Lion may not have been released yesterday, much to the chagrin of rumor mongers, but all signs are pointing to a release being imminent. Oh yeah, by imminent we mean between now and August 1st, just like Apple intended. One of the first major tells that Lion is approaching is that Amazon seems to have run out of Snow Leopard install discs, and now only have family packs and the Mac Box Set available from Apple.
It’s not exactly unexpected, but there is a little added twist here. How are people who don’t currently have Snow Leopard, but who want to use Lion, to get the new OS on their machines without currently having access to Snow Leopard? Two emails sent to Steve Jobs, and posted on MacRumors, have clearly suggested that Lion, like Snow Leopard before it, would require the installation of the previous operating system before installing Lion.
The same philosophy was in place when Apple updated Leopard to Snow Leopard, at least according to the marketing material. Users were given the option, a $30.00 upgrade that required Leopard, or if running Tiger users could purchase the $170 Mac Box Set. But, here’s the twist. That $30.00 Snow Leopard DVD that was labelled as an “upgrade” could actually do clean installs and upgrades from Tiger.
If we had to hazard a guess, we would assume the same would be true of Lion. Although, as of today there’s only one price on the Lion website ($29.99) and no mention of other alternatives for people not running Snow Leopard. Apple clearly states on its website:
Make sure you have the latest version of Snow Leopard.?Get up to date with the latest version of OS X Snow Leopard to purchase OS X Lion from the Mac App Store. If you have Snow Leopard, click the Apple icon and choose Software Update to install version 10.6.8.
Currently, Apple is telling everyone they need to be running Snow Leopard before they can install Lion, but without Snow Leopard disks available for purchase, it could be impossible for some extremely late adopters who have yet to upgrade to Snow Leopard to get in the Lion game.
We recommend running out and grabbing Snow Leopard if you haven’t upgraded yet before it’s too late. If discs dry up, you could be on the hook for a more expensive alternative, like the Mac Box Set.
We don’t know for sure, but if Snow Leopard discs are drying up, Lion has to be standalone, doesn’t it?
Source: AppleBitch
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Businesses don't worry about costs to upgrade? Or the compatibility of their customized solutions? Not all businesses consist of hundreds of users but they have to be compliant all the same. It would be nice if everyone fit into a nice easy upgradable box, but they don't. What works for you or makes sense for you, doesn't mean it can apply to everyone. For the record, I've never purchased any software off of Amazon, but this shortage is bigger than Amazon.
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LikeDon't you need the app store to get Lion... and isnt the app store only available in Snow Leopard??? so... you can only get Lion if you have snow leopard. Or am I missing something?
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LikeYou're not missing a thing. Not being able to get Snow Leopard means not being able to get Lion. Could be problematic for people out of the "know" and slow adopters. I know we will run into angry consumers in my shop.
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LikeJosh, I think I complained about this on the podcast last week. We are having a really hard time procuring boxed copies of SL for our shop (through Apple's distribution channels even). I also think it's annoying to do two major operating system upgrades back to back. For my clients I have secured copies of Snow Leopard for all their Leopard running machines but will take them straight to Lion when the time comes (probably around 10.7.3).
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LikeFor those curious you can find that podcast here: http://www.macgasm.net/2011/07/06/macgasm-podcast-lion-new-macs-and-real-life-humans/
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Likeyou can do a clean install with the GM version.. so I wouldn't worry to much about Snow Leopard
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LikeJust because you can do it, that doesn't make it legit. There is licensing to be addressed here. I know some home users don't worry themselves about things like this but businesses and educational institutions have to.
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LikeThat's a good point. I just had a discussion over IM about this. I wouldn't recommend businesses skirt the rules, but as a user, I don't have too many problems installing Lion, or SL for that matter, from the update CD. Charging two prices for the same disk is a bit absurd, for any company. One fee, one OS in full. I'd prefer that approach.
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LikeThanks for passing that information on. It gives me some hope that Lion will be a full install at 30.00, instead of an upgrade.
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Likebut if you're running leopard, you can't get the app store, can you?
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