Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.8
This Thursday Apple released Mac OS X v10.6.8, the first incremental Snow Leopard update since late March. Likely the last major maintenance update before Mac OS X 10.7 Lion debuts next month, the release includes several new features, tweaks and bug fixes.
Among the more notable features of the update are enhancements to the Mac App Store and built-in protection against known variants of Mac Defender malware—essentially the features of last month’s Security Update 2011-003. The enhancements to the MAS claim to “get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion,” seeming to indicate the software update is a mandatory install prior to upgrading to the new OS.
According the the support document accompanying the release the following changes supplement the aforementioned features.
- Resolves an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit.
- Improves support for IPv6
- Improves VPN reliability
Weighing in at just under 500MB (1.09GB for users upgrading from v10.6.6 and earlier) the update is recommended for all users, and especially those considering Lion. Mac OS X v10.6.8 can be acquired by running Software Update from the menu bar, or by selecting a direct link below. As always, we encourage you to run a comprehensive Time Machine backup prior to installing any system updates.
Direct Links
- Mac OS X v10.6.8 Client (for users running v10.6.7)
- Mac OS X v10.6.8 Client Combo (for users running v10.6 – v10.6.6)
- Mac OS X v10.6.8 Server (for users running v10.6.7 Server)
- Mac OS X v10.6.8 Server Combo (v10.6 Server – v10.6.6 Server)