Mac OS X <version>

[Mario583]

Shall I get Leopard or wait for Snow Leopard in mid-09 if I get a MacTop?

* Support for connecting to Microsoft Exchange 2007 servers will be included in Address Book, Mail, and iCal.
    * Faster installation times and lower hard drive footprint.
    * Support for up to a theoretical 16TB RAM by further developing 64-bit kernel technologies.
    * Grand Central: a parallel-programming technology by Apple that aims to have the OS take full advantage of multi-core CPUs and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
    * QuickTime X which will feature optimized support for modern codecs.
    * OpenCL (Open Computing Language): allowing developers to code applications to use the GPU for non-graphics purposes.
    * Improved Safari performance using SquirrelFish core to improve JavaScript performance by 53%. Although this Safari update will be included with Snow Leopard, it is expected to be available for OS X iPhone, 10.5 Leopard, and 10.4 Tiger and Windows. You can get the preview version of Safari 4.0 at developer.apple.com if you are a member, and membership is free to some extent.
    * 64-bit Kernel which completely rebuilds the core OS in a complete 64-Bit environment along with 32-bit support for older Macs. This completes a long running attempt by Apple to completely unify their products in 64-bit capabilities, harking back to Apple's original adoption of the PowerPC in 1994 which was planned to become natively 64-bit with the PowerPC G5 and slowly built into OS X starting with OS X 10.3.

The next version of Mac OS X Server will include all of these features and other server-related features. Apple also states that they will include ZFS write support, but current documentation indicates that ZFS-Write support does not currently exist in the latest seed (build).

[Dill]

The best advice someone's ever given me about buying a computer is that if you need one, don't hesitate. It doesn't matter if suddenly they start sending free iPods out with computers in a month if you're in dire need of a laptop. But otherwise, if you're just looking for something to spend money on, wait as long as you can. Chances are your current computer will last at least a few more months, and in a few months it'll probably be a lot cheaper or better anyway.

That was Adam Christianson, by the way. I don't know if anyone still listens to him (I don't).