Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Bring 'ImageBoot'

New details are emerging in relation to Apple's upcoming OS upgrade, Snow Leopard. The Intel-bit only OS is on track for a WWDC 2009 unveiling, sources say, delivering a re-written Finder application, enhanced Microsoft Exchange support, and a new feature called ImageBoot.

Snow Leopard is already in the hands of a few select developers who have begun testing pre-release builds labeled 10Axxx. The company's broader developer community, including members of the Apple Developer Connection network, are likely to get their hands on the new builds as well.

Thanks to the well-connected folks over at AppleInsider, more exciting OS X goodness is said to be unveiled at next year's developers conference. Mac OS X Leopard still has a few Carbon-based applications, one of which is the Finder. In Snow Leopard, the Finder is said to have been completely written in Cocoa, while other Apple applications accompanying the new builds are also said to be re-written with the advanced programming language.

Microsoft Exchange support will be greatly increased in Snow Leopard as well. iCal, Address Book and Mail are just some of the applications to benefit from the enhanced support. Areas of interest include events scheduling, adding contacts to Address Book and automatic Mail configuration.

But probably one of the most exciting features being added to OS X Snow Leopard is ImageBoot. Based on Apple's existing NetBoot technology, the feature is said to allow Macs to boot from a remote disc over a network. Additionally, ImageBoot will allow its user to set up multiple disk images on other disk partitions and even on external hard drives, to be able to selectively boot the image of their choice.

As noted above, all this (and probably lots more) is to be showcased at Apple's upcoming developers conference early next year. Devs getting a glimpse at future Mac OS X 10.6 builds are sure to leak a few extras in the meanwhile, so our next Snow Leopard-stop is likely not WWDC 2009.