Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Mac OS X Snow Leopard
developer	Apple Inc.
License (s)	EULA ; APSL , BSD , GPL , among others
Current  version	10.6.8 v1.1 from July 25, 2011 (9 years and 37 days ago)
Basic system	Darwin
Kernel	XNU ( hybrid kernel )
ancestry	Unix → BSD ↳ NeXTStep / OPENSTEP ↳ Rhapsody ↳ Mac OS X (macOS) Mac OS Classic ↳ Mac OS X 10.0+
Architecture (s)	x86 , x64 (no more PowerPC )
timeline	10.5 ← 10.6 → 10.7
compatibility	UNIX 03 ( POSIX etc.), FreeBSD
Languages)	multilingual ( details ), u. a. German
apple.com

Snow Leopard ( German  Snow Leopard ), fully Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 , is the seventh major release of macOS , the desktop operating system from Apple that was introduced at that time under the name of Mac OS X. It followed on Mac OS X Leopard and was available since August 28, 2009. This edition primarily contains improvements to the existing technology, numerous detailed changes in the work processes and changes to the graphical user interface . An Apple computer with an Intel processor is required, older Macs with a PowerPC processor are no longer supported. The subsequent version is Mac OS X Lion and was released on July 20, 2011.

Innovations

In addition to improvements in system performance, efficiency and stability, Snow Leopard u. a. the following new functions:

• Support of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 in Mail, Address Book and iCal .
• 6  GB less memory consumption on the hard drive and less memory requirement.
• Support of up to 16  exabytes of RAM when using the 64-bit kernel (or, as before, up to 32 gigabytes with the 32-bit kernel)
• Grand Central Dispatch enables the efficient use of multi-core processors by dividing the threads into the cores by the operating system itself during activity and releasing them again when inactive. The programmer can have tasks parallelized better in his applications.
• QuickTime  X is a new QuickTime player . It was redesigned based on new APIs and now offers broader format support, better performance, and a new interface that puts content first. The old Quicktime 7 with extended editing functions is still included on the installation DVD, but is not installed automatically.
• Open Computing Language (OpenCL) makes it easier for developers to use the graphics processor. Newer graphics processors (GPUs) often offer several Tera-FLOPS ( Floating Point Operations Per Second ) and sometimes also a greater accuracy than CPUs. The graphics processor is usually underutilized while the CPU has to bear the full load. With OpenCL, computationally intensive operations can be transferred to the GPU.
• Almost all programs now run in 64-bit mode. Apple had already started the conversion with Mac OS X Panther (10.3, 2003) and has almost completed it. Only iTunes is still based on Carbon instead of Cocoa and is therefore a pure 32-bit application.
• The Finder was completely rewritten on the basis of Cocoa (object-oriented, in Objective-C ). Among other things, the search function has been renewed and a controller for the icon and preview size of the files displayed has been added in each window.
• Prefixes for byte specifications at use in their decimal meaning when they refer to file or permanent storage media sizes. A displayed file size of 1 MB stands for 1,000,000 bytes.
• Mail  4
• With a few exceptions, the fonts contained in Mac OS X are provided in the formats TTF , TTC and OTF instead of DFONT.
• There is system-wide text editing. This offers, for example, the possibility of automatic spelling correction while writing, automatic typography corrections (e.g. of quotation marks “smart quotes” and dashes “smart dashes”) as well as automatic recognition of dates and times “smart dates”.

System requirements

Apple specifies the following requirements for Snow Leopard for all applications to work:

• Mac with an Intel processor (processors of the Yonah generation, e.g. Core Solo , Core Duo , only run in 32-bit mode)
• 1 GB RAM
• 5 GB free hard disk space (internal or external)
• DVD drive (only during installation, internal or external)
• Some applications require an internet connection
• Some applications require MobileMe

Note: The DVD drive is not a system requirement for the MacBook Air , as the DVD drive of another Mac ( Remote Disk ) or, in the case of the third- generation hardware models ( MacBookAir3,1 , from October 2010), the enclosed USB Stick can be used.

history

version	Build	Darwin	Publication date	annotation
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6	10A432	10.0	August 28, 2009	First published version
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.1	10B504	10.1	September 10, 2009	Bug fixes, update of the flash player
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.2	10C540	10.2	November 9, 2009	Bug fixes. a. Problems with the Guest account, the font management and Safari fixed
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.3	10D573	10.3	March 29, 2010	Bug fixes
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.3 v1.1	10D578	10.3	April 12, 2010	Bug fixes
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.4	10F569	10.4	June 15, 2010	Bug fixes
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.5	10H574	10.5	November 10, 2010	Bug fixes
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.6	10J567	10.6	January 6, 2011	Bug fixes, security updates, introduction of the Mac App Store
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.7	10J869	10.7	March 21, 2011	Bug fixes, Safari 5.0.4
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.8	10K540	10.8	June 23, 2011	Bug fixes, improvements to the Mac App Store
Older version; no longer supported: 10.6.8 v1.1	10K549	10.8	July 25, 2011	Bug fixes
Legend: Old version Older version; still supported Current version Current preliminary version Future version

OpenGL

At the time of the first Developer Preview , OpenGL 2.1 was specified. OpenGL 3.0 was released about a year before Snow Leopard came out and was only 91% implemented despite several system updates.

Web links

• John Siracusa: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review . Ars Technica, September 1st, 2009.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Apple Inc. - Apple to Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28
2. ↑ Apple: Snow Leopard on Apple.de ( Memento from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ New QuickTime Player, Cocoa Desktop in latest Snow Leopard beta
4. ↑ Snow Leopard Preview on testmac.net ( Memento of the original from January 24th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Apple: New Technologies in Snow Leopard ( Memento from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (in the archive of archive.org)
6. ↑ Road to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: 64-bits
7. ↑ Latest Snow Leopard Build (10A190) Now Available [Seed Notes] ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ Snow Leopard: 1 GB = 1'000 MB
9. ↑ Series of YouTube videos show off Apple's Snow Leopard
10. ↑ Apple.com: Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Specifications , May 16, 2011.
11. ↑ Information about 10.6.1 at Apple
12. ↑ Information about 10.6.2 at Apple
13. ↑ Information about 10.6.3 at Apple
14. ↑ Information about 10.6.3 v1.1 from Apple
15. ↑ Information about 10.6.4 at Apple
16. ↑ Information about 10.6.5 at Apple
17. ↑ Information about 10.6.6 at Apple
18. ↑ Information about 10.6.7 at Apple
19. ↑ Information about 10.6.8 at Apple
20. ↑ Information about 10.6.8 v1.1 from Apple
21. ↑ macnotes.de: Open GL 3.0 is not fully integrated in Mac OS X 10.6.3
22. ↑ OpenGL extensions guide