settings. We recommend:
File Size > at least 20GB
Hard disk file type > 'VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)'
Storage on physical hard disk > 'Dynamically allocated'
Click 'Create'
Select the new virtual OS on the left and click 'Settings' at the top
Set your virtual OS settings. We recommend:
Display > Screen > Video memory - the more memory assigned the higher the resolution available for the virtual environment e.g. set it to 128MB
Audio > UNTICK 'Enable Audio' - according to the VirtualBox forums it is best that audio is disabled
Shared Folders > add your dedicated shared folder e.g. in your Documents > '106SharedFolder' (as per the preparation section above)
Click 'OK'
Select your virtual OS on the left and click 'Start' at the top
Click on the little 'Choose a virtual optical disk file…' yellow folder icon
Locate your Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD ISO image file and 'Open' it
Click 'Start'
The virtual machine will reboot to the OS X Server install disc with lots of text on the screen - be patient until the installer language screen appears
Follow the on screen instructions
At the Install Mac OS X Server screen if the virtual hard disk is not present, go to Utilites menu > Disk Utility > select the virtual disk on the left > click 'Partition' on the right > name the drive something different to your main computer's hard disk e.g. '106 Server HD' > and partition the drive
Quit Disk Utility
At the Install Mac OS X Server screen, click 'Customize…' in the bottom left and select custom options as required, specifically tick 'Rosetta' and 'QuickTime 7'. Only tick 'Langauge Translations' or 'X11' if you specifically need them otherwise you are just wasting space. No need to tick 'Printer Support' as it's a virtual environment and if drivers are needed OS X will automatically download and install the latest driver versions as required.
After the installation completes and the virtual machine reboots please be patient, especially with any black screens - everything is slightly slower in a virtual environment
At the Welcome screen follow the on screen instructions
NOTE: If 10.6 Server needs to be installed on multiple Macs using different serial numbers that you have no control over make a copy or clone of the virtual machine before entering the serial number:
In the VirtualBox virtual OS window click the red circle in the top left and select 'Power off the machine' to force the Mac to shut down
In the Finder go to the VirtualBox virtual machine folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > VirtualBox VMs)
Copy/duplicate/archive the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine folder
Copy this folder to the same place on additional Macs with VirtualBox as required (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > VirtualBox VMs)
OR make a clone:
In the main VirtualBox window select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine on the left (don't open it or start it)
Go to Machine menu > Clone… and make a clone of the virtual machine
Copy the clone to additional Macs with VirtualBox as required
In the main VirtualBox window select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine on the left and click 'Settings' > System > Motherboard
Move 'Hard Disk' to the top of the 'Boot Order' list and UNTICK all other options
Click 'Storage' and right click/control click on the Mac OS X 10.6 Server install DVD ISO image file in the 'Storage Tree' to select 'Remove Attachment'
Click 'OK'
Start up the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine again and complete the initial installation (and enter your serial number)
Set up as a new server
If you don't want to register at the registration page click inside the virtual machine and window and press (Apple+q) then click the 'Skip' button
At the Administrator Account screen untick 'Enable administrators to log in remotely using SSH' and 'Enable administrators to manage this server remotely' and create an admin account
At the Network screen select Ethernet on the left and on the right set 'Configure IPv4' to 'Using DHCP'
At the Network Names screen set 'Primary DNS Name' to 'my106server.private' and 'Computer Name' to 'my106server' (use different, identifiable names if you are installing on multiple Macs e.g. 106server01.private / 106server01, then 106server02.private / 106server02, and so on… - these can be changed later if required)
At the Users and Groups screen choose 'Configure Manually'
At the Connect to a Directory Server screen untick 'Connect to a Directory Server'
At the Directory Services screen untick 'Set up an Open Directory master'
Click 'Setup' and Mac OS X Server will configure itself
Now the Finder will appear and the Server Admin application will open
NOTE: Under Settings >
General tab you can change the serial number
Network tab you can change the Computer Name and/or Local Hostname
Quit Server Admin
If you want to add the virtual optical drive back to the VM in the main VirtualBox window select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine on the left and click 'Settings' > Storage and add Optical Disc to the 'Storage Tree' with the 'Leave Empty' option
Click 'OK'
Set your Finder > Preferences
Move or delete the 'Mac OS X Server Next Steps.pdf' from the Desktop - you do not need to do any of this.
