Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard is an upgrade to the previous version of OS X Leopard. This update does not have stacks of new features, rather overall improvements and efficiency upgrades. This version of Apple's OS also has a reduced footprint.

Key features include:

• Slimmer QuickTime Player: QuickTime X features a simplified GUI with a greater focus on codec support.
• Cocoa Based Finder: Finder has a new Cocoa Desktop Window and Contextual Menu.
• Safari Beta 4 Default Browser: Apple included a beta version of Safari 4 with Snow Leopard.
• Microsoft Exchange Server Support: Mac users can now connect to Microsoft Exchange 2007 servers via Mail, Address Book, and iCal.
• Faster Installation Time: Installing Snow Leopard on multiple machines takes approx 15 minutes in comparison to around an hour for Leopard.

If your Mac is operating at a slow pace, then for that reason alone it is worth the upgrade to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. As far as developers are concerned, the integration of Grand Central, OpenCL and a 64 bit kernel will allow you to take full advantage of the dual processing power of Intel Macs.