If I were to skip OS X 10.7...

Hypothetical: If I were to skip 10.7, do you think it likely that I could go to, say, 10.8 or later without problems? Have 10.6.8 now.

Think about it...

If you were say, running Leopard (10.5.X) right now and asked if you could skip Snow Leopard (10.6.X) and go right to Lion (10.7.X), I would have to answer no. In order to legally install Lion, you should be running Snow Leopard.

What Apple will require for a future OS is unknown but since the OS is no longer being supplied on disk you can get some idea of what future upgrades will be like.

beamon said:

Hypothetical: If I were to skip 10.7, do you think it likely that I could go to, say, 10.8 or later without problems? Have 10.6.8 now.

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When I get my crystal ball working again...I'll let you know! Right now I'm trying to get it working so I can get some good stock picks!!!

- Nick

p.s. A 2nd thought. If you're thinking of skipping OS 10.7 because you don't like something about it...it's very likely that you'll dislike OS 10.8 even more (if there even will be an OS 10.8)...who knows what Apple has up their sleeves for the future!

beamon said:

Hypothetical: If I were to skip 10.7, do you think it likely that I could go to, say, 10.8 or later without problems? Have 10.6.8 now.

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What's making you think you'd want to skip 10.7?

schweb said:

What's making you think you'd want to skip 10.7?

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Something as insignificant as the "greyed" appearance. With the scuttlebutt being that it's not likely that addn' skins will be forthcoming, and that Apple is unlikely to change it in future iterations, thought I might skip it.

The greater use of gestures isn't a bother since I'm so new to Mac what's a few more radii to navigate in the learning curve? Might even get the Magic Trackpad to facilitate the gestures.

Roger, I would say yes, you can, but it depends. I intend to never buy Snow Leopard, and maybe not Lion. I figure my computer will be obsolete some day, and when I buy a new one, I'll get the current OS on it. In fact, I might skip several of them. I went from OS 9.2.2 to Leopard! I didn't have any problems that couldn't be fixed by dumping my G3 desktop for a Mini. But, I did have problems keeping up with the times. That's when I decided it was time to upgrade everything. If what you have does everything you want, why not keep it as it is?

Beware scuttlebutt it is often wrong. Each time there is a new OS there is some feature that is supposedly unchangeable. Often developers come out with alternatives in a short period of time.

There are two ways to skip an iteration of OS X.

1. Update for example from Leopard directly to Lion. This is tricky to do and not supported by the EULA anyway.

2. Keep your current machine running Leopard (or Tiger or whatever). In due course, buy a new machine which has Lion or whatever big cat is higher than Lion, thereby skipping past the iterations used in the interim. This is perfectly OK, although you would have missed all the lovely dull greyness and iOSification (TM) of Lion


I admit it does seem a shame - we get huge screens with awesome graphics capability and Apple turns everything grey.

beamon said:

Hypothetical: If I were to skip 10.7, do you think it likely that I could go to, say, 10.8 or later without problems? Have 10.6.8 now.

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Even if you eventually need 10.7 to get to 10.8, there's nothing that says you can't hang on to 10.6.8 as long as it suits you.