Remove unneeded server administration tools icons from the Dock
Go to Apple menu > Software Update and install all available updates (there will be quite a lot of updates and the 10.6.8 server update is over 1GB in size so they could take some time to download/install)
Keep going to Apple menu > Software Update and installing all available updates until there are no more updates to install
NOTE: If you are going to install 10.6 Server on multiple Macs and you have control over the serial numbers you can now make a copy or clone of the virtual machine and simply change the serial number on each installation:
Select 'Shut Down' from the virtual machine Apple menu
In the Finder go to the VirtualBox virtual machine folder (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > VirtualBox VMs)
Copy/duplicate/archive the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine folder
Copy this folder to the same place on additional Macs with VirtualBox as required (usually Macintosh HD > Users >your home directory > VirtualBox VMs)
OR make a clone:
In the main VirtualBox window select the Mac OS X 10.6 Server virtual machine on the left (don't open it or start it)
Go to Machine menu > Clone… and make a clone of the virtual machine
Copy the clone to additional Macs with VirtualBox as required
NOTE: On the Mac with a new installation, open Server Admin and go to Settings > General tab to change the serial number
Install your required Rosetta/PowerPC/10.6 compatible software
Check the Mac OS X 10.6 Server Notes
NOTE: You cannot drag and drop between the Mac OS X virtual environment and your normal Mac/primary OS but you can configure the Virtual Machine to have a shared folder with your primary OS though - go to Settings > Shared Folders and add shared folder(s) as required e.g. use the dedicated Documents > '106SharedFolder' folder in your primary OS as per the preparation section above
Mac OS X 10.6 Server Notes
Security Notes
Mac OS X 10.6 is no longer supported with security updates so be sure to follow our recommendations for securing older operating systems, specifically:
Don't use Apple Safari as it is no longer updated and thus it is not secure - use a supported web browser e.g. Roccat or TenFourFox
Don't use Apple Mail as it is no longer updated and thus it is not secure (unless you are running this virtual Mac specifically to run Eudora use a mail client in your primary OS instead)
Don't install unsupported web plug-ins and disable old plugins:
Go to 106 Server HD (or whatever you have named the virtual hard disk) > Library
If there is no folder named 'Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled)', create a new folder named that
Open the 'Internet Plug-Ins' folder and move all the items in it to the 'Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled)' folder
NOTE: To move the files you will need to authenticate as an administrator of the computer.
Restart the virtual machine (go to Apple menu > Restart)
General Notes
As it is a server installation automatic login is off by default - you can turn it on in Apple menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options > Automatic Login
There are extra folders on the root of the hard disk titled 'Groups' and 'Shared Items' - this is normal, you don't need to worry about them, but do not delete them.
There is an extra folder in Applications titled 'Server' - this is normal, you don't need to worry about it - it contains the server administrator software, but do not delete the folder/software.
Running 32-bit Applications
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If this information helped you or saved you time and/or money why not donate a little to us via PayPal? All proceeds go directly to MacStrategy / Burning Helix to help fund this web site. Go to this web page to donate to us.
Introduction
My recent article, The reshaped Mac experience, received a lot of attention judging from the response on Twitter and the WordPress analytics — apparently, among other places, it reached Hacker News and Reddit. Unlike my four-part series Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth, however, it didn’t attract any hate mail at all. The sheer majority of feedback I received was very positive, with many many people agreeing with me and my observations. A few — some provocatively, some genuinely curious — asked me something along the lines of, Well, if you dislike the current Big Sur UI and Mac experience, what’s an example of Mac OS UI and experience you DO like?
It’s a more than fair question, and this piece serves as an answer. When I wrote back to those who asked me, I replied Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It was sort of a gut-reply based largely on fond memories of using that Mac OS version quite extensively.
