Soon after word was out, the folks at World of Apple were able to get their hands on the seed notes for the latest beta build of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. As rumored, the seed notes confirm the Cocoa-wrapped Finder, as well as the enhanced support for MS Exchange, the move to 64-bit, and more.



Cocoa Finder

Starting with Mac OS X 10.6 Build 10A190, Leopard has now a Finder written in Cocoa, marking this as the first time Apple's “explorer” has moved away from Carbon since its debut in Mac OS X. "Almost all" visible applications Apple ships with Mac OS X have also been treated to the Cocoa object-oriented program environment. According to AppleInsider, the transition is expected to be finished by Snow Leopard's public release.


Microsoft Exchange

“Snow Leopard now contains additional support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 via Mail, iCal and Address Book,” says Apple. “While there is support for basic browsing, creation and editing of Microsoft Exchange data, much functionality and polish is still forthcoming, which may impede full Exchange use in this seed.”


64-bit kernel

Snow Leopard's move to a 64-bit kernel is a go. “The early 2008 models of the Mac Pro, 15" and 17" MacBook Pro and Xserve can be used for 64-bit kernel development,” the seed notes reveal. “Audio and AirPort are now enabled on these testing configurations.” However, this early build runs natively only on some Macs, the seed notes further explain.


HFS+ file compression

Snow Leopard includes support for file compression to the HFS+ file system that focuses on reducing the size of Apple's system files and built-in apps when used. “Compression was designed to be used with Apple System and Application files that are normally read-only/updatable,” says Apple, and is also backwards-compatible.


Gamma Changes

“To better meet the needs of digital content producers and consumers, the default display gamma has been changed from 1.8 to 2.2 in Snow Leopard,” the seed notes reveal. “Applications that override the default and assume a gamma 1.8 setting may have different onscreen and printed output than they did in previous releases of Mac OS X.” The 2.2 gamma setting is only an option in earlier Mac OS X versions. According to Apple, this setting is aimed at appeasing both visual editors as well as the everyday users.

AppleInsider points out that, although Snow Leopard is beginning to sound major, the current build reveals “a definite work in progress that reflects the several months to go before Apple's publicly planned mid-2009 release” of the new OS.