Q: Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

Just purchased new Mac Mini late 2012.  Has anyone been successful putting snow leopard on the brand new minis?  

It appears the answer is no.  I tried all the various ideas that I read in the discussions and on the net.  It appears that Apple made changes to the basic system setup that prevents anything older than Lion from working.  It is a very Microsoft thing to have done, especially for those of us who use Snow Leopard Server.  We are being forced to move to Mountain Lion Server when the newer OS doesn't offer any real advantages over Snow Leopard.  I am sure there will be administrators who will disagree with me but if you look at the number of systems administrators who are upset with the change it becomes clear that there are a large group of unhappy users.

I was referring to Snow Leopard Server in my reply above.  I don't know whether or not regular Snow Leopard can be installed but I suggest you look back at some of the postings for instructions on how to build a universal installer disk for Snow Leopard.

There is still the ability to run Snow Leopard in virtualization in Mountain Lion.

Snow Leopard Server installs more easily, but is no longer sold by Apple; there are copies available on eBay; or

Install Snow Leopard client (with Rosetta) into Parallels

                              [click on image to enlarge]

NOTE:  Computer games with complex, 3D or fast motion graphics make not work well or at all in virtualization.

Thanks for the input. This information was not available back in October and November when I was trying to put a temporary Snow Leopard Server in for a client. I rented a new mini only to discover that I could not install Snow Leopard Server on it.   The end result of a week of searching Apple support and the web was that I was forced to write off $1500 of my time plus the rental cost of the server.  The client had to wait until Apple fixed the server at which time I was able to restore their system.  Had the client followed my recommendation 2 years ago and purchased a second server as a back-up device it would have made their lives easier.  Had Apple not screwed up the ability to load Snow Leopard Server on the new mini's I could have restored their service in a matter of hours instead of weeks.  I am hugely disappointed in Apple for doing a Microsoft type of thing with the server OS.  Thanks for your response anyway.

Hey guys!

newfoundglory and friends, any chance to run SL on late 2012 mac mini (2nd partition, 1st Lion) with those kernel and plist files replacements from 2011 models tutorial? With a universal installer?
Thanks a lot!!!

I have not seen any reports of success with booting from Snow Leopard on the 2012 Mac Mini.

VICTORY has been achieved in the Snow Leopard virtualization wars!!!

It has taken quite some time to get Apple to be reasonable about the virtualization of Snow Leopard (in spite of the fact that the Snow Leopard EULA does not prohibit its virtualization in Lion or Mt. Lion on a Mac).

I believe that my efforts to help everyday users be able to virtualize Snow Leopard client in Parallels (and others who extended this information to VMWare Fusion) finally convinced Apple to let down the barriers, and they chose to do so with this 95% reduction in price of Snow Leopard Server:

                              [click on image to enlarge]

My next project will be to develop instructions on how to "remove" the Server functions of Snow Leopard Server, so that it will be able to operate without the overhead needed by the "server" functionality and "look and feel" just like Snow Leopard client. I am waiting for my copy of SLS to arrive this week.

Fine!

I would buy it too,

but I can't find it in the AppleStore (Germany, Italy, USA, Canada)

Call: 1.800.MYAPPLE (1.800.692.7753)

and ask for Snow Leopard Server

It's unfortunantly only available in the US Apple store, i just checked today. In my own country it's not available.(Netherlands)

Maybe I can order it from here and have it sent to you?

Maybe I can order it from here and have it sent to you?

This would be fine

Here is an email-adress to download for two days to get in contact

http://tinyurl.com/ak7vujz

got it & it arrived:

Part Number: MC588Z/A

See if you can find that online store...

This part-number isn't available

Michael I got your Mail and answered from a real adress, but there is an error:

XXX@aol.com>: delivery temporarily suspended: host

    mailin-01.mx.aol.com[XXX.193] refused to talk to me: XXX 4.7.1 :

    (DYN:T1) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html

Should I retry?

Dirk