Going from Leopard to Mountain Lion

[Pabs]

Ok so I have a 2009 Macbook white running Leopard 10.5.8. I get the impression that in order to get Mountain Lion I need to first get Snowleopard £14 and then upgrade via App Store to Mountain Lion £13.99.

Im not happy about the idea of forking out £28 to go from Leopard to Mountain Lion. Back in the day you could just buy the new operating system on a disc but I think Apple have stopped that as they want to stop people buying operating systems to install on Hackintoshes (thanks a lot nerds!).

Is there any legal way round this? I'm currently unemployed. I can take a £14 hit but £28 is a stretch too far

[Thomas.]

The only reason why you would have to do that is because Mountain Lion requires the App Store to download, and Leopard doesn't have it. It is possible to copy the install files to a DVD or USB stick, and the Apple Store might be able to help you if you don't have a friend with a Mac close by.

You then have to edit a .plist file so that ML loads, as detailed here:

http://mac-how-to.wonderhowto.com/how-to/upgrade-mountain-lion-from-leopard-os-x-10-5-10-8-0138304/

However, if you do have a friend with a Mac, he might have a copy of SL he could lend you to install, and then upgrade to ML from that. Since you won't be keeping the SL installation, I don't think you would fall foul of any copyright laws, but I'm not a lawyer

[muzines]

Im not happy about the idea of forking out £28 to go from Leopard to Mountain Lion.

It's clunky but it's not exactly expensive. But these things happen if you don't upgrade along the way, and then need to make a big jump across 8 years worth of upgrades.

Back in the day you could just buy the new operating system on a disc

Yep. And back in that same day, an OS upgrade cost, what £100+ or so..?

[Pabs]

Im not happy about the idea of forking out £28 to go from Leopard to Mountain Lion.

It's clunky but it's not exactly expensive. But these things happen if you don't upgrade along the way, and then need to make a big jump across 8 years worth of upgrades.

Well I got my Macbook in 2009 so thats not 8 yrs.. but I take your point

[muzines]

Well I got my Macbook in 2009 so thats not 8 yrs.. but I take your point

Ok, then 7yrs from Leopard (released in 2006).
It was a generalisation, not a well researched accurate figure.

[Tui]

Pabs, are you certain your machine can run Mountain Lion? There's a free app that can check this for you:

http://mactracker.ca/

This page has a version, compatible with 10.5:

http://mactracker.ca/archive.html

[Pabs]

I have a Macbook 5.2 and know it will run Mountain Lion.

Cheers

Pabs

[benniferj]

£28 is dirt cheap for an upgrade to the most recent OS.

[G-Doubleyou]

If you have an Apple store / certified repair shop nearby, they will have the ability update your machine.

And you will only have to make one purchase.