The myth and reality of Mac OS X Snow Leopard [2023]

>I suspect that you're not remembering version 10.6.0 but rather version 10.6.8

That is correct. It is specifically 10.6.8 I remember as being good. I didn't upgrade again 10.11 (el capitan), and only because some software upgrades I needed wouldn't run on snow leopard.

Now my main home system is linux, though I have a work-issued macbook.