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Buy now & self install Tiger or wait till it's preloaded?

A

Advance The Man

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2005
493
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Will be a new Apple user. When I last bought a laptop it was a Windows ME with a free XP upgrade. Once I upgraded the CDRW drive no longer worked. Never did again.

Don't want a repeat of that. Should I just wait till the software is already installed? How hard is it to load myself? I mean is it really, really, really easy?
 
It won't even necessarily be preloaded after Tiger is released -- Apple will still have some old, Panther machines in stock. So there's no guarantee, either way. As long as you haven't done too much customization, installing a new Mac OS on a relatively new computer is very easy. Where it gets tricky is when you have an older machine that might not be 100 percent compatible.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
If you can install a Windows upgrade you'll have no trouble with Tiger. You're guided through the installation process and it really is very, very, very easy!
Click to expand...

That's the problem, Windows upgrade was not easy and I destroyed (or XP) the use of a CDRW bay. So, that's why I added the annoying, three very's question of "is it very very very easy"!

There will always be a question of when to order b/c of speed bumps, ram bumps, etc. But, I now doubt there will be any bump for the line prior to May 1st. So I'm leaning towards purchasing. Would love to hear from users that upgraded to Panther from whatever cat named software that was before it.
 
past experience and general paranoia force me to erase the drive and reinistall for a major OS upgrade.
MAJOR PITA for windows - but minor for mac - takes very little time - thank you apple!

Hell, when I get a new machine first thing I do is wipe the drive and reinstall the OS.... :p
 
just install Tiger yourself, it's no big deal. and if there are any problems installing you should get your Mac looked at. i'd rather find out while i'm trying to install an OS rather than when i've got all my documents on there.

also - when you install Tiger you should be able to choose not to install extra font's & print drivers etc. with Panther that saved me about 1.5-2GB of space. :eek:
 
Advance The Man said:
That's the problem, Windows upgrade was not easy and I destroyed (or XP) the use of a CDRW bay. So, that's why I added the annoying, three very's question of "is it very very very easy"!
Click to expand...
My point was that compared to your previous experience installing Tiger will prove a doddle – hence my equally annoying three verys! ;) Believe me, installing software (be it an OS or a regular app) will prove to be a lot easier than you're used to on Windows.

Advance The Man said:
Would love to hear from users that upgraded to Panther from whatever cat named software that was before it.
Click to expand...
I upgraded my old G3 iMac from 10.0 to 10.1 to Jaguar and to Panther without any issues – each upgrade was hassle free and didn't cause me a single problem. I've also upgraded a lot of machines at work through the various flavours of OS X and not hit any difficulties. When you do go for the upgrade though, there's some useful advice from Mechcozmo on this thread to help ensure it goes smoothly.

Hope that helps put your mind at rest!
 
Actually it would only cost $9.95 since I haven't purchased the hardware yet.

kingjr3 said:
I would wait til its bundled/preloaded with new machines. Save yourself the $129.
Click to expand...
 
I'm in the same situation as you, and I think I'm going to go with buying now and installing Tiger myself later. That way you can wait to install it until any bugs are fixed. And as you've said, the price isn't a problem as you only need to pay the shipping.
 
i read this on another thread and thought it might help

mariahlullaby said:
I called Apple today and the guy said that it would take 30-60 days for all their computers to come preloaded with Tiger. I didn't know this, but he told me that Panther comes with iLife but Tiger does not; so if you buy a Mac now and use the $9.95 upgrade, you can keep iLife but also get Tiger.
Click to expand...

I am thinking about buying my sister a mac mini since her pc keeps crashing, and I was wondering the same thing. may just go ahead and get the mac mini first then self install tiger.
 
Very interesting. I'm wondering how much different will Tiger be than Panther. If I bought an Apple today, there would be a learning curve with Panther. Then I would install Tiger in 2.5 weeks and have a new learning curve? Will it be an easy jump? iLife if not installed with Tiger makes it very appealling to buy today.

nosser said:
i read this on another thread and thought it might help
Originally Posted by mariahlullaby
I called Apple today and the guy said that it would take 30-60 days for all their computers to come preloaded with Tiger. I didn't know this, but he told me that Panther comes with iLife but Tiger does not; so if you buy a Mac now and use the $9.95 upgrade, you can keep iLife but also get Tiger.
Click to expand...
 
well I recently bacame a mac guy too and I think the transition to mac was very easy and I doubt I'd ever switch back to pc. I think once you use panther you should have no problems with tiger. but I just got off the phone with the apple store and the guy told me that tiger will include ilife '05 so you may be better off waiting. I think I'm going to wait.
 
Advance The Man said:
That's the problem, Windows upgrade was not easy and I destroyed (or XP) the use of a CDRW bay. So, that's why I added the annoying, three very's question of "is it very very very easy"!

There will always be a question of when to order b/c of speed bumps, ram bumps, etc. But, I now doubt there will be any bump for the line prior to May 1st. So I'm leaning towards purchasing. Would love to hear from users that upgraded to Panther from whatever cat named software that was before it.
Click to expand...

never has been a problem for Apple in the past....
 
Tiger in the box does not ship with iLife, but if my memory serves me correctly neither did Panther. All hardware you buy from the Apple store comes with iLife, but its 'seperate' from the fact that it ships with Panther...
When new mac's start shipping with Tiger, they'll still have iLife '05 installed. If Apple changed that policy there'd be alot of unhappy customers.

so you may be better off waiting
Click to expand...
Why do you say that? I'm curious.. It isn't much of a hassle to install Tiger yourself, and that way you can choose to load it on whenever you want.
 
READ THIS

Every Mac you buy now comes with iLife 05. Period. It will come with it if you have Panther or Tiger pre-loaded. Every Mac comes with iLife. Say it with me.

Tiger and Panther are now independent of iLife and most other software. Read Apple.com and see what software comes with computers and see what comes with their operating systems. There is nothing new, and I bet in 30-60 days, it won't change then either.
 
mersea said:
Tiger in the box does not ship with iLife, but if my memory serves me correctly neither did Panther. All hardware you buy from the Apple store comes with iLife, but its 'seperate' from the fact that it ships with Panther...
When new mac's start shipping with Tiger, they'll still have iLife '05 installed. If Apple changed that policy there'd be alot of unhappy customers.


Why do you say that? I'm curious.. It isn't much of a hassle to install Tiger yourself, and that way you can choose to load it on whenever you want.
Click to expand...

well, i dont know why i said that. I'm gonna wait because its for my little sister and I like to save 10 bucks. doesnt it cost 10 bucks for the upgrade?
 
Yup, or howevery much it'd cost for them to ship it to you. Waiting or not, it doesn't matter much as (I've heard) it'll take them 30 days to sell of the old stock of iBooks that have Panther installed (you'll just get the Tiger dvd in the box).
 
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