A version of the macOS operating system | |
Screenshot of Mac OS X Snow Leopard
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Developer | Apple Inc. |
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OS family | |
Source model | Closed source (with open source components) |
Released to manufacturing |
August 28, 2009 |
Latest release | 10.6.8 v1.1 (Build 10K549) / July 25, 2011 |
Update method | Apple Software Update |
Platforms | IA-32, x86-64 |
Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
License | Commercial software license and Apple Public Source License (APSL) |
Preceded by | Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard |
Succeeded by | Mac OS X 10.7 Lion |
Official website | Mac OS X Snow Leopard at the Wayback Machine (archived September 29, 2009) |
Support status | |
Unsupported as of February 25, 2014, though the last security update happened in September 2013 and an update to the Mac App Store on Snow Leopard was made in January 2016. |
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of Mac OS X (now named macOS), Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.
Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase from Apple's website and its retail stores at the price of US$29 for a single-user license. As a result of the low price, initial sales of Snow Leopard were significantly higher than that of its predecessors. The release of Snow Leopard came nearly two years after the introduction of Mac OS X Leopard, the second longest time span between successive Mac OS X releases (the time span between Tiger and Leopard was the longest).
Unlike those of previous versions of Mac OS X, the goals of Snow Leopard were improved performance, greater efficiency and the reduction of its overall memory footprint. Addition of new end-user features was not a primary consideration: its name signified its goal to be a refinement of the previous OS X version, Leopard. Much of the software in Mac OS X was extensively rewritten for this release in order to take advantage fully of modern Macintosh hardware. New programming frameworks, such as OpenCL, were created, allowing software developers to use graphics cards in their applications. This is also the first Mac OS release since System 7.1.1 that does not support Macs using PowerPC processors, as Apple now intends to focus on its current line of Intel-based products. As support for Rosetta was dropped in OS X Lion, Snow Leopard is the last version of Mac OS X that is able to run PowerPC-only applications.