Mac OS X Snow Leopard coming early?

Apple's OS X Snow Leopard may be on tap for the start of the new year, slightly earlier than expected.

The update appears to be slated for debut in the first quarter of 2009, according to a slide presented by Jordan Hubbard, Apple's director of engineering for Unix technologies, at a conference last week.

Snow Leopard, or version 10.6 of the operating system, is expected to be optimized for multicore processors, include QuickTime X, and offer built-in support for Microsoft's Exchange 2007 software.

A slide presented on Friday by an Apple executive.

Apple previewed Snow Leopard in June. At that time, Apple said that Snow Leopard was "scheduled to ship in about a year."

Hubbard, presenting at LISA 08, or the Large Installation System Administration Conference, in San Diego on Friday showed a slide (PDF) that indicated Snow Leopard's debut would come in the first quarter of 2009, MacRumors.com reported late Tuesday.

Hubbard's presentation raises speculation that Snow Leopard's debut could be pegged to the next MacWorld conference in San Francisco, which begins on January 5.

[sythara]

"Snow Leopard, or version 10.6 of the operating system, is expected to be optimized for multicore processors, include QuickTime X, and offer built-in support for Microsoft's Exchange 2007 software."

glad to see Apple is still behind the curve. But we can all expect Apple fanatics to go crazy over this.

[gsmiller88]

Oh yes, like Microsoft is on top of things.

[FellowConspirator]

I don't know that the statement itself is accurate, or that behind the curve is really a fair assessment either. Snow Leopard is primarily focused on performance and optimizing the OS all-around. The statement that it is "optimized for multicore processors" is inaccurate, since that description most aptly applied to OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Snow Leopard adds the ability to utilize the GPU as a general-purpose co-processor at the system level, they decompose more processes into parallel threads, and they move the rest of the OS core to the EM64T instruction set. They also improve memory management and reduce the memory and disk footprint of apps.

Exchange 2007 support is pretty impressive actually. Obivously Microsoft ships their own exchange client for OS X that works, even if it doesn't leverage much of the features of OS X as other OS X apps do. There's virtually no 3rd-party MS Exchange support out there on the Windows or any other platform, and the protocols involved are at once complex, poorly documented, and "quirky". If Mail, iCal, and AddressBook integrate with Exchange seemlessly, and they make the Active Directory support a little less obtuse (it currently works far too much like Windows), that's actually quite impressive.

I think many agree that focusing a release specifically on speed and stability over new features is probably welcomed by many and envied by some. Multithreading core system libraries and subsystems is not a novel idea by any means, but Apple has already made more progress there and Snow Leopard seems to cement that advantage. General-purpose use of the GPU as a co-processor (e.g., not just for graphics) has been experimented with elsewhere, but Snow Leopard will be the first consumer OS to directly support it. Microsoft's plans call for a simplified version of that same feature to appear in Windows 7 a year later.

Quicktime X is what it is. People have their prejudices for or against the technology. The QuickTime Player application is nothing special (particularly under Windows), but QT media container specification is really unequalled. Flash and Silverlight obviously provide programmatic functionality absent in QT, but they also serve a different purpose and make poor media container formats for editing and production.

[sythara]

@ FellowConspirator

Thank you for clearing this up.

[Penguinisto]

@FellowConspirator: Agreed.

I'd further add that Snow Leopard looks to shift everything to a full native 64-bit support from top to bottom as well, instead of the dual personality that Leopard and before carries.

I'm really liking the GPU co-opt feature, though (as long as it works as advertised). Raytracing can suck down a whole lot of CPU (classic raytracing that is, not OpenGL). These new libraries/functions I believe can move resources both ways now (insofar as calculating rays, collisions, quaternions, etc), which in turn will really speed up (and refine) things greatly when rendering from 3D->2D (either a single frame or a complete animation).

[tipoo_]

Yay, servive pack 6 for OSX...and you have to pay for it.

[SteveL39]

You don't have to pay for it at all. You're more than welcome to stop updating the OS on your system. Apple will ship security fixes for a version back for quite some time (they are still updating 10.4 as needed). And a new machine will come with a new OS on it. If you are in the habit of replacing hardware every 3-5 years you will likely never need to *pay* for an OS upgrade.

