Date: 2009-08-25 20:13:00
Tags: apple
snow leopard upgrade fail

What the hell, Apple.

My MacBook came with OS X 10.4, which it's been running since 2007. Amy's MacBook came with OS X 10.5. I thought I'd step us up to the latest 10.6 "Snow Leopard" version, which is supposed to be all spiffy and better.

The Snow Leopard upgrade is NZ$59 (quit laughing at the prices of stuff here and bear with me). The Family Pack is NZ$99, which sounds like a good deal to cover our two eligible computers (the 1st gen Mini is a PPC and can't be upgraded). But on the Tech Specs page for Snow Leopard, the fine print says essentially:

What's the Mac Box Set? It contains (surprise) 10.6 Snow Leopard, plus a whole bunch of crap like iLife, iPhoto, iMovie, iGarageBand, iWeb, iDVD, iWork, iPages, iNumbers, iKeynote that I don't care about. And it's NZ$349. Why can't I just buy the upgrade and apply it to 10.4? Is there a technical reason why the upgrade by itself won't work?

It looks like I could buy 10.5 from a local shop here (since Apple New Zealand doesn't seem to offer that version anymore) for NZ$199 and then upgrade with the Snow Leopard family pack. Why is 10.5 $199? I have no idea. Is there a better solution here?

I'm getting this >< close to not caring and just using what I already have. All I really wanted was to be able to run Google's Chrome browser.

Comment

[info]6opou
2009-08-25T08:17:44Z
Since it's Apple making it difficult, I say get use an illegitimate copy of 10.5 so you can upgrade to the legitimate copy of 10.6.
[info]ghewgill
2009-08-25T08:37:19Z
Good idea, looks like I can get a 10.5 on trademe (local ebay equivalent) for not more than NZ$100, and perhaps much less. That's a start.
[info]gev : computing bollocks
2009-08-25T08:33:59Z
that's pretty lame... I don't recall 10.5 costing that much when it came out.
            

            
            

            OTOH: Chrome won't run on 10.4?  wow.
[info]ghewgill : Re: computing bollocks
2009-08-25T08:38:43Z
Yeah, for some (undoubtedly technical) reason Chrome needs 10.5. I fear that more and more software will require newer versions, for various reasons. I don't want to get stuck running Apple's equivalent of Windows ME.
[info]eliset
2009-08-25T12:57:16Z
Personally, I'd just wait a little while. I could see them just wanting to make a little money off 10.4 users who want to upgrade nownownow. Or call your local office in Sydney and ask them to document your feedback
[info]paradox0220
2009-08-25T14:02:00Z
It is sad that Apple chooses to get so greedy lately when they have an otherwise perfectly viable Windows alternative. With Windows 7 out, you'd think they'd worry a bit more about the customer experience than lining their pockets in the short term and chasing away customers in the long term.

[info]nugget
2009-08-25T14:17:11Z
I dunno, USD$49 for the Snow Leopard Family Pack seems like a great deal to me. And they sliced the price of server from USD$999 to USD$499. Doesn't seem like greedy pocket-lining to me.

It's sort of lame that to go from 10.4 to 10.6 they expect you to buy the unrelated iLife and iWork apps, but that's a small complain in a sea of larger not-so-bads imho.
[info]equiraptor
2009-08-25T14:20:56Z
Why is 10.5 $199? I have no idea.

I don't know how the US prices compare to the NZ prices, but 10.5 was $129 here, for a single license, and $199 for the family pack. For comparison, 10.6 is $29 and $49. So Leopard does cost significantly more than Snow Leopard.

This is from memory, so it very well may be faulty, but I seem to remember something in the speech where Snow Leopard was announced that said it would have very low price points for those who had Leopard. The implication, though, was that it would be the "normal" $129 / $199 for people with Tiger. It is disappointing and annoying that you can't buy Leopard from Apple and have to buy the annoying box set.
[info]mduell
2009-08-27T15:32:51Z
Mossberg: But here’s a tip: Apple concedes that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade will work properly on these Tiger-equipped Macs, so you can save the extra $140.
[info]ghewgill
2009-08-27T19:38:44Z
Cool, thanks. I shall keep an eye on this. I suspect Apple will capitulate and this will cease to be a problem.
[info]banana
2009-08-27T20:07:17Z
I have 10.4 and looked at the 10.5 upgrade when it came out. It was almost 50% of what I'd paid for my mac mini, so you can guess how long I thought about that.

Now my son is complaining that new mac games won't work on 10.4.

:: sigh ::
[info]rifkafox
2009-09-20T05:33:48Z
My partner works for apple... it's the exact same disk for 10.6 in both boxes... just get the upgrade..
Greg Hewgill <greg@hewgill.com>