Snow Leopard

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.

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.