Apple details Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-to-Date Program

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
As promised, Apple on Tuesday updated its website with information on how customers purchasing a new Mac or Xserve before the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in September can request a copy of the new operating system for just $10 in shipping and handling.



The Mac maker has broken the Up-to-Date Program into two sections: "Hardware Up-To-Date" for customers purchasing a new Mac running Mac OS X client software and "Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server Up-To-Date" for those buying an Xserve running Mac OS X Server.



Hardware Up-To-Date



Customers who purchase a qualifying new Mac computer (list of models) or a qualifying Apple Certified Refurbished computer (list of models) on or after June 8, 2009 that does not include Mac OS X Snow Leopard can upgrade to Snow Leopard for $9.95 plus tax.



To participate, your completed order form must be postmarked or faxed within 90 days of the date of your purchase of the qualifying Mac or by December 26, 2009, whichever is earlier.



If you purchased your Mac directly from the Apple Online Store, follow one of these links to participate in the program:

US Customers

Canadian Customers (English)

Canadian Customers (French)

If you purchased multiple qualifying Macs on a single invoice, you can either (1) purchase a Single-User Upgrade Kit for each qualifying product, at a cost of $9.95; or (2) purchase fewer Single-User Upgrade Kits and request the Right to Copy for the remaining qualifying products.



If you purchased your computer from an Apple Retail Store or an Apple authorized reseller, follow one of these links to participate in the program:

US Customers

Canadian Customers (English)

Canadian Customers (French)

Those customers who instead prefer to mail or fax their order can instead download and print this order form [PDF].



Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server Up-To-Date



Customers who purchase a qualifying Xserve [ MA882LL/A, MB449LL/A. Z0E7, Z0FR, Z0GM ] or an Apple Certified Refurbished Xserve (list of models) on or after June 8, 2009 that does not include Mac OS X Server v10.6 Snow Leopard Unlimited Client software can also upgrade to Mac OS X Server v10.6 Snow Leopard Unlimited Client for $9.95 plus tax.



Again, completed order forms must be postmarked or faxed within 90 days of the date of your purchase of a qualifying Xserve or by December 26, 2009, whichever is earlier.



If you purchased your Xserve directly from the Apple Online Store, follow one of these links to participate in the program:

US Customers

Canadian Customers (English)

Canadian Customers (French)

If you purchased your Xserve from an Apple Retail Store or an Apple authorized reseller, follow one of these links to participate in the program:

US Customers

Canadian Customers (English)

Canadian Customers (French)

Those customers who instead prefer to mail or fax their order can instead download and print this order form [PDF].



Delivery



Once Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard becomes available in September, Apple says it will ship out upgrade discs "within 24 hours" of receiving a customer's completed order form and the required payment.



Upgrade discs will ship out via U.S. mail (U.S. postal delivery typically takes 3 to 7 working days). Canadian orders may require additional delivery time due to customs processing.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 53
    mactrippermactripper Posts: 1,328member
    Upgrade Disks are a troubleshooters pain in the ass later on!



    My advice, wait a bit until you can get the original Snow Leopard OS disks if all possible with a new machine. Especially for newbies!





    If your a bit more adapt, learn to clone your Leopard boot drive to another hard drive.



    Wait until there is a Snow Leopard update for cloning software and Snow Leopard is stabilized before cloning the new OS over your old Leopard clone.



    Always have at least one other hard drive to "option" boot from that contains your snapshot of your original boot drive (including cloning software to reverse clone) before making any drastic changes. Two hard drive clones are preferred, keep one staggered back in time.



    With a OS update, lots of things break and/or may require a costly update your not prepared to pay or wait for.



    Don't be one of those "Snow Leopard broke my Photoshop and I don't have a backup!!" type crybabies later on.



    Visit Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper websites to learn how to clone your Leopard boot drive properly. I always Erase w/Zero any new drive regardless to improve data retention.



    Cloning will save your bacon one day. It has mine twice.





    >>>For newbies or if you can't understand cloning, just wait until Snow Leopard is stabilized and confirm all your present software will work before you update. Until then, just keep your Time Machine drive connected and wait for the all clear.<<<





    If your interested in my method for cloning, check out the Genius section of AppleInsider



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=32364
  • Reply 2 of 53
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quick, simple question: Does anyone have insights on how a family pack for 10.6 will be priced in a situation in which one of four machines at home is on Tiger, and the rest, Leopard?



