> The whole free OS which can only run upon hardware they have already sold you is reminding me of how IBM used to sell AIX and moved into giving it away free as it would only run upon hardware only they made and sold you.

On the other hand, once upon a time Apple made you pay for software which also run upon hardware only they made and sold you. Back before Snow Leopard, that was $129 per user (though installable on an unlimited number of machines)

Snow Leopard was the first cheap version because it had "No New Features". It was $29 for a DVD. Leopard was the last one to cost $129 in 2007.

IIRC it was not legal to install on multiple machines (perhaps it was legal for multiple personal machines?).

No, but there was no technological measure preventing you (serial number or phoning home) that would stop you as far as I can recall.

You can buy a single copy or a family pack for five computers.

http://www.amazon.com/Mac-10-4-Tiger-Family-Pack/dp/B0007LW1...

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Mac-10-4-Tiger-VERSION/dp/B0002G...

Apple has taken measures to technologically limit your ability to do so. When I bought my most recent MacBook Pro it came with Lion. Because of network issues at work I could't use Lion (still can't), so I tried to put Snow Leopard in a VM (using the copy I had previously put on my now defunct MacBook Pro) but Apple and VMWare had put in technological blockers to prevent putting SL on a Lion VM or Lion on a SL VM. So, I repartitioned and copied my old MacBook over and am still living happily with SL.

I suspect there were other factors which prevented your success.

There were no measures to technologically limit one's ability to perform multiple installations from a purchased OS X install disc. You could buy two different Tiger installers and they'd checksum the same, and there were no serial numbers to be entered. It was an honor thing.

There was a restriction on VMs, but they've since eased up on that. I imagine it was because of the Hackintosh thing.

I'm reasonably confident the OS didn't actively try to detect that it was running in a VM, but VMware Fusion (and presumably other such software) would prevent you from installing the OS.

There was a relatively simple work around (a hack) that allowed you to install in a VM. I think it was as simple as touching the right path.

At the point that I was trying to solve this problem (and not getting paid as a result) I was unable to find anyone who had successfully gotten SL to run in a VMWare VM or Lion to run in a SL VM. Interestingly, I did find individuals who had Lion running in Lion VMs, but that didn't help me get back up and running.

Edited to add: You are correct, the technical restriction was on the VMWare side, but IIRC it was because of legal threats from Apple. Apparently earlier versions of VMWare would run SL without any problems, but the VMWare version I had would not not and I couldn't get a copy of the older version.

Yea, you had to use the server version of Snow Leopard.

I'd forgotten that, but yes, I seem to remember reading that. Unfortunately I didn't have the server version and was already loosing money because of my down time, so I needed to get up and running with a known good system as soon as I could.

A funny thing about the family pack is that for at least one version of OS X, the only differences between the family pack and the single user version were a sticker that said "Family pack" on the front, and the price. The contents of the box were identical.

Apple always trusted people to buy the Family Pack on the honor system. They never put enforcement or checks like license keys for this.

I greatly respected this trust and always bought the family pack for my Macs.

> it was legal for multiple personal machines?

Yes, the licenses were per-user, if you as a person owned and used 20 macs, you only needed a single license.

As I recall depending on what you paid you could install in on a different number of machines, but they didn't restrict you from installing it on more.

Not before System 7.1 released in 1992 though.

I think that it's most likely they want everyone on the latest OSX for the same reasons that it's good to have everyone on the latest iOS.

Whatever they're planning, getting everyone on board is obviously an important part of that.

I think the biggest thing over the last two keynotes is the iWork update - MS have been ridicuslously slow in the one area they could have won, which was bringing Office to iOS. I'm pretty sure this is the nail in the coffin.

"...the iWork update..."

This seems to be really powerful. I've been surprised, during the last two demos of iWork, at the lack of oohs and aahs in the audience when things like (last time) the web-based editing, and (this time) the collaboration on live documents were demo'ed.

They don't get oohs and aahs because exactly the same thing has been possible via google docs for several years. It's impressive, yes, but not groundbreaking.

