Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Not to be confused with Mac OS X Leopard.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Version of the macOS operating system
Screenshot of Mac OS X Snow Leopard
DeveloperApple Inc.
OS family
Source modelClosed, with open source components
General
availability		August 28, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-08-28)[2]
Latest release10.6.8 v1.1 (Build 10K549) / July 25, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-07-25)[3]
Update methodApple Software Update
PlatformsIA-32, x86-64[4]
Kernel typeHybrid (XNU)
LicenseCommercial software license and Apple Public Source License (APSL)
Preceded byMac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Succeeded byOS X Lion
Official websiteApple - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - The world's most advanced OS at the Wayback Machine (archived September 29, 2009)
TaglineThe world's most advanced operating system. Finely tuned.
Support status
Historical, unsupported as of February 25, 2014. Drops support for all PowerPC based Macs. iTunes is no longer supported as of September 2014 and Safari support is terminated as well,[5] though the last security update happened in September 2013.[6][7] An update for the Mac App Store on Mac OS X Snow Leopard was released on January 27, 2016.[8][9]
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Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) (also referred to as OS X Snow Leopard[10]) is the seventh major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.

Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide,[2] and was made available for purchase from Apple's website and retail stores at the price of $29 USD 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 whose price started at $129 USD.[11] The release of Snow Leopard came nearly two years after the launch 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).

The goals of Snow Leopard were improved performance, greater efficiency and the reduction of its overall memory footprint, unlike previous versions of Mac OS X which focused more on new features. Apple famously marketed Snow Leopard as having "zero new features".[12] Its name signified its goal to be a refinement of the previous OS X version, Leopard.[13] Much of the software in Mac OS X was extensively rewritten for this release in order to take full advantage of modern Macintosh hardware and software technologies (64-bit, Cocoa, etc.). New programming frameworks, such as OpenCL, were created, allowing software developers to use graphics cards in their applications. It was also the first Mac OS release since System 7.1.1 to not support Macs using PowerPC processors, as Apple dropped support for them and focused on Intel-based products.[2] As support for Rosetta was dropped in Mac OS X Lion, Snow Leopard is the last version of Mac OS X that is able to run PowerPC-only applications.

Snow Leopard was succeeded by OS X Lion (version 10.7) on July 20, 2011.[14] For several years, Apple continued to sell Snow Leopard at its online store for the benefit of users that required Snow Leopard in order to upgrade to later versions of OS X. Snow Leopard was the last version of Mac OS X to be distributed primarily through optical disc, as all further releases were mainly distributed through the Mac App Store introduced in the Snow Leopard 10.6.6 update.[15]

Snow Leopard is the last version of Mac OS X that supports the 32-bit Intel Core Solo and Intel Core Duo CPUs. Because of this, Snow Leopard still remained somewhat popular alongside OS X Lion, despite its lack of continued support,[16] mostly because of its ability to run PowerPC-based applications.[citation needed]

Snow Leopard is also the last release of Mac OS X to ship with a welcome video at first boot after installation.[17] Reception of Snow Leopard was positive; see the section below.

  1. ^ "Mac OS X Version 10.6 on Intel-based Macintosh computers". The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "Apple to Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28" (Press release). Apple Inc. August 24, 2008. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  3. ^ "Download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v.1.1". July 25, 2011. Archived from the original on June 24, 2011. Retrieved June 23, 2011.
  4. ^ "Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard — Installation and Setup Guide" (PDF). Apple Inc. September 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  5. ^ "iTunes 11.4 for OS X 10.6". Apple Inc. September 9, 2014. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  6. ^ "Security Update 2013-004 (Snow Leopard)". Apple Inc. September 12, 2013. Archived from the original on September 19, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  7. ^ Keizer, Gregg (February 26, 2014). "Apple retires Snow Leopard from support, leaves 1 in 5 Macs vulnerable to attacks". Computerworld. Archived from the original on May 28, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  8. ^ "Mac App Store Update for OS X Snow Leopard". Apple Inc. January 27, 2016. Archived from the original on September 19, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  9. ^ Cunningham, Andrew (January 27, 2016). "Apple updates Snow Leopard so you can continue to upgrade from Snow Leopard". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  10. ^ "Mac App Store Update for OS X Snow Leopard". Apple Inc. January 27, 2016. Archived from the original on September 19, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  11. ^ "Snow Leopard Leaps Out of the Gate: Sales for Latest Apple OS Far Exceed Prior Launches, According to NPD". NPD Group. September 17, 2009. Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  12. ^ Siracusa, John (September 1, 2009). "Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  13. ^ "WWDC 2009 Keynote". Macworld. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  14. ^ "Mac OS X Lion Available Today From the Mac App Store". Apple.com. Apple Inc. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  15. ^ "Upgrade to OS X Mavericks". Apple.com. Apple Inc. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2013. If you're running Leopard and would like to upgrade to OS X Mavericks, first you'll need to upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard. You can purchase OS X Snow Leopard here.
  16. ^ "The Rise and Fall of Mac OS X Versions, 2009 to 2015". Low End Mac. October 4, 2015. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  17. ^ "Booting OS X Lion GM: No Welcome Video, New Introduction to Scrolling". MacRumors. July 2011. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2020.