In my case that is a Snow Leopard disk (my MBP came with Leopard).

So I have to install Snow Leopard, download and update to 10.6.7(?), and then download Lion?

That's a pretty horrible user experience.

Or just restore your time machine backup. I've done that across several macs for hard drives/dead boards/etc, as well as just straight upgrades. I'm still running on my original Tiger install from 2005 or 2006 (whenever it came out). It's been upgraded along the way.

Pretty horrible experience for a tiny minority and a great experience for the majority. Sounds like Apple.

I'm sure Macs without floppy drives were a terrible experience for people that relied on floppies.

>Pretty horrible experience for a tiny minority and a great experience for the majority. Sounds like Apple.

How will having a shipped disk as an option ruin the experience of the majority? You analogy is flawed because floppy drives take up space and cost.

Sorta like "how will having a model with a floppy as an option ruin the experience of the majority?"

Nic Cage's hair is a bird, my analogy was flawed.

Maybe they will have a disk or other back up option, who knows but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

Devils advocate, is it much more of a step then downloading all the other software updates that have been released since you acquired your disc?

It is an ugly step when you have to go through 3 or 4 updates in row that require reboots.

Have you actually updated an OS X install before, or are you just basing it on the crazy Windows update experience?

Apple distributes combo updates that will take you straight from a base 10.6 install to 10.6.7. You don't play the goofy multiple-version update game.

The occasional security release breaks that. I have had to install updates, and then it found more after a reboot. Though I haven't done that on a base 10.6 to current.