After writing this week’s newsletter, I got to wondering whether some people have led themselves to expect too much from Snow Leopard. After all, Apple has managed to push from 200 to 300 new features for every single release, but this time they claimed to be taking a step back to fix the plumbing.

Yes, if you look at the changes, there are in fact over 100 “refinements.” I put that term in quotes, primarily because some of those changes would have been regarded as new features in the old days. Regardless, I can’t see that Apple has over-promised and under-delivered here. They said it would be a fixer-upper and to drive home the point they’re offering it for $29. That’s chump change when it comes to an OS release.

Sure, Microsoft has cut the price some for Windows 7, but it is still way more expensive. For a brief period of time, you could even get it free, and you can still download beta versions from Microsoft, which are essentially Golden Master releases, or something approaching that level.

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You hardly think there’s much anyone can say about Apple’s Snow Leopard that hasn’t been said over and over again, almost to the point of excessiveness in recent days. Starting with the favored members of the media who contributed their words of wisdom, and extending to individual bloggers around the world, it seems almost every respectable publication, and some other than respectable, has had something to say on the subject.

Now it’s a sure thing that a lot of people have been working with Snow Leopard for weeks and perhaps months. That includes Apple’s registered developers and, of course, the folks who wrote books on the subject that have just been released, or will be shortly. So now it can be told, but I won’t spend half this review writing about the features you already know about, or you can find described at Apple’s site in exquisite detail. I don’t believe in wasting your time.

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As you may have noticed, Apple has lifted the confidentiality agreements on members of the press who got a somewhat early look at Snow Leopard. So the reviews are now pouring forth and, for the most part, the response is excellent, very much what you’d expect from a release that was actually never represented as a major upgrade.

What might come as a surprise to some, particularly if you’re new to the Mac, is that Apple basically operates on the honor system when it comes to installing a Mac OS X upgrade. You see, there is no horrendously lengthy serial number to enter, and there is no network or online activation procedure that awaits you. There’s no network check either, to determine whether or not two Macs are running a copy with the same license number, since there is no license number.

Yes, a fresh install may end with a brief registration panel, but you send only your basic contact info to Apple; they aren’t going to use it as a gauge to determine just how many copies you’re actually running on your home or business network.

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Depending on whom you believe, Apple’s early release of Snow Leopard is either a brilliant marketing stroke or won’t make one bit of difference in the end. What some people forget is that maybe, just maybe, Apple is shipping 10.6 this week because it could. The work was wrapped up, the DVD pressing plants had the capacity and so they went for it.

Now some suggest that this wider window of opportunity will give Apple a change to expend a tremendous amount of money to push Snow Leopard adoption. However, with a $29 purchase price and over a year of advance publicity, I don’t think selling upgrade kits is a major problem; that’s going to take care of itself. Apple’s focus is on selling Macs, and the ones on which Snow Leopard is preloaded are no doubt already on their way to dealers.

What you’re seeing instead is what are essentially two heavy-duty service packs being marketed in diametrically opposed ways, may the better product win.

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