macbook 2008 black. mountain lion ?

Yes, Lion will run on all MacBooks except the model 1,1 Core Duo. Lion is still available from Apple. You will have to call Apple Customer Care 1-800-692-7753 or 1-800-676-2775. to purchase it Then within 3 days you will get an email with a code which you can use to download Lion from the App Store. The price is still $29.

Lion will require at least 2gb of RAM but really needs 4gb to run smoothly. You can put two 2gb RAM sticks in your model 2,1 but it can only use 3,3gb. This is a hardware limitation and cannot be changed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_GB_barrier
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-3-g b-memory-limitation-details.html

OWC tests have found that there is a slight speed increase with having two 2gb sticks in rather than one 1gb and one 2gb. Your model is in the gray lines at the bottom of the graph. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_MacBook/

As for third party programs see this list for compatibility with 10.7 http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

Also Lion doesn't run any Power PC programs. To see if you have any Power PC programs go to the Apple in the upper left corner and select About This Mac, then click on More Info. When System Profiler comes up select Applications under Software. Then look under Kind to see if any of your applications are listed as Power PC. Universal and Intel will run under Lion.

Before Mac switched to Intel processors they used Power PC processors from 1994 to 2005. Power PC 601 through 604, G3, G4 and G5. Applications written for the Power PC processors need the application called Rosetta to run on Intel processors. This was part of the Operating System in 10.4 and 10.5 but was an optional install in 10.6. With 10.7 Lion Apple dropped all support for Power PC applications.

I actually have to agree with almost all these posts here. If you pay THAT much for a computer you'd want it to last quite a while. My late 2009 unibody (White) MacBook is on mountain lion and I'm fearing the next version of ma os x won't wok on it. I'm not gonna drop another thousand bucks, this machines going to last and when it's os gets too old, well I'm very experienced with linux.

I mean my 2007 Toshiba laptop is still able to run Widows 8 just for and it's got a 1.6 Ghz processor. I love my MacBook and we have to show apple were not gonna drop a thousand dollars every few years. I love apple and all buy thus really the only reason I don't really want the lastest and greatest machine all the time, like an iPad or iPod yhatll only last a few years.

i think the main reason is the driver of graphics card. rathan than the physical graphics card. they are two different things.

This is stupid. My issue with this isn't the fact that the operating system doesn't work on my 4 year old black macbook. I am just annoyed because I already upgraded 3 IMac and my 1 new mac book and the server and now i realized my black macbook for home isn't compatible. Had i known i would have left everything as it was. However are the two operating systems compatible or are certain programs going to stop working...ie Ichat?

I too have a black MacBook, purchased in September 2008 and the guy at Apple I have just spoken too (I was calling to get code to be able to buy Lion) seems to think it IS a 'late 2008 machine' and will run Mountain Lion. Hmmm. All evidence on web suggests that 4,1 MacBooks WON'T run ML?

Am in quandry now. Do I give ML a go or chicken out and play safe with Lion?

Thing is, I was waiting for ML rather than going to Lion! If I had known of this problem would've gone ahead and upgraded tp 10.7... oh well.

And no. 4 yr old Mac is NOT old. In the past, Macs could sldier on for what seemed like for ever with add-ons and patches.

Best computers on the planet though.

Pre-unibody MBs do not qualify for ML, they must stop at Lion. Oficially, the reason is graphics card.

We may agree on the detail that Apple manufactures very robust and solid machines, which are ironically outdated a lot earlier than their life. I am writing this text on a 2004 12 in PowerBook running Leopard and Tiger, on 2 partitions. Still a wonderful portable machine. For my current needs, entirely sufficient.

Hi Cattus.

I undeerstand all that... but... the guy at Apple has just told me it 'should' be OK. Seriously! I pointed out the bit about Late 2008 and it being a 4,1 model... Maybe I'll call tomorrow and another Apple Genius will tell me something different!

The guy with Apple midled you to the wrong direction, he should be warned that misguiding customers is not a way to solve their problems.

the genius seems misinformed, it will not work, to be honest not all apple staff are that great with the older models !

Please don't even try. When you go to try and buy it, you will get a warning that this version of OSX will not run on your Mac and you won't even be allowed to buy it. It just won't let you.

This what I thought would happen. Does it take money first?!?!!

Do Apple read these discussions? I did think it was a bit rich that I was telling the guy what the limitations were... however, he didn't agree. Will 'phone them again.

Thanks for feedback everyone.

No it won't take your money and then warn you that it can't install on this MB. Even if you manage to download it using an eligible Mac, trying to install it on the 2008 4,1 MB will give you the same warning that it can't install.

Just so i have this correct everyone, Apple are happy to take my £199 on Final Cut Pro X but I can't install the upgrade as my Video Card isn't good enough & I can;t upgrade it?

I am running a Macbook using Lion 10.7.5 Early 2008

Processor 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics Intel GMA X3100 144 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)