With the release of any now OS you are going to have a period of time where third party vendor support lags. So if you get the OS the INSTANT it comes out, and install it THAT DAY…you’ll find that a lot of stuff won’t work. Well, a lot of hardware you depend on. Sure, your printer and scanner might (or might not), but I’m talking Pro Editing stuff here…after all, this is a pro editing blog.

Some companies, like Avid, used to take up to a year-and-a-half to finally support a major OS update. This meant that when they finally supported one platform, the next one was already out. They supported Jaguar not long after Panther was released. But I’m fine with this…I rely on my editing gear to earn a living and I’d rather have a good solid working system than be on the bleeding edge of the latest and greatest. I could wait. Avid made DARN SURE that things worked before they certified things. Now they are a bit quicker on the uptake, so it might only take 6 months.

But really, waiting a few months to make sure that EVERYTHING is working…is a good thing. Wait to make sure that AJA (that has for FCP 7, just not Snow Leopard), BMD and Matrox release drivers for their cards, that Sonnett, Caldigit and Highpoint release drivers for their hardware…hey, wait a minute..some of them have.

Caldigit released their new drivers, found here, not long ago. As did Highpoint, for their RocketRaid cards.

OK guys…getting there. But, I think people should dip their toes in the water first. Or let others check to see if there are sharks swimming about. I myself am installing SL on a separate partition on my laptop…and then the Studio 2009…and then Matrox MXO2 and stuff. See what happens. See if it looks and feels worth the update at this time.

But the fact that TWO companies were this fast to release new drivers…that says that they are in the know…they are trusted insiders. I have no doubt that the capture cards will soon follow suit.

EDIT: Ahhhh…Decklink released their drivers for Snow Leopard, today too. Woot!

ANOTHER EDIT: And now AJA did as well.