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johneaston

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 28, 2010
233
0
Just dawned on me that, because I'm not on Snow Leopard, I don't have the App Store. If Lion is going to be App Store only, how can I upgrade?
 
I guess nothing is for sure until it actually happens, but all signs point to Lion as a download only. I've seen several links to articles "quoting" Apple on this point. It's clear what the intention is. I don't expect complaints from users would make Apple change course.
 
Just dawned on me that, because I'm not on Snow Leopard, I don't have the App Store. If Lion is going to be App Store only, how can I upgrade?

The only way to get Lion is through the Mac App Store and the only way to get the app store is by running Snow Leopard. I think its pretty evident on what you must do.

You'll need to upgrade your Mac to Snow Leopard, then purchase Lion. Luckily SL, only costs 29 bucks, so the total cost is not prohibitive
 
So will Apple sell Snow Leopard indefinitely? What if I decide to not upgrade for another year?
 
Is there any reason why one could not:

1) Find a friend/family member/co-worker with Snow Leopard

2) Log into the App Store with their Apple ID

3) Purchase & Download OS X Lion

4) Copy the installer to a flash drive and install (a clean install) from there

?

The installer may have to be opened and the .dmg extracted, but it's still *legal* since AFAIK you're buying a full license of 10.7 not an 'upgrade', so it'd only be a slight technical hurdle...
 
I still have Leopard. It works fine for what I need. My upgrade solution: When my Mini dies, and it will, I'll replace it and get whatever the current OS is.
 
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