Difference with up to date Leopard and retail version

I think the Up-To-Date version requires Tiger already to be on the machine (even if you're doing a Clean Install). But then if you've just bought a Mac, it should have Tiger on it anyway, so there is not any practical difference, as far as I know.

 

The only difference with between the UTD and Retail discs is that you have to have Tiger or Leopard already on your computer to install using the UTD disc. It still allows you to do an Erase and Install.

 

Hello, pardon my ignorance but my new Mac is due to arrive and I'm pretty sure it'll have an uptodate disc with it.

I'd like to do a totally clean install if possible, not an upgrade. Are you saying this is possible without having to install Tiger first? What does it do, ask you for the original CD or Serial number partway thru?

Thanks

 

It will probably have Tiger already installed on it.

 

A potential complication with this would be reinstalling the software bundle included with your machine. At least with my MBP restore disks, iLife and other third party apps are installed during the Tiger install. I'm not certain if there's an easy way to reinstall your apps if you do a clean install with the up-to-date disk.

An archive and install might be a far more straightforward method for you. You'd still get a clean OS installation, and your apps would still be intact. All you would have to do is place your old system in the trash.

 

Ah OK. So they don't also ship you an iLife restore CD then?

Thanks for the info.

 

I was VERY easy to reinstall just iLife apps.

Just pop in the disc and follow the instructions. Built in apps is an option.

 

The UTD Leopard requires Tiger to install. I just put a new hard drive in a previously dead powerbook and then used superduper to clone a small test install of tiger onto the new drive. Then I put the Leopard disc in, it recognized tiger, and I did an erase and install. That was much faster than installing tiger first from the DVD.

Incidentally, Leopard runs amazingly well on that 1GHz Powerbook 12" with 512MB ram and 32MB graphics. Very snappy. I even see some quartz/core animations that I don't think were available on this machine in tiger (ie. the Dashboard ripple when I add a new widget). It is a little choppy, but is there. Coverflow even works, though the images don't load very quickly.

I did install a 7200RPM drive which helps with the speed.

 

This up to date disk is such a stupid idea. Why don't Apple just ship a full install CD? or allow you to upgrade by using your old disk/serial as verification or even send away for a full install CD?

So if you have to rebuild your Mac you have to install an old version of the OS and then the new version! I know *nix type systems usually upgrade pretty well but you're bound to have some junk left behind and/or apps/languages installed you never wanted. Plus I fully expect to mess up the installation/partitions as I'll be installing three operating systems!

Hmm...might cancel my iMac order for now.

 

If you intend to Erase and Install, you may reinstall the iLife apps from the Tiger Installation Disc. Simply choose "Install Optional Components" or something like that from the autorun. It will ask for Disc 2.

 

I agree that the requirement to have a previous os already installed is a dumb idea. Even Windows will ask for a qualifying cd if you try to install an upgrade version on a system without an os. And they have been like that ever since Win95 at least.
If Microsoft can do this, why can't Apple?

 

Yep. Shock!! - Microsoft do something better!

 

remember that this CD is the "up-to-date" disc and not the regular retail version... i.e. it is designed for those who bought a mac recently that want to upgrade. but one other point... if you are buying the retail version, you already have a mac... and mac os x... aka a previous OS

I would say apple is in a different situation than microsoft

 

What if your mac came with Tiger and a Leopard up-to-date. It may be fair to require an os installation for most people that will install it right away, but what about down the road when you have a hard disk crash and replace the disk? Or upgrade the disk? There is now no os on your disk, and the up-to-date disk that I have requires me to install Tiger first and then Leopard. Why is this when they could simply ask you to insert the Tiger cd to verify qualification?

 

They may as well be the same - see this thread:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=380408

BTW- wrong section for this thread... hardware not software...

 

That's the ticket. Thanks!