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Install Snow Leopard on a new 2012 iMac?

D

douglas

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 18, 2004
79
0
I'm looking at buying a new 27" iMac after they are released. However I would like to install Snow Leopard as the OS (don't like the bloat and iPhone-ification of ML, and I have some older apps). Will this be possible? I assume the install disks from my current 24" iMac won't work, but can I download a current version of OS 10.6.8?

If this won't work with the new iMacs, do you know if the refurb 2011 iMacs ship with Snow Leopard or Lion pre-installed?
 
Will not work. No mac that didn't have it originally installed will be able to install the os. You have lion and mountain Lion ahead of it. Why would you want 10.6.x???
 
desantim said:
Will not work. No mac that didn't have it originally installed will be able to install the os. You have lion and mountain Lion ahead of it. Why would you want 10.6.x???
Click to expand...

He said he didn't like the iOS stuff integrated into it.

Which is a completely valid point.
 
douglas said:
I'm looking at buying a new 27" iMac after they are released. However I would like to install Snow Leopard as the OS (don't like the bloat and iPhone-ification of ML, and I have some older apps). Will this be possible? I assume the install disks from my current 24" iMac won't work, but can I download a current version of OS 10.6.8?

If this won't work with the new iMacs, do you know if the refurb 2011 iMacs ship with Snow Leopard or Lion pre-installed?
Click to expand...

Not possible. The drivers will only be available for ML.
 
douglas said:
I'm looking at buying a new 27" iMac after they are released. However I would like to install Snow Leopard as the OS (don't like the bloat and iPhone-ification of ML, and I have some older apps). Will this be possible? I assume the install disks from my current 24" iMac won't work, but can I download a current version of OS 10.6.8?

If this won't work with the new iMacs, do you know if the refurb 2011 iMacs ship with Snow Leopard or Lion pre-installed?
Click to expand...

Don't do it. I spoke to an apple engineer yesterday and he said SL uses apple old power mac architecture and uses roseta which is like an emulator to make software work with the Intel chips. Where as L and ML use purely intel arcitech. In the future you will have major problems. I think if you buy a new mac you will have to reinstall programs individually like me coming from SL. Because otherwise some may have corruptions and such. This was all explained to me by an apple phone support tech. If you don't like the bloated op system I would consider moving away even to PC or Linux because it's only going further down the iphoneification route if you ask me.
 
Pie Chips Salad said:
If you don't like the bloated op system I would consider moving away even to PC or Linux because it's only going further down the iphoneification route if you ask me.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, Windows 8 has moved more to a mobile OS than OSX has.

And the iOS features in ML are so easily avoidable...
 
Siderz said:
Funny thing is, Windows 8 has moved more to a mobile OS than OSX has.

And the iOS features in ML are so easily avoidable...
Click to expand...

Yeh your prob right there.

Plus the drivers won't be correct and won't work with the new hardware. I don't even think it will work! Just avoid the iOS features as Siderz says
 
Thanks for your replies. Guess it's time to update some software and leave the old faithful SL behind. It's clear where Apples profit comes from these days, so better get used to iOS.
 
Last edited:
Pie Chips Salad said:
roseta which is like an emulator to make software work with the Intel chips. Where as L and ML use purely intel arcitech.
Click to expand...

I guess you didn't understand what he was telling you.

Rosetta allows PowerPC code to run on an Intel architecture. There are folks out there that still need that functionality. Like ones using a lot of older high end Photoshop filters that were never ported to Intel.
 
desantim said:
Will not work. No mac that didn't have it originally installed will be able to install the os. You have lion and mountain Lion ahead of it. Why would you want 10.6.x???
Click to expand...

2011 Mini's do run Snow, even though they shipped with Lion. But Ivy bridge will be a hurdle too far for Snow. If you come from an iMac 24 inch, consider the 2011 Mini. It is a very capable Snow Leopard machine, at least twice as fast as your iMac.
 
I run SL on my Mac Pro for work because ML was just not smooth. There were all kinds of beach-balling and all out weirdness going on until I stepped back to Snow Leopard. Conversely, Mt. Lion runs well on my 2012 MBP and 2009 MBP -- go figure.

You can buy Snow Leopard at Apple.com. The iMac listings at the refurb store imply that Lion is preinstalled... "Eligible for OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program"
 
designs216 said:
I run SL on my Mac Pro for work because ML was just not smooth. There were all kinds of beach-balling and all out weirdness going on until I stepped back to Snow Leopard. Conversely, Mt. Lion runs well on my 2012 MBP and 2009 MBP -- go figure.

You can buy Snow Leopard at Apple.com. The iMac listings at the refurb store imply that Lion is preinstalled... "Eligible for OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program"
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I'll be running ArchiCad, hence need discreet graphics (don't think a Mini will fly). Looks like a new 27" iMac for me along with some updated software. $$
 
Ccrew said:
I guess you didn't understand what he was telling you.

Rosetta allows PowerPC code to run on an Intel architecture. There are folks out there that still need that functionality. Like ones using a lot of older high end Photoshop filters that were never ported to Intel.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I just said. Rosetta acts like an emulator. One or two programs may not have been ported. But as time goes by you would be left in the dark if you stayed with SL. That's just a fact
 
Pie Chips Salad said:
Thats exactly what I just said. Rosetta acts like an emulator. One or two programs may not have been ported. But as time goes by you would be left in the dark if you stayed with SL. That's just a fact
Click to expand...

As time goes by, yes, but the fact is that there are a huge # of legacy apps in the enterprise that need that support.

Frankly, I think SL will be Apples Windows XP and will be around for quite a long time.
 
designs216 said:
You can buy Snow Leopard at Apple.com.
Click to expand...

Seems there is still a high demand for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, even if only to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, to let Apple put it back into the store, as it was not available for six months or so and one had to use other channels to acquire Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
 
I have a early 2011 iMac that came with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 / iLife DVD's (which now has Mountain Lion on it)

I also have a mid 2011 MackBook Pro that came with Lion 10.7.x

I had purchased a Snow Leopard from Apple a year before that, (it was the 10.6.3 DVD), and I wanted to put that on my MBP, but like everyone else I got the 3 beeps indicating no hardware support.

SO, I got a BlacX USB docking station for SATA HDD (2.5" / 3.5") and simply took the drive out of the MBP, attached it to the iMac via USB and restored it from my iMac using it's DVD of SL 10.6.6 and all is now good

there's also a $40 SATA cable you can get from Best Buy that will do the trick- if you have another computer to restore from.
 
ptesone said:
I have a early 2011 iMac that came with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 / iLife DVD's (which now has Mountain Lion on it)

I also have a mid 2011 MackBook Pro that came with Lion 10.7.x

I had purchased a Snow Leopard from Apple a year before that, (it was the 10.6.3 DVD), and I wanted to put that on my MBP, but like everyone else I got the 3 beeps indicating no hardware support.

SO, I got a BlacX USB docking station for SATA HDD (2.5" / 3.5") and simply took the drive out of the MBP, attached it to the iMac via USB and restored it from my iMac using it's DVD of SL 10.6.6 and all is now good

there's also a $40 SATA cable you can get from Best Buy that will do the trick- if you have another computer to restore from.
Click to expand...

While it is somewhat commendable you looking for all the threads about installing Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on newer Macs, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard cannot run on 2012 Macs, including the 2012 iMac, due to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard not having the drivers for 2012 Mac hardware, thus even your posted method will not work. There are no Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard drivers for Ivy Bridge CPUs, chipsets and the GPUs used in 2012 Macs.
 
I understand that people wanted Snow Leopard over Lion, but with Mountain Lion and certainly Mavericks, Snow Leopard really belongs to the past.

The 2012 iMac running Mountain Lion us a super config. "iOS-ification" of OS X is a logical and natural thing if Apple wants to move forward. It's best that both OSes share features and that both integrate as well as possible with your online "life".
 
Ccrew said:
Rosetta allows PowerPC code to run on an Intel architecture. There are folks out there that still need that functionality. Like ones using a lot of older high end Photoshop filters that were never ported to Intel.
Click to expand...

If PowerPC app functionality is your reason for avoiding ML, install Snow Leopard Server into Parallels to restore Rosetta functionality in ML:

More information here

[click on image to enlarge]
 

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douglas said:
Thanks for your replies. Guess it's time to update some software and leave the old faithful SL behind. It's clear where Apples profit comes from these days, so better get used to iOS.
Click to expand...

You may be able to buy snow leopard and install it on a virtual machine
 
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