What does it do – what’s new?

Apple themselves describe this as OS X “refined not reinvented”. In other words, it’s not a massive change from the current version with most of the improvements occurring under the bonnet. Snow Leopard will be faster and more reliable than the current OS X 10.5 Leopard system and will play better with Microsoft Exchange which is probably it’s most important new feature for corporate users. Included in Apple’s list of new features is “more reliable disk eject” which suggests there isn’t a whole lot to talk about!

Should I upgrade to Snow Leopard?

Probably yes, although it’s difficult to say until the upgrade price is announced. You won’t be upgrading to gain any great new functionality (unless you’re an Exchange user) but simply to keep up with the latest version so that you don’t get stuck with an out of date operating system that will eventually cause you problems as it ceases to be supported. As always with a new OS, our advice is not to upgrade straight away as the first version of a new OS often has problems – we recommend you wait a couple of weeks for version 1.1. to come out.