The newest Mac OS to hit shelves early

Aug 21, 2009 12:32 GMT  ·  By

The most recent indication that Apple’s Snow Leopard may arrive sooner than promised is enough to confirm that Apple’s next-gen operating system is hitting as soon as next week. Following news that the OS has reached its Golden Master status, and leaked imagery of Snow Leopard retail packaging, Apple’s  UK online store is now listing availability “by” August 28 for the software.

TUAW reports that, “[...] Apple's UK store has posted information about Snow Leopard and Apple's ‘Up-to-Date’ program, with an interesting note: Ships by August 28th. If this is true, it would confirm rumors that the next major release of the Mac operating system would be released ahead of the September release date set by Apple,” the report says. Apple’s US store still claims that Mac OS X 10.6 is “coming September 2009 with every new Mac.”

Via its Snow Leopard Up-to-Date Program, Apple is offering buyers of a qualifying Mac (on or after June 8, 2009) that does not include Mac OS X Snow Leopard to upgrade for just $9.95. Upgrading from Mac OS X Server v10.4 (Tiger) or v10.5 (Leopard) to Snow Leopard Server is also easy, but not as cheap. Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard, priced at $499, is said to be the most prominent Server Mac OS since Mac OS X Server was originally released. The software has recently been leaked to torrent websites, where it is freely available for download.

Note

Softpedia doesn't encourage downloading non-approved, pirated Apple software via file-sharing / torrent sites. This article has a purely informational purpose and doesn't, in any way, suggest that Mac users should go forth with downloading any of the various Snow Leopard / Snow Leopard Server builds currently available on such file-sharing / torrent websites.

Several other sources claim to have reason to believe Apple wrapped up development on Snow Leopard ahead of time, allowing the company to start mass-producing the discs and, therefore, ship early. For all we know, some stores could already be packed with Snow Leopard boxes just waiting to be opened.