What happens when you can no longer purchase a full copy of Mac OS
X?
Although Apple sold OS X 10.6
Snow Leopard as an upgrade from 10.5 Leopard,
it was a full copy. If your hard drive failed, you could boot from the
disc and do a full reinstall. At the time, this seemed like a great
bargain. Buy and upgrade for just $30 (instead of the $129 of previous
versions) - and get the full copy included.
Lion Is Upgrade Only
Then OS X 10.7 Lion came out, and it really
was an upgrade only. You have to have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 installed
before you can upgrade to Lion. No full bootable, installable copies of
Lion are sold by Apple. In fact, Snow Leopard is still available from
Apple, because you need it to upgrade to Lion.1
As a download, this sort of makes sense. An upgrade is a smaller
file size and would be faster and easier to download than a full retail
copy. The problem is that even the store-bought USB thumb drive version
of Lion requires Snow Leopard to be installed first.2
What is Apple teaching the public through these changes?
Apple is a company that has a long-range strategy. It is possible
Apple made this change to save money. Apple has a strong support
infrastructure for downloading software. Converting to an online
upgrade is a natural change. It would also make sense that something
would have to be installed first so you could access that upgrade.
The only question is Why did Apple stop offering a full DVD
version? All previous versions of OS X came on CD or DVD, so Apple
obviously made a decision to end that option. This makes it seem like
Apple is planning to offer only upgrades.
Apple is likely using the online upgrade process as a tool for
increased control. Apple has inserted itself in the install process. It
no longer sells a disk and leaves us to upgrade or install as we like.
This has the potential double-edge benefit of letting Apple provide
better support while at the same time monitoring more closely the
activity of every upgrade we perform.
Apple will know who has what version of its operating system
installed. Even if they anonymize the data, Apple will know precisely
how many copies are in use and on what version of hardware. This is a
great tool for a company that wants to sell more hardware.
The End of Snow Leopard
What is so special about Snow Leopard? This is the version of OS X
that supports Sandy Bridge processors. This was Intel's newest line of
products. The upcoming Ivy Bridge will not be supported by Snow
Leopard. When Apple releases computers with Ivy Bridge, they will not
be able to boot Snow Leopard and have to run Lion.
Technically, this means there is no need for an upgrade, but there
is also no way to install your own licensed copy of OS X Lion. This
will have an impact on the Hackintosh movement. You will have to
create your own full install copy, which doesn't exist as an Apple
product.1
The next step could be for Apple to stop selling copies of Mac OS X.
Today you cannot purchase a retail copy of iOS, and we don't think
about this being strange. Apple has already built into the price of the
iDevice the cost of future upgrades. This could be another way that Mac
OSÊX and iOS become alike.
Apple is within its rights as the copyright holder to restrict the
first sale of its operating system. Without first sale, everything the
Hackintosh crowd does becomes harder to defend legally.
Psystar lost
when it tried to sell a Mac clone. Why would Apple need to change a
protection strategy that has already been proven in court? If the
existing strategy worked against a threat like a business challenger,
why is Apple expanding its ability to block even personal attempts to
clone a Mac?
It's All About Control
The answer for Apple is always about control. By controlling the
experience, Apple controls how people relate to its products. This lets
Apple set a higher price in an otherwise commodity market. Apple is not
likely to give up any control (sorry, Woz, it is not
just about quality). Just because you want it or it will save you
money doesn't mean anything to Apple. Apple is foremost a business that
knows how to make money.
The Hackintosh effort has become very polished, and the tools are
continuing to improve. Despite my personal challenges, I would still
rate the process as easy-to-moderately hard depending on your previous
experience building a computer.
From Apple's point of view, only owners of brand new Apple computers
will need Lion on an Ivy Bridge computer. These people will not need to
buy an upgrade. Therefore, there is no need to support a Lion upgrade
for Ivy Bridge computers.
We will see soon what direction Apple is headed when OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is released
this summer. My guess is that we will have new restrictions, no full
retail copies, and a push to use the App Store for purchase.
- Although Apple does not offer any method for creating a bootable
Lion install drive, several solutions have been published since Lion's
release, including these:
- Lion
DiskMaker, freeware app creates a bootable Lion installer on DVD or
USB flash drive (4 GB or larger).
-
How to Make a Bootable Lion Install Disc or Drive, Dan Frakes,
Macworld, 2011.07.20.
- How
to Make Your Own Apple OS X Lion Bootable USB Key, William Fenton,
PC Magazine, 2011.07.27.
-
How to Create an OS X Lion Installation Disc, Topher Kessler,
MacFixIt, Cnet, 2011.07.20.
- Apple makes no mention of the fact that you can do a clean Lion
install from the OS X 10.7 thumb drive to a drive with no version of OS
X installed ("To upgrade your Mac to OS X Lion, you must be running OS
X Snow Leopard. If you have OS X v10.5 Leopard, purchase OS X v10.6
Snow Leopard now and install it on your Mac. Then buy OS X Lion as a
digital download from the Mac App Store."), although we have since
learned that you can.
