I decided to install a copy of OSX 10.8 in Parallels on my new iMac. Obviously I didn't need to download Mountain Lion because it came with my computer: Parallels even allows the user to install OSX directly from the recovery section of the hard drive (the same as if you needed to re-install a fresh copy of Mountain Lion on your computer.)
Even so apparently OSX needs to download some kind of updates from an Apple server before installing ML because every time before starting to install it goes through the long process of downloading an unknown amount of data (whether installing ML on a VM or doing a complete re-installation of the OS from the recovery utility).
The first time I tried to install ML in Parallels it stated that the download time would be approximately 26 hours. I didn't believe the estimate (because how could any download possibly take that long?), so I went ahead with it. After a while I found out that this process really was taking way too long so I cancelled the download, deciding to wait for a better time to download.
So when I tried to download the first day my iMac was connected by WiFi, and there was some (very light) traffic on my DSL line. The next day, for my second attempt, I made sure that the iMac was connected via Ethernet cable, and that absolutely no traffic would be on the line. This knocked my download time down to eight hours. I'm surprised that modest email-level activity could make such an impact on my outcome, but there you have it. This time I made a mistake though because I had forgotten to set the iMac to never go to sleep, and since I was naturally leaving it completely alone during this process, my iMac took a snooze and the whole download process stopped.
Day three: I am going to try once again to download ML. I'm still amazed that ML would need to download massive amounts of information considering that I have only had the computer for three days, and that it could possibly take so long to download that information, but nothing has changed and I am preparing my home for a eight-hour digital lock-down so that my iMac can install ML.
I know that I don't have the fastest DSL connection around; I downloaded a Linux ISO at a consistent 300+kbp/s, but don't think I could sustain speeds higher than that for long. I'm not really sure why it takes so long for ML to download, but I can say that downloading something like the iMac drivers for a Windows install was equally slow. Also not sure why a company that apparently has so much volume downloading that it brings their transfers to a crawl would choose to distribute their software exclusively over the internet.
Just imagine what it would have been like if Apple had included a disc with the OS and drivers in the package with my new iMac. I know that storing them would have been a terrible inconvenience and everything, but one could almost mistakenly assume that this was a superior way of shipping such software.
Even so apparently OSX needs to download some kind of updates from an Apple server before installing ML because every time before starting to install it goes through the long process of downloading an unknown amount of data (whether installing ML on a VM or doing a complete re-installation of the OS from the recovery utility).
The first time I tried to install ML in Parallels it stated that the download time would be approximately 26 hours. I didn't believe the estimate (because how could any download possibly take that long?), so I went ahead with it. After a while I found out that this process really was taking way too long so I cancelled the download, deciding to wait for a better time to download.
So when I tried to download the first day my iMac was connected by WiFi, and there was some (very light) traffic on my DSL line. The next day, for my second attempt, I made sure that the iMac was connected via Ethernet cable, and that absolutely no traffic would be on the line. This knocked my download time down to eight hours. I'm surprised that modest email-level activity could make such an impact on my outcome, but there you have it. This time I made a mistake though because I had forgotten to set the iMac to never go to sleep, and since I was naturally leaving it completely alone during this process, my iMac took a snooze and the whole download process stopped.
Day three: I am going to try once again to download ML. I'm still amazed that ML would need to download massive amounts of information considering that I have only had the computer for three days, and that it could possibly take so long to download that information, but nothing has changed and I am preparing my home for a eight-hour digital lock-down so that my iMac can install ML.
I know that I don't have the fastest DSL connection around; I downloaded a Linux ISO at a consistent 300+kbp/s, but don't think I could sustain speeds higher than that for long. I'm not really sure why it takes so long for ML to download, but I can say that downloading something like the iMac drivers for a Windows install was equally slow. Also not sure why a company that apparently has so much volume downloading that it brings their transfers to a crawl would choose to distribute their software exclusively over the internet.
Just imagine what it would have been like if Apple had included a disc with the OS and drivers in the package with my new iMac. I know that storing them would have been a terrible inconvenience and everything, but one could almost mistakenly assume that this was a superior way of shipping such software.