Why I don't believe TUAW's 10.6 rumour

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 05 June 2008 11:34

Opinion and Analysis

The next problem I have is that both outlets are touting 10.6 as delivering more speed and stability but no significant new features. That would be a tough sell! It's not that these aren't desirable characteristics, but it is akin to Apple saying "sorry guys, we know we screwed up, but it's all fixed now so please pay over again."

I can't see that going down very well, and it could attract attention from consumer protection agencies.

Some people are suggesting that 10.6 could be a free or low(er) cost upgrade for that reason. If it is going to be free, it would make more sense to stick to the practice of changing only the third part of the version number.

Now there's a thought. We're currently on 10.5.3, with the first developer releases of 10.5.4 reportedly set for release this week. So a January debut for 10.5.6 seems plausible. Maybe that's where the current rumour comes from?

I'm also more inclined to believe the supposed code name Snow Leopard is correct if it refers to a substantial update to Leopard rather than a 'full' upgrade release.

The next issue is that 10.6 will, according to the rumours, be Intel only. I'm prepared to believe that part, but not in conjunction with a January 2009 release.

As a rule of thumb, Apple seems to provide support in new OS versions for hardware up to four years old. The iMac G5 remained available for some months after the Intel-based model debuted in January 2006. Similarly, the PowerBook G4 wasn't superseded until the first half of 2006.

Are you going to dispose of your pre-Intel Macs this year?

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