Is OSX Leopard going to be free?

[RollWave]

I'm just wondering whether or not Apple is going to charge us for it...I have a G4 ibook but will likely move to a MB before the year is up...

Will all macs get leopard free or will it just be the intel peeps?

 

[amol]

You're kidding me, right?

The only way you're going to to get Leopard free is if you buy a new mac with it preinstalled.

 

[Platypus]

Probably not.. correct me if I'm wrong they were supposed to only charge for the 'even' or 'odd' (cannot remember) releases and they ended up charging people full price anyway... but this could have been hearsay.

 

[Kaido]

No, it won't be free, but it will run on both PPC and Intel Macs. From Apple's Leopard page:

Leopard delivers 64-bit power to both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, so you don?t have to install separate applications for different machines. There?s only one version of Mac OS X, so you don?t need to maintain separate operating systems for different uses.

More info here:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/index.html

You can just buy the upgrade edition to save some cash, plus if you're a student the price should go down even more.

 

[RollWave]

damn. I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

 

[jlbenedict]

Is Microsoft XP going to be offered for free?

If you can answer this question correctly, then you'll know your answer for the OP's question.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: rnp614
I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

I think they charge for every major release - 10.X (10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, and soon 10.5). It's a little bit different than Microsoft's OS release. Going from 10.3 to 10.4 is not like going from Windows XP SP1 to Windows XP SP2; it's more like going from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, hence the upgrade price. You can read up on version info at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X#Versions

 

[dawks]

Originally posted by: rnp614
damn. I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

Some 'Wintel PC' manufacturers such as Dell and HP are considering offering discounts or rebates for free upgrades to Windows Vista for PC's shipping in the comming months in order to avoid a slowdown in sales before Vista is actually released.

The upgrade for OS/X costs $129 last I heard.

 

[RollWave]

Originally posted by: dawks

Originally posted by: rnp614
damn. I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

Some 'Wintel PC' manufacturers such as Dell and HP are considering offering discounts or rebates for free upgrades to Windows Vista for PC's shipping in the comming months in order to avoid a slowdown in sales before Vista is actually released.

The upgrade for OS/X costs $129 last I heard.

Wow, just wow.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: rnp614
I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

I think they charge for every major release - 10.X (10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, and soon 10.5). It's a little bit different than Microsoft's OS release. Going from 10.3 to 10.4 is not like going from Windows XP SP1 to Windows XP SP2; it's more like going from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, hence the upgrade price. You can read up on version info at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X#Versions

I wonder what they'll do for the version after 10.9? Will they finally go to 11, or will they just call it 10.10? Only time will tell.

I haven't owned a mac since OS 8 🙁

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: dawks

Originally posted by: rnp614
damn. I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

Some 'Wintel PC' manufacturers such as Dell and HP are considering offering discounts or rebates for free upgrades to Windows Vista for PC's shipping in the comming months in order to avoid a slowdown in sales before Vista is actually released.

The upgrade for OS/X costs $129 last I heard.

I seem to recall getting an 10.2 upgrade disc for free when I ordered my 1st iBook shortly before 10.2 came out. We are talking just a few days, though.

 

[Baked]

Apple don't have an "upgrade" version like windows for their OS. Like their previous OSX releases, Leopard will be a stand alone OS. Price is around $129.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Baked
Apple don't have an "upgrade" version like windows for their OS. Like their previous OSX releases, Leopard will be a stand alone OS. Price is around $129.

Kind of makes sense since EVERYONE is upgrading... The only way to get a Mac is with OSX already on it.

 

[AmigaMan]

I don't think Leopard has anything compelling over Tiger that will force me to shell out the money to buy it. Perhaps if they fixed the Finder and made the OS as a whole a bit faster I'd consider it. But right now Tiger works for me, no sense in paying $130 for a newer number.

 

[tweakmm]

Unfortunately not. 🙁

Especially since I figure it's about time to upgrade from Panther.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: dawks

Originally posted by: rnp614
damn. I dont remember where I heard this bogus speculation

Some 'Wintel PC' manufacturers such as Dell and HP are considering offering discounts or rebates for free upgrades to Windows Vista for PC's shipping in the comming months in order to avoid a slowdown in sales before Vista is actually released.

The upgrade for OS/X costs $129 last I heard.

Those 'discounts' and 'rebates' are actually paid for by all the shovel and trialware those PCs come bundled with when you get them, and which some (including some Antispyware apps) would go as far as to consider spyware.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
I don't think Leopard has anything compelling over Tiger that will force me to shell out the money to buy it. Perhaps if they fixed the Finder and made the OS as a whole a bit faster I'd consider it. But right now Tiger works for me, no sense in paying $130 for a newer number.

Quickly discontinued support for Tiger might get you to upgrade. F***ing Apple.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
I don't think Leopard has anything compelling over Tiger that will force me to shell out the money to buy it. Perhaps if they fixed the Finder and made the OS as a whole a bit faster I'd consider it. But right now Tiger works for me, no sense in paying $130 for a newer number.

Quickly discontinued support for Tiger might get you to upgrade. F***ing Apple.

I think that Panther (10.3) is still supported, and that's almost three years old now. They aren't going to give you six years of support like Microsoft does, though.

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: Platypus
Probably not.. correct me if I'm wrong they were supposed to only charge for the 'even' or 'odd' (cannot remember) releases and they ended up charging people full price anyway... but this could have been hearsay.

Must've been hearsay, the only free 10.x update was 10.1 to the users of 10.0. It came out briefly after 10.0 (6 months) and was a significant stability and usuability improvement.

Originally posted by: mugs
I wonder what they'll do for the version after 10.9? Will they finally go to 11, or will they just call it 10.10? Only time will tell.

I haven't owned a mac since OS 8 🙁

Heh, I wonder that too 😀 Considering "OS X" is pronounced "OS Ten" in English (but seldom in German).
On the other hand, I also wonder if the employees in Apple Stores say "OS Ten ten point four" when they talk about Tiger now.

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

Quickly discontinued support for Tiger might get you to upgrade. F***ing Apple.

I think that Panther (10.3) is still supported, and that's almost three years old now. They aren't going to give you six years of support like Microsoft does, though.

I think Apple provides only 10.4 with functionality updates and throws the occasional security update at 10.3.

Support for the applications delivered with OS X varies. The newest iTunes version works in 10.2 (so you can buy iTMS videos if you like). But iChat for example will be used as selling point for the next OS X and it's very likely that new features won't be brought back to the users of 10.4. On a lower level, the same is true to the Java environment, OpenGL and other code Apple develops in-house.