possible to upgrade to snow leopard from tiger?

i am running mac os x 10.4.11 on an intel-based imac, and am thinking of upgrading to snow leopard.
can i purchase the $29 snow leopard package from apple and just install it, or do i have to buy the box set like the apple website claims?

if i can just buy the $29 snow leopard package, do i then just install it over tiger or is there more to it then that, like backing up files first, etc?

thanks in advance, please forgive my ignorance.

Click on the Search button at the top. Put in Tiger Snow Leopard, and you'll get a list of all the previous discussions of this question here.

To quote the OS X EULA (section 2C): "If you have purchased an Upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard license, then subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer as long as that computer has a properly licensed copy of Mac OS X Leopard already installed on it."

In other words, no, you can't use the $29 upgrade version to upgrade from Tiger to SL.

You would be violating the intent and spirit of the Apple EULA by purchasing the $29.00 upgrade package of Snow Leopard and using it to upgrade from Tiger. The latest issue of Macworld has a very good article on exactly what you have asked. Pick up a copy and read it. The short answer is that you should buy the boxed set.

Regards.

Further it would not surprise me, and I am not a SL user, if Apple did not incorporate some sort of blocker in an upgrade to prevent the use of the upgrade to run Disk Repair, etc.

Also of note, there is a file installed by Snow Leopard related to stealing OS X. Have not read what this particular file does or if it does anything at this point.

Have no clue if this could disable the ability to download updates at some point, is only a way to track the number of illegal copies used for their consideration of implementing some sort of activation in the future, or any number of other things.

Apple has made the upgrade to Snow Leopard about as inexpensive as can probably be done with a commercial OS. $30 from Leopard and those coming from Tiger are basically paying for the upgrade path at $129 for Leopard plus the $30 for Snow Leopard and then getting iLife and iWorks for free. Those of us that did upgrade to Leopard don't get those for free.

I would encourage everyone to let your conscience be your guide and use the upgrade path designated by Apple for your situation. Well, I take that back, there are too many that have no conscience when it comes to pirating software and media, maybe those shouldn't use their conscience, and should just do the right thing for a change.

I would encourage everyone to let your conscience be your guide and use the upgrade path designated by Apple for your situation. Well, I take that back, there are too many that have no conscience when it comes to pirating software and media, maybe those shouldn't use their conscience, and should just do the right thing for a change.

You sure got that right, brother. Believe the whole SL thing was released in August to be one up on Windows 7! Without too much thought either on this whole upgrade option from Tiger and saving the cost of Leopard!