    (I wonder why Apple required me to enter my id and password to access this information - I figured I'll post the question here instead, since others in a similar situation may also benefit from the kindness of an answer.)
  • Reply 3 of 53
    galleygalley Posts: 971member
    It seems that some folks would be better off picking up the Mac Box Set (Leopard/iLife '09/iWork '09) which I have seen for as little as $125 on Amazon, and then order the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade separately.
  • Reply 4 of 53
    le studiosle studios Posts: 199member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Quick, simple question: Does anyone have insights on how a family pack for 10.6 will be priced in a situation in which one of four machines at home is on Tiger, and the rest, Leopard?



    (I wonder why Apple required me to enter my id and password to access this information - I figured I'll post the question here instead, since others in a similar situation may also benefit from the kindness of an answer.)



    Family Pack OS X Snow Leopard will be $49!
  • Reply 5 of 53
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by LE Studios View Post


    Family Pack OS X Snow Leopard will be $49!



    Are you sure? Why does Apple's tech specs page (www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html) make a distinction between upgrading from Leopard and upgrading from Tiger:



    Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard.

    If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, just purchase Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard when it?s available and follow the simple installation instructions.



    Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.

    If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set (when available), which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife ?09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork ?09, Apple?s productivity suite for home and office including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
  • Reply 6 of 53
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by LE Studios View Post


    Family Pack OS X Snow Leopard will be $49!



    Well, it'll be $49 to upgrade the Leopard computers, right? From what I understood, the Tiger computer will still have to be upgraded at full cost. Or I suppose the Tiger could be upgraded to Leopard, and then all the computers could be upgraded with the Family Pack. And then you'd have an extra Leopard disc, just in case.
  • Reply 7 of 53
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    Upgrade Disks are a troubleshooters pain in the ass later on!



    My advice, wait a bit until you can get the original Snow Leopard OS disks if all possible with a new machine. Especially for newbies!





    If your a bit more adapt, learn to clone your Leopard boot drive to another hard drive.



    Wait until there is a Snow Leopard update for cloning software and Snow Leopard is stabilized before cloning the new OS over your old Leopard clone.



    Always have at least one other hard drive to "option" boot from that contains your snapshot of your original boot drive (including cloning software to reverse clone) before making any drastic changes. Two hard drive clones are preferred, keep one staggered back in time.



    With a OS update, lots of things break and/or may require a costly update your not prepared to pay or wait for.



    Don't be one of those "Snow Leopard broke my Photoshop and I don't have a backup!!" type crybabies later on.



    Visit Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper websites to learn how to clone your Leopard boot drive properly. I always Erase w/Zero any new drive regardless to improve data retention.



    Cloning will save your bacon one day. It has mine twice.





    >>>For newbies or if you can't understand cloning, just wait until Snow Leopard is stabilized and confirm all your present software will work before you update. Until then, just keep your Time Machine drive connected and wait for the all clear.<<<





    If your interested in my method for cloning, check out the Genius section of AppleInsider



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=32364



    This is overkill for the VAST majority of users. People running Leopard now will likely have no problem. For added peace of mind, all one has to do is backup important documents/photos/apps/music (etc) before upgrading.



    Don't get me wrong, a clean install is always better. But there is no need to clone and reverse clone and all of that. Just backup, install and then run a permissions repair. You'll be fine.
  • Reply 8 of 53
    kaiwaikaiwai Posts: 246member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Are you sure? Why does Apple's tech specs page (www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html) make a distinction between upgrading from Leopard and upgrading from Tiger:



    Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard.

    If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, just purchase Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard when it?s available and follow the simple installation instructions.



    Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.

    If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set (when available), which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife ?09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork ?09, Apple?s productivity suite for home and office including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.




    I hope that the 10.5 upgrade isn't like the 'uptodate' programme; I ended up having create an image, delete a certain file, reburn the image to a DL DVD - simply so I could do a clean install of Leopard (I was part of the uptodate programme when Leopard was released and the Intel laptop I had was running Tiger).



