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Apple’s much anticipated Mac OS X v10.6, also known as Snow Leopard, is now available for pre-order at Apple’s online store and will go sale Friday, Aug. 28, Apple announced on Aug. 24.
Mac OS X Leopard users will be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard for $29. In addition, anyone who purchased a new Mac between June 8 of this year and Dec. 26 can purchase a Snow Leopard upgrade package for $9.95, which includes shipping and handling.
The feature list on this new beast is long, with Apple saying that its engineers have refined 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects that make up Mac OS X. Improvements are said to include a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages twice as fast as Leopard Version 10.4.8; a Dock with Expos??« integration; 80 percent faster initial backup to Time Machine; a redesigned QuickTime X player that enables easier viewing, recording, trimming and sharing of video; and a 64-bit, very crash-resistant version of Safari 4 that’s additionally 50 percent faster than the 32-bit version.
Like Safari, Finder, Mail, iCal and iChat are now also 64-bit, which is said to make them quicker and more secure, though still compatible with 32-bit applications.
Additionally, Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version, freeing up 7GB of space on users’ hard drives. It requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM and will run on any Mac with an Intel processor.
“Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever, and we’re happy to get it to users earlier than expected,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, in a statement. “For just $29, Leopard users get a smooth upgrade to the world’s most advanced operating system and the only system with built-in Exchange support.”
The built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 should answer any remaining questions about whether Apple is interested in enterprises.
For OS X Tiger users with an Intel-based Mac, the upgrade will be available with iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for $169, or $229 for a Family Pack.
Apple’s new Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard will also go on sale Aug. 28, for $499 with an unlimited number of client licenses.