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Want new Mac Pro With Snow Leopard

I am after a new Mac Pro with Snow Leopard.


I understand that some of the newer Mac Pros can have Snow Leopard installed. Some tell me that in the recent past Apple made a change that made installation of Snow Leopard difficult or impossible on a Mac Pro.


Does anyone know with a reasonable degree of certainty how to tell if a given Mac Pro can have Snow Leopard installed?


I called Apple about a refurbished Mac Pro, they don't know what operating system it will come with! And they don't know if it will include OS installation disks.

Posted on Dec 9, 2011 7:07 PM

Reply
19 replies

Dec 9, 2011 7:12 PM in response to Ziatron

Don't know where you heard that story as it's patently not so. Apple hasn't made a new Mac Pro since 2010 before there was Lion. It came originally with Snow Leopard. All Mac Pros run Snow Leopard from the original of 2006 to the last new model of 2010.


They all will also run Lion.


You need to find a more reliable rumor-spreader. 🙂

Dec 9, 2011 7:24 PM in response to Kappy

You need to find a more reliable rumor-spreader.


In part, from the hatter. (Level 8).


"late last week, was the a new Mac Pro ships with Lion (not new) but that it now supports / sports new Lion net-install and will panic if you try Snow.


up until then they shipped with Lion but would take any 10.6.8 system from another Mac Pro incl. from a 1,1. "


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3544257?tstart=90

Dec 10, 2011 4:38 AM in response to Kappy

Gee thanks.


you can put this in your pipe: someone here said that they tried and it would not.


Granted that others previously could, and someone afterward said they were able to downgrade from Lion to SL.


You on the other hand usually take the company line on matters: that if it ships with Lion then you cannot use an older OS.


And yes something could have changed in the last two weeks.

Dec 10, 2011 6:32 AM in response to The hatter

Kappy and The hatter, I want you two to get along!


And yes something could have changed in the last two weeks.


Yes, this is my concern. I do not like Lion, I cannot use Lion for many applications.


I'm just looking for more solid information (and you can't get it from Apple) prior to spending $5000 . A Mac with Lion is a boat anchor to me.

Dec 10, 2011 6:50 AM in response to The hatter

The hatter wrote:


...you can put this in your pipe: someone here said that they tried and it would not...

Someone (me) also said that this issue was raised with Apple multiple times before Lion shipped out of concern for getting potentially trapped with Lion with no way back if I waited to order a 2010 Mac Pro. I was repeatedly told by Apple in no uncertain terms that if the Mac Pro I ordered came with Lion, it would be engineered not to accept a Snow Leopard installation. So I ordered it before Apple released Lion and have been a happy Snow Leopard camper ever since. I've been reading other posts on this forum by people who did wait and can't regress to Snow Leopard.


It is possible that the cutoff date is a bit fluid if someone was buying a refurb or from other than Apple and from existing stock manufactured prior to Lion's release even if ordered later. I was after a custom configuration from Apple so the last chance date was much clearer. It's also certainly possible that what I was repeatedly told by Apple was wrong but I wasn't about to learn the hard way, and other first hand reports here seem to confirm what Apple told me was correct.

Dec 10, 2011 8:54 AM in response to Ziatron

It's technically possible for Apple to ship a Mac Pro with firmware that will prevent 10.6 from booting. It's also possible for Apple to refuse to furnish the model-specific installation disc that you would need to install it. Whether Apple does or will do either of those things, I don't know, and I doubt that anyone else here knows. So if your purchasing decision depends on the criterion that you'll be able to run SL on a new Mac Pro, you shouldn't buy it. You should instead do one of two things: prepare for migration to Lion, or prepare for migration off the Mac platform. Snow Leopard is a dead end.

Dec 10, 2011 10:57 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis wrote:


It's also possible for Apple to refuse to furnish the model-specific installation disc that you would need to install it...

That may be the detail Snow Leopard fans will trip over, and may be what Apple really meant when they told me that after Lion is introduced, reversion to Snow Leopard wouldn't be possible. As a test, I just tried running a retail Snow Leopard install DVD on a partition containing Lion in a 2010 Mac Pro which came with Snow Leopard installed. The installer was perfectly willing to give it a try but hung when it rebooted to continue the installation. The key is that the installer is 10.6.3, which I believe is the latest retail version of Snow Leopard, while the installer that came with the Mac Pro is 10.6.4, which is what Kappy's link says is the minimum for the 2010 Mac Pro. So whether what 10.6.4 has that 10.6.3 is missing was long range planning on Apple's part to eventually force the move to Lion, or just happenstance, it looks like without Apple's cooperation, late adapters just can't get there from here.

Dec 10, 2011 7:41 PM in response to Linc Davis

You should instead do one of two things: prepare for migration to Lion, or prepare for migration off the Mac platform. Snow Leopard is a dead end.


I am more optimistic than that. I expect that many of the shortcomings of Lion will be fixed with 10.8


I also use Windows. When Vista came out, I, like many, recognized it was not too good. Therefore, I continued to use Windows XP until Windows 7 came out. By doing this I avoided a LOT of Vista pains.


Is OS 10.7, like Vista?


Anyway, I don't want to turn this thread into a debate about Lion. Many people love it, Many people hate it.


I have been trying to purchase a used 2010 Mac Pro with Snow Leopard. Problem is, they cost more than brand-new Mac Pros with Lion (due to people pursuing Snow Leopard).


I called Apple about a refurbished Mac Pro. They cannot tell me what operating system it will come with!


Kappy, I do appreciate the link you provided above. Unfortunately, I am unable to interpret that data in a way that applies to my problem.

Dec 10, 2011 9:46 PM in response to Ziatron

For what it is worth, I recently went through this drama. Current shipping model of Mac Pro, same as before the Lion release, and originally shipping with 10.6.4. Which makes a problem because retail DVD of Snow is 10.6.3 ie it won't boot.


We couldn't install Snow directly on the Mac Pro, so I installed on another computer (an older Mac Pro), and updated to 10.6.8 and swapped the drive across. This worked without issues.


Like Linc Davis says, it is theoretically possible for Apple to modify the firmware to prevent Snow from booting, but my experience is that this has not happened yet.


See if you can buy from a seller who will let you test this out. There are some nice retailers out there, especially when you are dropping $1000s on a new Mac Pro. 🙂

Dec 11, 2011 1:09 AM in response to Elite Expert of all Knowledge

For what it is worth, I recently went through this drama.


Well, it's worth a lot!


it is theoretically possible for Apple to modify the firmware to prevent Snow from booting, but my experience is that this has not happened yet.


How long ago did you purchase your Mac Pro? (I miss the old days, when users would modify their own firmware.)


See if you can buy from a seller who will let you test this out. There are some nice retailers out there, especially when you are dropping $1000s on a new Mac Pro.


I've been looking for a while now, Mac Pro sellers that have Snow Leopard know how valuable there machines are. There are no bargains if you want snow leopard.


We couldn't install Snow directly on the Mac Pro, so I installed on another computer (an older Mac Pro), and updated to 10.6.8 and swapped the drive across. This worked without issues.


I currently own a 2008 Mac Pro (2,1) with 10.6.8


See if you can buy from a seller who will let you test this out.


Why not Apple? They have a 15 Day return policy. When I called Apple recently the person I spoke to suggested this.

Want new Mac Pro With Snow Leopard

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