Jun 10

Facts About The Snow Leopard

Until now, the snow leopard was sometimes known as the ounce, and when thinking of facts about the snow leopard, nobody had Apple in mind. Those days are gone, because Snow Leopard is also the codename of Apple's upcoming Mac OS X, and this doesn't come as a big surprise, since Apple got us used to the fact that Mac OS X releases are named after big cats(maybe they'll think about Garfield one day!). So...what should we expect from Apple's Snow Leopard?

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Since Mac OS X Leopard already pushed Mac OS where no OS has gone before, Snow Leopard, although scheduled to arrive as a major version, won't add that many new features. Why? Well, here's what Apple says about it...

"With Snow Leopard, the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system, Mac OS X changes more than its spots, it changes focus. Taking a break from adding new features, Snow Leopard — scheduled to ship in about a year — builds on Leopard’s enormous innovations by delivering a new generation of core software technologies that will streamline Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos."

Oh, wait! They missed to add this to the introduction, but I think it is a fact worth being mentioned - Snow Leopard will introduce QuickTime X, the next-generation platform able to push modern media and Internet standards one step forward.

Now, let's see what other facts about the Snow Leopard should be interesting enough for you now... Other than the above, Snow Leopard will bring enhanced multicore support, OpenCL (Open Compute Library), a technology that "makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit" (GPU-accelerated graphics software, anyone?), as well as "out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 built into Mail, Address Book, and iCal."

Since the official Snow Leopard page says "All features on this page are subject to change," I guess we won't see it arriving this year, but it's good to know that Mac OS X Leopard can get even better!