Apple Senior Vice President of OSX Software Bertrand Serlet delivers a keynote address on the new OSX Snow Leopard operating system at the Apple World Wide Developers conference June 8, 2009 in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
With the $29 upgrade, users can anticipate a much faster, more efficient workspace. Snow Leopard will free-up 7 GB of hard drive space after installation, and will bring 64-bit processor support to several applications including Safari, iChat, Mail, and Finder.
Other updates include much faster backup with Time Machine, a more responsive Finder, and speed enhancements for several other applications.
Snow Leopard will also be the only desktop operating system with built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, allowing Mail, Address Book, and iCal to send and receive email, create and respond to meeting invitations, and search contacts with global address lists.
The server edition of Snow Leopard, priced at US$499, will also include new features, including Podcast Producer 2 and the Mobile Access Server.
Mac’s early release of Snow Leopard beats the release date of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7, by close to two months. Windows 7, often referred to as "what Vista should have been," is set for release on Oct. 22.
“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 press release.
