Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review (The most detailed review of all time)

“That’s right, the next major release of Mac OS X would have no
new features. The product name reflected this: “Snow Leopard.” Mac
OS X 10.6 would merely be a variant of Leopard. Better, faster,
more refined, more… uh… snowy.

“This was a risky strategy for Apple. After the rapid-fire
updates of 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 followed by the riot of new
features and APIs in 10.4 and 10.5, could Apple really get away
with calling a “time out?” I imagine Bertrand was really sweating
this announcement up on the stage at WWDC in front of a live
audience of Mac developers. Their reaction? Spontaneous applause.
There were even a few hoots and whistles.

“Many of these same developers applauded the “150+ new features”
in Tiger and the “300 new features” in Leopard at past WWDCs. Now
they were applauding zero new features for Snow Leopard? What
explains this?

“It probably helps to know that the “0 New Features” slide came
at the end of an hour-long presentation detailing the major new
APIs and technologies in Snow Leopard. It was also quickly followed
by a back-pedaling (“well, there is one new feature…”) slide
describing the addition of Microsoft Exchange support. In
isolation, “no new features” may seem to imply stagnation. In
context, however, it served as a developer-friendly
affirmation.”

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