Buy Mac with Leopard pre-loaded or wait?

[TheSlup]

Hi there. First time poster, LONG time lurker. I've tried searching for this but didn't find anything, so hear-gos:

I've been putting off buying a Macbook Pro until Leopard comes out. If I buy it on the 26th it will not have Leopard pre-loaded, but come with the install disc. Heres where my Mac expertise has not ventured yet. If I use the disc to format the drive, will iLife and the other apps come in as well? Is there a seperate disc to reinstall iLife? I know with Windows it is better to format the drive rather than "upgrade", but I don't if that is the case with Mac.

Thanks!

 

[FJ218700]

if it were me, the first time you turn on the comp, do so while holding the option key. you'll come to the startup disk selection screen. At this point insert the Leopard disk, wait for it to be recognized (you'll have to hit the refresh button), and then proceed to do a clean install.

It will be like Tiger never existed.

 

[TheSlup]

and iLife and other apps will still be installed?

 

[FJ218700]

oh yeah, sorry. forgot about iLife. disregard my my other post. When you first turn on the computer, there will be an intro program that helps you set up the Tiger user account. Go ahead and do that, and when you're done, you'll get to the desktop for the user account you just created. insert the Leopard disk and click the installer, the machine will restart from the disk, and then just do an upgrade rather than a clean install. Since it's a virgin machine, upgrade should be fine.

 

[TheSlup]

Since it's really iLife I care about, and I have an iLife install disc when I bought it for my Mini, is there record of your preloaded iLife serial number anywhere in documentation? Or a way to view it? That way I could do a fresh install and then install iLife.

 

[J@ffa]

Since it's really iLife I care about, and I have an iLife install disc when I bought it for my Mini, is there record of your preloaded iLife serial number anywhere in documentation? Or a way to view it? That way I could do a fresh install and then install iLife.

There are no serial numbers for iLife, so you can just install away.

 

[TheSlup]

There are no serial numbers for iLife, so you can just install away.

I couldn't remember if I had to put one in or not. Excellent... it seems my mind's made up.

Thanks everyone! I will now do my best to contribute.