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Snow Leopard (official name Mac OS X 10.6) is the latest version of Apple's Mac OS X operating system, following Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). Snow Leopard Server, an update to Apple's Mac OS X Server operating system, will be released along side it.
Apple previewed Snow Leopard and released a finalized developer beta at the WWDC keynote on June 8, 2009. The OS will be released in September 2009.
New Features and Refinements[]
- A new version of the Finder, written in Apple's new Cocoa API (instead of the less up-to-date Carbon).
- Updated Exposé and Stacks.
- QuickTime X (ten), a new version of Apple's media player, featuring optimized support for modern codecs.
- OpenCL (Open Computing Language), a technology which allows graphics cards to contribute processing power to general computing.
- Grand Central Dispatch, which makes multicore processors work more efficiently.
- Support for Microsoft Exchange.
- A much smaller hard drive footprint, saving 6GB.
- A faster, easier installation.
- An improved iChat.
- A better Services menu.
- New Preview, with easier text selection.
- Quicker Time Machine backup.
- Core Location, with automatic time zone setup.
- Chinese character input using the trackpad.
- Automatic printer driver updates.
- Safari 4.
- More reliable disk eject.
- Much quicker wake-up, shut-down, and network joining times.
- A 64-bit kernel, with support for up to 16 TB of RAM.
- Improved Bonjour file sharing.
The Snow Leopard DVD which is still sold on the Apple website
Server Features[]
These features are listed at Apple's Snow Leopard Server Site:
iCal Server 2, with group calenders, push notifications, and more.
Wiki Server 2, introducing viewing on iPhone and Quick Look.
Podcast Producer 2, with a new workflow editor and dual video-source capture.
Updated Mail services, with a new engine.
CardDAV-based Address Book Server.
Secure remote access, including push notifications.
