According to AppleInsider, Apple's next-generation Snow Leopard operating system will introduce a massive re-write of the Mac OS X Finder and debut a new feature called ImageBoot.

Cocoa-based Finder
People familiar with matter say the Finder, which currently stands as one of the oldest Carbon-based applications in the Mac OS portfolio, has been completely re-written in the company's native object-oriented application program environment called Cocoa.

Apple has reported tapped select members of its developer community to begin testing the updated graphical file system manager as part of a new pre-release copy of Snow Leopard belonging to the build train 10Axxx. In addition, many of the Apple-authored applications accompany the new build are also said to have been wrapped completely in Cocoa.

Microsoft Exchange Support
Other advancements are also present in the new test software, such as broader support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in Snow Leopard's versions of iCal, Address Book and Mail. The implementation of Exchange support remains a work in progress, according to those familiar with the matter. As such, Apple has reportedly asked that developers focus their testing efforts on a subset of Exchange capabilities, such as scheduling events in iCal, adding contacts to Address Book 5.0, and automated account configuration in Mail.

ImageBoot
When it makes its debut next spring, Snow Leopard will also introduce a third option for disc image-based installation called ImageBoot. Based on Apple's local NetBoot technology, the method will let users boot a Mac simply by placing and launching a disc image on any storage partition outside of the primary partition for which they wish to install copies of Mac OS X.

People familiar with the matter say the technology works through a series of scripts that will convert the disc images to a NetBoot set capable of performing the local install. This will allow users and administrators to share their external drives and partitions with data not associated with their development or testing procedures, those people say.

Broader Availability Expected
A little over two weeks ago, AppleInsider noted that Apple was preparing to broaden evaluation of Snow Leopard through software seeds to a limited number of developers. It's now expected that the company's vast developer community, or members of the Apple Developer Connection network, could be added to the mix as early as this weekend.

In June, ArsTechnica's Jacqui Cheng cited sources who suggested that Apple might "eventually wrap everything in Cocoa" with the release of Snow Leopard.

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AppleInsider: Apple's Snow Leopard to sport Cocoa Finder and ImageBoot

yay! finder will finally be cocoa! its about time, carbon is getting really outdated