13 reviews

Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard

$29.00 Released September, 2009

The Pros:Affordable to upgrade to compared to previous version of OSX. Finally a release that tidies up the plumbing rather then just adding features and bloat. Faster then X.5.

The Cons:No longer supported on older PPC-based Apple hardware. Only usable on proprietary Apple hardware. No native TRIM support (ATA protocol enhancement for SSDs to prevent performance degradation).

Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is the latest OS developed by Apple Computer under the company's CEO Steve Jobs. Was released September '09. This is the first OS touted by Apple computer to have "no new features", yet features greatly enhanced underpinnings.

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New updates to the operating system include:

Full 64-bit addressing. This increasing security and memory allocation while providing backward compatibility with 32-bit programs
Grand Central Dispatch is the clever name for a new open source, system wide thread-pool that allows programers to more easily utilize all the processing power of modern multi-core processors. This makes system wide slowdowns much less common and removes data bottlenecks.
OpenCL allows programers to more easily harness the computing power of graphics co-processors for general computing tasks. This increases speed and takes pressure off of the main processor.

The net result is a more stable, secure, fast, and functional operating environment for users.

User Reviews (14)

Add Pros & Cons

ProScore

Pros

7

affordable to upgrade to compared to previous version of OSX
6

Finally a release that tidies up the plumbing rather then just adding features and bloat
5

faster then X.5
5

OpenGL support for general purpose computation using graphics hardware - takes strain off of the CPU for computation more easily performed by the GPU
5

full 64 bit, system wide addressing
4

Takes up much less HD space then previous releases
3

a slick system wide multi-threading api

Cons

4

no longer supported on older PPC-based Apple hardware
3

only usable on proprietary Apple hardware
1

no native TRIM support (ATA protocol enhancement for SSDs to prevent performance degradation)
1

slow graphics (OpenGL slower than Windows 7 and Linux in all benchmarks)
0

Making a fresh install over pre-X.5 systems from the 29.00 upgrade violates the ULA.
-2

a long time in development for more evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes