The Leopard Family Pack Thread

Leopard family pack

i want to pre-order leopard. a few friends and i are all excited for leopard and wondered if the family pack could be used for all of us.

is the family pack of 5 leopard installments limited to a household, or could a group of friends on different networks in different cities use that.

thanks.

cant wait for leopard !

It's limited to Macs in the same which are permanently in the same household.

Leopard Family Pack

So my friends and I are all mac junkies. Between us 3 we have 5 macs. Being that the family pack of Leopard has 5 licenses we figured we could split the cost of the family pack and get Leopard for pretty cheap. We're kind of weary though as there could be some catch that could end up screwing us over. Is there any reason why this plan won't work?

Thanks!
Scott

Below from Apple:

* The Family Pack Software License Agreement allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple software on up to a maximum of five (5) Apple-labeled computers at a time as long as those computers are located in the same household and used by persons who occupy that household. By “household” we mean a person or persons who share the same housing unit such as a home, apartment, mobile home, or condominium, including student members who are primary residents of that household but reside at a separate on-campus location. This license does not extend to business or commercial users.

Click to expand...

Sweet, thanks alot man.

A co-worker asked me this, since I am a mac user at home, but I am not quite sure what the answer is.

The family pack of 5 licenses is ok to use if a student is living on campus- for example, parents buys it and installs it, then lets student install it on their mac as well even though they are living away from home for school. (from what I understand this is fine- this is not my question)

But Leopard is not a downloadable OS, its physically shipping on the 26th.

This is my question- Would it be best to simply ship the OS dvd to the student so they can install it? I'm just trying to help my co-worker sort out the best way to get this done. Normally you can just download the trial of the app and punch in your code, but since its a whole OS, its a bit trickier.

Thanks to anyone who can offer advice (=

Edit: I was wrong, so I deleted the wrong stuff.

I'd send make a copy of the DVD for "archival/backup purposes" and send that.

would the dvd just copy that simply? wouldnt it be protected somehow? that might be a dumb question.

I don't think you can make a copy of the install disks. He should be able to purchase a copy on campus and then send it home. Because he is away from home, it maybe better for the student to have a copy.

He should be able to copy the disc. It's probably illegal to make a copy, even if it is backup of a family pack.
The likely hood of needing a second install of 10.5 seems pretty rare.

What if you are not within family? Meaning, my friend and his son are buying the family pack to do their machines and are willing to give me one of the licenses. Will I be able to upgrade/register/etc... just fine or will there be problems?

Thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure the Family pack just means if you have more than one Mac machine.

You should be fine. Just dont make any copies.

So let me get this straight...

Correct me if I'm wrong...but there is no actual CD key in Leopard that keeps you from installing on any number of machines with one license? Isn't this a bit odd? So the only difference between single user and family pack is the packaging and Apple being okay with how many times you install? I'm the only one in my household with a mac so obviously I wouldn't do this (had to clear that up ;D ), but it seems interesting to me that so many people are honest enough to actually buy the family pack when they need to install on multiple machines, especially at the rate at which people download music and software illegally in the world. I guess it's good that Apple is willing to trust its customers, and yet another thing that makes life easier than with windows and dealing with verification, etc. What do you guys think about all this?

(P.S. Sorry if this is considered illegal/against forum rules, but I thought it was an interesting topic for discussion.)

Let's just say that Apple expects people to be honest but I'm sure that if they find out that too many people are messing with OS X installs like you're talking about or again like OS X installed on X86, I wouldn't blame them for going Micro$oftian on us and making it mandatory to get a registration key.

Unlike Microsoft, Apple expects most of its OS X sales to come in the form of new hardware. In other words, the vast majority of Leopard sales will come from people buying new machines with Leopard pre-installed. In these cases, it doesn't have to worry about piracy because the restore discs are model specific.

Retail boxes comprise of a smaller percentage of total OS X sales, so if some people decide to install a single license on multiple computers, it isn't that big of a hit to Apple's bottom line. Plus, like MHC said, Apple would like to trust its customers.

A serial # doesn't really prevent anything either these days. I remember being key generators for any program for Windows. You can find XP serials everywhere. All you have to do is not download that genuine advantage tool or whatever and get away with using a serial used millions of times.
Who's to say there isn't a hidden file with a serial number attached so when you register your product with Apple, a serial # is sent. I know you don't have to register but there is probably something going on behind the scenes.
Or maybe Apple just relies on honesty.
True to what they said above. Apple sells lots of other products besides its OS. I am not really familiar with Microsoft's product line off hand (so don't go off on me if i am wrong here), does Microsoft sell much beyond the Zune and xbox? If they don't, their OS really all they have to sell until recently.

Microsoft's cash cows are Windows and Office. It makes the majority of its money by selling Windows licenses (another reason why OS X isn't that big for Apple, it isn't licensed out) and copies of Office.

The Xbox line has yet to produce any significant profit (it lost money for years), and it doesn't seem as though the Zune is adding much to Microsoft's coffers. Microsoft also produces and sells hardware, which it does rather well, but nowhere near the levels of Windows and Office.

Ah, I never thought about how Apple sells mainly hardware, that's a really good point. Thanks for clearing that up.

hmmmm... i'm a only a year old newbie to the mac scene, but there is not serial number to install OS X?
Isn't a license the same thing as a serial # or am i getting that confused with something else.
This is coming from Apple's website "Choose a single-user license for home or office. Or if you have more than one Mac at home, choose the five-user Family Pack.*"

I'm loyal I guess. I bought two upgrade versions for $10 each. I guess I could have bought just one, but why when they are $10 each?

T