Mac OS X 10.6 confirmed: Snow Leopard

Mac OS X 10.6 is Snow Leopard. While only mentioned once at the WWDC keynote, it was enough to let us make some very safe assumptions. Snow Leopard, as evidenced by its name, is a bigger than usual incremental update. Here’s what I’m expecting.

• Snow Leopard will have some visual tweaks. The only way this isn’t happening is if it is free or very discounted. Apple will not be able to get many laymen to buy an OS that looks the same.
• It will remain under the hood, much the same as Leopard, with fixes and stability changes.
• If it is free, then it is entirely likely that is will be Intel only, and Intel-optimized version that fixes stability and other things without having to simulntaneaously code for PowerPC. It will signal that 10.7/Mac OS Touch will be a big release with no PowerPC support.
• It will contain no new end user features.
• It will not contain Carbon APIs, but Carbon apps will still run. This signals the death of Carbon in Mac OS Touch, with perhaps one last OS before Carbon goes away.

What do you think Snow Leopard will be? it’s still very much a mystery.