Travel Technology - Leopard and a new Apple

I think I have made my decision to buy an Apple, but was wondering about waiting until October for Leopard to come out. If I do decide to get the Apple now, I was wondering about the h/w requirements for Leopard and the upgrade price.

Is upgrading an Apple as "difficult" as a Windows machine in terms of drivers and new hardware requirements.

Thanks

I think I have made my decision to buy an Apple, but was wondering about waiting until October for Leopard to come out. If I do decide to get the Apple now, I was wondering about the h/w requirements for Leopard and the upgrade price.

Is upgrading an Apple as "difficult" as a Windows machine in terms of drivers and new hardware requirements.

Thanks

I'm not sure of Apple's timeline policy, but if you make the purchase Apple will give you the upgrade free if it is in their timeframe. Call Apple to make certain.

It is extremely easy to do the upgrade. Put in the CD/DVD and the computer does the install. Very easy!!

A Mac OS upgrade install is a really simple process. With that new of a machine, no more involved type of install would really be worth it, so it's quite easy. (As with any upgrade, for utmost safety you should back up any critical data first.) There are rarely issues with drivers and such because most of the everyday drivers are provided/bundled by Apple already instead of provided by multiple different companies. Generally you have to be running something pretty esoteric to be fouled by an OS upgrade.

The price for a new Mac OS is US $129 whether it's an upgrade or not (although at this stage, there's really no machine left out there that could run it that wouldn't be an upgrade anyway, so any upgrade/non upgrade distinction has pretty much become moot). This pricing is in line and actually less than many of the Vista upgrades, for example. I think the only one that's really cheaper is Vista Home Basic upgrade at $99. At the recent developer conference that price was confirmed as continuing with the Leopard version. There will be no different levels or increase.

If you buy a Mac after a certain point and it didn't come with Leopard, Leopard would be available for a nominal fee to send the DVD (usually 20 bucks). But, with all the recent upgrades this date tends to be set right at the time the new version goes on sale, not before. So you either wait until October or buy now and pay the $129 sometime in the future. Nothing says you have to upgrade right away in October.

Any new Mac you buy now will be fine for Leopard. If you want to be absolutely sure of best experience, you might want to spring for 2GB of RAM if it doesn't already come with it. New system gadgets always seem to like lots of RAM.

I think I have made my decision to buy an Apple, but was wondering about waiting until October for Leopard to come out. If I do decide to get the Apple now, I was wondering about the h/w requirements for Leopard and the upgrade price.

Is upgrading an Apple as "difficult" as a Windows machine in terms of drivers and new hardware requirements.

Thanks
Hi,

As a one-time Symantec Support Volunteer, with the Apple Mac OS, when doing an "upgrade" of your existing OS to a new one, best practices suggest doing a "clean-install." This option essentially installs the new OS, however, your preferences are not copied from the old OS to the new OS installation. Given the set-up of the Mac OS structure, you'd simply go to your Preferences folder, which is located in the Mac OS X "Home" folder for your identity, and simply "drag and drop" the old preferences to the new system preferences folder.

With each drag and drop, you'd want to do a restart of the Mac to ensure that all is good.

And lucky, the whole "driver" matter is not as much of an issue with the Mac as it is for a Windoze machine.

Eric

I've always done the plainest, vanilla install of upgrades and been fine. Sometimes I do opt to not install the zillions of different languages, but that's about the only variation I make.

Since OS 8 this has worked fine for me.

It's still a good idea to do a backup before starting though. :)

Thanks for the info - I think I will take the plunge this week with an iMac and not wait until October.

Thanks for the info - I think I will take the plunge this week with an iMac and not wait until October.

You might want to read this article (http://www.degadget.com/computers/the-upcoming-imac-with-brushed-aluminum-in-august) first.

It's been a while since an update of the iMacs. Probably not the best time to buy one. Macbooks and Macbook Pros just got a speed bump, but all other product lines haven't had new releases in a while.

Usually each product family is upgraded about every 9 months or so. Something to keep in mind.

Speaking of, does anyone have a link handy to that site that has the table showing how long it's been since each product line has been upgraded and whether it's advisable to buy or wait? I forget where it's at.

Speaking of, does anyone have a link handy to that site that has the table showing how long it's been since each product line has been upgraded and whether it's advisable to buy or wait? I forget where it's at.

found it...

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

:)

ARGH!!!!

Thanks for the info swise - I would be really upset to buy a new computer only to see a newer model on the market in the next few weeks. I think I will look again in August when I am back from vacation!

As a one-time Symantec Support Volunteer, with the Apple Mac OS, when doing an "upgrade" of your existing OS to a new one, best practices suggest doing a "clean-install." This option essentially installs the new OS, however, your preferences are not copied from the old OS to the new OS installation. Given the set-up of the Mac OS structure, you'd simply go to your Preferences folder, which is located in the Mac OS X "Home" folder for your identity, and simply "drag and drop" the old preferences to the new system preferences folder.

that's actually a really bad idea because the preferences folder also contains a lot of apple specific preference files, and if the format or structure of those changed from tiger to leopard, not so good things might happen.

the most convenient option is archive & install which will install a clean system and then automatically copy over all of the existing applications, preferences and documents and put them in the right places and in the right format.

a clean install is arguably the safest, but it is rarely necessary unless there is evidence of system corruption somewhere.

I'd still argue that for someone who buys a Mac now or in August and Leopard comes out in October and you buy it then or within a couple months, there's little argument for anything but Upgrade Install. It's the least complicated, and it has actually worked quite well in recent years. Unless it was a few year old machine that had Mac OS X 10.3 or earlier, something like that, I probably wouldn't bother with even Archive & Install let alone a clean install. A lot of long time Mac folks are fixated on clean installs from the days of Mac OS 9 and earlier, methinks. It was more of an issue then. If there's evidence of corruption, things not working right, then yeah, this type of install could be called for, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Historically, if memory serves, you only get a free upgrade if you buy after the new OS has started shipping. That's so dealers won't have a problem with existing shelf stock that has the previous OS pre-installed.

October is about three months away. If I needed a new computer now, I'd get it. The $129 is a small price to pay for three months' use of whatever.

(If you're affiliated with an academic institution, you can probably get 10.5 at an educational discount for a lot less, probably not much more than half the regular retail price. College book/computer stores in areas with a lot of street traffic tend to check IDs carefully, but those in more remote spots where few outsiders would walk in may not. This is presented as a statement of observed fact, not as a suggestion that anyone cheat.)

Yes, there is usually about a 14 day window, which is the apple return policy, from the annoucement date, backwards. As well, if anything shows up without the new OS, they get it send for free of course. I did have a computer that I purchased, that was just outside the 14 day period, and they sent me the upgrade anyway.

the most convenient option is archive & install which will install a clean system and then automatically copy over all of the existing applications, preferences and documents and put them in the right places and in the right format.

a clean install is arguably the safest, but it is rarely necessary unless there is evidence of system corruption somewhere.

I've upgraded couple of times, most recently to Tiger and always use the clean & install method and then when starting up first time in new OS, connect my external HD which has complete backup copy and transfer all my files/documents. Insures clean pristine installation.

Joe Kissell is an excellent freelance writer who explains it best in his Take Control eBook which is available on-line at http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-upgrading.html (in fact many in this series worth getting).

No doubt when Leopard comes out, he'll have published a quick update for making the transition/upgrade.

For those sitting on the sideline, if you're in the market for the MacBook or MB Pro, buy now as new models just came out and next cycle won't be until after Christmas (unless you're waiting like me for a 12" or smaller MBP which has been rumored for months now!)