Rumor: Mac OS X 10.6 to debut at WWDC 08?

TUAW has received some information that suggests Apple may be working to seed developers with an early build of Mac OS X 10.6 at this year's WWDC. 10.6 will not include any new significant features from 10.5; instead, Apple is focusing solely on "stability and security."

We have also learned that OS X 10.6 may go gold master by December 2008 in an effort to start shipping it in January '09 at Macworld Expo. Mac OS X 10.6 will be a milestone release for Apple, as it will leave the PowerPC behind: a fully 64-bit clean, Intel-only Mac OS X.

This information makes us wonder about universal applications -- how much longer will they exist? With Apple leaving pre-Intel Macs behind before the end of the decade, this could mark the end of the Intel transition, as Apple (and presumably many third-party developers) will be focusing only on the newer Mac architecture.

Of course, this leaves open a critical question -- what will this new OS version be codenamed? We've got our hunches, but we can't leave you out of the guessing game.

Update: Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica confirms our info, and lets the cat out of the bag: the code name for 10.6 is expected to be Snow Leopard (choice #2 below).

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