So you've got Snow Leopard, what are you going to do now?

Snow Leopard goes on sale today in Apple Stores and online at retailers like Amazon (14% discount) . If you are an Intel Mac user, there are a few reasons to hold off on installing. (most notably, if you have make or break software that isn't compatible - check here)

For the vast majority of Mac users however, the upgrade is a no brainer. But what are you going to do now that you've got Snow Leopard?

First the install process:

Installing a Mac upgrade has never been easier. Apple says it is also 50% faster and more reliable than ever. It was fast and worked, so I'll give them that.

The Snow Leopard install works on any Mac OS or even a empty hard drive connected to your Mac. You don't need to have any previous installation, so long as it is an Intel machine. The process has been streamlined a bit as it doesn't ask what type of install you'd like to do. The 3 previous options have been combined into one. If you want to do an erase and install you'll have to use the disk utility to do that.

Personally, I don't install any languages or extra fonts to keep the install time down. I do usually install X11 for apps like GIMP and other toys. On my MacBook Pro, 13 inch, the install took a bit over half an hour.  

What to play with now that you've got Snow Leopard running:

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See Computerworld's

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Though Snow Leopard is a mostly an under the hood upgrade, there are some nifty additions that can make your workflow easier.

If you use Exchange or even Google Apps, you can now sync iCal and Addressbook up with your online calendar. Addresbook has had Google and Yahoo syncs since Leopard but you can now use the Exchange connectivity tricks. iCal works really well with online calendars.  Bye bye Entourage!

You'll notice Exposé has some new tricks both on the dock and when you click through the windows. These have been covered pretty extensively so I won't get into them here.

The Finder is definitely snappier and you'll notice that icon resizing is a good way to make windows look exactly like you want them.

Snow Leopard deals with printers differently. You may have to re-add any network printers the OS didn't find via Bonjour. You'll want to do that now, not when you have a deadline and you need to get printing right away. The adding of printers is now easier than ever as long as you have internet connectivity - the drivers download automatically from Apple.

Quicktime X is a lot of fun to play with. You can now do screen capturing, simple cropping and MobileMe/Youtube uploading. If you have some videos to share, it has never been easier.

OK, this might seem absurd but I was blown away with how much faster my machine started up and shut down. Run a restart and time your new OS. Usually it is under a minute round trip. Snow Leopard is really stable so you probably won't need to take advantage of this very often.

Preview also smokes and has some more image editing tools. If you are a blogger and need to crop/edit an image, you no longer need a bloated Photoshop to do simple edits. Preview also smokes through and lets you annotate PDFs.

If you haven't used Time Machine to back up your Mac, you might want to try now. It is supposed to be 80% faster. While I can't vouch for that number, it certainly seems quicker and less obtrusive on the CPU.

iChat video is now at 640x480 (up from 320x240). Go ahead, try it with a friend or family member. The quality is noticeably better.

Also, you might notice the color has changed. Snow Leopard ships with a new default Gamma that is more compatible with the greater PC world.

Most importantly, enjoy how much faster your new machine is. With this upgrade Apple has virtually added a few MHz to your hardware....oh, and Apple's saved you, on average, 7GB of space - so go download some more music, photos and movies to enjoy!