A little over four hours up and, with all the cynicism and argument in this thread, nobody eyeballed and pointed this out?
C'mon, slackers.
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[Merged] $29 Snow Leopard vs. $169 Box Set Questions
- Thread starter Gregintosh
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A little over four hours up and, with all the cynicism and argument in this thread, nobody eyeballed and pointed this out?
C'mon, slackers.
From Apple's site at http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html
"Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.
If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set, which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife 09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork 09, Apples productivity suite for home and office including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote."
There you go.
What if I don't use all that stuff? Out of all of that, I only use iPhoto and iTunes really. I'm just a student so I don't edit videos or stuff like that (although I'd use iWork but I already have MS Office for Mac on here). Is it worth going through the trouble to get snow leopard if I don't get into all that? Or should I just get Leopard and call it good?
Well getting Leopard will already cost you $129. You could do that, Leopard's very solid. But from there just an additional $29 will get you Snow Leopard, which, although it will not have any major new features, will be faster and better, and before long some third party apps will probably start requiring it. So if you decide to go Snow Leopard, you're already up to $158. The final $11 is definitely worth it in my opinion for the iLife and iWork updates and to save the trouble of going through two OS installs.
So the way I see it, you have two options: $129 for Leopard, or $169 for Snow Leopard, iWork '09 and iLife '09. I would NOT advise buying Leopard and an upgrade copy of Snow Leopard for $158.
Personally I'd go with the box set, but it's your call.
Edit: I guess you could get Leopard cheaper now on Amazon or maybe eBay or something. I think Amazon has it now for between $90 and $100. So that might make a difference. I think the box set is a good deal though if you're still on Tiger. Part of me wishes I could return my Leopard for a full refund, go back to Tiger, and buy the box set
Trouble Understanding Snow Leopard "Choices"
Hey,
I'm sorry for posting a question like this, but I can't really seem to find anything in the forums that address it - so it's probably just my bad understanding, as this is rather a "unique" OS in its goal. I couldn't find the info I was looking for in the sticky, either.
Can snow leopard be installed independently on a computer, or does it need to have leopard installed first? (So what about people upgrading from tiger). How do they "verify" that you have a copy of Leopard installed? Is this like an "upgrade" or "fresh install" disk setup that windows has used for god knows how many years and versions?
I'm a bit confused as to how the "upgrade" part of it works.
The way I understood it before was it was $30 for a leopard upgrade (still I question how they verify, or if it's simply that it can only be installed on an existing leopard installation), and $50 for a new (fresh install) disk? Are the disks any different? Now the way I understand it is that $50 is for the 5-user leopard upgrade license.
I'm confused as hell as how they're doing this and although lots of sites make generic comments such as "will be on sale for $30 for upgrades, $50 for new" - it's not really addressing my question on the specifics of it. I *was* going to go with the $50 even though I have leopard as I don't like the idea of upgrading OS's (much prefer fresh format installs) - but now I'm just confused as hell.
Also, I just purchased another macbook pro a few days ago - a day or 2 before Snow Leopard was announced to be released the 28th (yeah, I get lucky like that). So apparently I'm eligible for the $10 upgrade - but is that a $30 "upgrade" disk that relies on an existing leopard install, or how does that work exactly?
This reminds me a lot of when MS came out with Windows 98SE - which could work independently of 98 - even though it was an "expansion" on it.
I'm a bit confused about how it's working, exactly, so any thoughtful advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long post, and thank you all for your help, in advance.
PS:
Please don't post useless crap such as "search" - I've searched high and low, and although I don't claim to be the best at finding things, I've found lots of stuff as "$30 upgrade, $50 new" - but nothing regarding the specifics, whether the "upgrade" version is the same as the "new" version (and they just price it differently based upon leopard ownership verification), or how exactly they do verify an existing leopard install.
Hey,
I'm sorry for posting a question like this, but I can't really seem to find anything in the forums that address it - so it's probably just my bad understanding, as this is rather a "unique" OS in its goal. I couldn't find the info I was looking for in the sticky, either.
Can snow leopard be installed independently on a computer, or does it need to have leopard installed first? (So what about people upgrading from tiger). How do they "verify" that you have a copy of Leopard installed? Is this like an "upgrade" or "fresh install" disk setup that windows has used for god knows how many years and versions?
I'm a bit confused as to how the "upgrade" part of it works.
The way I understood it before was it was $30 for a leopard upgrade (still I question how they verify, or if it's simply that it can only be installed on an existing leopard installation), and $50 for a new (fresh install) disk? Are the disks any different? Now the way I understand it is that $50 is for the 5-user leopard upgrade license.
