OS X Mavericks

Quick question.. If I buy a Mac, specifically the new Air or the Pro Retina, will either of those come with Mavericks for FREE? or will it have to be bought to have that installed? If ao, how much?

Mavericks hasn't been released yet.

- Nick

@nick

I know its coming out soon but when it does, will that be a free update? If not, will it be replaced with Mountain Lion on all the computers you buy from when it will be released?

If you buy a Mac after OS X Mavericks is released, that's the version of OS X that will be on the Mac. I seem to remember that those people who bought a Mac within 2 weeks of a new OS X release also got free upgrades. Not particular sure about the time frame, but something in that range..

If you buy a Mac now, You will probably have to pay. Maybe $20. Nobody knows for sure though because nothing is announced. It won't be Microsoft expensive though.

Anyway, mavericks will likey cost 20 bucks

I don't remember of this has remained true since the price of the OS dropped but the policy used to be fairly generous. If I remember correctly buyers who purchased new machines after the new OS was announced but before it shipped got an update for free. This was also true if you purchased a machine after the new OS was released but the machine you purchased had shipped with the old OS,

Not sure if that is the policy now since the last few major OS releases have been pretty cheap.

This is why I mentioned above...that Mavericks hasn't been released yet.

All of these questions about Mavericks will be answered...once Mavericks is released. Until then...we can only guess. Educated guess's yes.

- Nick

For Mountain Lion a free upgrade was offered for machines purchased after the announcement at WWDC June 2012. Imagine would be the same Sly.

That was my thinking. Even with Leopard, which was more expensive, I was able to do something similar. Leopard was shipping but the machine I ordered had 10.4 pre-installed so the Leopard disc got included. I ordered through a third party vendor but given the way things were packed I think the disc was included by Apple.

I upgraded to Mountain Lion for $20. **** of a lot cheaper than any thing MS could offer you. Can't complain.

So here is what we think we know:

a. If you buy a Mac now you MIGHT get a free upgrade to Mavericks when it comes out. However, I must caution you that Apple isn't consistent about this, so it's possible that you won't.

b. *IF* OS X Mavericks follows the path of recent OS X upgrades, it will cost between $20-30 even if you do have to buy it, so really that's not a big deal IMO.