I'm still on Tiger, so I don't know all the details. Little Snitch can stop outgoing connections, and on an app-by-app basis. And Tiger's firewall can't do anything on an app-by-app basis. Typical firewalls, including Tiger's, block incoming connections, but make no effort to block outgoing connections. The Tiger firewall is not at all comparable to Little Snitch. Little snitch isn't quite there yet, but I haven't found anything better. It was effective and uncomplicated to use. Just thought I'd like to hear what you guys have to say about it and if Little snitch is worth getting, or if there's something better out there?
In any case this has got me thinking: how can we trust software like this which is supposed to keep us safe? It's like an anti-virus program: who better to spread viruses around than the makers of anti-virus software, and who better to spy on us than the makers of any-spyware. I haven't had the time to look closely at it, so I really can't tell how it compares with Little Snitch, but I read some negative stuff about it -the people behind it using it to harvest email addresses or something.
There is apparently another similar application called GlowWorm which I downloaded the demo of. It seems like a very useful tool (I've even caught some spyware this way), and since I like to keep track of which software goes online and for what purpose I think I need a "firewall" for preventing outwards traffic. After that you just have to enter its configuration and tell it to go into demo mode again, for another 3 hours!). I've been using Little snitch (in demo mode) for a while now (it has a very generous 3 hour session limit.