I'm confused as hell as how they're doing this and although lots of sites make generic comments such as "will be on sale for $30 for upgrades, $50 for new" - it's not really addressing my question on the specifics of it. I *was* going to go with the $50 even though I have leopard as I don't like the idea of upgrading OS's (much prefer fresh format installs) - but now I'm just confused as hell.
Also, I just purchased another macbook pro a few days ago - a day or 2 before Snow Leopard was announced to be released the 28th (yeah, I get lucky like that). So apparently I'm eligible for the $10 upgrade - but is that a $30 "upgrade" disk that relies on an existing leopard install, or how does that work exactly?
This reminds me a lot of when MS came out with Windows 98SE - which could work independently of 98 - even though it was an "expansion" on it.
I'm a bit confused about how it's working, exactly, so any thoughtful advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long post, and thank you all for your help, in advance.
PS:
Please don't post useless crap such as "search" - I've searched high and low, and although I don't claim to be the best at finding things, I've found lots of stuff as "$30 upgrade, $50 new" - but nothing regarding the specifics, whether the "upgrade" version is the same as the "new" version (and they just price it differently based upon leopard ownership verification), or how exactly they do verify an existing leopard install.
It can definitely be installed independently if you get the version in the Mac Box Set. As for the Leopard upgrade version, there's been a debate about that. Until we actually get our hands on it, we don't know for sure. Some of the theories are:
- It checks for Leopard already existing on your hard drive. This would annoy people that wanted to buy a new hard drive and install SL on it, as they would first have to install Leopard only to upgrade right away.
- It asks you to insert your Leopard DVD to verify that you have it.
- The first above theory, followed by the second if you don't have it on a disk already.
- Any of the above, but only if you don't already have Snow Leopard on the disk (so you wouldn't need Leopard just to reinstall SL if you wanted to).
- It doesn't check at all, it's the honor system (not as unlikely as it sounds).
As for whether it's only an upgrade or a full install, that's also debated. I would figure that it's perfectly capable of doing an erase and install (after it verifies you have Leopard, if it verifies this at all), although the erase and install option has been set aside so that for users who just follow the installer, it will simply upgrade. Some people think that it won't have an erase and install option, only an upgrade, but I'd imagine once they know you have Leopard, it's all the same to them.
You're confused on the prices. The $50 is for the family pack. It's the same as the $30 upgrade version, except with 5 licenses to be used in one household. To get the "full" version, or in other words to upgrade from Tiger (or from not having OS X at all...I guess you could be running a different OS on your Mac and not have OS X on it at all, although I can't imagine why) you'd have to buy the Mac Box Set for $169, which includes both iWork '09 and iLife '09. That's not as much as it sounds like when you consider OS X usually sells for $129, and by skipping Leopard, Tiger users avoided paying that once. Theoretically, the $30 upgrade disc might be exactly the same as this one, but if you use it without having Leopard, this would be a violation of the EULA.
Any sites advertising like that are lying. The $50 price point is only for the family pack. As I said above, I strongly expect you to be able to do a fresh install with the $30 upgrade. To play it safe, you could wait for release day to decide, as reports of how the upgrade works will be all over the place.
Oh, well why didn't you say so? I don't know exactly how the up-to-date disc will work, whether it will be like the upgrade disc or the box set version (if there is even a difference between the two, which there might not be). But to be honest, even if the $10 and $30 discs both limited you to an upgrade (very unlikely in my mind), I'd still take the $10 one, because the alternative is the $169 box set. How badly would you want it fresh?
So to summarize, we don't know everything yet. There's been a lot of speculation and arguing, but the truth is we don't know. I would expect the upgrade and up-to-date versions to be fully functional (allowing you to erase and install fresh), but even if they don't, it's still probably not worth getting the box set just for that.
So I'd say absolutely pay the $10.
You should also know that apparently the erase and install option has been moved out of the installer (as I touched on earlier). If you just follow the basic installation, it will do an upgrade. So to do a fresh install (assuming the disc you get allows it), you'll have to go into Disk Utility after you've booted into the install DVD and erase the HD. I don't know yet whether it has a simple "Erase and Install" option on the SL installer version of Disk Utility or if you have to erase in Disk Utility and then run the installer.
But just be aware that you have to use Disk Utility if you want to install fresh.
I don't know. I don't think it is such a big deal either way. I am just saying that it really isn't as big a deal as people seem to think it is.
Maybe iLife 06/08 won't work on Snow Leopard? That would be the only rationale i can find behind the way this is being rolled out...
I do know, however that today our store had to send back all our copies of Leopard/leopard mac box set to apple to make way for the new lines. THAT doesn't make sense. I dont know why they would discontinue leopard when it is the last upgrade for PPC users...