Search & replace "Apple" with "Microsoft" and the story is pretty much the same.

[tmac96]

Windows 2000 is NT 5.0. XP is 5.1. Using your logic XP is a service pack to 2000

[iertry]

When have they ever said the price of Snow Leopard? They haven't! Stop complaining when you don't know the facts.

My GUESS is that it will be half price if there are no features. If there are features then they can charge full price. You want a free operating system? download Linux. Also each point upgrade to OSX is not a service pack. Use windows and you'll find out how little a service pack really adds.

[murbo]

service pack? what the hell are you talking about?
have you ever even used anything else than windows? 10.x is not service pack, 10.x.x is...
and you don't have to have it to keep your computer secure, support for 10.4 still continues
why the hell would you even comment on an article related to apple anyways?

[The_happy_switcher]

You're pretty ignorant. What other ignorant beliefs do you have? Please share, they are funny.

[James7777777]

I do find it interesting how Apple's OS releases tend to lineup with Microsoft's Service Packs. The difference? You need to pay for a new version of Apple's OS, Microsoft gives the service packs away for free to their customers. Just shows, you need to pay extra to feel cool.

[Penguinisto]

Sorry kid, but Apple released a shedload of upgrades during XP's two service packs, and each one (of OSX) sped things up, added features, and in general allowed you to use your old hardware in a much faster fashion (unlike Windows SP's which tended to do the opposite - that is, slow things down...)

The funny part is, I used OSX 10.3 for four years, and only recently purchased 10.5 (back in June). Leopard actually ran faster on a four-year-old Dual G5 1.8GHz box... I don't see too many people saying that (as contrast) 'Vista ran faster on four-year-old equipment than XP did' - usually folks end up saying the opposite, if they can get Vista to run at all on it.

/P

[James7777777]

Microsoft puts out updates every month, which correspond more closely to mac's updates. SPs always speed things up, stop discussing topics you don't understand.

[the_mrwhite]

Yay Windows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be and you have to pay for it. :| How is Vista working out out for MS any ways? LOL! Don't answer that, the world already knows. Lulz.

[Mark_Anderson]

Yes it does. The answer is actually "rather well although not spectaculalry"

[the_mrwhite]

All MS Windows users that have no clue about OS X, please step to the side and kindly shut up. Thank you.

[iertry]

Well put.

[James7777777]

Yea, let us fan boys praise apple without you damn windows users bringing up the harsh reality of things, it's not cool!

[Mark_Anderson]

Your statement assumes that the two are mutually exclusive and often they're not.

Snow Leopard isn't a service pack, neither is it particulalry revolutionary just as W7 is to Vista. Both will be better than what went before and both will have their shares of pluses and minuses.

As for who comes out first, who cares? I'd rather that neither company botches the launch as MS did with Vista and Apple did to a lesser extent with Leopard.

[rapier1]

How about those MS Windows users that *do* have a lot of experience with OS X and still aren't all that impressed.

[Brian]

The typical Windows user is just that. A user.

Microsoft uses people, hence: user.

Ignorance is no excuse for intelligence (or lack of).

[ralfthedog]

I would like to see Windows 7 benched against Snow Leopard. My prediction?

Snow Leopard will use less clock cycles. Snow Leopard will use less RAM. Snow Leopard will support large numbers or cores far better than Win 7.

I cant wait to play with Snow Leopard on a 16 core system.

[contentcreator--2008]

I had to spend several weeks working around limitations in Leopard so that my commercial multithreaded app would perform as well on Leopard as it does on Windows. OS X has some well-known deficiencies in multi-core support, that's a non-trivial part of their Snow Leopard iteration (single big malloc lock, cough cough). And one of the little "maintenance releases" in Leopard actually fixed a major problem in the thread scheduler that was hammering performance on 8-core machines.

So stop with the fanboy-ism. Generally when things are working OK, the operating system is completely out of the way, and performance is determined by what your hardware can do. And keep in mind that either operating system could easily be running the other's GUI, which is the part users see as OS X.

