Mac OS X Snow Leopard Launched 15 Years Ago Today With '0 New Features'

[MacRumors]

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Apple releasing Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which became available to purchase for $29 on August 28, 2009.

After advertising Mac OS X Leopard as having "over 300 new features" in 2007, Apple previewed Snow Leopard at WWDC 2008. Notably, during that year's "State of the Union" session, Apple showed a presentation slide that said the update had "0 new features," as Apple opted to focus on under-the-hood performance and stability improvements.

"We've built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown," said Apple's former software engineering chief Bertrand Serlet. "Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before."

With Snow Leopard, Apple said it refined 90% of the foundational "projects" that were built into Mac OS X. Apple pitched the update as offering a more responsive Finder app, an improved Mail app that loads emails up to twice as fast as before, up to 80% faster Time Machine backups, and a 64-bit version of Safari that was up to 50% faster than the previous version. Snow Leopard also took up around half as much disk space as Leopard.

You can watch Serlet speak more about Snow Leopard at WWDC 2009 below.

Article Link: Mac OS X Snow Leopard Launched 15 Years Ago Today With '0 New Features'

 

[JWD]

I purchased it, no regrets

 

[andrewxgx]

bertrand is what peak keynote performance looks like

 

[Andain]

Will never forget, that’s what made me switch to Mac. Had a friend with a polycarbonate MacBook, then bought my Core 2 Duo 11” Air, came with 10.6.8.
It was an absolute shock how stable it was.
Didn’t know back then, but literally the best time to switch.

 

[kylelerner]

One of the best OS iterations of all time. Not quite Windows 3.1 to 95, but certainly in the category.

 

[FridgeToaster]

Apple could do the same when the first macOS that drops support for x86 chips launches.

 

[swm]

I wish apple would not be so obsessed with releasing a new operating system every year. but apart from the "continuous innovation" it allows them to dig a deeper and deeper pit between the current and the prev gen devices.

 

[Wahlstrm]

Still have the retail box/dvd somewhere, remember it was something like $20. Worth it. 🤓

 

[poematik13]

id pay $199 for a "macOS Pro" forked build thats literally just stability and bugfix/performance updates with no new features

 

[Realityck]

love the threads title someone goofed with a typo on . . .. 0 new Features.
(s/b 300)

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Launched 15 Years Ago Today With '0 New Features'​

 

[goobot]

Apple needs to do this again across their entire OS line up

 

[diego.caraballo]

This is adorable. Great old times.

 

[orbital~debris]

Still have* a boxed copy! Apple used to make wonderful software boxes.

*(Yes, this is an example of how bad my  box packaging problem is.)

 

[sw1tcher]

After advertising Mac OS X Leopard as having "over 300 new features," Apple previewed Snow Leopard at WWDC 2008. Notably, during that year's "State of the Union" session, Apple showed a presentation slide that said the update had "0 new features," as Apple opted to focus on under-the-hood performance and stability improvements.

Apple seriously needs to do that again with macOS and iOS, IMO.

Every 5th year should be a "0 new features" OS release.

 

[TurboJobo]

still remember buying it at 29 from otay ranch apple store when I was 18. Until now its still my favorite mac, even on HDD it was fast and in SSD it was apple sillicon fast to me. it has no unnecessary stuff.

 

[Klae17]

MacOS Toyota Sequoia

 

[andrewxgx]

bertrand is what peak keynote performance looks like

and oh god, do i miss steve

 

[Avenged110]

How far we've fallen... I remember switching to OS X under 10.6 and being just floored at how simple to use and stable it was after suffering Windows.

 

[dturner123]

My 2009 MacBook Pro was so much faster when I installed it. Even with a HDD.

 

[HBX]

id pay $199 for a "macOS Pro" forked build thats literally just stability and bugfix/performance updates with no new features

You and me both. I miss the Snow Leopard days...

 

[QuickSilverLining]

If they could just release a Mac OS update like this today that cleans up all of the bugs, bloat, and bother, that would be nifty.

 

[roadkill401]

I miss the beautiful 3d rendered dock. now ive got an iPhone with a big screen and attached keyboard.

 

[dannyyankou]

It wouldn’t be popular, but one of these days I want Apple to release an iOS version with “0 new features”. Just going into overdrive on debugging and fine tuning.

 

[Starfia]

This is still one of my most re-watched keynotes. (And Steve wasn't even in it!) Memories of the announcement and the year still seem prominent for a lot of people.

Today it all seems a reminder that the refinement and optimization of software isn't just good practice, but sincerely valued by users – even at the expense of new features.

 

[DrJR]

I remember it like it was 15 years ago. It was a great release. Massive improvement of already killer OS. It made my old mac much faster.