When I purchased my 15-inch MacBook Pro in July 2009, it came with Mac OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard), but I immediately upgraded to Snow Leopard when it was released a month or so afterwards. As you know (and if you don’t, here’s a refresher), together with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Snow Leopard was one of the Mac OS versions with the longest lifespan — almost two years, from August 2009 to July 2011, when the final 10.6.8 v1.1 minor release came out. On my 2009 MacBook Pro, I kept using it until mid-2012, as Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (released in July 2011) didn’t fully convince me at first, so I waited until at least version 10.7.3 before upgrading.
So, I used Snow Leopard on my 2009 MacBook Pro for about three years, and then again on a 2010 Mac mini that a friend gave me to maintain, as a sort of offsite backup. That Mac mini was kept on Mac OS X 10.6.8 for the whole four years it was in my custody (2011–2015) and it was switched off only twice during that period and maybe restarted four or five times in total. It enjoyed an insane uptime and it was a testament to Snow Leopard’s stability.
But back to my ‘gut-reply’, I wanted to be certain that my fond memories of Snow Leopard weren’t just nostalgia. While I am confident when I say that Snow Leopard is the most stable version of Mac OS, I wanted to make sure its user interface was really the good user interface and experience I was remembering. So, after a few frustrating attempts at creating a virtual machine on my current iMac with Mac OS High Sierra, I decided to install Snow Leopard on a USB flash drive, and boot my 2009 MacBook Pro (yes, it’s still alive & kicking) in Snow Leopard from that flash drive.
Installation
Ah, When Mac OS welcomed you after the installation process was complete…
Since the MacBook Pro doesn’t have an optical drive anymore, I had to create a bootable USB flash drive from my original Snow Leopard DVD Installer. The fastest method is to use Disk Utility — rather, an older version of Disk Utility, from a time when this application was really a utility, and you could use the Restore feature reliably to clone the bootable DVD to (in this case) an external volume.
From a bootable USB flash drive to another USB flash drive, installation was relatively fast, about 20–25 minutes. Although I would have preferred an external SSD for the speed, I must say that using Snow Leopard from the flash drive is a breeze nonetheless. The system is responsive and I haven’t noticed any particular lags.
User interface
Now let’s examine just a few aspects of Snow Leopard’s user interface — just like I did for Big Sur in my logbook — and draw comparisons with Big Sur’s interface.
The menu bar
Back in August 2020 when I started testing the first Big Sur beta versions, I wrote in my Big Sur logbook:
In Big Sur, the menu bar by default isn’t solid white, but has a noticeable degree of transparency: it takes the colour of the desktop wallpaper behind it, in an attempt to blend in with the rest of the desktop environment. Some may consider this sleek, but it’s just gimmicky and usability-hostile.
What happens when the desktop wallpaper has darker colours? Well, menu items and menu bar icons become white, of course. The problem is that the wallpaper doesn’t have to be too dark.
In other words, when Big Sur decides that the desktop background image is dark enough, text and icons on the menu bar become white. The problem is that there are cases where the background colour simply isn’t dark enough to warrant a change from black text and icons to white text and icons. Consequently, the contrast is too poor. The only option for better usability is to select Reduce transparency in System Preferences → Accessibility. This brings the menu bar back to a useful state, solid white with black elements.
In Snow Leopard, the menu bar has transparency set to on by default, but it’s definitely more subtle, even with darker desktop backgrounds:
In the top image, menu bar transparency is off; in the bottom image, transparency is on. The difference is almost negligible.
Only with certain background images that contain dark and light areas starkly juxtaposed can menu bar transparency become a bit of an issue under Snow Leopard, but that is partly mitigated by the visible drop shadow beneath the menu bar itself, which helps to make the menu bar stand out more:
Contrast, even in these conditions, tends to be more tolerable than in Big Sur, at least for my eyes. And in any case, in Snow Leopard you can quickly turn off transparency right in System Preferences → Desktop & Screen Saver:
I’ve been talking about ‘transparency’, whereas it’s actually ‘translucency’ — at least in Snow Leopard.
Finder windows
In Snow Leopard, Finder windows are essentially perfect from a user interface standpoint.
When I shared this over Twitter, Mario Guzmán observed that Things are nicely compartmentalized by color. You can distinctly tell each section of the window (even the damn scroll bars)… it’s not just one blob of white with grey symbols.
