Install SL on more than one mac?

[neonmac]

When I have to install Windows of any type, I have to enter serial numbers and can only use it on that one hard drive. When I got my Mac and from what I have sortta heard, you can install Snow leopard on as many Macs as possible.
I google search but dont seem to find my exact answer. I seem to just keep finding some hackintosh threads on the net.

Can you really install Mac OS X on as many Mac's as you want?. Surely I must have heard wrong?.

 

[McBie]

Technically .... yes
Legally .... NO

Have a look at Apple's EULA, that will explain.
Also have a look at the Community Guidelines on this forum.

Cheers ... McBie

 

[neonmac]

Thanks.

Though, I am not going to actually do this. Just heard it somewhere and thought how could it be true. Seems rather strange Apple of all companies would allow this.

I have no intention of doing this.

 

[sau124]

All softwares are single licenses unless otherwise specified... it is like driving in US, turn on red is allowed unless otherwise specified...

 

[cwa107]

And I will also add that Apple is very trusting. I think a lot of us fear that if that trust is betrayed and it becomes well known, it's only a matter of time before they start introducing the same kind of product activation schemes that Microsoft and so many other software developers do.

 

[bobtomay]

Personally, I think Apple is testing their user base with SL and it's $30 price tag. There is a little known kext installed by Snow Leopard that is named 'Don't steal OS X'. If Apple can't get people to pay an unheard of low $30 for the new OS, we may surely see some sort of activation scheme with the next version of OS X.

 

[toMACsh]

Well, Apple didn't have to run a test of the honesty of the general public when the temptation was free stuff with no immediate penalty. They coulda just called me. I woulda been happy to tell them what result they would get.

 

[neonmac]

Personally, I think Apple is testing their user base with SL and it's $30 price tag. There is a little known kext installed by Snow Leopard that is named 'Don't steal OS X'. If Apple can't get people to pay an unheard of low $30 for the new OS, we may surely see some sort of activation scheme with the next version of OS X.

A kext?. Does it report back to Apple's servers to report the OS is installed on a different hard drive?.

 

[pigoo3]

Seems rather strange Apple of all companies would allow this.

What do you mean by this statement...what does Apple do in any other area of it's business that would lead you to say this?

Apple has NEVER required a serial number or any other sort of validation to install OS software.

- Nick

 

[Jamie-Jamie]

They'll never have activation because Mac OS X requires the world's most expensive hardware dongle.

An Apple computer.

 

[neonmac]

What do you mean by this statement...what does Apple do in any other area of it's business that would lead you to say this?

Apple has NEVER required a serial number or any other sort of validation to install OS software.

- Nick

What I meant by that, was that Apple are very very tightly in control of everything they do and I am surprised they would allow people to be able to install it on multiple machines for free via illegal use of the software. I just never thought Apple would leave an OS free to be installed on as many Mac's as somebody may try to get away with.
I did not know Apple have always had no activation, I have been a Mac user for 7 weeks now.

As I continue to learn about Apple, Well I am see'ing that nothing is cheap from them and they are very anal about certain things.

 

[dtravis7]

At $30 it should be a crime to NOT purchase SL! Such a low price.

Also I sure do not want Product Activation and have to ask Microsoft permission on the phone when I change too much of my hardware. Can I? Can I daddy? Can I change the video card? Will you give me a new Product Activation Key please? Pretty please?

 

[bobtomay]

A kext?. Does it report back to Apple's servers to report the OS is installed on a different hard drive?.

Don't really know what it does if anything. Haven't checked it out that much since I purchase my software or do without anyway.

 

[chas_m]

And I will also add that Apple is very trusting.

It's not so much that Apple is trusting as it is that they feel (rightly or wrongly) that its best to treat customers like grown-ups -- as opposed to Microsoft's approach, which has been to assume all users are criminals.

In line with their different philosophy, Apple doesn't padlock their OS -- a trick they are borrowing from Windows' early days, and for the same reasons -- but they do offer a REASONABLY PRICED option for those who actually need multiple copies. They do this with a number of their products, and you'd be QUITE surprised at how well that approach has worked.

Likewise, this is why the iTunes store has done so phenomenally well in the face of easy music pirating; Apple (now) sells a DRM-free, high-quality product at a *reasonable* price, and guess what? People buy it!

As Greg Joswiak once explained it to a few of us, "Apple believes most customers want to be honest and ethical. If you give them good value at a great price, they will respond to that."

So far, I'd say their philosophy is working about better than Microsoft's:

 

[Jamie-Jamie]

It's an idea that goes back to the founding, really. It seems that Jobs, while he is megalomaniacal and a perfectionist, still believes in the concept. Apple computers just cost more because the company refuses to sell poor quality products. It's part of the value equation.