Apple Driving iCloud Conversions with Free Copies of Snow Leopard for MobileMe Users

[NY Guitarist]

I have no desire to upgrade to Lion, in fact it's the opposite.

Why not just make iCloud available on Snow Leopard??

i'm very much in this situation right now too. I'll eventually get on Lion or Mountain Lion but can't do it right now for various reasons.

If I can use the App Store in SL why not iCloud?

So my options are upgrade to Lion or lose my .mac account (or me.com, mobile me... whatever it has been called) that I have has since I first used it as a free beta app? For how many years now?

 

[Can't Stop]

I have no desire to upgrade to Lion, in fact it's the opposite.

Why not just make iCloud available on Snow Leopard??

For same reason you don't want to upgrade to Lion. Oh wait ...

 

[*LTD*]

The frustrating thing about iCloud is that Apple took away almost everything for syncing _Macs_: keychain sync, mail account sync, pref sync... Their business model is to sell hardware, they force us to upgrade at every little chance,

Still running an Early 2008 Macbook Pro. Ran every OS since then beautifully. Added 6GB of RAM recently. Easily has another two years in it, if not more.

You don't *need* to run the latest version of OS X on it, either.

No one is "forced" to do anything.

 

[Daveoc64]

iCloud to me is a more complete package than Mobileme ever was.

A more complete package that removed about a dozen features?

I still don't understand how Apple managed to make something worse than MobileMe.

 

[ScottishCaptain]

Woohoo!

Free SL disks!

Sign me up. I've always wanted a backup incase my restore disks got scratched or damaged somehow. Anything to keep my system running the way it is on 10.6.8 is awesome, especially when it's free.

**** Lion (and probably ML too) and iCloud (which is incidentally hosted on US servers... Privacy? What privacy?). But thanks anyways for the restore disks to the most awesome version of Mac OS X to date!

-SC

 

[faroZ06]

Upgrade to Lion? Nope.
I'm going to stay at Leopard and keep Rosetta, k thanks bye.

 

[NY Guitarist]

No one is "forced" to do anything.

Well it appears to be an either/or deal though right?

 

[freiheit]

Oh come on, are you telling me people didn't post a lot of complaints in the Leopard/Snow Leopard forums? Back when snow leopard was 10.6.0-10.6.3 (the same number of iterations as Lion today), I saw a lot of problems about crashes and bugs and people complaining about how SL was not a "better Leopard". Same with the Leopard release. You wouldn't believe the amount of Time Machine issues people had. People rarely post about good experiences on those threads. More people will post if they actually have a problem. The rest of us are too busy enjoying Lion to post our experience.

Big difference is that Lion probably won't receive more than one more point update after Mountain Lion ships, meaning it won't get much/any better than it is today. I personally had no issues with SL and I'm sure many had no issues with Lion, but for those who still do have Lion issues, the future is bleak.

 

[314631]

Upgrade to Lion? Nope.
I'm going to stay at Leopard and keep Rosetta, k thanks bye.

Your loss. You are missing out on some incredible Apple technologies by insisting on living in the Rosetta Stone Age. iCloud is the future of the internet and data storage. My advice would be get with today before the past leaves you trailing so far behind you'll never catch up.

 

[deannnnn]

How is this Apple's recommended way of upgrading to Lion? Just sell Lion on a disc! Upgrading via App Store download is great, but it doesn't make sense for everyone.

 

[strausd]

So if I were to get a new hard drive, would I have to install SL before Lion? Or could I just use the Lion DVD that I made a while back? I am a little confused on this...

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Interesting, I wonder what happens when MobileMe users do this, then discover they're on a first-generation Intel Mac, and can't upgrade to Lion? Oh well, free upgrade from Tiger/Leopard to Snow Leopard, anyway. (One could also argue it's the last "bonus free thing" for the stick-with-it MobileMe users, too...)

Now if only they'd give iTools->.Mac->MobileMe->iCloud users like me a break on a Mountain Lion-capable Mac... I bought a used iMac that is the minimum capable of running Lion just to be able to survive the iCloud jump, only to have it declared that this model won't run Mountain Lion.

 

[314631]

So if I were to get a new hard drive, would I have to install SL before Lion? Or could I just use the Lion DVD that I made a while back? I am a little confused on this...

Lion can be clean installed onto a new drive or Mac. It's only if you want to upgrade an existing system, without formatting the contents of your drive, then you have to be running Snow Leopard.

 

[mdgm]

How is this Apple's recommended way of upgrading to Lion? Just sell Lion on a disc! Upgrading via App Store download is great, but it doesn't make sense for everyone.

They already sell Lion on a USB key.

 

[strausd]

Lion can be clean installed onto a new drive or Mac. It's only if you want to upgrade an existing system, without formatting the contents of your drive, then you have to be running Snow Leopard.

