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I'm using a MacBook Pro 13'', 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Installing Steam was a breeze. After downloading a small DMG file and accepting Valve's usage terms the installer downloads the rest of the software. After starting it for the first time, a Steam user account must be created, much like in iTunes. I got up and running fast. I wanted to try two things: download and start Portal which is available for free for a limited time only and depending on how well that went, I also fancied buying Torchlight, an action RPG which is now also available for Mac and price reduced by 50%. Here are the things that bothered me most, in the order I noticed them:

• There is no copy and paste within Steam. If you're using programs like Keepass or any other password manager from where you copy and paste passwords where you need them, then you're out of luck in Steam. I found this to be a major annoyance when setting up the Steam account and more importantly when paying using Paypal.
• When downloading Portal, I noticed that the integrated download manager is not very smart. The download was aborted or halted a couple of times (due to the huge interest into this title). I expected the download manager to resume the download after some time, but that didn't happen. You have to check on it from time to time and resume the download manually. That was a bit inconvenient. Also, the download interface didn't update its status accordingly so that it was actually a bit confusing whether the download was halted or running. I noticed some of those problems again when downloading Torchlight.
• Steam crashes quite often on my Mac. I haven't found any other Mac user with the same experience, but for me that happens quite a lot.
• When purchasing Torchlight, I opted for Paypal payment. That didn't went smooth at all. After working through all steps of the purchase dialog, a new window opened up, redirecting to the Paypal site to complete the purchase. The redirection didn't work, instead the window showed the home screen of the Steam shop. I went back to the purchase dialog in the other window, repeating the process. This time, a new window opened up, taking me to the Paypal site. I completed the payment there. The purchase dialog in Steam then informed me, that the purchase was not completed, due to problems with my credit card (WTF?!). After waiting some time, I tried to repeat the last step of the payment process for this game. Steam then recognizes, that the game has already been bought. It then shows up in the list of available games, from where I could download it. See attached screen shots.

• While waiting for the Paypal payment to be effective, I used the 'support' link from the help menu to find out about support options. It takes you to a web page that handles support issues for Steam. The site has a login form on the left side. Trying to use your existing Steam account to login there doesn't help much though. They don't tell you before you try, only after your login is not accepted will they display a hint that you need to create a separate account for the support. This is a very poor solution. I created an account for the support site. An activation email was supposed to be sent to my email address I specified. Without that activation mail, there is nothing you can do on the site. That email never arrived, even after having the support site resend it a couple of times. To sum up, I was unable to contact the Steam support at all. FAIL.
• When playing games, it can happen that it's impossible to close the Steam client even after any game started from within is already closed. That seems to be a common problem, even on the Windows platform.

After playing around with Steam for a while, downloading and buying two games, my impression is that the overall quality of the service is not beyond beta status. The basic functionality is there but everything is still rough around the edges. In my opinion Steam on Mac is not in a state that should be released to the public. Once it's ready it's a nice platform for games distribution, especially if you own both a PC and a Mac (as you can get some games you already bought for PC on to your Mac without buying them again). However, I would still wait a bit until Valve fixes most of the rough corners.

By the way, Portal is great. So is Torchlight. You should get both while Portal is still free and Torchlight down to 50% of the normal price - well, if you're prepared to deal with the quality issues of Steam at the moment that is.