Apple's Snow Leopard released on Friday
By Stuart Turton
Posted on 25 Aug 2009 at 10:12
Apple has confirmed that it will release its Snow Leopard operating system on Friday.
Mac OS X 10.6, dubbed Snow Leopard, brings a series of under-the-hood changes to Mac OS X, including support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and enhanced support for multi-core processors through Grand Central.
Another notable new feature is the Open Computing Language which allows applications to tap into the huge but often unused power of graphics processors. There's also a completely new multimedia engine, QuickTime X, and 64-bit versions of the Safari browser and iCal.
The new OS also has the benefit of trimming an impressive 7GB from the installation of Leopard, with a large chunk of that coming as a result of Apple's decision to end support for the PowerPC chips it used until the switch to Intel in 2006.
Leopard users will be able to get their hands on a single Snow Leopard upgrade license for £25, while a five-user licence is going for £39.
The launch comes as something of a surprise given that Apple initially claimed we would have to wait until September for Snow Leopard.
The company did not give any reason for the launch being pushed forward and responded to our requests for comment with the following PR fluff: "Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever and we're happy to get it to users earlier than expected."
From around the web
Can't wait
I can't wait for this, I've had 0 crashes with Leopard in 18 months, but the idea of some of the new technologies and improvements make Snow Leopard really tempting.
£25 for the upgrade is a huge bonus too, bring on friday!!
By hjlupton on 25 Aug 2009 
Count me in too. Bought it to upgrade my new iMac. Compared to Windows 7 Leopard is fantastic. Can't imagine what a lighter OS Snow Leopard will be.
By bubbles16 on 25 Aug 2009
AMD Support?
I wonder if the rumoured support for AMD CPU's is now included as part of 10.6? It's already been shown 10.5 could run on AMD systems but wasn't yet able to support SSE3, yet did have SSE2 support. Maybe SSE3 and so full AMD support is now included?
The inclusion of OCL also certainly favours AMD support, especially given OCL only seems to fully support ATI GPU's. I guess the integrated next generation CPU/GPU's from AMD might be the deciding factor for Apple if they can provide the massive raw computing power absent in Intel offerings on a single chip.
By skarlock on 25 Aug 2009
US/UK pricing
It's a bit off that US customers are being charged $29 (£17.71 at the time of typing) when the UK price is £25. It may still be cheap but that's an increase of 40% over the US price
By thewelshbrummie on 25 Aug 2009
Everything is cheaper in the US. Well apart from a pint of John Smiths
By TimoGunt on 25 Aug 2009
£39?
I can't see any reason why any one would really go for the single use license, unless they were completely alone in the world. 50% more for 5 times as much- if I was a Mac user I'd jump at that.
By Kid_Spock on 25 Aug 2009
"The launch comes as something of a surprise given that Apple initially claimed we would have to wait until September for Snow Leopard."
Duh, that's next week.
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