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Do I need Snow Leopard to download Lion?

I got my Mac in 2009 and have 10.5.8. Do I really have to buy Snow Leopard just to get the app store to download Lion?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jun 7, 2011 2:44 PM

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20 replies

Jun 7, 2011 3:01 PM in response to roesslerkm

Make sure your Mac meets Lion's minimum requirements.


http://www.apple.com/macosx/how-to-buy/


Step 1:Make sure your Mac can run Lion.

Your Mac must have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor to run Lion. Find out if your current Mac has one of these processors by clicking the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, then choosing About This Mac.

Jun 8, 2011 7:14 AM in response to roesslerkm

Being in a similar position myself, I have discovered you first need to purchase the Mac Box Set (£122)... this will upgrade the OS (in my case, from Tiger v10.4.11) to Mac OS X v10.6.


Once this is your current OS, you can then purchase the upgrade to Mac OS Lion via the Mac App Store in July for £20.99. These are obviously the prices for UK customers and relate to machines that meet the system requirements (in my case, Intel Core 2 Duo).


Hope this helps!

Jun 8, 2011 9:06 AM in response to Fat Typo

Actually there is no need to purchase the box set - unless you do want the iLife apps that are included on it. If you already have iLife and are happy with that version, then you can simply purchase the Snow Leopard disk available in the US for $29 or less. It will work - the question of how to upgrade from 10.4 to 10.6 has come up here hundreds of times. Again, that is if you do not care about the iLife or already have them - and, once you've updated to 10.6.6 or 10.6.7, you could probably download the latest versions of iMovie, etc. separately for less money from the app store.

Jun 8, 2011 12:35 PM in response to roesslerkm

Related to your original question (Do I need Snow Leopard to download Lion?): Yes.


As for upgrading from 10.4 to 10.6:


1) Buy the Snow Leopard 10.6 (upgrade?) disc ($29 in US), and install it.

2) Using Software Update, update 10.6 to 10.6.7 (I believe it was 10.6.7 that added the Mac App Store capability; others, feel free to correct if I misunderstood).

3) Come July XX (whatever date Lion appears in the Mac App Store), go to the Mac App Store, plunk down (electronically) your card, and download Lion.


Though it wasn't too clearly spelled out, I found after talking with a computer & electronics place (where I bought my Snow Leopard DVD), they did indicate that the upgrade to Snow Leopard can be done in one step from 10.4 (so long as your hardware supports 10.6).


Hope that helps!


Jim in River City

Jun 9, 2011 4:28 AM in response to JimRCGMO

Thanks Jim...


The Apple site for Macs wasn't really much help for things like this, as it has on there I found info saying I needed the Box Set!
"Snow Leopard Upgrade Requirements

Snow Leopard requires an Intel-based Mac. Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard users, buy the upgrade.
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger users, buy the Mac Box Set."


Guess this is a case of profits before customer service!


Before I purchse the upgrade to 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and then update to 10.6.7, I have some concerns over all the negative reports on the forums from people using Snow Leopard... is it really as 'hinky' as it would appear?


There are some really low ratings from some users who made the switch (upgrade); I'm now very hesitant to risk any problems (I use my machine for business and it's my livelihood at stake!).

Jun 9, 2011 4:41 AM in response to Fat Typo

Fat Typo wrote:


(I use my machine for business and it's my livelihood at stake!).


Then you certainly must have a extra drive where you keep a bootable clone of your current system, right? When your livelihood is at stake, it doesn't make sense to do any kind of update, much less a major OS upgrade, without such a safety net. And you should never actually switch to new OS upgrade until you are totally sure it can do everything you need to do for your daily business. An easy way to do such testing is by having extra drive partitions where you can install the new OS without risk of damaging your existing setup.

Jun 9, 2011 4:43 AM in response to BenB

>You can not update to Lion without Snow Leopard.


According to the info on http://www.apple.com/macosx/ this is true. However, a side effect of this same info is anyone with less than 5Mbps broadband will be faced with a longer than 2 hour wait to download 10.7. If Apple were to decide to issue a DVD, or at minimum offer a means of imaging the downloads for people with multiple machines, it may solve both issues with one stroke. I strongly recommend anyone concerned about it, to post feedback here:


http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html


The louder the voice, the greater the risk of it happening.

Jun 9, 2011 8:40 AM in response to a brody

Thanks for the clarification, A. Brody! (Wonder what about the font(s) they were needing to fix?)


Fat Typo, I'd second what Tom Gewecke said about definitely have a backup drive (at least a partition for your Snow Leopard, but preferably a second drive for your clone of your primary drive, *just in case* of a hardware failure). Even if you don't want/need a Time Capsule (and I recall some earlier glitches with those, which Apple has hopefully fixed), have a large drive for Time Machine backups - you can get 1TB externals for $100 (give-or-take a few bucks) nowadays in known good manufacturers. For your cloning, there are excellent shareware and freeware programs out there (I use Carbon Copy Cloner; nope, I do not work for them...) that are either free or not very expensive (and can save your bacon).


And it would be nice to have a 'hard copy' (DVD) of Lion, as A. Brody said, for those of us without T1 connections... Think I'll go to that link for feedback now.


Jim in the River City

Jun 13, 2011 7:47 AM in response to roesslerkm

A big thank-you to Tom and Jim for their insightful help and advice... having worked for large, multi-national agency networks, I've been used to full IT and Mac support, and am still very much on the learning curve when it comes to managing my own kit and systems!


Can anyone point in me in the direction of the right page on Apple Support to find out how to partition my drive, for any OS upgrade I do eventually go for?


I think I need to check out Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner to see what I'm missing!


I do have a "smart" backup system currently, using WD MyBook Essential 1TB External Hard Drive, but I'm sure it only backs-up files not system-ware... ready to be corrected accordingly on this too. I also have taken out a recent subscription to Carbonite Cloud Recovery, but again, I don't think this covers system-ware.

Do I need Snow Leopard to download Lion?

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