If I buy MBP now, what will happen with OSX Lion ?

Greetings all.

As the title states, If I purchase a new MBP within the coming days, how would I upgrade it to Lion later this year ? Would I have to buy Lion ?

If so, would I be better off waiting for the Lion release, and THEN purchasing the MBP ?

Thanks everyone !

MyFishWagon said:

Greetings all.

As the title states, If I purchase a new MBP within the coming days, how would I upgrade it to Lion later this year ? Would I have to buy Lion ?

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Yes.

If so, would I be better off waiting for the Lion release, and THEN purchasing the MBP ?

Thanks everyone !

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Better off? Depends on what your definition of 'better off' happens to be.

Do you need or want to enjoy a new computer between now and then - and no one knows when that will be - or do you want to forego that enjoyment during the interim to save a few bucks?

Only you can answer that question for yourself.

You'll most likely have to purchase Lion when it is released in the Summer.

Regards

bobtomay said:

Better off? Depends on what your definition of 'better off' happens to be.

Do you need or want to enjoy a new computer between now and then - and no one knows when that will be - or do you want to forego that enjoyment during the interim to save a few bucks?

Only you can answer that question for yourself.

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I say 'better off' because I do not specifically know the differences between the current OS and the upcoming release of Lion. Yes, I have read about Lion on Apple.com, but unfortunately this doesn't mean much to me, as I have NO experience with Apple products in general.

So to rephrase the question, for those who have plenty of experience with the current OS, will the 'updates' on Lion vs. the current OS be worth a wait to save a few bucks ?

I am NOT in dire need of a notebook right now, and if the release of Lion is scheduled for summer (as stated on Apple's site), then the wait can't be much longer than past Sept.

I plan on using it for your everyday basic tasks, except I also plan to use Logic, which probably doesn't make a difference what OS is running anyway.

Thanks

You will have to pay for the OS - it will not be a free update. Pricing is not determined yet as far as I know. That being said, Snow Leopard is an excellent OS, and if I were you I'd go ahead and buy it now.

thekilierdonut said:

You will have to pay for the OS - it will not be a free update. Pricing is not determined yet as far as I know. That being said, Snow Leopard is an excellent OS, and if I were you I'd go ahead and buy it now.

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Excellent. Thank you

MyFishWagon said:

So to rephrase the question, for those who have plenty of experience with the current OS, will the 'updates' on Lion vs. the current OS be worth a wait to save a few bucks ?

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The only right answer to that question is "We don't know". Since Lion is not yet out we can not compare what we have to what we don't yet have. Lion could be great, it could be a POS (though I would highly doubt that) but until it is released and people have a chance to use it for a bit it is an unknown quantity.

As for the current OS, it works great. That doesn't mean that Lion won't work better though.

How exactly has the "switch" been completed in the past OS upgrades. Do you just buy the upgrade put it in your SuperDrive and let the Mac do it's thing? Or is it more complex then that? I have no experience upgrading the OS

bentharbour said:

How exactly has the "switch" been completed in the past OS upgrades. Do you just buy the upgrade put it in your SuperDrive and let the Mac do it's thing? Or is it more complex then that? I have no experience upgrading the OS

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That's pretty much it. Buy it and instal it, no serial numbers even.

Oh, and it doesn't require you to reformat your drive or lose all of your stuff. The new updater does what is known as an "Archive and Instal" where it places a new system folder on your drive and then migrates your existing profile to it. Things like network settings, email, bookmarks and even your desktop picture are not lost. You are usually left with the old system folder to delete from the drive at your leisure.

Of course, should you want to reformat your drive or just start all over again with the new OS, those options are also available.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about owning a new mbp that had Lion pre-installed. I would get the current mbp, that way, when you upgrade, you will own 2 operating systems.

baggss said:

That's pretty much it. Buy it and instal it, no serial numbers even.

Oh, and it doesn't require you to reformat your drive or lose all of your stuff. The new updater does what is known as an "Archive and Instal" where it places a new system folder on your drive and then migrates your existing profile to it. Things like network settings, email, bookmarks and even your desktop picture are not lost. You are usually left with the old system folder to delete from the drive at your leisure.

Of course, should you want to reformat your drive or just start all over again with the new OS, those options are also available.

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Thanks so much for the info! + rep

Also, two other factors bear mentioning:

1. Though many software developers will try to be Lion-ready, higher-end apps don't tend to be in such a rush. Logic 9 works great on Snow Leopard, so if you're going to focus on that (and "normal" stuff any version of OS X can handle), then there is no reason to wait -- and the new MacBook Pros will be up to six months old in their product cycle if you wait for Lion. Not worth the possible $129 savings IMO.

2. Though I fully expect Lion to be a) awesome and b) full of interesting new features, I also expect it to (like every other first release from any company ever) have a few issues and some software incompatibilities in places. This won't stop me from buying it on day one personally, but for some people it's often wise to wait until either the first or second free updates (bugfixes) come out, or until the software they rely on is cleared to work on it. So the fact that Lion will come out this summer doesn't mean it would necessarily be a good idea to buy it this summer, so again I wouldn't wait unless you are sure you have the luxury of waiting.

Thank you all for the input.

bentharbour said:

How exactly has the "switch" been completed in the past OS upgrades. Do you just buy the upgrade put it in your SuperDrive and let the Mac do it's thing? Or is it more complex then that? I have no experience upgrading the OS

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Actually with Lion, it's believed that Apple will offer the option to upgrade from Snow Leopard via the Mac App Store. Barring that, you pop the DVD in and run the installer. It will come with instructions.