After installation, the 10.6.8 update can be downloaded here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/106449
Minimum
Hardware Requirements
- Intel-based Mac
- 1 GB of RAM, although 2 GB is recommended
- 5 GB of available drive space
- DVD-compatible optical drive (or
external DVD drive)
- Grand Central Dispatch requires a
dual-core CPU
- 64-bit support requires a Core 2
or newer CPU
Big
Changes with 10.6 Mac Operating System
- Snow Leopard is smaller than
Leopard. By removing PowerPC and other unnecessary legacy code, Apple
greatly reduced the drive space needed by the operating system. It takes
up about 1/2 as much space and thus will install about twice as fast as
Leopard.
- Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) means the entire operating system is designed
to take advantage of multiple cores, whether on one chip or more. Process
threads, which were handled by apps in the past, are now handled by the OS
with new programs designed to use GCD which makes for better use of
resources.
- Full 64-bit support means programs will no longer be limited to 4 GB of RAM.
Both the OS and almost all "system applications" (Finder,
Safari, Mail, iChat, iCal, etc.) are ready for 64-bit operation. And Snow
Leopard is completely backwards-compatible with 32-bit apps. First
generation Intel Macs designed around Intel Core Solo and Core Duo chips
do not support 64-bit operation.
- OpenCL takes advantage of powerful modern graphic processing units (GPUs, a.k.a.
"video cards") for more than displaying video. All of that
processing power will also be available for general purpose computing.
- QuickTime X introduced a new QuickTime player taking full advantage of
Core Audio, Core Video, and Core Animation. It can record audio and video
using your Mac's built-in microphone and webcam, and it can trim and
export for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, YouTube, and MobileMe so you don't need
to worry about which codec to use. QuickTime X supports HTTP live
streaming, which can adjust quality on the fly based on available network
bandwidth. It takes advantage of GCD and 64-bit operation.
- Exchange Support is built right into the OS. Mail, iCal, and Address Book will
work with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft finally brought
Outlook to the Mac with Office 2010.
- The Finder has been completely
rewritten to support 64-bit operation and take advantage of Grand Central
Dispatch. This makes the Finder much more responsive.
- For the first time, the Services
menu is contextual: you will only see services available to the current
app.
- Exposé can work in the Dock -
click and hold an application icon and it will display that app's active
documents in a grid.
- Time Machine backups are up to
50% faster.
- Macs shut down and wake up more
quickly, and joining a WiFi network is also faster. This makes for more
energy efficient file sharing - your sleeping Mac uses less energy and
wakes more quickly to serve up files.
- If you travel with you're Mac,
you'll appreciate automatic time zone settings.
- The 'Wake on Demand' feature may
keep your Mac from staying asleep. The fix is to reset the Energy Saver
settings to their defaults, then put in your own settings.
Applications