Leopard Pre-installed

Well I just called to the Apple Online Store, and they said that at least any BTO-macs should be Leopard pre-installed.

 

Yes, BTO means Build to Order. Also known as CTO (Configure to Order).

 

I guess it would depend on the store and how fast they can move their old inventory wouldn't it?

 

The Norwegian Applestore told me today that it will take up to 2-3 weeks before Apple can release an iMac pre-installed with Leopard. They told me to keep an eye on their site where it says "Software included"; look at the picture.

 

Check the store

Yup, it's pre-installed if you order it from the online store.

 

The online apple store still shows in their description of the imac "included software OS 1.4 Tiger". There is also a note that all imacs ship with Leopard, but that sound like an update disc to me.

Included Software

* Operating System
* Applications

Mac OS X v10.4 TigerThe world’s most advanced operating system including the latest versions of these system applications

Every Mac ships with Mac OS X Leopard

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard launched on Oct. 26, 2007, delivering more than 300 new features and innovations. And now every Mac we ship includes Leopard.

 

Wow! Apple has good customer service. I've chatted with the sales guys of Metastock many times, and they are terrible! The technical guys are cool and all, but the sales team, yikes. No "thanks", no asking if I had any other problems etc.

Now I feel much more confident buying from Apple.

 

dude

DUDE, NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE!

And seriously, who really cares?

And yes, it's been said earlier, BTO or CTO Macs stand a better chance of having Leopard pre-installed.

 

There is NO difference whatsoever between a Mac that had Leopard pre-installed and one that ships with a drop-in. In fact, you are actually getting more value if you get the drop-in, because you are getting both Leopard AND Tiger. There will definitely be cases where people have to revert to Tiger for a while if an app they need is not compatible with Leopard yet. All you have to do is pop a DVD in the drive click Next like 4 times and you're done. I don't see what the issue is here?

 

I know that no one will know for sure when it will come pre-installed but I know that I care. I personally don't want the drop in because if i ever have to restore it I would rather have one disk to deal with. With the drop in you have to run the restore disk (tiger) then run the leopard drop in. Too much of a pain.

 

If you wanted to restore, you would use the Leopard disc first, and the use the Tiger disc to install the applications. However if you run frequent backups and have a bootable image (like everyone should), then all you would do is drop the image on the drive and you're good to go. You would have to be pretty lazy for this to come into account when making the decision when to buy. And like I said before, you get MORE value if you have Tiger as well.

 

Source-wise i can't pick out the thread(s) i got that one from but it is also what I was told at my campus store by the apple tech. I am under the impression that the drop-in needs a 10.4 or higher install before it will run the leopard install.

It also has nothing to do with lazyness. I will not be the primary user and if I have to run something through over the phone (with a non-tech user) i would prefer to say put in the one disk and walk away. And since this purchase is not time sensitive i am willing to wait.

 

QFT

 

That is not the case. The drop-in would either be a retail disc, or the disc that would normally be shipped with a Mac where Leopard was pre-installed. Shipping OS discs that require a previous version to first be installed is a Microsoft thing.

 

The thread I am going from is link on the front page of macrumors in a news story from saturday titled "Leopard Now Shipping with New Macs, Drop Ins at Retail". I would be happy to be corrected but I am still interpreting from this that a drop-in doesn't have ilife 08 etc on it so it still isn't a restore disk on its own and therefore it is still a two disk process to restore. Again if this was my primary computer i wouldn't care but for helping others a one step process can be a helper.

 

It depends on what disc is install. You don't know if it's the retail version, or the version that ships with new Macs. If it's retail, then you would first install Leopard, and then use the Tiger disc ONLY for iLife apps. If it's the version that ships with new Macs, then it would all be on one disc. However, no one in that thread you pointed to knew which one it would be. The point is that if you can instruct someone on how to install Leopard, then installing the iLife apps off another disc is even EASIER. If you don't care how long it takes to get it, then by all means wait, but don't try and justify your waiting by saying there's advantages to having Leopard pre-installed, when in fact, it's the exact opposite.

 

To install the iLife apps from the Tiger disc once Leopard has been installed will take you a grand total of 5 minutes, AT MOST. And how often do you plan on reinstalling your OS? If you re-installed your OS lets say 10 times a year, which is about 9 times too many, you would have to spend an extra 50 minutes in total installing the iLife apps. Or, you could waste a couple WEEKS (20169 minutes) waiting for Leopard to be pre-installed. Puts it in perspective, doesn't it?

Oh, and all that is assuming you don't have a bootable image backed up (which you should). If you do your due diligence and keep an up to date bootable image, all you have to do is boot into disk utility and drop the image on your drive. For a grand total of 10 minutes.