    I hope that they don't include the 'check' and assume that most people are upgrading from Leopard - I sure as heck don't want to jump through those hoops again.
  • Reply 9 of 53
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    I'm still confused as to how Apple is going to know whether or not you have Leopard installed. Apple said the $29 price tag for Snow Leopard is only for Leopard users so it makes you wonder...how will they know whether or not you have Leopard or Tiger installed? I guess Apple could put a checker in the Snow Leopard installer that goes out and looks for previous systems and then gets the go or no go? The only problem with that is if you're someone like me who just does an erase and install then how will it know? If Apple is going to make users dig out their copies of Leopard it will be a huge mess.
  • Reply 10 of 53
    mactrippermactripper Posts: 1,328member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post


    This is overkill for the VAST majority of users. People running Leopard now will likely have no problem. For added peace of mind, all one has to do is backup important documents/photos/apps/music (etc) before upgrading.



    Don't get me wrong, a clean install is always better. But there is no need to clone and reverse clone and all of that. Just backup, install and then run a permissions repair. You'll be fine.



    Cloning the Leopard boot drive is not necessary before upgrading to Snow Leopard, but I highly recommended it to prevent anything un-forseen from crippling your ability to boot from your computer and seeking help online.



    If the install goes bad, some programs don't work and/or need a update. You can simply option boot off the clone and get back to work until the problems get fixed.



    Cloning is very effective at preventing all sorts of potential problems that were not forseen with the mirads of different configurations people have as their boot drives, especially with hardware drivers which will require a update and are not present on newer OS X install disks.



    MacPro users should know they may have to wait for driver updates for their non-factory installed hardware for Snow Leopard before updating, or their machines may not boot unless returned to the original hardware specs that came with the machine.



    Cloning allows one to "go back" to a previous OS install with functioning drivers, like from Snow Leopard back to Leopard for instance.



    Many people make a living fixing people's computers and cloning is a threat to them because it's so effective. With this OS X update, they drool at the prospect of so many machines being hosed, even getting people to replace their hard drives needlessly.



    I wouldn't say this without being a victim of these people once before. To a tune of $600 for a $100 hard drive. Last time I drop something off to a "Authorized Seller" and ask them to fix the OS, that's for sure. So I learned to clone and have been happy ever since.



    So if your ready to learn about cloning, by all means do so.



    I make it a practice to clone before any OS update, Apple has been known to issue buggy updates and a computer and or software being non-functional until it can be fixed by someone else may not be a option for some.
  • Reply 11 of 53
    mactrippermactripper Posts: 1,328member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post


    I'm still confused as to how Apple is going to know whether or not you have Leopard installed. Apple said the $29 price tag for Snow Leopard is only for Leopard users so it makes you wonder...how will they know whether or not you have Leopard or Tiger installed? I guess Apple could put a checker in the Snow Leopard installer that goes out and looks for previous systems and then gets the go or no go? The only problem with that is if you're someone like me who just does an erase and install then how will it know? If Apple is going to make users dig out their copies of Leopard it will be a huge mess.



    It's a upgrade disk for Leopard only. And yes it knows the OS your trying to update with.



    Yes you will have to reinstall Leopard before using the Snow Leopard upgrade disks if your doing a erase and install method.



    Upgrade disks are a pain, because you have to first install Leopard then update Snow Leopard. God forbid if one of the disks gets corrupted/scratched or lost.



    Problems occur when Snow Leopard gets updated over time, or hardware drivers change and you can no longer boot from write protected Leopard install disks and left with just a upgrade disk.



    So that's why I say just get the full Snow Leopard OS X disks, if all possible.



    Of course cloning solves this problem (and others) because instead of relying upon the OS X install disks and/or upgrade disks you rely upon your latest hard drive clone, complete with all your latest software, hardware drivers and everything.



    It's sweet. But remember cloning software will have to be updated to work with Snow Leopard before you can clone with it. However cloning with Leopard should be fine.



    Good luck and be prepared!
  • Reply 12 of 53
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    It's a upgrade disk for Leopard only.



    Yes you will have to reinstall Leopard before using the Snow Leopard upgrade disks if your doing a erase and install method.



    Upgrade disks are a pain, because you have to first install Leopard then Snow Leopard.



    Problems occur when Snow Leopard gets updated over time and you can no longer boot from Leopard install disks and left with just a upgrade disk.



