| Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Apple Inc. |
| OS family | Mac OS X |
| Source model | Closed source (with open source components) |
| Official website | apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/ |
| Support status | |
| Private Beta for Registered Developers | |
Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is an Apple operating system being developed to succeed version 10.5 "Leopard". Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Snow Leopard at WWDC on 9 June 2008, saying the software would ship "about a year" after the announcement.[1]
The update to Mac OS X will focus on improving performance, efficiency and reducing its overall footprint, rather than new end-user features.[1] Developer previews have been seeded to developers.[1]
Changes and improvements
Apple has stated that Mac OS X "Snow Leopard" will include the following changes and improvements:
- Support for connecting to Microsoft Exchange 2007 servers will be included in Mail, Address Book, and iCal.[2]
- A smaller hard drive and RAM footprint and faster installation times, under 15 minutes versus over an hour for Mac OS X v10.5. [3]
- Support for up to a theoretical 16 terabytes of RAM[2] by further developing 64-bit kernel technologies.[4]
- Grand Central: a parallel-programming technology[5] that aims to take greater advantage of modern multi-core CPUs, included in all current Macs.[2]
- QuickTime X which will feature optimized support for modern codecs.[2]
- OpenCL (Open Computing Language) will allow developers to more easily code applications to take advantage of the GPU for non-graphics computing purposes.[2]
- A 64-bit kernel which provides a complete 64-bit environment for applications, along with 32-bit support for older Macs. This completes a long-running attempt by Apple to completely unify their products in 64-bit capabilities, dating back to Apple's original adoption of the PowerPC in 1994, which anticipated 64-bit CPUs using the same architecture. With the PowerPC G5 Apple incrementally built 64-bit support into OS X starting with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" in 2003.[6]
- Stacks will receive an update, allowing users to drill-down into the contents of subfolders within the stacks interface.[7]
The next version of Mac OS X Server will include all of these features and other server-related features. Apple also states that they will include ZFS write support.[4]
Build10A286, issued March 6, 2009, includes "a completely redesigned QuickTime Player" which is most likely built upon QuickTime X. The new Cocoa-based Finder is also included. There are a few visual tweaks as well. [8] ZFS has also been updated to version 11. Previous builds contained the same ZFS version 8 implementation that can be found at http://zfs.macosforge.org/
The newest build 10A354 was seeded to developers on Friday, May 8, 2009. On Monday, May 11, 2009, Apple issued a code freeze on Snow Leopard's APIs.
References
- ^ a b c "Apple Previews Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Developers" (Press release). Apple Inc. 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ a b c d e "Mac OS X Snow Leopard". Apple.com. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ "OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard Preview". testmac.net. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- ^ a b "Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard". Apple.com. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ Markoff, John (2008-06-10). "Apple in Parallel: Turning the PC World Upside Down?". Bits. New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ McLean, Prince (2008-08-26). "Road to Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard: 64-bit". Bits. AppleInsider. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ Marsal, Katie (2009-03-05). "Apple prepping new Snow Leopard, iWeb, ARD updates". Bits. AppleInsider. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
- ^ "New Snow Leopard Build Packs New QuickTime, Cocoa Finder". Retrieved 3/6/09.
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