Apple will release Snow Leopard, its newest operating system upgrade, in September, and charge $29. Snow Leopard will feature several improvements, including an updated version of QuickTime and full support for Microsoft Exchange servers. The new operating system version will also better leverage 64-bit CPUs, according to Apple.Apple
plans to release Snow Leopard, its newest operating system upgrade, aka OS X
10.6, in September, with a price of $29. Apple will also market a five-license
Family Pack for $49. Those buying new Macs from June 8 through Dec. 26 will be
able to upgrade to Snow Leopard for $9.95.
Snow Leopard will boost several improvements over the previous iteration of
the operating system, most notably in how it leverages 64-bit CPUs with 64-bit
support for Mail, Finder, iChat and Safari. There are improvements to Mail,
Time Machine and Safari 4, and, in a bid to appeal to enterprise and Windows
customers, the upgraded OS will also support the Microsoft Exchange server.
During the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) keynote presentation in California
on June 8, Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac OS engineering for Apple,
suggested that Apple viewed Snow Leopard as more of an upgrade of the original
Leopard than a fully new operating system. "We want all Leopard users to
upgrade to Snow Leopard, so we're pricing it at $29," he said, according
to reports.
Apple will box Snow Leopard with iLife '09 and iWork '09 for $169 for an
individual and $229 for a five-license family pack.
Despite the coming upgrade, Apple
has been busily continuing to patch Mac OS X 10.5.7, including upgrades to
security, fixes for applications such as iCal and Mail, and improved
functionality with Gmail and Yahoo. Product versions affected by that most
recent update, which can be installed either via Software Update or stand-alone
installer, are Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, 10.5.4, 10.5.5 and
10.5.6.
When released, Snow Leopard will shortly find itself head-to-head with Microsoft's
Windows 7, due to roll out for general commercial availability on Oct. 22. Microsoft
needs a hit with its own operating system to erase memories of Windows Vista,
widely regarded as a failure.
Microsoft
will also release Windows Server 2008 R2 at the same time as Windows 7.