Installing New Operating System

Hiya im no brain box. I was just wondering how it works to install a new operatig system over your existing.

eg. does it overide it ?

Like when leopard comes out will it overide tiger. So there will be no tiger at all left on my machine..

thanks

Actually, that is a choice you get to make. You can either upgrade or do a fresh install. In both cases, there will be no Tiger left when you are done, but in the upgrade approach, all of your apps and personal files should be preserved and available just like before after the upgrade.

Personally, I would recommend the fresh install. If you use any OS for a while, junk tends to pile up - apps you don't use, preference files you don't need any more, mistakes you made and recovered. All of that gets swept away and you get a clean sheet of paper to start with. It will present you with the cleanest Leopard experience you can have.

A fresh install *is* a pain in that you have to reinstall all your favorite apps, plus you have to save and restore all your personal files and data, but I think it is worth it. I also recognize that this is *just* a personal opinion. MANY people prefer the upgrade approach to avoid the hassle I have just outlined.

There's also an "archive & install" option. That will save your current OS to a folder, and install the new OS in its place (and keep your personal data intact). This would be the option you'd use if you wanted to "downgrade" your OS for any reason and hadn't backed up your data or can't be bothered to re-format and re-install everything from scratch. It saved me when I killed some files I really shouldn't have been messing with!