And I think you could see how Windows runs on 16 core machines right now, if you ponied up enough! I think it would be very sweet indeed.

[Penguinisto]

@contentcreator: What limitations did you see? You don't get very specific.

[ralfthedog]

contentcreator, It sounds like you have far too much inter-process communication going on. I know that sometimes it can't be avoided.

Honestly, I use different flavors of Linux and BSD for most of my heavy lifting. I use OS-X for the front end to my work boxes. I have never been a big fan of any UI. I just see it as a way to eat resources that should be doing work.

[eklectiqred]

I believe that Apple is just trying to hold on to the "OS X" brand name as long as possible since it's become so well known. Every sub version is actually more or less a "new version" but instead of using OS 11, OS 12 and so on, they can simply keep the cool "OS X" name and add another cool nickname at the end. Ubuntu is also following this trend with their Feisty Fawn and Intrepid Ibex. Not as cool as a Snow Leopard tho. hehe

BTW, nice trolling out there kids. I'm really enjoying this!

[Penguinisto]

...you mean like how Microsoft has held on to the "Windows" name since 1985? ;)

[eklectiqred]

Well actually it would be more like if they held on to Windows 95.1, 95.2, 95.3... hehe

Anyways, I wasn't saying it ain't a good idea or anything, it was only my theory as to why they keep releasing "sub version" and why it makes people thinks they are small updates, which I believe they aren't. Let's compare Cheeta to Leopard, shall we? :D

[aaydogan]

I certainly hope Snow Leopard will be released as a fully tested, fully debugged release instead of the piece of crap that Leopard was. I expect more from Apple and lately I've been disappointed time and again with buggy releases, flimsy hardware and secretive customer service......and Apple is still the best. Imagine how bad the rest are. Still....I can wait a month or two more for a product that actually does what it claims to do without tons of revisions.

[ittesi259]

I will agree with this though I personally did not have upgrade iussues. Typically I do not buy the first release of anything for that reason be it an Apple or other company's software. The Apple elitism needs to stop though because the Apple forums were littered with..."I need to reinstall Tiger....but I don't have or can't find my install CD's!"

I'm sorry, thats about as dumb a move as every fanboy points and laughs at about a Windows user.

Now before I get flamed by fanboys.....I am a Mac user....20 inch iMac with OSX 10.5.5 I am not trying to put down MS or Apple, I use both as long as my needs are met.....I am putting down people being stupid....of which this article comments shows there are plenty from both sides.

I say use what you like, but don't mock what someone else does, it doesn't impact your computing.

[kelmon]

I absolutely agree and because of this I hope that this story is incorrect in it's suggestion. I switched to the Mac at OS X 10.2.8, so that was already a pretty great product at that point in the life cycle. OS X 10.3 was great on release for me. But since then 10.4 and 10.5 have been less than impressive in their release forms and I've written reviews on both that were not complimentary. Release products definitely seem to be having issues so unless there is something that I absolutely must have on Day 1 then my advice is to hold off until someone else has finished the testing for you.

[kcotham]

It always amazes me how Apple news bring out Micro$oft cronies. Why is it that they are even looking for Mac OS X news? Are they that dissatisfied with Windows Vista? Are they scouring the internet for news that Mac OS X will run on their p.o.s. Dell? It never ceases to amaze me. Windows-trolls are like the poor kid that likes to shout how much faster his pieced-together Chevy hotrod is better in the quarter mile than a nicely built and balanced European sports car is. Jealousy, pure jealousy. And Linux guys that come out of the woodwork every once in a while are like the kid that built a hotrod with parts he found around the neighbourhood, for free!

Windows guys, go read the latest on Windows 7, LInux guys, go rebuild a kernel or something. We Mac-users aren't poking out noses in your news!!

[Mark_Anderson]

"We Mac-users aren't poking out noses in your news!!"

You're not actually being serious here are you?

[ittesi259]

It amazes me that we can't have a plain technical discussion about the pros and cons of upcoming software without mocking MS or mocking Apple. Apple fanboys/elitists, MS diehards....mocking each other is like calling the kettle black...you're both trolls.

[The_happy_switcher]

Woo hoo! One more nail in Vista's coffin.