Actually I still have iLife 08'.....so I'm not sure if it's worth getting the mac box or not...
Apple has several discs:
- retail: which normally costs 129$ but is now reduced to 29$ and contains the OS X version with no restrictions whatsoever;
- up to date: these are the discs you can order for around 9~10$ to upgrade the Mac you bought between a certain date. These discs have a certain limitation in that it will check for a previous OS X version. It is only with this version you need to have a previous OS X version installed. However you can choose between an upgrade or a clean install;
- the discs you get with a Mac: these are somewhat the same as the retail discs only they are limited to a certain Mac type. Meaning that discs that come with a MacBook Pro will not work on a Mac mini (and vice versa).
Read all the threads about the development builds you can find, get a hold on a Snow Leopard copy and try it yourself. Also, people who ordered the 29$ Snow Leopard version are receiving the retail version:
It's really simple: you are a company and you sell products. In order to be succesful you need to have a lot of people buy your products. Advertising your products is one of the things you can do to get more people to buy them. Only you also need to think of the people you aim at. If you sell MP3 players you don't target the elderly because they don't understand such devices and most likely won't see the need for them. If you want to sell a lot of MP3 players you are not going to target people who are less likely to buy one. You target the people who are most likely to buy one.
If you're a seller this is basic stuff to you. Apple has introduced the Mac Box Set something like a year ago and targeted it at people who have old versions of OS X, iLife and iWork and want to upgrade them. If you have to buy all three you had to pay 129$ for Leopard, 79$ for iLife and 79$ for iWork. Apple put all this in a box and gave it a smaller price tag of 169$. Releasing Snow Leopard won't change that product. It's most likely they simply update that product like they'll do with all the Macs and just replace Leopard with Snow Leopard.
Technically there is absolutely no difference whatsoever between Snow Leopard and the Mac Box Set. It's all marketing and unfortunately an awful lot of people are falling for it. They seem to think that a 29$ price tag is unreal and the product has been slimmed down and that there is a full version for 129$ or 169$ (=Mac Box Set). They also seem to think you have to have Leopard for Snow Leopard and Tiger for the Mac Box Set. Reality is that the system requirements for Snow Leopard tell you that you either (!!) need Leopard OR (!!) Tiger. Apple talks about upgrade because that's what the license is and that's what the default action for a lot of users will be (reinstalling is not a userfriendly thing since you have to start from scratch and spend an awful lot of time installing and configuring everything).
Take a good look at what people ordered and you'll see that "retail" is being displayed for Snow Leopard with the 29$ price tag. So yes, it's just like Leopard was but it's just 100$ cheaper. There really is no catch. Also, Apple has never stated that you need the previous OS or that you can only upgrade. They only talk about the process of going from either Leopard or Tiger to Snow Leopard which in IT terminology would be called "upgrading".
The Snow Leopard release won't be any different from the Leopard release. The only thing that's different this time is the price tag and nothing else!
^^ I found iLife 09 to be very underwhelming. I dont use iPhoto though, and it seems like thats the only app Apple is really focusing on.
You should have an iLife '09 disc that comes with your Mac, but no, Snow Leopard itself does not come with iLife.
If you get the upgrade disk, you can boot to it, use disk utility on the dvd to erase your hard disk, and then you can do a full clean install from the snow leopard upgrade disk.
So you can install from it, but it involves erasing the data on your drive.
You could clone your internal to an external using carboncopycloner, do the erase and install, then when it asks if you'd like to migrate data from another mac just pull your user from your external.
Good luck.
So you can install from it, but it involves erasing the data on your drive.
You could clone your internal to an external using carboncopycloner, do the erase and install, then when it asks if you'd like to migrate data from another mac just pull your user from your external.
Good luck.
dyn I understand what the box set is ... I still don't see why you felt the need to explain to me.
This.
While the dev build is nice, it is possible that the installer is different than the one on the upgrade/retail disc - since developers should be installing it one either a fresh machine or erasing the current build.
The dev build proves nothing, only the disc that will arrive Friday can prove it. Until then, you know no more than anyone else here.
This.
While the dev build is nice, it is possible that the installer is different than the one on the upgrade/retail disc - since developers should be installing it one either a fresh machine or erasing the current build.
The dev build proves nothing, only the disc that will arrive Friday can prove it. Until then, you know no more than anyone else here.
If it's that important, just wait until 10.6 is released, then find out what the limitations of the $29 disk actually are.
If I have OS Tiger...
And would like to upgrade to Leopard Snow, can I do it by only purchasing Leopard Snow? Or do I need to get the Mac Box Set?
And would like to upgrade to Leopard Snow, can I do it by only purchasing Leopard Snow? Or do I need to get the Mac Box Set?
