$30 Snow Leopard Disc Can Upgrade Tiger

500x_Walt_Snow_Lep_Review

With Uncle Walt’s confirmation, the cat’s officially out of the bag: That $30 Snow Leopard disc Apple’s making available starting Friday? It works with more than just full Leopard installs — it can upgrade any Intel Mac, including those running Tiger. In other words, unless you want to pick up iLife and iWork in the process, the only reason to buy the $169 Mac Box is if you want to live by the spirit of Apple’s marketing.

What do you think, Tiger users? Will you abide by formal ethics or just buy the cheapest upgrade path ever? And will your Leopard-buying friends hate you for it?

All Things D via Gizmodo

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Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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Posted in Apple, Software, Top stories |

Ian Donaldson
my bad my computer just sucks. a friend did it and this works sorry
T. Bell
I am ready to upgrade my 2007 Tiger iMac to Snow. I have read all of these comments and sit here wondering if I dare do just the $29 OS upgrade. I don’t want anything to happen to my computer. I called Apple support and they sad I HAD to do the package. I don’t need iWorks and I don’t have a lot of money. DOES it work??!!
General U
iPhone 4…
So we have both Macs and PC’s in our household and two of us recently received our iPhone 4′s. The PC currently has XP Professional and is able to update and accept the new iPhone 4, and the Mac, which currently has Tiger is not able to accept it. In essence, in order for the Mac user to use the iPhone 4, that person must spend an additional $169 to upgrade to Leopard… not cool. Fortunately we have multiple PC’s that can accept both phones and don’t need to spend the additional money for an unnecessary upgrade – the Mac user is fine and happy with Tiger. If someone else were in this similar predicament, I would “understand” why this bypass upgrade was performed.
SSSS
mac gave me the 30 dollar copy to upgrade my tiger so i could use it with my iphone 4…cant be too illeagle
Marty
Dont worry about Apple peeps… they are making plenty of $$$. I’m a big fan, but think they are getting a little greedy. About time we got something for a knock down price… rather than trying to rip us loyal customers off with the “box set” which is full of a load of stuff we don’t want or need. Buy the $30 version or borrow from a friend… if you were not so greedy Apple we would not be driven to this action.
Adam
Bought the iPhone 4 connected to my 10.4.11 MacBook and you know the rest. I did what most people did, called Apple and bitched, and then I returned the phone. After I got over it, I called again and was told that all I needed was the $30 upgrade disc. I backed up my HD, and decided to give it a try. Not only did someone at Apple tell me it was possible, Apple support walked me through it. Now I am up and running with Snow Leopard and because I did the erase download, everything is much faster. Now all I have to do is go to Apple tomorrow and pick up a new iPhone 4. There is nothing on the upgrade disc packaging that says you need Leopard 10.5 to use the disc.
To everyone wondering: The $30 upgrade disc WORKS with Tiger.
I’ve given Apple plenty of money over the past two decades. In no way do I feel slightly bad about this. I just wanted my iPhone 4 to sync with THEIR equipment.

Patrick
Are there any tips you can give? Because I just got my copy in the mail and mu MacBook running 10.4.11 just spools it up then spits it out. I called Apple, told them I just bought an iPhone 4 and was trying to upgrade and they told me I have to by the wretched boxed set, which cost more than half as much as the phone! Ugh! No help was offered or given.

Haunt
I inherited my MacBook from my cousin. It’s a Tiger system and the only reason that it doesn’t have Leopard is a) she was too cheap and b) she was too lazy to upgrade it. I don’t think it’s at all fair that I should have to foot a $169 bill because she didn’t go the extra step.
I’m debating moving up to Snow Leopard, but if I decide to, I’m pretty much certain that I’ll be using the $29 version. I don’t need or want iWork or iLife, and I wasn’t the one that made the choice to stick with Tiger when Leopard came out.
AnonMac
OK, I just want to say something. Has anyone read the OS X EULA?
There are three types of discs. The Leopard upgrade, which happens to be free, but need $9.99 shipping. This can be installed on and used one Apple branded computer at a time, and needs Leopard pre-installed. This disc is labeled a Upgrade. Then there is the Single User disc, which retails for $29. That can be installed and used on any one Apple branded computer at a time, regardless of whether or not Leopard is installed. The only place that says Tiger users buy the Mac Box Set is the Apple Site. And it doesn’t even say Tiger users must buy it. And finally, the Family Pack. This retails for $49 and can be installed and used on any 5 Apple Branded computers at a time.
While it is true that the Single User version can install on multiple computers at a time, it does violate the EULA. Installing it on a computer with Tiger installed, and no Leopard present, doesn’t violate the EULA. In fact, the Tiger users, never needed to have purchased Leopard.
I think Apple just wants people who know about it to buy the normal version, while ones who don’t will to buy the Mac Box Set. That way, and more people would buy Snow Leopard.
Just my 2 cents.
Christy
I am still using Tiger. I personally didn’t want to have to pay $169 for the Mac Box Set. I called the Apple Tech Support line. I was told by Apple themselves, that I don’t have to purchase the box set to upgrade to Snow Leopard. I was told if I only wanted the MAC OS X upgrade I could upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard by only purchasing the Snow Leopard upgrade for the $29. I believe is it was going to be illegal to do this Apple would have told me so. Don’t you!!!!
Ian
So… I went to the Mac Store yesterday and the guy handed me a Mac OS X Snow Leopard disc. $30. Loaded it into my 2007 MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo running 10.4.11. Absolutely no problem. As far as I’m concerned, if the guy at the Mac store gave it to me and told me it was OK I don’t have any issue with it. You only need the box set if you’re going to use all the iLife crap.
MacLover
I’m getting this disk on Friday, and I am upgrading from Tiger. I’ll let you know how it went

I<3Apple
did it work well? i have an older mac mini and i have been waiting to upgrade for a while. I just wanna get it running snow leopard without buying the box set for $130.00…

Anticipate
this makes me happy. I just purchased snow leopard and i’m upgrading from tiger. i hope it works
Passionwater
It works! i upgraded mine from tiger to snow leopard with the $30 upgrade software.

Anonymous
What noticeable changes (if any) did you notice after your upgrade? Was the actual install of Snow L over Tiger smooth? I have a late 06 macbook running tiger and am considering buying the $30 upgrade. Thanks ahead for any info.
Anonymous
What noticeable changes (if any) did you notice after your upgrade? Was the actual install of Snow L over Tiger smooth? I have a late 06 macbook running tiger and am considering buying the $30 upgrade. Thanks ahead for any info.

Anonymous
Does the processor matter when trying to use the $30 Snow Leopard upgrade? I have Tiger and a 1.9 GHz PowerPC G5 processor and the Apple Chat guy said I could not upgrade straight to Snow Leopard. Any thoughts?
Anonymous
I’m upgrading my tiger G4 Mac OSX 10.4 powerbook to leopard. Is there anything I can do to protect my apps.? Obviously I have backed everything else up. Biggest concern is my pro-tools and reason programs
Long
have i been lied to? the guys at the apple store made it seem like i couldn’t upgrade from tiger – 10.4 to 10.6 snow leopard without 10.5, meaning i should just get the box set.
Chuck Englehart
Will this work on a mid-2007 c2d 2.16 with a bare hard drive?