Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Seeded to Developers

Apple has seeded the eighth incremental Snow Leopard update to developers, sources in a position to know are reporting.

Labeled Build 10K521, Mac OS X 10.6.8 is the last maintenance update for Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system before the scheduled launch of Mac OS X Lion this summer, and potentially the last one altogether, Softpedia suspects.

Unlike Mac OS X 10.6.7, which was delivered in two forms - one targeting Thunderbolt MacBook Pros, and one aimed at the rest of Apple’s Macintosh line - Mac OS X 10.6.8 appears to be a ‘universal’ Snow Leopard build for the time being.

Developers are yet to leak any specific details pertaining to the new seed, but it is safe to assume it focuses mainly on fixing existing bugs.

Apple has finished adding new features to Snow Leopard in January, when Mac OS X 10.6.6 delivered the Mac App Store.

While still a noteworthy release, the subsequent Mac OS X 10.6.7 did not deliver any major new features to Snow Leopard and OS X 10.6.8 is likely no different.

Softpedia trusts this is the case as Apple has previously showed signs of ‘wrapped up’ development when a new major release of Mac OS X was to arrive.

The best example is the Leopard upgrade to Snow Leopard. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard saw its last maintenance update right before Snow Leopard was released. The update was designated ‘Mac OS X 10.5.8’.

Apple will debut Mac OS X 10.7 dubbed ‘Lion’ at its upcoming edition of the Worldwide Developers Conference hosted at Moscone West in San Francisco.

According to an official report issued by Apple in March, the event will focus on "the future of iOS and Mac OS."

Sessions will include demonstrations of the new kinds of apps that developers can build using Apple’s advanced frameworks and more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers.