15 Years Since Snow Leopard

Nostalgia time. It's 15 years since Apple released Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard.

I just changed my desktop wallpaper to the old default Snow Leopard space wallpaper that Basic Apple Guy released the other day, and it's a great bit of nostalgia for a great time in computing. It makes me smile when I look at it.

My first version of OS X was technically Leopard. Mac OS X 10.5, back when I remembered all the version numbers and big cat code names.

I only used Leopard for a few weeks though, because I bought my first MacBook Pro just before Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) came out. I even got the update disc for free, because I bought my Mac after the OS update was announced, but before it shipped.

I loved my Mac and I loved Mac OS X straight away. It was such a breath of fresh air after fighting for years with getting flimsy Windows computers to do what I wanted. Snow Leopard was my OS for my first few years of owning a Mac and it was a great experience.

So much has changed since 2009. What’s now called macOS is shipped for free, as a download, not a paid disc. It’s gone from a release every 2 or 3 years to an annual cycle. Intel Macs have gone from the amazing new hotness to just the worst Macs you could be unfortunate enough to have to use. And I couldn’t tell you which random place name in California we’re on to as a version name now. (The big cats were more memorable to me, and the annual release cycle, combined with an unfamiliarity with California, has made it impossible for me to keep up, particularly when macOS versions don’t seem to have any major distinguishing features.)

But macOS is still my favourite OS, and it started with Snow Leopard.