Upgrading from Tiger to Leopard

You need to do several things. First, back up your data to an external hard drive / external source. Next, you need to look at any non-Apple software installed, and see if there is an updated version necessary to run under Leopard. Look at System Preferences and see if there is any software listed at the bottom of the screen, on your account (still under System Preferences) look to see if there are any non-Apple login items, and look at applications on your hard drive. Update/upgrade as needed. Use Disk Utility to repair permissions, then go for the update. Some functions, like verify/repair permissions, take longer (depending on your system can take over 30 minutes) than under Tiger, so don't get impatient.

Use these resources too: http://www.apple.com/support/leopard/ and http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1541

Firefox, which I use, is at 3.6.16 or 4.0 has just become available.

Hi Clutha,

If I may ask, why upgrade to Leopard first? Why not just skip L and upgrade directly to SL? Either will run fine on your hardware.

Message was edited by: tjk

Clutha wrote:
It's my understanding that I need to load leopard before going to SL, but I'm willing to be corrected 🙂

I was going to correct you, but there was something stuck in the back of my mind (lot of stuff back there, some accessible, some not 😉 ) and a quick search turned this up from Apple Legal:

C. Leopard Upgrade Licenses. If you have purchased an Upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard license, then subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer *as long as that computer has a properly licensed copy of Mac OS X Leopard already installed on it.* If you have purchased a Family Pack Upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard license, then subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on up to a maximum of five (5) Apple-branded computers at a time as long as those computers are located in the same household (as defined above), are used by persons who occupy that same household, and each such computer has a properly licensed copy of Mac OS X Leopard already installed on it. The Family Pack Upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard License does not extend to business or commercial users.

http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx106.pdf

So yes, you can upgrade directly from Tiger to SL, but legally you need to do it via the "boxed set," not the Upgrade disc. I don't know what Leopard is selling for these days, but it's likely less expensive going that route plus the Upgrade SL; the downside is that you'll have older iLife apps.

Message was edited by: tjk