    So that's why I say just get the Snow Leopard OS X disks, if all possible.



    Of course cloning solves this problem because instead of relying upon the OS X install disks and/or Upgrade disks you rely upon your latest clone, complete with all your latest software, hardware drivers and everything.



    It's sweet. But remember cloning software will have to be updated to work with Snow Leopard before you can clone with it. However cloning Leopard should be fine.





    I've used upgrade discs in the past and was able to do an erase and install. To me it acted just like a regular installer DVD. If it really is going to be a pain in the ass...I can get an educational discount so I'll just fork out the money and buy the regular boxed version.
  • Reply 13 of 53
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Yeah, MacTripper do you have any experience with Apple selling upgrade-only disks in the past? As far as I know you can always do a clean install from any OS X disk if you want.



    I was under the impression the whole discount for upgrade was going to be almost honor system based, you know, like put in the serial number of your previous OS online at order or something. Apple is so loose with their client OS registration anyway...



    It's not like it's MS we're talking about here.
  • Reply 14 of 53
    mactrippermactripper Posts: 1,328member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post


    I've used upgrade discs in the past and was able to do an erase and install. To me it acted just like a regular installer DVD. If it really is going to be a pain in the ass...I can get an educational discount so I'll just fork out the money and buy the regular boxed version.



    Ok, then perhaps it really wasn't a upgrade disk. It was a full OS X version but discounted for previous OS owners. Perhaps without a box or something. Just thrown in with a new Mac purchase. Taped to the outside of the box is how I got my Panther upgrade disks.



    I could boot from the Panther upgrade disks, but couldn't install Panther without first having Jaguar installed if I remember correctly. I wound up having to buy the box version of Panther eventually to get my machine to boot from the disk because the drivers for my video cards were not present on the Jaguar disk.



    Then I found out about missing updated drivers for my installed hardware and went the cloning method and never looked back.



    So what your trying to figure out is if the upgrade disks are really a full OS X Snow Leopard or not. I don't know and I doubt it.



    My advice is to first clone your drive to another hard drive, your going to be spending about $100 or so for a 500GB external, get Carbon Copy Cloner (donationware/free) and clone Leopard that way. Then buy the upgrade disks for Snow Leopard for whatever cheap price and do it that way, get full value for your money.



    If you got Tiger, your going to have to buy the full box of Snow Leopard. It won't install, over Tiger. Unless your a hacker or get a crack or something.



    Also it looks like iLife will not be updated with the Snow Leopard upgrade disks.



    Apple is offering upgrade disks as way for people not to put off hardware purchases until Snow Leopard is released.



    IMMO Snow Leopard box set will have updated iLife too.



    the confusion is yours to sort, I got a lunch date with a sweet dental hygentist.



    bye
  • Reply 15 of 53
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    Ok, then perhaps it really wasn't a upgrade disk. It was a full OS X version but discounted for previous OS owners. Perhaps without a box or something. Just thrown in with a new Mac purchase. Taped to the outside of the box is how I got my Panther upgrade disks.



    I could boot from the Panther upgrade disks, but couldn't install Panther without first having Jaguar installed if I remember correctly. I wound up having to buy the box version of Panther eventually to get my machine to boot from the disk because the drivers for my video cards were not present on the Jaguar disk.



    Then I found out about missing updated drivers for my installed hardware and went the cloning method and never looked back.



    So what your trying to figure out is if the upgrade disks are really a full OS X Snow Leopard or not. I don't know and I doubt it.



    My advice is to first clone your drive to another hard drive, your going to be spending about $100 or so for a 500GB external, get Carbon Copy Cloner (donationware/free) and clone Leopard that way. Then buy the upgrade disks for Snow Leopard for whatever cheap price and do it that way, get full value for your money.



    If you got Tiger, your going to have to buy the full box of Snow Leopard. It won't install, over Tiger. Unless your a hacker or get a crack or something.



    Also it looks like iLife will not be updated with the Snow Leopard upgrade disks.



    Apple is offering upgrade disks as way for people not to put off hardware purchases until Snow Leopard is released.



