Apple to sell Mac OS X 10.7 Lion for $29.99 only in Mac App Store

Apple to sell Mac OS X 10.7 Lion for $29.99 only in Mac App Store

Apple announced on Monday that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will be available only in the Mac App Store, and the operating system upgrade will be available for just $29.99.

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There has to be some way to create a disc. This might be the first OS X major release that I hold off on until I read some reviews. I hate to stay stuck in the past, but I also want to have a backup of my OS. I also want to do a clean install - no matter how many people tell me that an in-place upgrade "should be fine".

same. I want to be able to boot off it. im not a fan of the MAS anyway. this has annyed me even more.

maybe to add to the already gimmicky store the will have a demo version named "Lion Lite".

I'm betting they will provide some way to burn it to disk and likely will also have it available on DVD for a fee. Also, you have to think that Mac purchases made after the release date will include an install recovery DVD set along with the machine in the box. Lion is not going to be just a digital download in my opinion. Of course I have been wrong before.... ;P

I expect to see a USB bootable device.

Now where is that thread where i called it $29 and schweb called Big $$$ lol
Watch the switchers now

cwa107 said:

I also want to do a clean install - no matter how many people tell me that an in-place upgrade "should be fine".

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So it's not just me that likes to do clean installs then?

I wonder if the MAS has a cache (it'll have to store the install files somewhere) and one could make something with that.

Wow! $29.99!!! Apple may be pricey on their hardware but the upgrade price on their OS is fantastic. Is the release date in July...?

vansmith said:

So it's not just me that likes to do clean installs then?

I wonder if the MAS has a cache (it'll have to store the install files somewhere) and one could make something with that.

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Simply put, if I can't clean install it, I won't buy it. I also won't hack it so that I have backup media. I just won't put myself into a situation where I can't boot off install media if needed. I've been around computers far too long to know that when Murphy's Law goes into action, you need bootable media.

My guess is this is Apple's way to do the following:

1. Deter people from upgrading from 10.4/10.5 for a low price.
2. Making it harder/less cost-effective to build a Hackintosh (although this will make piracy sky-rocket).
3. Force people who otherwise wouldn't use MAS to at least register for an AppleID (and therefore a credit card on-file).


Now, don't get me wrong - I love the MAS, I love digital distribution for the OS (can't see why it hasn't been done this way previously) and I'm pleased by the low price. But if they don't have some way to boot off of media to install or troubleshoot, I don't want it! Seriously - this would push me back to Windows.

TattooedMac said:

Now where is that thread where i called it $29 and schweb called Big $$$ lol
Watch the switchers now

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I was just thinking the same thing.

EDIT: I found the thread I was thinking of, but Schweb was not a participant

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/236194-os-x-lion-price.html

Razormac said:

I was just thinking the same thing.

EDIT: I found the thread I was thinking of, but Schweb was not a participant

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/236194-os-x-lion-price.html

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To be quite honest, I'm shocked that they retained the $29 price. It made sense with SL, since it wasn't really a feature release. But Lion does have a lot of new stuff (at least as much as Leopard had over Tiger).

cwa107 said:

I just won't put myself into a situation where I can't boot off install media if needed. I've been around computers far too long to know that when Murphy's Law goes into action, you need bootable media.

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It could be argued I guess that Apple is just THAT confident with their products.

Unfortunately, as you say, Murphy's Law will just most likely prove them wrong

And I'd like to be able to not go with the upgrade route this time around (even if I have to pay more for the "full version").

I purchased my Macbook Pro mid 2009 and when Snow Leopard came out, I went with the upgrade to Snow Leopard. I don't know why but it just wouldn't feel right to upgrade again

Of course you're all assuming there is no way to create bootable media, backup, or clean install. Let's just wait for the details to actually come out from Apple to see what the they are before we jump to conclusions.

This thread reminds of all the other times Apple's done something, people freaked out, and then it all turned out to be nothing.

My motto: Don't worry until there is something to worry about.

Your old (Snow Leopard) bootable media will work just fine.

We've been getting point-version updates over the Internet for over a decade now. Somehow we've survived that. This is not so different, really.

(I expect there will be a DVD version, but it will probably be much more expensive than $29 and probably not available immediately. Volume licensees will demand one. No way are they pushing a multi-gigabyte download to a lab full of Macs.)

Okay, so I missed out on this one. Do I understand that Lion will only be available via the Apple app store? No disk? Did they give a release date?

Here you are - all the info you should need.

technologist said:

Your old (Snow Leopard) bootable media will work just fine.

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Do YOU want to boot and install snow leopard to then have to update it to .6 to get the app store installed, then to have to download another 4 gigs to get to lion? I'm sorry, but that is a major waste. Not all of us that are Mac users have uber-high speed internet. I'm lucky I have 3meg, but I can't absorb that bandwidth whenever I want unless I want my wife to kill me - and then there are those people who have significantly slower connections then mine - even some with still dialup, or satellite that will throttle over download quantities required to do this sort of an update.

No, they need to be able to make a disc to do a clean install/restore, it's the only way that really makes sense - especially for those of us who want completely clean systems (of which I was planning to do for the next OS upgrade so I'm not running a system that's been through multiple upgrades)

We've been getting point-version updates over the Internet for over a decade now. Somehow we've survived that. This is not so different, really.

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This is a lot different honestly with the amount of bandwidth necessary to get from a 10.6 -> Mac App store (10.6.6) -> Lion

(I expect there will be a DVD version, but it will probably be much more expensive than $29 and probably not available immediately. Volume licensees will demand one. No way are they pushing a multi-gigabyte download to a lab full of Macs.)

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Not necessarily - I'd think a business with volume licenses would have server which has the ability to provide software updates now, I am sure they will incorporate a way to download lion to the server to push down to the clients in a lab.

For me tho, I, like many others, want a DVD or at least the ability to make a bootable thumbdrive to be able to do a clean install incase I ever need it. Plus, I'd be willing to pay more to get it because it is worth it to me to have that peace of mind.

There's always a whole lot of fretting going on whenever Apple re-writes the rules, and inevitably it turns out it was all for nothing. My bet is that Apple will have available some type of bootable image with an installer that you can download from their site, access the MAS with it, and then download Lion, which itself is probably a bootable image that you could store elsewhere the first time around. Seriously… if we are thinking about the downsides, so is Apple, and they've got a plan to handle it. They just may not be quite ready to announce it.

lifeisabeach said:

There's always a whole lot of fretting going on whenever Apple re-writes the rules, and inevitably it turns out it was all for nothing.

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I remember when they started shipping media only on optical disc. People thought the world was coming to an end because their precious floppy drive was obsolete. People panicked when the first iMac came out without a floppy. It was horrible, how could they dump the floppy!. Yet, in the end, everything worked out.