OS Update: Trying to help a colleague...

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GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
A colleague has a circa 2009 MacBook running OS 10.5.8. She wants to upgrade to Mountain Lion (via Snow Leopard). She took her laptop to her local Apple Store (and as I expected) she was pretty much told she needs to buy a new laptop powerful enough to run OS 10.8. I call BS. What she does need is the Snow Leopard Install Disc. Once installed, she can then (apparently) install Mountain Lion via the "Apple Update" feature.

I am not really well versed in the Apple world, so I thought I would post her scenario here in case anyone has any suggestions. Thanks.
 
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Don Vito Corleone

Don Vito Corleone

Elite
Feb 10, 2000
30,029
67
91
10.6 (Snow Leopard) and later all require an Intel processor, which a 1999 machine won't have. She is at the end of the line for OSX support. If this is actually a 2009 machine, it will support Mountain Lion (I am typing this on my 2009 MacBook Pro running ML).
 
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T

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
45
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Don Vito Corleone said:
10.6 (Snow Leopard) and later all require an Intel processor, which a 1999 machine won't have. She is at the end of the line for OSX support. If this is actually a 2009 machine, it will support Mountain Lion (I am typing this on my 2009 MacBook Pro running ML).
Click to expand...

Man, if it is a 1999 machine... I don't know even know if it could run anything past 10.3, let alone that far. OS X was released in 2001, and 10.4 dropped support for any system that didn't have Firewire.

If it is a 1999 machine, then it is 14 years old, so yes, it is time to replace it with something newer. If it is a 2009 machine, then that's not so bad, and can run 10.8 just fine. Especially if you max the RAM, and drop in an SSD.
 
Spineshank

Spineshank

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2001
7,728
1
71
Must be 2009. The G3 iBook can only officially run Panther, Tiger if you know what to do.

My mbp is a 2010, with 8GB ram and it runs ML just fine. I even run Fusion all the time and have no issues.
 
C

CA19100

Senior member
Jun 29, 2012
634
13
76
If she's running 10.5, that means her machine has, at a minimum, an 867MHz PowerPC G4. That puts it at November 2002 or newer, as that was the first machine to use that chip. If that's what she has, then 10.5.8 is indeed the newest OS she can use, because all newer versions require an Intel processor.

GTaudiophile said:
I call BS...

...I am not really well versed in the Apple world...
Click to expand...

Then you probably shouldn't be calling BS. If she's really running a PowerPC laptop, she shouldn't be surprised she can't run the very latest OS, which was written for an entirely different architecture.

FYI:

10.6 ("Snow Leopard") was functionally similar to 10.5, but a lot of under-the-hood changes were made to make it run much faster on Intel processors. It won't run at all on PowerPC.

10.7 ("Lion") requires a 64-bit processor, so it only runs on the Core 2 Duo and newer machines. That goes back to the late 2006 MacBooks.
 
vailr

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
54
91
There may be memory upgrades available for the MacBook in question, that would then allow installing Mountain Lion. But that's only if (as others have stated) the MacBook already has a 64-bit capable Intel CPU.
However, some of the early MacBooks included onboard GPU's that Apple later decided weren't "good enough" to run Mountain Lion.
 
Eug

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,941
1,554
126
Is it truly a 2009 MacBook, or is it an older MacBook that she happened to purchase in 2009 (refurb or old stock)? If the latter it might not run Mountain Lion. If not, then just tell her to run Snow Leopard and leave it at that. I still have my 2010 Core i7 iMac on Snow Leopard, and haven't bothered to upgrade (mainly because Mountain Lion breaks my VPN software).

To get the exact model, go to the Apple icon at the top left corner --> About This Mac --> More Info...
 
dave_the_nerd

dave_the_nerd

Lifer
Feb 25, 2011
16,954
1,591
126
If it's got 2GB of RAM and a C2D, it'll run 10.8.

If you have 10.5 and don't want to buy 10.6 first and then 10.8, just "borrow" a computer with 10.6 or 10.7 on it, log into the Apple App store, and buy 10.8.

Once the installer is downloaded, right-click the application, show package contents, and root around until you find a 4+ GB dmg called "InstallESD." Use Carbon Copy Cloner to restore the disk image to a thumb drive.

You can also buy 10.8 on a thumb drive straight from apple, but it's like $70.

Follow these directions here on the 10.5 machine to edit the ProductVersion PList.

http://mac-how-to.wonderhowto.com/how-to/upgrade-mountain-lion-from-leopard-os-x-10-5-10-8-0138304/

Now you can boot from the thumb drive and install 10.8.

If you have her product serial number, enter it here to check specs and os compatibility.

http://support.apple.com/specs/
 
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