Snow Leopard Without Leopard? Yes You Can!

Well, isn’t this interesting?

Even though Apple suggests Mac users without Leopard buy the $169 Mac box set to get Snow Leopard, anyone can purchase the $29 Snow Leopard disc and install Snow Leopard in its entirety without having already installed Leopard.

This means the $29 Snow Leopard DVD isn’t an “upgrade” at all; it’s the full-on Mac OS X operating system for 30 bucks.

You can find a series of reviews for the upgraded OS here. The general consensus is that Snow Leopard is a real improvement over Leopard and that it’s worth the money.

However, I do have a question that I’ve not seen answered. If I were to buy Snow Leopard and install it over Tiger on my Mac Mini Core Solo, would I have violated the Snow Leopard EULA?

Actually, my first question is whether or not my trusty Mac Mini Core Solo can handle Snow Leopard well enough to make it worth my while. I’m rather happy with Tiger. I’m not very happy that several programs I use or want to use require me to get Leopard or Snow Leopard. It reminds me of my Windows-using days when I, as a happy user of Windows 98b, found myself forced to upgrade to an OS I really didn’t want in order to use the programs I did want. That’s the biggest reason I became a Mac user in the first place. Now, Apple is reminding me of my days as a Windows user, and I’m reasonably sure that’s not a memory they want me to have.

However, if I can upgrade cheaply to Snow Leopard at $30 instead of having to pay over $100 to install Leopard first, then I won’t be reminded so much of Microsoft, except when I use my G4 laptop (Snow Leopard requires an Intel chip, though Leopard does not). Of course, that assume my Mini will run it well and not like a jalopy going up a steep hill on a snowy day. My guess it that it’ll be fine, but I really don’t know for sure.

Now, back to the EULA issue. I suspect that a Tiger to Snow Leopard install would be a technical violation, but not one that would cause Apple to come after you. My guess is that Apple probably wouldn’t care much at all. The company seems plenty competent at writing software, so I have to wonder if this little glitch isn’t there with Apple’s blessing. I don’t doubt that folks will buy a lot more copies of Snow Leopard because of this than they would have otherwise done, more than they would of Leopard itself. Folks who own an older MAC with Tiger on it who would delay buying a $100 upgrade will be a lot less hesitant to get a better upgrade for a third the price. Yes, it does depress sales of the more expensive box set, though buying that gives both iWork and iLife (I especially recommend iWork), so it shouldn’t depress them terribly.

If you’re inclined to pick up the upgrade, Amazon has them on a little bit of a sale. I do get a small piece of that action, as I’m sure you know by now.

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Tags: Apple, Computer Geekery

Category: Computer Geekery