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whossain

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2012
4
0
Hi,

I have upgraded my macbook air os from 10.6.4 to 10.7.5 recently. I want to upgrade my os to latest stable release 10.8.2. I have tried "Software Update" option, but it doesn't work for me as the update utility tells me that all my softwares are up to date. Does it mean that I have to get a 10.8.2 version DVD and the over-write my existing operating system?

Please help me out. Any suggestions will be appreciated!
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Software update, upgrade--what's the difference?
Key differences

A software update is usually downloadable free of charge; a software upgrade usually is not.
A software upgrade usually increments the first "dot" number of a product (for example Mac OS X v10.6, Mac OS X v10.5); a downloadable software update usually increments second "dot" number (for example, Mac OS X v10.6.8, Mac OS X v10.5.8).

It is the same going from Windows 95 to Windows 98 or from Windows 98 to Windows ME or from Windows ME to Windows 2000 or from Windows 2000 to Windows XP or from Windows XP to Windows Vista or from Windows Vista to Windows 7 or from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Those upgrades are generally not free, and 20 USD for an OS upgrade is not that much considering Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard cost 120 USD or so and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion once cost 30 USD. And Windows upgrades are even more expensive, though that is slowly changing.
 

whossain

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2012
4
0
thanks

thanks for replies, guys! I am just gonna go and jump outta window outta shame! Well, I admit it, I just made the transition from being a windows user to a mac user and the length of that time span is 4/5 days! So you can take any wild guess at my common sense about Mac. And yeah, it's a century old MacBook Air that I got from a friend who din't need it anymore! :p
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
One saving grace on an otherwise "premium" platform. With MS, it would be $100 for every major upgrade.
 

Efrem

macrumors regular
Jul 30, 2009
115
15
The digit after the 10 (6, 7, 8, whatever) identifies the major OS version. These also go by names of cats: Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion for 10.8. New major versions come out every year or so. They're not free, unless you got a new computer within a short time before a new one came out.

The next digit (the 5 in 10.7.5) is a minor upgrade or update, like a Windows service pack. Those are free once you have the corresponding OS version.
 
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