Mac OSx newbie question.

warren_1979 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:13

Hi.

I've picked up a 2nd hand mac mini. Unfortunately It doesn't come with an os. This is my first mac so I'm not too clued up about OSx.

I've seen snow leopard on the apple website for £26 which seems really cheap, but it just says it's an upgrade. Would I be able to use this DVD to do an install on a empty hard drive?

The mac is intel based.

Cheers.

Dewotter · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:15

You can. If you can live with yourself for doing it.

sorn21 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:17

warren_1979 said:
I've seen snow leopard on the apple website for £26 which seems really cheap, but it just says it's an upgrade. Would I be able to use this DVD to do an install on a empty hard drive?

Nope, as it says that is just an upgrade.

You could install Linux?

warren_1979 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:30

No I need OSx really. It's going to be a music server.

Which one of you is right? Is it possible with this disc or not?

Cheers.

Dewotter · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:40

From what I remember you can, it's just against the license agreement.

warren_1979 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:42

Ok cheers.

I'll have a think about it. There are some on eBay for about £22. I take it these are the same as the apple shop?

It says 'Mac OS X 10.6 Retail Snow Leopard Full Single MC223Z/A'. Legit?

Spyhop · 10 Apr 2011 at 17:21

Just get the £26 job from Apple.

As license infractions go, I doubt anyone, including Apple, gives a toss

PardonTheWait · 10 Apr 2011 at 17:22

It's a full install as said it's just the license agreement which is upgrade

warren_1979 · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:39

Will do cheers all

fez · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:52

Its a bit weird for it not to have an OS on it. The only OS that you should ever buy from apple is an upgrade as every machine they have comes with an OS and its illegal to run it on anything else other than their hardware.

PardonTheWait · 10 Apr 2011 at 19:34

All the OSes have been full versions except Snow Leopard, which is an upgrade from Leopard. They did that because it's cut price - the others were all around the £85 mark but they felt people wouldn't want to pay full price for Snow Leopard as it feels very similar to Leopard - the changes are under the bonnet.

So they made it £25 (£26 with the VAT increase) and made it an 'upgrade' license. It's exactly the same as the others though in that it will happily install to a totally blank machine. It's purely the licensing that changed.

I should expect Lion will be back to a 'full' version both in license and in price.

warren_1979 · 11 Apr 2011 at 18:38

fez said:
Its a bit weird for it not to have an OS on it. The only OS that you should ever buy from apple is an upgrade as every machine they have comes with an OS and its illegal to run it on anything else other than their hardware.

It had Linux on it.

theheyes · 11 Apr 2011 at 19:09

I wouldn't lose any sleep over the licensing. I'd have tried taking it into the Apple store to see if they would put it on for nothing. It would have been sold with a license anyway and I'd be surprised if they let you walk out of the shop with Linux on it!