Apple OS X on a regular PC...?

[Nothinman]

P2: It's the norm, I think it's fair to say. You'd have to give away the copy that came with your Mac, which is tailored (IIRC - at least in recent memory) to _only_ install on that type of Mac, so if you did sell it, it would be to a really, really limited audience, and it would be illegal / shady in the first place, so it's pretty unlikely.

The discs aren't tailored at all AFAIK, the discs you get with the Mac should be exactly the same as the ones in the retail box. Sure Apple drops support for older models occasionally but that's about it.

 

[dclive]

My MacbookPro 1.83 DVDs wouldn't do a thing with my iMac 2.0...said it wasn't supported....

 

[umrigar]

Retail OS X is not an upgrade, per se.

You can buy a used Mac with no hard drive, drop in a new drive, boot from the DVD, format the drive, and install.
There is no need for a prior OS on the hard drive.

System discs that ship with Macs are like the Windows discs that Dell ships with their systems. It won't install on a newer machine, but might install on an older machine.

For example, the last revision of MacBook Pro, using the Santa Rosa chipset, ships with 10.4.9 discs. An older MacBook Pro's discs won't work on it. It will boot, but won't install.
You can use the everymac site to look up minimum OS for any Mac model.
http://www.everymac.com/system...-santa-rosa-specs.html

I was able to clone my 10.4.10 MacBook Pro (Core Duo) hard drive over to a Core 2 Duo model & it booted fine. Subsequent OS revisions often add updated hardware drivers.

So there's some real information, not speculation or rumor.

 

[dclive]

My post is not speculation, but fact. The MBP1.83 and the iMac CD 2.0 are the same generation; you cannot share at least some OS X install DVDs, due to limits Apple put in there.

That you can move HDDs of installed Mac systems around isn't under discussion. We know you can do that.

Whether your old OS is required on the drive also wasn't up for discussion.

 

[indigo196]

Originally posted by: umrigar

Originally posted by: indigo196
It is not legal, but can easily be done. Apple is, unfortunately, restrictive and draconian with their products. It is just now becoming apparent with the iPhone and Intel based computers.

As opposed to, say, Microsoft, who require activation and then re-activation if you upgrade too many components. On a Mac, you can add hard drives, swap video cards, etc, and the Mothership doesn't care. There's no COA tied to your install. Pretty Draconian, I admit.

To be honest I have never had the re-activation problems with MS products. Certainly it is one method of being draconian, but I was referring to hardware lock-in. Your choice is one of 5-6 models with a few options. Sure you can add some hardware but not the vast selection that is allowed under Linux or Windows.

I have also recently learned that stuff like iLife and iWork are not included with the OS, but with the Mac you buy... given that I guess the price difference is smaller than I thought (assuming you want the iAppName products that they are pre-loading).

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: indigo196

Originally posted by: umrigar

Originally posted by: indigo196
It is not legal, but can easily be done. Apple is, unfortunately, restrictive and draconian with their products. It is just now becoming apparent with the iPhone and Intel based computers.

As opposed to, say, Microsoft, who require activation and then re-activation if you upgrade too many components. On a Mac, you can add hard drives, swap video cards, etc, and the Mothership doesn't care. There's no COA tied to your install. Pretty Draconian, I admit.

To be honest I have never had the re-activation problems with MS products. Certainly it is one method of being draconian, but I was referring to hardware lock-in. Your choice is one of 5-6 models with a few options. Sure you can add some hardware but not the vast selection that is allowed under Linux or Windows.

I have also recently learned that stuff like iLife and iWork are not included with the OS, but with the Mac you buy... given that I guess the price difference is smaller than I thought (assuming you want the iAppName products that they are pre-loading).

iLife is included for free with every new mac and is on the restore disks that you receive. iWork is not, you can have it included, but you are paying extra for it.