Snow Searcher Mac Os Catalina
Exactly this. The window has clearly distinguishable areas: the Title bar (with the semaphore controls at the top left of the window, and the sidebar+toolbar show/hide toggle button at the top right), the Toolbar, the Sidebar (with colourful icons helping you quickly and easily locate items at a glance), the Path bar, the Status bar, and finally the scroll bars which are always visible.
Persistent up/down arrows and scroll bars are the right thing to do, usability-wise, and it is such a user-friendly design. The length of the ‘aqua blue’ bar immediately gives you an idea of how populated that folder you just opened is going to be. Further, if you need to rapidly scroll down, you just grab the bar with the mouse pointer and scroll.
In later Mac OS versions, scroll bars are set by default to appear only based on mouse/trackpad movement, which is a pity; many users probably don’t realise they can have scroll bars appear permanently, so they don’t have to time the mouseover action for the scroll bar to appear and then hope they’ll manage to grab it when they want to quickly scroll down a long list of elements.
I am once again reminded of that infamous quote by Alan Dye (Apple’s VP of Human Interface) from WWDC 2020, speaking of Big Sur’s UI redesign: We’ve reduced visual complexity to keep the focus on users’ content. Buttons and controls appear when you need them, and they recede when you don’t. I still believe this is not a good approach in general, and especially for essential elements like scroll bars, which should always be visible by default, because they are UI elements whose usefulness isn’t limited to when you use them or interact with them — they signal something even when not strictly needed. In the case of the scroll bars it’s a visual estimate of how many elements a folder contains, how long a list of items is, and more importantly your current position when scrolling.
Back to Finder windows, here’s an “Apple’s attention to detail” detail: notice that icon in the bottom left of the window? It is a subtle visual cue that tells you if Finder icons (items) are sorted, unsorted, or simply snapped to a grid. When opening windows from read-only volumes, the icon of a crossed-out pencil appears here, meaning that you can’t modify the enclosed items or write to that volume.
Items are unsorted (Arranged by: None) — No icon in the bottom left corner
Items are sorted (by name, size, kind, etc.)
Items are snapped to grid
Window from a read-only volume
While I don’t find this UI detail to be crucial, it is certainly nice to have, and an example of those little things that contributed to make the Mac’s interface great. As I said above, it reflected a certain attention to detail and overall thoughtfulness I’ve seen progressively fade away in later Mac OS releases.
A look back at a few system apps, with occasional UI comparisons between Snow Leopard and Big Sur
MacOS Big Sur
Safari
5.1.10 was the last version of Safari running on Mac OS X 10.6.8. Here are a few things I still prefer over the current Safari:
The blue progress bar
The RSS button (you could read RSS feeds with Safari)
Another detail I very much prefer in the older Safari over more recent versions of Safari is how the plus [+] button near the address bar works. Its placement makes its function rather unequivocal: Add the current page to something. As usual, tooltips are helpful:
But what if I want to add this page to my Reading List? No worries, when you actually press the [+], a thoughtfully-designed sheet comes down, and you can put the current page exactly where you want: in your Reading List, in the Top Sites, or in your Bookmarks.
The other plus button, to open a new browser tab, is placed in such an obvious spot that you know what it does without even waiting for the tooltip to appear:
Now, let’s take a quick look at the UI in Big Sur’s Safari:
At first glance, there’s only one plus button in the app’s chrome. Try to look at this UI with fresh eyes and guess what the [+] button does. Despite its prominence, it just opens a new tab. If you want to add the current page to your Reading List, you have to move the mouse pointer inside the address bar, and at that point a tiny (+) will appear on the left side of the address bar.
But wait, if you want to add that page to your Bookmarks instead? Well, you’ll have to click the Share button in the toolbar, and here you’ll find the option to add the page to your Bookmarks…
Oh look, from here you can also add it to your Reading List. Why exactly can these actions be found under a ‘Share’ menu? Am I sharing this with someone else? It makes no sense, but it’s done this way because that’s how Share sheets work in iOS and iPadOS.
