OS X upgrades?

Chazam

Chazam

Apple Virgin
What is apple's policy on Operating System upgrades?
Me and my fiancee bought our iBook and it came with with OS X Panther. When the next update comes for OS X will we have to buy a new copy of the updated OS or will there be a discounted or free upgrade for people who own older versions?
Is it necessary to buy the newer OS? (How obsolete have the older versions become?)
Thanks!
 
You'll have to buy Tiger. There's a window for discounts but you won't see it. You won't have to buy Tiger (though you'll want to).
 
To Qualify what Randman said;

To install Tiger on your Machine, you'll have to purchase a copy, which is likely to be about $129.00. Generally OS Updates include the latest iLife releases, so I would personally wait until iLife 5.0 gets released, and see if I could then update them both for US$129.00.

You should not need to install Tiger, unless you want some of the Advanced Interface features.

If you had bought a machine in the few months before Tigers release, you may have been eligible for a free upgrade, but I don't think this Upgrade will apply to you :(
 
Apple's new OS version policy has consistently been to charge the full retail price, $129 for a single license and $199 for a five license "family pack." Whether you would call that an upgrade or a new OS is open to interpretation.

There was a window for obtaining low cost copies of 10.1 for users of 10.0, but that expired after four months and was not repeated for Jaguar or Panther and after all the hate and furor it raised with those who missed the window I would not expect it to be repeated with Tiger either.

The only true upgrade pricing has been for new computers or copies of the previous OS purchased after a definite release date for the upgrade version has been announced. An exception was made to allow all G5 purchasers the upgrade even if purchased before the Panther release date was announced. These upgrades cost $29 for "shipping and handling" and in Panther were shipped on CDs that required a Jaguar installation before they would run. In my personal opinion these "upgrade" CDs are evil. The demonstration of Tiger at this months WWDC is not a definite release date. I would expect the actual release to be in late September at the earliest and more likely sometime in October or November. The release date will not be announced until a couple of weeks prior to the actual release.
 
Chazam said:
When the next update comes for OS X will we have to buy a new copy of the updated OS or will there be a discounted or free upgrade for people who own older versions?
Is it necessary to buy the newer OS? (How obsolete have the older versions become?)
Thanks!
Click to expand...

As discussed, if you wanted the newer version of the OS, you will have to buy it. What the others have failed to point out though is that it is not what you'd call "neccessary".
Typically, Apple maintains security updates for all OS releases. Existing Apple software is kept operational on all versions of the OS that it supports (that means incremental and bug-fix updates are always made available on the same OS for the original release).
New software releases are typically made to be used on either the current or previous major OS releases. (When iLife '04 was released, for instance, it supported 10.3 and 10.2. And when iTunes 4 was released, it was installable for 10.2 and 10.1, the current and previous major releases)

The long and short of it is that you won't ever "need" to update your OS software - unless you specifically want to make use of software or features that is no longer supported on the current version.

:)
 
symphonix said:
As discussed, if you wanted the newer version of the OS, you will have to buy it. What the others have failed to point out though is that it is not what you'd call "neccessary".
Typically, Apple maintains security updates for all OS releases. Existing Apple software is kept operational on all versions of the OS that it supports (that means incremental and bug-fix updates are always made available on the same OS for the original release).
New software releases are typically made to be used on either the current or previous major OS releases. (When iLife '04 was released, for instance, it supported 10.3 and 10.2. And when iTunes 4 was released, it was installable for 10.2 and 10.1, the current and previous major releases)

The long and short of it is that you won't ever "need" to update your OS software - unless you specifically want to make use of software or features that is no longer supported on the current version.

:)
Click to expand...
thanks for clearing tha tup everyone.:)
I was wondering about the OS updates due to being used to Microsoft's policy of OS upgrades. (Win 98/2000 owners could buy a cheaper upegrade licence)
I suppose due to Apple having no real competition over commercial Os's it can do want it likes with it's OS policy.
 
Yep, it sure can, but the difference is that Apple typically charges less for their full-blown OSs than Microsoft charges for an upgrade. Would you rather pay over $140 for an XP upgrade, or pay $130 for a full-blown copy of OS X?
 
Also: There's no _NEED_ for a full version/upgrade version difference, since you get a Mac OS license when you buy your Mac. Every Mac OS X version you can buy is therefore an upgrade, if you want.
 
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