krishk24 wrote:
so does apple support software patches (specifically security update) for Snow Leopard ? or will they require me to upgrade to the latest version Mountain Lion again after the upgrade to Snow Leopard to get the security patches ? I believe that can be done over the internet instead of a disc (upgrade to Mountain Lion), correct ?
I think this question was misunderstood in its answer, so I will try and answer it for you again:
Did you confirm that your iMac can be upgraded to Snow Leopard?
Once you install Mac OS X Snow Leopard from the DVD that you purchase from Apple (be sure to select Rosetta in the OPTIONS or CUSTOMIZE button before you start the installation), you will probably have version 10.6.3 on your computer. Apple does continue to support Snow Leopard and when you run Software Update... under the Apple Menu, it will update all applicable Apple software that it finds necessary to update. It may require a Restart as well.
Keep attempting another Software Update... until it tells you that no further updates are available. At this point you will have the laterst version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8. –– this is NOT Mountain Lion.
It is doubtful that a 2007 iMac can be upgraded to Lion, let alone Mt. Lion. You will have the most security available to this Mac.
It will not include version 6 of Safari (which requires at least Lion), only the last revision of version 5; but I personally am not sure of the security implications of using version 5.x.
That being said, I was using version 5.x up until recently on my MacBook Pro because I had forgotten to check for updates for quite a while while using Lion. I saw no adverse effects from this usage, but of course, your mileage may differ!
Good luck!