And if you want to add that page to your Top Sites Start Page? Unless I’ve missed something, you can’t do that directly. You can add the page to your Favourites, and then it’ll show in your Start Page.
I think this is enough of an example to show you how clunky and haphazard certain parts of Safari’s UI are under Big Sur.
Mail
Remember when Mail integrated support for RSS feeds? I used to find that useful. I never used Mail as my sole RSS client, of course, but it was great for following selected feeds and keeping an offline archive of all their articles. Even better: a searchable archive of all the articles. Back when Snow Leopard was the newest Mac OS release, I used to have Mac OS X Hints’s RSS feeds in Mail, and searching for specific articles or tips was sometimes quicker than using the website’s Search tool. And when Mac OS X Hints was shut down and maintained only in a read-only form online, having a few years of archived RSS feeds in Mail was certainly handy for searching past hints and tips.
iCal
Let’s draw a brief comparison between iCal in Snow Leopard and Calendar in Big Sur.
The old iCal is yet another example of how the user interface in Snow Leopard was consistent system-wide and throughout the various built-in apps. You have a main app window with clearly distinguishable colour-coded areas, well-placed controls and generally unambiguous icons. Everything you can click on is plainly visible, no discoverability issues. Here are iCal’s Day view and Week view:
If you look at the bottom left corner, when you click the ‘Mini calendar’ icon, only the mini-calendar will show/hide within the sidebar; the sidebar won’t go away.
Now let’s look at the same Day and Week views in Big Sur’s Calendar app:
Calendar looks minimalistic in comparison; maybe some will say it looks prettier, and I may agree in part. But apps should be more than just pretty to look at — they should be functional as well. In Calendar’s Day view, the UI is terse, and the elements appear placed without structure or consistency.
For instance, why does the mini-calendar appear on the right in Day view, but on the left in Week view? It’s as if Calendar isn’t sure whether to have a right sidebar or a left sidebar. And when, in Week view, you click on the ‘Mini calendar’ icon on the top left, the whole sidebar goes away:
Also, every button in iCal has a tooltip (usability wins here), while Calendar’s buttons don’t. And the placement of those icons near the semaphore controls in the top left corner still makes me cringe. Of course, now that in Big Sur the line between Title bar and Toolbar has been blurred, we have cases like Calendar where those controls in the top left of the app window — whose place should be in some sort of toolbar — find themselves in a sort of UI-No-Man’s‑Land. And why does the [+] button get separated when the sidebar appears? For logistic reasons, but not for logic reasons.
And why doesn’t the upper part of the app window have a fixed colour or appearance? In Day view without the sidebar, the top of the window is in a light grey colour, and it’s separated from the rest of the elements much like the Title bar/Toolbar in Big Sur’s Finder windows. But in Week view without the sidebar, the top of the window becomes white and blends with the rest of the app window. When the sidebar is visible, of course, the top of the window changes again, because in Big Sur the sidebar covers the whole left side of a window, including the top left area with the semaphore controls.
System Preferences
From a user interface standpoint, I’ve always liked how the older System Preferences’ main window had the preference panes neatly organised in categories, and while Big Sur’s ‘Show All’ button is not particularly cryptic, I always prefer the clarity of using text in buttons, especially when there’s enough space. I’m annoyed by the current tendency to iconise everything in an app’s interface, especially when the icon that replaces a text label is really not as self-explanatory as the designer thinks.
I also like that in Snow Leopard, the ‘Show All’ button is clearly a button, while in Big Sur, like in many other places of its UI, you realise it’s a button (and not just a decorative icon) only when you hover over it.
This may be more of a personal preference (pardon the pun), but I find the icon design to be more consistent under Snow Leopard than under Big Sur. If you look at the icons of the various preference panes in Big Sur, they appear to have been drawn by different people who never communicated among them during the design phase. They don’t seem to adhere to a unified æsthetic or icon language you find elsewhere in the system. Instead, the icons in Snow Leopard are similar to icons you would find in other application’s toolbars or Preferences windows.