    IMMO Snow Leopard box set will have updated iLife too.



    the confusion is yours to sort, I got a lunch date with a sweet dental hygentist.



    bye



    This is pure speculation, and the comments about iLife just throw the rest of your comments into even more suspicious light. That is soooo unlikely, c'mon, are you kidding me?



    My experience, the way Apple currently treats licensing of client software, and their official comments on stuff like DRM-free music would lead me to think that it will be as painless as possible. Probably just special disks that require either an installed Leopard system or a UPC code to install.



    As far as cloned disks are concerned, you have heard of Time Machine right? Available free on every new mac? Why would the general public want to go digging around for freeware cloning software when they've got a more convenient solution right there? I'm not saying it doesn't have uses, but for the general person?
  • Reply 16 of 53
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    What I don't understand is Apple's claim that Snow Leopard installs 45% faster.



    Does it upgrade 45% faster? Because it sure as hell doesn't install 45% faster considering most people will need Leopard as a prerequisite to Snow Leopard. Anyone that wants to do a clean installation will have to go through the Leopard installation and then go through the Snow Leopard upgrade. In other words, most people that ever want to do a clean install will be spending a loooong damn time.



    Luckily (I'm sure), you don't have to apply the Leopard updates to upgrade to Snow Leopard.



    I don't know why Apple even bothers mentioning the fact that it installs 45% faster. It'll be mostly false for most people and to those that buy the full install version, of course it's going to be a faster install if Snow Leopard doesn't install printer drivers, localizations, and Intel-only versions of apps. Hell, I think the printer drivers and localizations alone explain the 45% faster install.



    Apple makes it sound like they've improved the speed of the installation algorithm when in fact they've just cut down on the number of things being installed.



    I kinda despise Apple's marketing tactics.
  • Reply 17 of 53
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    It's a upgrade disk for Leopard only. And yes it knows the OS your trying to update with.



    Yes you will have to reinstall Leopard before using the Snow Leopard upgrade disks if your doing a erase and install method.



    I don’t recall Apple ever doing that. They don’t need to add the inconvenience and complexity because you’ve already bought a Mac. Same goes for the serial key.



    As I perceived it, the $29 upgrade for Leopard users is set because it’s really just a refinement to Leopard in many ways. For Panther users it’s a completely new OS. I assumed that you’d still be able to wipe your HDD and only use the SL disc without ever touching Leopard again.
  • Reply 18 of 53
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol View Post


    I don't know why Apple even bothers mentioning the fact that it installs 45% faster. It'll be mostly false for most people and to those that buy the full install version, of course it's going to be a faster install if Snow Leopard doesn't install printer drivers, localizations, and Intel-only versions of apps. Hell, I think the printer drivers and localizations alone explain the 45% faster install.



    Apple makes it sound like they've improved the speed of the installation algorithm when in fact they've just cut down on the number of things being installed.



    I kinda despise Apple's marketing tactics.



    Faster is faster. I don?t see any false advertising there. I also don?t see where they eluded to a better algorithm. They?ve stated that they cut the install disc size down by 50%. That isn?t just printer drivers, but removing erroneous or redundant code from the OS itself.



    In fact, it?s about half the size and installs in about half the time. If it were an algorithm the different machine types would vary the installation time, but when you are dealing with just the size of the install they can be fairly accurate with the time difference, regardless of the machine being compared.
  • Reply 19 of 53
    ouraganouragan Posts: 437member
    Thanks for the links, and especially the Canadian links, including the French Canada links, but does this means that the Hardware Up-To-Date program is limited to North America?



    No links for European countries, Asia or the Middle East?





  • Reply 20 of 53
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I don’t recall Apple ever doing that. They don’t need to add the inconvenience and complexity because you’ve already bought a Mac. Same goes for the serial key.



    As I perceived it, the $29 upgrade for Leopard users is set because it’s really just a refinement to Leopard in many ways. For Panther users it’s a completely new OS. I assumed that you’d still be able to wipe your HDD and only use the SL disc without ever touching Leopard again.



    I don't recall ever having to do this either. And it says Upgrade right on the disc.



    I've always been able to do an erase and install with upgrade discs. Its basically a full blown version.



    If Apple is going to require Leopard to be installed then this is going to be a huge mess come September. I always do an erase and install or an archive and install when going to a completely new version. Many other people do too because a lot of the time the upgrade just screws everything up.
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