Wednesday, June 4,2008 @ 3:45pm
Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" at WWDC?
The next boxed version of Mac OS X may be available for preview as soon as June 9th's WWDC conference, according to rumors. Anonymous sources claim that Apple is looking to provide developers with an early version of Mac OS X 10.6 at the event, giving them more time to adjust to its nuances. These should actually be comparatively minimal, as Apple is said to be interested less in new features and more on improving the overall speed, stability and security of Macs.
The major change is said to be a complete elimination of PowerPC support, leaving behind a "cleaner" 64-bit OS, and less incentive for developers to devote time to Universal Binaries. It is also rumored that Apple is considering wrapping the entire OS in Cocoa, granting use of the code to access functions which were previously only open through Carbon; alternately, Apple may only be interested in removing Carbon UI components. Even the OS' codename is uncertain, but it is currently believed to be "Snow Leopard."
The report claims a commercial release of the OS is expected as soon as next year's Macworld conference in January.