When it comes to individual preference panes, comparisons between Snow Leopard and Big Sur become hard, because over time their features and functionality have changed and expanded. The one pane which has been extremely simplified, however, is the Bluetooth pane. Here’s the main view of such pane in Snow Leopard:
Details worth noticing:
Under Snow Leopard you had the option of toggling discoverability without turning off Bluetooth entirely. I suppose this was useful to keep using the Mac with your paired devices without exposing the machine to other Bluetooth devices.
For each device, added to the list on the left, you get a detailed view indicating what kind of device it is, which Bluetooth services it provides, and if the device is paired and connected.
This is the main view of the Bluetooth preference pane in Big Sur:
The left side of the pane is pretty much a waste of space.
In the Devices list, the only information you get is that the devices appearing on top are paired devices, and their current status, which can be Connected or Not connected. That’s it. Granted, for most people that’s probably all they have to know, but a more detailed view (maybe with a Show/Hide toggle) wouldn’t hurt.
As for the Advanced Bluetooth options, I’ll let the images speak for themselves:
Preview
Preview is a strange app for me. In the past I really didn’t use it that much, finding it pretty basic both as an image viewer/editor and a PDF reader. In later iterations, I’ve come to appreciate the added features, especially the Markup Toolbar and the well-designed Signature functionality. It’s very easy to create a signature and manage different signatures in Preview, a reminder that Apple still does something right, UI-wise.
But when we compare how the user interface was organised in Snow Leopard’s Preview, and its treatment in Big Sur, Snow Leopard wins another round. See for example how the sidebar used to work under Snow Leopard:
When the sidebar is visible, first you notice it has the same background colour as all the other sidebars present in the system and applications. Then you find some handy buttons at the bottom: you use them to quickly change the sidebar’s view — you can switch between Contact Sheet view, Thumbnails, Table of Contents, and Annotations.
Here’s Preview in Big Sur:
When the sidebar is visible, there are no visible controls at the bottom. Peculiarly, when you choose View → Show Markup Toolbar, a small toolbar also appears at the bottom of the sidebar, with a fairly cryptic (+) button you really have to click to understand what it does; it shows a menu with two entries: Insert Page from File… and Insert Blank Page:
Okay. Now here’s a usability detail that drives me nuts about the sidebar. There isn’t a simple button to toggle the sidebar on and off. The button is a menu and it shows Hide Sidebar as an option but not as a command or toggle. Same with the application’s View menu. At first I kept clicking on Hide Sidebar in order to make the checkmark go away and therefore show the sidebar. After a few attempts I finally understood that in order to make the sidebar appear, I have to select any other option from that section of the View menu (e.g. Thumbnails, Table of Contents, etc.).
Now, I might be slow, or tired, or stressed, and blame the user interface for something I should have realised sooner, something that is more intuitive than I think. But let’s have a look at the same menu in Snow Leopard’s Preview:
First of all, the menu’s hierarchy — while a level deeper than in Big Sur — is also clearer: you want to hide the sidebar? Select View → Sidebar → Hide Sidebar. If you want to change what’s displayed inside the sidebar, you can do so from the same submenu.
But when the sidebar is hidden and you want to show it, here’s how that menu changes:
A‑ha. Now the menu becomes: View → Sidebar → Show Sidebar, and of course the other sidebar view options are greyed out because currently the sidebar is hidden.
Yes, when you get the hang of the View menu in Big Sur’s Preview, it’s fractionally quicker than in Snow Leopard, but how that same menu is organised in Snow Leopard is more logical and user-friendly.
Disk Utility
The difference between the user interface of Disk Utility in Snow Leopard and Disk Utility in Big Sur can be summarised like this: one is functional, the other is pretty.
This is the main Disk Utility window in Snow Leopard:
And this is the main Disk Utility window in Big Sur:
Let’s forget about the quality and reliability of these two iterations (spoiler alert: Snow Leopard wins here, too), and let’s just focus on the user interface.
Like the iCal example seen above, Disk Utility in Snow Leopard is a clearly well-structured and organised application. We have general commands in the main toolbar, and five main sections in the bigger pane, related to the most important operations users may need to perform when managing disks: First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, Restore.
See Full List On Support.apple.com
When you enter each of these sections, the pane clearly explains what to do and clearly shows what the options are. It’s a sophisticated UI, but well thought-out.
