Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Buy iMac now, upgrade to Lion?

K

kthomps

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 20, 2011
1
0
Hi, Im buying my first iMac soon, I waited for the new hardware to come out, and was all gung-ho to go buy one. Then someone pointed out that Lion was about to be released. If its coming this summer as apple has said and I buy my iMac now (May 20th) is there an option to upgrade to Lion for free or a reduced price when it comes out? I really dont want to wait for possibly august to buy my Mac.

My feeling is that if I complain at the store enough they might be able to help me out.

TLDNR: Buy iMac now, upgrade to Lion for cheap later?
 
Hi there, I had intention to upgrade today 20/05 to New iMac.
however I call to sales, and ask what happen if Lion is realese after WWDC .
they told me after 15 calendar days, I able return the Imac and get another with new Lion or get free upgrade, if is withinh 15 days. or a upgrade for £ 25 from snow leopard.
I recommend wait till 10th June on WWDC what happen :confused:
 
If you want to get an iMac now, go for it. By the time Lion comes out (which can be 2-3 months from now) you will not be eligible for a free upgrade. However, buying a Lion upgrade DVD should be substantially cheaper than buying the Full version. If you're paying $1k+ for a machine, the cost of a software upgrade disc sort of pales in comparison. For this small sacrifice, you get to enjoy your iMac for 2-3 months longer without waiting.

Also: For Snow Leopard, the upgrade disc also worked as a normal installer disc for machines that had no previous copy of OS X installed. I cannot guarantee Lion will work the same way, but if you get an iMac with Snow Leopard on it today, obviously you don't need to worry about this scenario because you are definitely upgrade-eligible.
 
Another thing that people haven't thrown out yet is that you might not want to upgrade to Lion right when it comes out. All OSes (Windows and Mac) tend to be a little buggy on their first release, and not all the programs you want to use will necessarily work well at first. With OS X, it tends to be a good idea to wait for the 10.x.2 update or so before upgrading. All the major kinks have been ironed out by that point.
 
Takuro said:
If you want to get an iMac now, go for it. By the time Lion comes out (which can be 2-3 months from now) you will not be eligible for a free upgrade. However, buying a Lion upgrade DVD should be substantially cheaper than buying the Full version. If you're paying $1k+ for a machine, the cost of a software upgrade disc sort of pales in comparison. For this small sacrifice, you get to enjoy your iMac for 2-3 months longer without waiting.

Also: For Snow Leopard, the upgrade disc also worked as a normal installer disc for machines that had no previous copy of OS X installed. I cannot guarantee Lion will work the same way, but if you get an iMac with Snow Leopard on it today, obviously you don't need to worry about this scenario because you are definitely upgrade-eligible.
Click to expand...

Apple does not sell Upgrade versions of Mac OS X via its retail channels, thus there will not be an official Upgrade DVD for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Though it says "upgrade" several times on the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD page, it is a full retail version of Mac OS X, just the license is a bit ******, as one only can use this DVD legally with a Mac coming with 10.5, though technically it is possible to use on all Intel Macs with 10.4 and 10.5.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MTc1ODgwMjE
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Apple does not sell Upgrade versions of Mac OS X via its retail channels, thus there will not be an official Upgrade DVD for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Though it says "upgrade" several times on the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD page, it is a full retail version of Mac OS X, just the license is a bit ******, as one only can use this DVD legally with a Mac coming with 10.5, though technically it is possible to use on all Intel Macs with 10.4 and 10.5.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MTc1ODgwMjE
Click to expand...

Yup, this is correct, I gave my CD to various people on my floor to use it and worked fine for all of them.
 
rockyroad55 said:
Yup, this is correct, I gave my CD to various people on my floor to use it and worked fine for all of them.
Click to expand...

Well, if using an upgrade disc as full installer disc is technically illegal due to terms of use, then distributing a disc licensed only for use by a single individual to multiple people is definitely illegal. Of course, I myself have done such things. Just saying. :p

Which reminds me of a useful tip for the original poster: If you really want Lion but wish to buy an iMac now, find a friend who plans to get 10.7 when it comes out... problem solved. Plus, if Lion does create a recovery partition on your hard drive (which is claimed to be a new feature), technically you won't need a physical disc ever again in the future, should you choose to re-install.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back