The quality of document you can get from Pages vs. Google Docs is night and day. Google Docs is a barebones office suite with an awful UI and live sync. iWork is a semi-professional ('prosumer?') home/school/office suite which now has synchronization as well.

Very true. That's the reason I've personally stuck with Pages for document editing. The ability to collaborate easily is going to be really, really great.

It's not unique, but it's still under-appreciated. The potential of this dual threat (Google Docs, iWork) to Microsoft is substantial. Besides, it's cool technology.

Do you think MS is planning on bringing Office to iOS? I figure if they haven't by now, they wont at all.

>Whatever they're planning

You just wait...

Wait for it ... [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqkYnfAhgy0

Even if your Mac is no longer supported or on Apple care you can always book an appointment with the genius bar to get questions answered regarding setting up email accounts or if something is malfunctioning.

Apple also sells one-on-one sessions if you are so inclined or need longer sessions than what the genius bar can help you with.

* if you live in a country where apple has such things (not New Zealand).

It was Frodo or Apple. Stop bitching :)

My (NZ) taxes paid for you to see Frodo. Bitching may continue!

Is is disrespectful that I just skimmed through the movie in a plane?

I wonder how "out of date" your Apple product can be and they will still help you with it? I think a trip to my local Apple Store with my trusty Apple ][+ is in order.

That's been the case for the last few releases. When Lion came out, a lot of major apps dropped support for Snow Leopard within a year. I stuck around on SL for a while because I preferred (and still prefer) the way that it handled Spaces, but I eventually didn't feel like I could keep missing out on updates just for that.

Seriously. Mission control was a major productivity drop down from spaces.

Yep. I was pretty dumbfounded by how much less functional it was in Lion. I basically went from using Spaces constantly to probably not having used it in the past 2 years. I ended up completely replacing it with a bunch of keyboard and gesture shortcuts in BetterTouchTool.

I discovered http://totalspaces.binaryage.com recently. I haven't tried it yet because I didn't want to buy it when Mavericks was so close, but it certainly looks like it brings back the original Spaces functionally. And now it's compatible with Mavericks, so I'm gonna be grabbing the trial when I get it installed. Hopefully it'll help you get your original productivity back. (and mine as well)

(and here's hoping that the download doesn't take TOO long. almost 2 days estimated right now :( )

Wow, that actually looks pretty impressive. Might have to give it a go.

> Question is though, what about support. You have a 3 year old Mac of some flavour and upgrade to this OS, what about issues you may have.

If you have an Apple store nearby you can walk in and get help. There is a limit to what they will do, my anecdotal experience is that most people with software issues get them fixed in a few minutes without going to repair.

But if you don't you are SOL with a >3 year old product.

Here are the timelines for AppleCare: http://www.apple.com/support/products/mac.html

It's worth noting that if you're in the EU you get 2 years warrantee for free - http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

Not just EU, many countries.

In Australia, it's two years from last service. Potentially, you could have a never-ending warranty if it's replaced every 2 years.

http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/statutoryrights.html

>Question is though, what about support. You have a 3 year old Mac of some flavour and upgrade to this OS, what about issues you may have.

I have a Macbook Pro 5,1 and only about three weeks ago did I upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion. I typically wait a couple of point releases to make sure all the beachballs are resolved.

I do need real multi-monitor support though...

I have a late 2008 macbook pro (which happens to be the oldest supported version) and Mountain Lion worked flawlessly. I'll upgrade to Mavericks today and see what happens. I think it'll work without problems :)

> Question is though, what about support.

They sell you that too.

It's only "free" for Snow Leopard owners, which means not free at all, on the other hand this answers the support question.

It's free for anyone with supported hardware, by the commonly accepted definition of "free".

Stab in the dark, but, I guess it's because it requires the App Store to get it, which, AFAIK, first became available in 10.6.6, meaning, Snow Leopard is the farthest back you go.

If you get someone to DL it for you and burn it to disk/USB drive, you can probably also install it on Macs with older versions, since you'll just boot up in it..

So, it is free for everyone, but, only distributed easily to Snow Leopard and thereafter users.