Snow Leopard, Apple’s code name for its upcoming Mac OS X 10.6, is slated for release early next year, according to Cupertino inside data accidently made public last week.
In a slide presentation before the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference, Jordan Hubbard, head of Apple’s Unix Technology Group, let slip Leopard will be released during the first quarter of 2009.
Although the offending slide was removed, the information spread far and wide, providing both Mac fans and rivals a clearer window into Apple’s schedule. In July Apple had said only that the new operating system would be available “in about a year.”
The information leak comes as both Apple and Microsoft ready launches of operating systems. Windows 7, the successor to Redmond’s much-criticized Vista, will be unveiled around the middle of next year.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
