While most of the world must wait until Friday for Snow Leopard to go on sale, Mac users in the United Arab Emirates were able to start buying the new OS on Thursday. Shufflegazine.com, an Arab and English-language magazine based in the UAE, began reporting local sales on Twitter, complete with photographs, such as the gentleman below who is so happy with his copy, he's ready to lick it.

Some parts of the globe area already on Calendar, of course, such as Japan and Australia, but the UAE is still on Thursday, as of this writing. U.S. customers must wait until 8:00 AM on August 28th (Friday morning) for their local Apple Stores to open to get their copies (or wait for their deliveries, for those who ordered online for Friday delivery).

If you know someone with a Jet (we're looking at you, Steve), you might be able to swing out to Abu Dhabi, grab a copy, get back home and install it, all before your neighbor gets his copy in the morning.

If you do, pick up a copy for us, and if you see this guy, ask him how Snow Leopard tastes!

Happy Snow Leopard customer, as posted on yfrog by Shufflegazine.

Thanks to Observer Khaled for the heads up on Shufflegazine's coverage.