Big Sur’s interface feels like Disk Utility for Dummies: the main toolbar is gone, and those five sections are essentially gone as well. Now we have a unified, simplified toolbar with these buttons: Volume, First Aid, Partition, Erase, Restore, Mount/Unmount, Info. When you click on those entries that took an entire, detailed section in Snow Leopard, you now have a simple modal dialog or panel. Look at the difference between selecting First Aid in Snow Leopard and in Big Sur:
Detailed explanations, clear overview of the available options.
Just a Yes/No prompt. With terrible visual contrast on top of that.
One thing that always bugged me in more recent versions of Disk Utility is that View menu — specifically the option, in that menu, to show/hide the sidebar. Why, why would you want to hide the sidebar in an app like Disk Utility? Its purpose is to show you an overview of all disks detected by the system. You need to see them at all times. Yes, even if it’s just the internal volume — especially in Big Sur where the internal volume is not a monolithic item.
AirPort Utility
As I said on Twitter, I don’t think the current version of AirPort Utility is particularly bad, and I like its graphical view of how the wireless network is organised. But overall the older UI required fewer clicks to access the various options.
Other odds and ends
Browsing the Web
If you want to use Snow Leopard on an older Mac, or you manage to create a Snow Leopard virtual machine on a more recent Mac, you will need a more modern browser if you want to surf the Web with a modicum of security. Safari 5.1.10 is obsolete and incompatible with many popular websites and services like Twitter and YouTube.
Two usable browsers in Snow Leopard are:
Firefox 45.9.0ESR, downloadable from here.
Opera 25.0.1614.71, downloadable from here.
You can still do content blocking in Firefox by installing the legacy Ublock Origin extension from here. To install an unsigned extension, you’ll have to access the Configuration file by typing about:config in the address bar, search the xpinstall.signatures.required preference, and change the associated value to false.
Messaging and chat
It’s very limited, at least with first-party apps. Snow Leopard came with iChat, and you should be able to download FaceTime from the Purchased tab of the App Store app if you purchased it back in February 2011 when Apple made it available for $0.99. (FaceTime was included for free with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and later releases).
Both iChat and FaceTime don’t recognise your login with Apple ID, complaining of server errors, and so forth. You can still use iChat with a Google account, either by adding a ‘Jabber’ or ‘Google Talk’ account in the iChat account wizard. But since FaceTime only works with Apple accounts, in Snow Leopard it’s basically useless.
iCloud
Predictably, iCloud (still called MobileMe in Snow Leopard) doesn’t work either. Login fails in the System Preference MobileMe pane and when setting up an iCloud account in Mail. The only way to access iCloud is therefore via the Web.
The Mac App Store
I want to take this opportunity to complain about a specific aspect of dealing with an older version of Mac OS: installing older versions of third-party apps. Via the Mac App Store it’s not possible unless you find (either in the current catalogue or among your Purchased apps) an application that still has Snow Leopard as minimum requirement, which generally means an application that is still available on the Mac App Store, but no longer updated.
Otherwise, you’re out of luck. Now, if you have an older iOS device — even obsolete devices like the first-generation iPad or the first generations of iPod touch models — when you try to install an app you previously purchased (or, in some cases, even apps that are still currently available), you’re often given the option to download the last compatible version for the (older) iOS release installed on your device. That doesn’t happen on the Mac. You either can install an app, or you can’t, and a dialog box will inform you that the app can’t be installed because a certain newer version of Mac OS is required.
This is especially annoying, considering that a lot of Mac apps still work fine in Snow Leopard when you manage to install an older version. Why not offer a “Download the last compatible version” option on Mac OS too? Kudos to those Mac developers who have always offered their apps both via the App Store and their own websites, and even more kudos to those developers who still make older versions of their Mac apps available for download on their website.
Conclusion
This has been a fun ride, and while my reexamination of certain parts of Snow Leopard’s UI has been far from exhaustive, I hope I’ve offered a decent overview of what I consider the peak of the Mac user interface, and why. I wasn’t misremembering: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was truly a solid release, both in terms of user interface design, software quality, and system stability. Three staples of the Mac experience that have all been declining, in various degrees, over the last decade.