Many of you have already seen that Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) will be releasing on Friday. I've been running it as my primary OS on my laptop since the WWDC in June and look forward to getting a real install on there. You're probably also aware that PPC machines will not run 10.6 (and beyond), so this upgrade is Intel Macintosh only. Here is roadmap through the upgrade products.

First of all, this cat is coming pretty cheap for those who already have Leopard (either through purchasing a machine with Leopard on it, or upgrading in the past). The MSRP for Snow Leopard is $29 ($49 for a family pack).

Apple's other option is a pretty good deal for pre-Leopard Intel users who are also behind on iLife and are interested in iWork. You can get a bundle (called the Mac Box Set) for $169 MSRP including Snow Leopard, iWork '09 and iLife '09 ($229 for the family pack of all three).

Of course, if you order direct from Apple you can get it on Friday. However, Amazon (and other retailers) are providing a financial incentive to ordering from them.

• Snow Leopard single-user upgrade $24.99
• Snow Leopard Family Pack upgrade $43.99
• Mac Box Set (with Snow Leopard) $149.99
• Mac Box Set Family Pack (with Snow Leopard) $199.99

And for those of you on the server side, there's been a big drop in price from the previous $999 and $499 prices for Unlimited and 10-user. Snow Leopard Server will only be offered in Unlimited and the price has been moved to $499 (the previous 10-user price). Amazon has it for $444.99.