Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard", released in 2009 (which I feel like pointing out in a sad reality check was 15 years ago as of this writing in early 2025...), was the seventh major release of Mac OS X. The goal of the release was that of performance and stability and optimization, so it's not that much different from 10.5 at least visually, but it is historically important as the first release of OS X not to support PowerPC processors. It's also the last version to support PowerPC anything via the "Rosetta" translation layer.

These screenshots are of the latest update to Snow Leopard, 10.6.8, and were taken on a real iMac. Like always, Apple puts a lot of engineering and care into the design of their hardware that doesn't necessarily come forward in screenshots of the software.

A screenshot of the (almost default) desktop. Compare and contrast to 10.5 and you won't see much of a difference.

By default the hard disk icon isn't visible on the desktop, I have added it for accessibility (and curmudgeon :-P) reasons. Also note that there is an additional application in the Dock that I will be visiting later that isn't part of a default install.

The about screen hasn't changed, but there is something slightly surreal still about seeing an Intel processor in here.

The software updater hasn't changed either. And it still works in 2025 too, unlike certain other operating systems.

One thing that does not seem to work any longer is this new "App Store", which actually was released later on in the life of 10.6. This pretty much replaces the existing standard of using physical media to install programs or searching and downloading DMG files on the internet. I suppose that since the iPhone is popular it makes sense that these technologies filter down, but I'm not much of a big fan of the "walled garden" approach to software distribution.