[ittesi259]

I'm proud to say I'm a Mac user....I love my computer....but I really hate Apple users like you that can't say anything productive.

[Brian]

HAHAHA!!

It was Vista that made me switch to the Mac.

As long as Micro$oft keeps producing incomplete software that won't even pass the Beta Test cycle, then why should consumers pay for it?

Windows users need to understand that ignorance is no excuse for intelligence.

[The_happy_switcher]

You sound like the 'Joe Lieberman' of Apple users.

[Brian]

HAHAHA !!

Joe the Windows User caught a glimpse of our next operating system, so he is going to ask Steve Jobs a question with the cameras rolling.

Or sure, Mr. Jobs will "spread the wealth" so we can all have the same user experience that Windows users ignorantly do not have.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Global warming (Windows 7) has melted all interest in Snow Leopard. Another $120 service pack from the tight-wad Jobs.

[mpitogo]

The future is more parallelization and breaking down tasks in to even smaller chunks that can be processed by multi-core and GPU assisted systems. Look at how intensive encoding of Full HD 1920x1080 H.264 is. With OpenCL the GPU will be able to crunch away at that math like a hot knife through butter. And what's better is that the API's will be open to those that would want to take advantage of it.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Sounds like Apple has some impressive new features to roll out. I'll be eager to see how this improves the OS and the customer experience.

Continue the progress, Apple. We all benefit from advancement in technology.

[kelmon]

I don't see this happening. Since the initial June 2008 beta of Snow Leopard there has only been one additional release and I don't see Apple releasing this one until a few more have been out and people are reporting that it is both feature complete and does what it is supposed to. Given the focus on being both fast, stable and secure in this release, this is probably the trickiest one yet since you can't disguise problems with whizzy new end-user features. If it's not damned near perfect on release then there is going to be problems.

[Bassmanmick]

As a converted Mac user from windows, now with Mac for 5 years, I just wanted to say that I can't believe anyone wanting as a choice to stay with Windows, OS X Leo is superb.
Using an iMac now, I started with a G4, I have a 24" 3.06GHz machine with 4gig of ram, if your a PC user your missing out on so so much.
Personally I can't wait to see how well Apple have done with Snow Leopard.
And on a more personal note, I have had occasion to call Apple care, and although I'm pretty savvy when it comes to using a computer I have found the staff to be 100% better than Microsoft.

PC and Microsoft may well be the market leaders, but not the best.

Mick Reeves.

[Bassmanmick]

One further note.
I have just laid my hands on Snow Leopard beta 10A190.
I just have to try the install, nothing lost, because as all iMac users know we have something called Time Machine, Microsoft didn't think of that one did they -)

[ceigered]

Ha ha gotta love Time Machine (except I could really do with an external HD atm, I wanna be able to use TM on my new Mac mini but I can't without it (for certain workflow-related reasons that have nothing to do with the computer just my personal desires etc etc)

[ceigered]

I would be curious to see which new operating system (Snow Leopard/7) will run more efficiently, I might end up getting both.
I do find it funny though how some people seem to think that Apple OS's are like service packs, I've just gone from Tiger to Leopard and it's as bigger change as Windows 98 to Vista for me. I think it's the overly similar and continuous GUI's since 2000 that make people think that Apple OS's don't add much to the package when in reality I would argue against that.
Also I find the general dissatisfaction with Leopard interesting - is this because of earlier bugginess or just not liking the features included? My Mac Mini came with 10.5.6 and it hasn't really been buggy at all. The only crash I've had so far was help for disk utility (then again i was being a bit rough with it :D)

Now, to all you Window's users who think that incremental Mac OS's are the equivalent of paid service packs - just because Mac OS's don't differ so much in looks (unlike XP to Vista, or even Vista to 7) doesn't mean there isn't much of a difference in other features too. The only thing I can see as an equivalent to a service pack is the updated versions (e.g. I have 10.5.6 - the '6' signifying I have the 6th update available). Sorry if you already knew that (or if I'm actually off the mark, which is possible as I never quite got into XP and VIsta), I just felt there was a tad of a misunderstanding.