Reports: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard finished, shipping early?
Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:24AM EDT
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The next, maintenance-focused version of Mac OS X has reportedly hit "Golden Master" status, meaning that it's ready for pressing onto retail DVDs, and some Apple observers even think it might sneak onto store shelves earlier than expected.
Typically, when a piece of software or an operating system hits "GM" status, it's a sign that it's just weeks from release—so, if the chatter is true, Apple appears certain to make its promised September release for Snow Leopard with room to spare.
Indeed, some Apple observers—including John Gruber at Daring Fireball, who's known for his accurate Apple predictions—think that Snow Leopard might actually arrive in stores this month, possibly as early as August 28.
Of course, Apple hasn't always been so punctual with its operating system updates. Mac OS X 10.5, a.k.a. "Leopard," went on sale in October 2007, four months late. At the time, CEO Steve Jobs—known in the past for tweaking Microsoft for its missed deadlines—blamed the development of the original iPhone for the delay.
In any case, keep in mind that we won't be seeing any mind-bending new features in Snow Leopard, which Apple has billed as an under-the-hood maintenance release that'll improve overall performance, reclaim several gigs of hard drive space due to its smaller footprint, and include a slimmed-down QuickTime player and rewritten Finder.
Probably the best feature of Snow Leopard (which is the first major Mac OS X upgrade that'll only work on Intel-based Macs) is its price tag: Just $29, or $49 for the multi-license "family pack." (If you're upgrading from 10.4 "Tiger" rather than 10.5 Leopard, you'll have to cough up $169 for the Snow Leopard combo pack.)
Related:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Build 10A432 Designated 'Golden Master'? [MacRumors]
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1 Posted by leono on Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:32PM EDT Report Abuse
As a PPC G5 user running OS 10.411 (and planning to upgrade to 1.5 as soon as I can afford it -- real soon now) I’m EXTREMELY concerned that 10.6 is supposed to be ONLY for Intel-based Macs. Does this mean that PPC Macs will shortly be abandoned and left as orphans? I remember when the Motorola 680xx Macs were suddenly pariahs after the PPC-based Macs came out. I’ve got too much invested in software and other items to immediately get an Intel-Mac -- even if I could afford it on my budget as a retiree. As a Mac Evangelist who continued to support Macs during the dark days of the mid-1990s, I’d hate to be cut off arbitrarily.