If you use email at all, it means a lot. That’s because this is the first version of the Apple OS EVER to have has out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It also takes up half the disk space that the last OS did, freeing up 7 gig, and in this age of giga-files, we need every bit and byte we can scrape off the hard drive when doing things like digitizing content or archiving photos off of memory sticks.

Quicktime has been updated this time around as well, with easier tools for uploading content to YouTube and MobileMe, as well as faster performance in general. It’s also still 32bit compatible, but everything is now running in 64bit which provides better security and increased speed. That’s always a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say.

But the best news might be for developers – the toolset that comes with this OS is pretty sweet. Xcode application lets you create and manage software development projects in Mac OS X. Interface Builder helps you design the user interfaces of your applications. Instruments allows you to see multiple aspects of your application’s performance over time so you can monitor CPU usage, disk I/O, and memory usage and see how they interact.Dashcode in Snow Leopard lets you quickly and easily build elegant and compelling Dashboard widgets. Snow Leopard ships with support for the RubyCocoa Bridge and the PyObjC bridge, giving developers access not only to system APIs, but to Cocoa frameworks such as AppKit and Core Data.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard ships August 28th, and you can upgrade for just $29 bucks from the previous OS.

I for one cannot wait to install it. I’ll just have to get my 4 year old daughter off the mac for long enough for me to do it.