Newbie: Will I have to buy OS 10.5 Leopard?

Shadowhawk said:

Pretty straight forward question. I currentl have a Mac Mini, and use Imacs at work, but want to buy a Mac Book or a Mac Book Pro soon. Will OSX 10.5 be a downloadable upgrade for free, or will I have to buy it?

If I have to buy it, anyone know how much it may be? I don't know anything about Apple's usual OS price point. I'm thinking I might just wait for upgraded Mac Books if the OS is coming out sometime before 07.

Any help would be great! Thanks!

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You'll have to buy it. As for price, I'll leave that for someone else to answer. I would guess probably around whatever Tiger is priced at, but I don't know for sure.

If you're a student it'll cost ~US$80, and if you're not it'll cost ~US$130

Mac OSX 10.5 will be out either late this year or early next year. It will come pre-loaded on new Macs after it's announced either installed or as a drop-in DVD in the box. There will also be a mail-in programme for people who purchased their Mac within a certain time frame of the new OS being announced.

To upgrade to 10.5 you will need to purchase the disc and it will most likely cost US$129.

The only thing you have to do is die.
Everything else is your decision.

neocell said:

The only thing you have to do is die.
Everything else is your decision.

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and pay taxes

But yes you have to buy all 10.x updates if you want them however 10.X.x updates are free

Chundles said:

To upgrade to 10.5 you will need to purchase the disc and it will most likely cost US$129.

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Note also that Apple offers a "family pack" of up to five licenses for $199, for those of us who have more than one Mac, this is a great deal for a major OS upgrade.

B

10.5 does bring up an interesting question though..
since this will be the first real update to an Intel Mac OS what about the PeeCee crowd just buying it then installing it on a custom built PC ?

I mean it won't be real hard to do if one knows about the efi loader..

It will be interesting to see just how Apple does this.

first, its not even out yet.....

why are you so worried about it? you can get by with just about any OS. we have machines at work that run OS 8, and i am currently typing on a machine running OS 9.1.

Since you are a newbie to the mac OS, you probably wont even be concerned with the update as far as new features. Just worry about learning tiger for now.

stridey said:

If you're a student it'll cost ~US$80, and if you're not it'll cost ~US$130

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Glad I'm a student!

Lebowski said:

we have machines at work that run OS 8, and i am currently typing on a machine running OS 9.1.

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haha coming from a person who has 2 PowerMacs (one a quad), a powerbook, and a Mini.

Some people choose to buy the latest and greatest release, some buy every second one, some convince another person to buy a new Mac so they can use the install disc...

you won't have to buy it immediately, but if you want to make use of the plethora of software that will come out around the 10.5.4 release, get it. You can probably live very well on 10.4 for a while. Some people are still on 10.2, while some, like Lebowski, still like the pre-X releases.

Lebowski said:

first, its not even out yet.....

why are you so worried about it? you can get by with just about any OS. we have machines at work that run OS 8, and i am currently typing on a machine running OS 9.1.

Since you are a newbie to the mac OS, you probably wont even be concerned with the update as far as new features. Just worry about learning tiger for now.

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Sorry, but IMO it is a VERY valid question to ask- don't belittle their concerns or question just because they are a newbie- I would gather that most of the newbies that would ask this sort of question about a new OS update would be very up to date with OS features early in their "Mac career"!

Maybe some of us don 't just want to get by- that is why I buy OS upgrades- improvement, added stability, etc. We were all newbies at one point!

someguy said:

You'll have to buy it. As for price, I'll leave that for someone else to answer. I would guess probably around whatever Tiger is priced at, but I don't know for sure.

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Does anybody know when they offer free upgrades?? Since when I brought my TI 867 I got a free upgrade It was brought in Aug 2002.

Acehigh said:

Does anybody know when they offer free upgrades?? Since when I brought my TI 867 I got a free upgrade It was brought in Aug 2002.

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Was that very close to the 10.2 release date? The only free upgrade was for 10.0 to 10.1, every other x.1 update has been for sale only. Apple puts drop in DVDs into the boxes of Macs that will arrive on or after the release date and allows people to update for free if they bought their Mac within about a week of the release date.

Over coffee the other day Steve said Apple is skipping 10.5 and going straight to 10.6 and charging doubele.

Chundles said:

Was that very close to the 10.2 release date? The only free upgrade was for 10.0 to 10.1, every other x.1 update has been for sale only. Apple puts drop in DVDs into the boxes of Macs that will arrive on or after the release date and allows people to update for free if they bought their Mac within about a week of the release date.

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If I remember correctly it was 30 days before release that they let you in under the wire so to speak...I missed it one time by 7 stickin' days! But they have to draw the line someplace and they don't have to do the 30 day thing- at any point someone will be one more day longer and be pissed.

That's $69 for a single license of OS X for a student.

flyfish29 said:

Sorry, but IMO it is a VERY valid question to ask- don't belittle their concerns or question just because they are a newbie- I would gather that most of the newbies that would ask this sort of question about a new OS update would be very up to date with OS features early in their "Mac career"!

Maybe some of us don 't just want to get by- that is why I buy OS upgrades- improvement, added stability, etc. We were all newbies at one point!

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Thank you. Regardless of the person being a newbie or not, making a financial decision like this pays off to weigh whether or not they want to buy a Mac now and then shortly down the road pay another fee to get the upgraded OS or wait and just get the OS with the machine. I don't see why you *wouldn't* be concerned about this when buying a computer.

Coming back to the newbie thing... I guess you could still consider me a Mac n00b. My first Mac has been my MacBook Pro that I frantically pre-ordered as soon as the online store came back up after the keynote in January. For years I had been a Mac hater (for no reason other than just not knowing any better, really), but had been intrigued ever since OS X was first released. Then finally when they announced the Intel switch I decided to save up money and give a PowerBook a shot (I demand alot of out any computer I use and didn't want an iBook... and then they came out with the MacBook Pro instead of more PowerBooks). I began reading up on various forums and websites following my purchase, and by the time I got my MacBook Pro, I knew my way well around the GUI and system preference area, etc. I took maybe an hour or more acquainting myself with the OS since I had never used it more than a few minutes at an Apple store, and now a mere 4 months later, I'm giving fairly complex advice to Mac users that have used them for years.
So yeah... that's my rant of the night.