AppleInsider has posted a fantastic article titled: Road to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: 64-Bits. They talk about the history and move towards 64-bit operating systems not only with Apple and OS X, but also Windows Vista.

As many Apple/Mac loyalists are aware, Steve Jobs announced at WWDC on June 9, 2008, that the next version of Mac OS X will be called Snow Leopard, and it is scheduled to ship in “about a year”.  We can only assume at this point that Snow Leopard will be version 10.6 as the current version (Leopard) is 10.5.

So why Snow Leopard?  Isn’t that close in name to the current OS X version Leopard?  What is Apple thinking?  As it turns out Apple is doing something rather drastic, but something that makes a lot of sense, they are putting the brakes on adding lots of new features to Snow Leopard, instead focusing on improving what they claim is the “world’s most advanced operating system” … a claim I personally happen to agree with.  Why would Apple do this?  Why not come out with more features, more toys, more whiz-bang graphical elements?  I think Apple is realizing what most educated users know…the more features and toys you put into an operating system, the more likely it is over time to get bloated, slow, and buggy.  Take a look at what Microsoft has done with Windows Vista.  They have taken a relatively stable operating system in Windows XP, and instead of improving upon it, they chose to get in way over their heads with adding lots of flashy new elements, a new bloated user interface, confusing driver requirements and lots and lots of problems.  I do give Microsoft some credit with Vista, they did enhance it from a security standpoint, which in my mind is very important, although I still have to ask, “who exactly works in the Microsoft User Interface department”?

So if there are no new features, why would Apple do this, and why would anyone want it?  The no new features is not to be taken literally of course.  I’m sure we will see some new features, however, the changes that will take place in Snow Leopard will primarily be under the hood, at the core level of the OS.

So far Apple has announced that Snow Leopard will include:

• A dramatically reduced footprint
• Microsoft Exchange Support
• Multicore
• 64-bit
• Media and Internet
• OpenCL

What does all this mean to the average user, or even the power user?  Let’s take a look at each one individually.

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