According to recent reports, Apple’s next major operating system (Mac OS X 10.6) will be called “Snow Leopard” and will drop Power PC support as Apple furthers their stake in Intel. TUAW has already grinded out some pretty major details such as a MacWorld (January 2009) release date.
Ars Technica also confirms the expected release date of January 2009.
Ars reports that:
We posted yesterday about rumors claiming that Apple may begin seeding Mac OS X 10.6 next week at WWDC. Either way, MacBlogz is eagerly waiting for Mac OS X 10.6, whether it be called “Snow Leopard, Lion or Cougar”.
[updates] Until Apple confirms anything, “rumors” will be just that. Nobody from Apple has commented in regards to “Snow Leopard.” People close to the situation may have indeed reported information they know (or have been told), yet this still remains entirely unconfirmed. (Snow Leopard could very well be an internal codename being used during the development stages)
| Date Released | Version # | Big Cat Name | Full Apple Operating System Release Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 officially released versions so far | |||
| March 24, 2001 | 10.0 | Cheetah | Mac OS X version 10.0 Cheetah |
| September 25, 2001 | 10.1 | Puma | Mac OS X version 10.1 Puma |
| August 23, 2002 | 10.2 | Jaguar | Mac OS X version 10.2 Jaguar |
| October 24, 2003 | 10.3 | Panther | Mac OS X version 10.3 Panther |
| April 29, 2005 | 10.4 | Tiger | Mac OS X version 10.4 Tiger |
| October 26, 2007 | 10.5 | Leopard | Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard - current |
| January 2009? | 10.6 | Snow Leopard? | Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard? |
4 Comments to ““Snow Leopard” chosen as big-cat for Mac OS X 10.6. Lion lovers have to wait.”
Snow Leopard….? Come on now.
Reply
A january release seems premature, given 10.5 was only release last fall and SJ said at WWDC they wanted to have slightly longer dev cycles [2 years or so, instead of 1.5 years between releases]. As for the other rumors that it’ll drop PPC support, I would say that has a reasonable probability of being true [particularly if the release is later in 2009], but for dropping Carbon support, I would say that’s very unlikely, given that Adobe CS and Microsoft Office both use Carbon for their UI layer.
Reply
And to follow up on the Carbon VS Cocoa stuff, Apple has ALREADY stated that they are not significantly adding new things to the Carbon UI layer. This was back when they announced there would be 64-bit libraries for the Cocoa UI layer, but not for the Carbon UI layer. And it would be huge pill to swallow considering the API hasn’t even be deprecated [as in, marked as possibly being removed in a future version of the OS].
Reply
Apple doesn’t need to remove anything from Leopard. Nor do they need to make MAJOR, MAJOR changes like everyone is stating to Leopard.
Operating Systems are not a little piece of software, they are the frameworks in which we rely on. Upgrades need to be done in a smooth, slow gradual process.
Reply