Here we grow again.

Apple, never to sit still with furthering development, is hard at work on the next revision of the operating system that is designed for use on Apple computers, codenamed Snow Leopard.  Now, some experimentalists will hack around to get it working on regular pc’s, and for some it works, but it isn’t generally as easy, and you won’t get any support from Steve and gang   There are also a couple companies attempting to profit off these hackers, here and here…  I’ve never liked these sorts, as the people tend to hack for hacking sake, not for profit.  It’s still surprising Apple isn’t sending a boatload of lawyers after them.

Anyhow, some of the highlights of this next-gen OS are:

OpenCL – Open what?? It stands for Open Computing Language, and will be a standard on many platforms, not just Apple if they have their way, so we will all benefit.  Basically, video cards are very powerful now, some as much as seven times as fast as your fastest CPU.  Why not use this power for more than just pretty graphics?  How about calculating the physics for your game?  Or blindingly fast 3D rendering.  Or encoding a DVD lightning fast!  It sure sounds tasty, here’s hoping it pans out.

64 bit – Ok… Some would say, but we thought OSX was already 64 bit?!  Well the spin-doctors at Apple are saying it will be even more compliant, supporting more ram (I find this a misnomer since 64 bit applications tend to need more ram anyhow) yadda, yadda.  Here’s hoping this won’t mean everyone will have to upgrade ram to even install 10.6

Multicore – In a nutshell, applications will have more multicore cpu support.  Multitasking is your friend.

Microsoft Exchange Support – Apple is trying harder now to wiggle into the corporate world, what better way than to support the number one email and collaborative server out there.  iPhones will have the same support in less than 2 weeks.

Media and Internet – It looks like Apple is finally fixing Quicktime (the thing that supports media files) and its been given a total overhaul.  I will reserve judgement until I test many of my own files from various sources.

They likely will add more functionality by its release sometime next year.  Oh yes…  I almost forgot.  They are finally dropping support for non Intel based Macs.  No more PowerPC (G3, G4, G5) support. It had to happen at some point, but i’m sure it sucks for some. :/

I myself like how quickly Apple has brought forth new technology.  Some don’t like that you have to pay every couple years for a new OS upgrade.  They will however go out and buy a $60-70 console game every week.  *shrug*  It isn’t that expensive and you get a lot of functionality.  If only Microsoft could follow the same development cycle and actually bring something stable and usable to the masses.  Likely they wouldn’t have the ire of even Bill Gates himself!