Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 code named "Snow Leopard" - report

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Apple is indeed well into the development of Mac OS X 10.6, which the company has internally code-named "Snow Leopard," according to ArsTechnica.



Citing a person familiar with the situation, the technology website confirms several details of the next major Mac OS X upgrade first reported on Tuesday, including a scheduled release as soon as Macworld 2009 this coming January, and that it will not introduce any major new features.



Instead, Snow Leopard is said to focus heavily on performance optimization and security, a move that will in all likelihood widen the gap between Mac OS X and Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system in those areas.



"Things like the MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod touch, and other mysterious devices that have yet to be announced need better performance for better battery life, and that's definitely something Apple wants to excel at in the years to come," wrote Ars' Jacqui Cheng.



Unconfirmed is whether the software will be shown off or discussed at the company's annual developers conference next week. However, AppleInsider in recent weeks has been told to expect discussion of "another big cat" at the event.



Also unconfirmed, but somewhat likely, is that Apple will completely wrap Snow Leopard in its Cocoa application programming interface (API) set, meaning that applications written via the company's legacy Carbon API will fail to run on the new system.







Adding corroboration to an AppleInsider report published last September, Ars adds that Mac OS X 10.6 is expected to support only Intel-based Macs, leaving owners of PowerPC-based systems of yesteryear out in the cold.



Update: Ars updates its report saying: "There may be some disagreement here as to what exactly "Cocoa-only" means, so take that into account when thinking about this. For example, Apple may only axe Carbon UI stuff."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 133
    akacakac Posts: 512member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Also unconfirmed, but somewhat likely, is that Apple will completely wrap Snow Leopard in its Cocoa application programming interface (API) set, meaning that applications written via the company's legacy Carbon API will fail to run on the new system.



    This part makes no sense. So no Photoshop? No Final Cut Pro? No Microsoft Office? I really really doubt that.
  • Reply 2 of 133
    nceencee Posts: 857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Akac View Post


    This part makes no sense. So no Photoshop? No Final Cut Pro? No Microsoft Office? I really really doubt that.



    Unless they are going to come out with there own versions of PS, Office, and re-write Final Cut Pro?



    Skip



    PS But I agree with you, this makes no sense.
  • Reply 3 of 133
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Instead, Snow Leopard is said to focus heavily on performance optimization and security



    That's the best thing I've heard in years.



    It's about time that Apple realised that it has to polish and optimise the Mac OS, rather than adding layers of useless eye-candy.



    If this is indeed true, I'll be at the front of the line come 10.6's release...
  • Reply 4 of 133
    Snow Leopard is a good name, sounds like Leopard's cool cousin, and Leopard is cool to begin with.



    As someone who came from XP/Vista the release timetables of Mac OS's take some getting used to, back on the PC it was a long time between drinks (like 5 years between XP - Vista), so when Apple say Snow Leopard could be here in January I can't help but think that Leopard just came out yesterday Still, great stuff.
  • Reply 5 of 133
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Akac View Post


    This part makes no sense. So no Photoshop? No Final Cut Pro? No Microsoft Office? I really really doubt that.



    Hey get VMWare and run 10.5 in a virtual machine so you can run those old crappy Carbon apps.







    I still don't 'get' this rumor.
  • Reply 6 of 133
    hobbithobbit Posts: 532member
    Could we finally get Resolution Independence?

    Please!



    It's been under the hood since OS X 10.4! But it never saw the light of day.

    Yet it would be such a cool feature which could clearly distinguish OSX hardware from Windows hardware.



    Steve, you reading this?

    Please!
  • Reply 7 of 133
    zandroszandros Posts: 537member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Messiah View Post


    It's about time that Apple realised that it has to polish and optimise the Mac OS, rather than adding layers of useless eye-candy.



    Useless eye candy? I thought that was the domain of Windows Vista, care to show me where it is in Leopard? (Except the shift slow motion)



    Edit: Ah, menu bar too, I have mine set to solid, so I did not think of it.



    /Adrian
  • Reply 8 of 133
    hypoluxahypoluxa Posts: 694member
    Sounds good to me... I hope they make the OS as fast and snappy as possible, and get rid of any usless glut. I may wait a few more years before I upgrade my last gen G5, so Im in no hurry. If I do get another Mac it will be a handy little MacBook. Ill leave any heavy lifting for my desktop.
  • Reply 9 of 133
    who will pay $129 for no major new features and alot of now working older apps?



    and no ppc or 32bit x86??



    Apple better have a $800 - $2100 desktop system like they did back in the PPC days and the imacs screen is not good for photo work as well. The mini is over priced and weak.



    also apple has good technology that makes Windows' 32/64bit support look bad so why dump it after one OS release?



    education is also still a big user of PPC.
  • Reply 10 of 133
    fabsgwufabsgwu Posts: 78member
    I want an apple sub-notebook (lower cost, hopefully) like the MSI Wind. Get on the Atom bandwagon, Apple!!!
  • Reply 11 of 133
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Messiah View Post


    That's the best thing I've heard in years.



    It's about time that Apple realised that it has to polish and optimise the Mac OS, rather than adding layers of useless eye-candy.



    If this is indeed true, I'll be at the front of the line come 10.6's release...



    Yeah, except that it is hard to get people to shell out $99 for "everything is a little better."

    Most people think that is what the point releases are for.



    Eye-candy and new features are what people (in general) pay for...
  • Reply 12 of 133
    tacojohntacojohn Posts: 980member
    I'm only on the Carbon dropping bandwagon if?



    1. Apple releases a competitor to Photoshop and Illustrator



    or



    2. Adobe Updates CS4 to Cocoa



    I don't care about MS Office, I rarely use it.
  • Reply 13 of 133
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe_the_dragon View Post


    who will pay $129 for no major new features and alot of now working older apps?



    and no ppc or 32bit x86??



    Apple better have a $800 - $2100 desktop system like they did back in the PPC days and the imacs screen is not good for photo work as well. The mini is over priced and weak.



    also apple has good technology that makes Windows' 32/64bit support look bad so why dump it after one OS release?



    education is also still a big user of PPC.



    We don't know the pricing Joe and if we're talking about January 09 then chances are we have a mini refresh. It's WELL known that you think the mini is pathetic but give it some time.



    Apple could certainly do a $69 update to 10.6 and give us the polish and a bit of forward movement that simply would be inappropriate for Leopard.
  • Reply 14 of 133
    Man, there is a lot of stupid speculation going on. Snow Leopard won't run Carbon apps? Give me a break.



    This kind of uneducated speculation is a hilarious waste of time.



    Leopard itself brought massive additions and improvements to both the Cocoa and Carbon frameworks. There are things you simply cannot do in Cocoa, which is why most applications make use of both Cocoa and Carbon frameworks. If Carbon isn't available in 10.6 most Cocoa application won't run.
  • Reply 15 of 133
    If this rumour turns out to be true. Surely the update must be free. Who is going to pay to update when all you are getting is better performance and better security. The update is even less interesting than the update from XP to Vista. Most people will wait until 10.7.
  • Reply 16 of 133
    tshorttshort Posts: 46member
    There are still a number of Apple supplied applications in OS X that use Carbon. It could be that those applications and utilities will be rewritten to use Cocoa. Carbon needs to be around for a while for backwards compatibility.



    Although, Apple is more like to kill backwards compatibility than Microsoft.
  • Reply 17 of 133
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hobBIT View Post


    Could we finally get Resolution Independence?

    Please!



    It's been under the hood since OS X 10.4! But it never saw the light of day.

    Yet it would be such a cool feature which could clearly distinguish OSX hardware from Windows hardware.



    Steve, you reading this?

    Please!



    You can enable it in 10.5 (without installing developer tools) but there are some things that just don't look right. There is stilla lot of work that needs to be done to fix it.



    You can check it out by putting the command below into Terminal in Leopard. Exchange the trailing x for any value (up to 3, I think), where one is the default norm. Then log out and then back in to see the changes.
    defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor x
  • Reply 18 of 133
    g3prog3pro Posts: 669member
    This is retarded. And most likely a scam by Apple to force adoption of Intel hardware on PowerPC users. First you control the software, then you prevent developers from developing for legacy operating systems. The squeeze is coming.



    How unfortunate. This Quad G5 is more than capable of lasting through 2012, but Apple wants to give me the shaft. Fuck them.
  • Reply 19 of 133
    boogabooga Posts: 1,082member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hobBIT View Post


    Could we finally get Resolution Independence?

    Please!



    It's been under the hood since OS X 10.4! But it never saw the light of day.

    Yet it would be such a cool feature which could clearly distinguish OSX hardware from Windows hardware.



    Steve, you reading this?

    Please!



    It's going to take a lot of selling to get customers to buy into a feature that promises to look worse and take a lot more processing power at the same time. I honestly don't understand the hankering for this feature. Unless you have 200dpi displays or like to look at things reeeeally up close it doesn't buy you anything, and just makes stuff less than pixel-perfect.
  • Reply 20 of 133
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    We don't know the pricing Joe and if we're talking about January 09 then chances are we have a mini refresh. It's WELL known that you think the mini is pathetic but give it some time.



    Apple could certainly do a $69 update to 10.6 and give us the polish and a bit of forward movement that simply would be inappropriate for Leopard.



    Murch, making Leopard more secure and stable is called a 'point' update. Not a full upgrade.



    And if it breaks all the old carbon apps, I don't know why anyone would upgrade. Snow Leopard would make Vista look good.



    I wouldn't be surprised to see a preview of 10.6, but I think It'll be a bit different than what is being said at Ars and TUAW. Either you get some major new 'killer' features at the expense of carbon compatibility(and PPC compatibility for that matter). Or you get good backwards compatibility with the addition of few or no new features.
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