Apple’s Snow Leopard released on Friday

Apple has confirmed that it will release its Snow Leopard operating system on Friday.

Mac OS X 10.6, dubbed Snow Leopard, brings a series of under-the-hood changes to Mac OS X, including support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and enhanced support for multi-core processors through Grand Central.

Another notable new feature is the Open Computing Language which allows applications to tap into the huge but often unused power of graphics processors. There’s also a completely new multimedia engine, QuickTime X, and 64-bit versions of the Safari browser and iCal.

The new OS also has the benefit of trimming an impressive 7GB from the installation of Leopard, with a large chunk of that coming as a result of Apple’s decision to end support for the PowerPC chips it used until the switch to Intel in 2006.

Leopard users will be able to get their hands on a single Snow Leopard upgrade license for £25, while a five-user licence is going for £39.

The launch comes as something of a surprise given that Apple initially claimed we would have to wait until September for Snow Leopard.

The company did not give any reason for the launch being pushed forward and responded to our requests for comment with the following PR fluff: “Snow Leopard builds on our most successful operating system ever and we’re happy to get it to users earlier than expected.”