bought a macbook laptop in April of '08, still working well, but suddenly needs me to do an update it never warned me about so it can open the internet. I'm running 10.5.8, and it says it needs 10.6 or newer but I don't know how to get it and am not willing to pay for an update that should have been able to take place internally. Send help.
MacBook (13-inch Early 2008)
You have to understand the difference between an Update and an Upgrade.
An Update is a free change to add to the base code or as a bug fix within an existing Operating System. Such as the .8 added to 10.5.
An Upgrade is a complete new Operating System that must be purchased. Such as 10.5 Leopard to 10.6 Snow Leopard.
10.5 Leopard was based on Power PC code and was written to be able to run on both Power PC and Intel processors.
10.6 Snow Leopard has completely rewritten code and only runs on Intel Macs.
10.7 Lion used some 32 bit which allows it to run on Late 2006 through Early 2008 MacBooks and a lot of 64 bit code.
10.8 Mountain Lion is pure 64 bit, which excludes more systems than Lion did. It's not something you can add memory to, for example, as it involves the base architecture.
The 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD is back in the Apple online store. You can now get it for $19.99 without having to phone the store. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
Software update, upgrade--what's the difference? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1444
10.5.8 to 10.6 without buying anything