So for somebody on Leopard, could they just get a copy of Lion from a friend/family member and then do a clean install and save $30?

In my experience, a clean install of an OS has almost always made my computer feel a little speedier. Plus for those who back up all their data, it may not be such a big hassle.

 

[MacMan1620]

For the people that are bitching about apple and lion and iCloud. GFY. Go to bestbuy and buy a Dell. Then tell me how awesome the service is when it breaks down.

 

[Lex Yu]

I have no desire to upgrade to Lion, in fact it's the opposite.

Why not just make iCloud available on Snow Leopard??

I don't expect that is possible since iCloud is not just a web-hard, but a system-wide integrated service.

To illustrate, Mountain Lion is integrated with iCloud by some steps more than is Lion; the "Open..." box is set to be integrated with iCloud folders.

Also, I expect Apple will soon support backup the entire OS X system to iCloud, just like iOS does now.

----------

For the people that are bitching about apple and lion and iCloud. GFY. Go to bestbuy and buy a Dell. Then tell me how awesome the service is when it breaks down.

harsh.. I like your point though.

 

[NY Guitarist]

For the people that are bitching about apple and lion and iCloud. GFY. Go to bestbuy and buy a Dell. Then tell me how awesome the service is when it breaks down.

What about those who aren't complaining, use MobileMe (.mac) but need to stay on SL? For those people the system in a way gets broken after we bought it.

*** Question: Can you have SL and Lion on the same system?

 

[Macman45]

That 4gb download of Lion is going to suck, especially for Canadians where Bell and Rogers (basically the only two ISPs) customers are limited to 2gb entry level service at bell (or 25gb for the next best) and 15gb with Rogers.

Just make a release of Lion on DVD.

Here is the sticking point with web only software...Until everybody has access to decent BB speeds and Data allowances there are going to be people who get left behind....I know that optical media is on its way out, but Apple may need to look again at the policy they are currently imposing.

 

[Watabou]

*** Question: Can you have SL and Lion on the same system?

I'm pretty sure you can just partition your HD install snow leopard on the blank partition and upgrade that partition to Lion. You would then have SL on one partition and Lion on another. I think that would work. Having lion does not mean you need to upgrade to iCloud either. You could probably stick with Mobile me and ignore iCloud.

 

[throAU]

Waah apple took away my floppy drive and i access the internet via 14,400 baud modem, they'll pry cheetah from my cold dead hands!

Seriously, free disk, if you were on the fence or planning an upgrade, its nice.

If you don't want lion, no one is forcing you and you aren't the target user. Its still a free upgrade to Snow Leopard, which is nice for those on 10.5...

 

[Richdmoore]

Seriously, free disk, if you were on the fence or planning an upgrade, its nice.

If you don't want lion, no one is forcing you and you aren't the target user.

By the way, the link will work even if you have already transitioned your old mobile me account to iCloud, if you want a free snow leopard copy as a backup or for another mac that you may already own/purchase.

 

[Rend It]

pathetic

I've been using Apple products since '02, and the Lion/iCloud products seem way under-baked. I understand that some people had problems with MobileMe, but I was not one of them, and to this day, I don't understand Apple's rush to throw MM under the bus.

MM Galleries and iDisk worked fine and helped me do exactly what I needed. Journals is a poor Galleries replacement, and there doesn't seem to be any hope that an iDisk replacement is in the works. Both iCloud and Lion have been super buggy, and there are several weird UX quirks with both.

Apple should simply let MM continue through the rest of the year (the June 30 cut-off is so arbitrary!), or until Mountain Lion is released. Hopefully, by then iCloud starts to sync files as well as MobileMe (for OS X), and you can actually create and edit Journals on OS X. When that happens, they should setup a special website just for MM users to download a .dmg of Mountain Lion (for the regular price, of course).

Perhaps Apple will redeem itself by announcing something great (again for OSX) at WWDC. I'm hopeful that this is the case.

 

[iKaushal]

Ordered one to use on my 2008 MacBook. I am on SL on that mac, but misplaced my DVD.....so this one will be useful just in case

My late 2011 MBP came with lion preinstalled
I wish apple gives lion DVDs free to lion users, it sucks getting 4 gig in slow speeds

 

[BradTucker]

USB Lion

It seems like it would've been easier to offer the USB key version of Lion for $29 to MobileMe customers.

The USB key will only UPGRADE (to Lion) people who are currently running Snow Leopard.

JGOWAN and his picture of the USB is correct in saying that the thumb drive is great for people who have a slow internet connection so they don't have to download Lion.

For MobileMe users who are running Leopard (which this free SL disc promotion is aimed at) the USB key is not a good option.
btw the Lion USB is bootable and can do a clean install, but you would lose all of your data - but that's another longer discussion...