Which OSX's are free again..??

[zephfox]

Hi, if anyone searches/remembers my past posts I got a little held up (am a college student and thought i'd have summer off to build up my Mac but ended up needing to take certain summer classes afterall to get them in).. i'm still in the earliest stage of a Hackintosh. I have some hardware already I might use but i'll be hoping to buy stuff perhaps more suited for my end goal as well.

Anyway my question... I mostly wanted to verify things because it's a little hard to verify something. Which versions of OSX are free, and does that include "full install" versions or ONLY "upgrade" versions that have to start from a 10.6 install?

To try answer myself by what I can see if you have an original 10.6 disc, all upgrades should be free. But what concerned me is what happens if i'm installing onto newer hardware and 10.6 doesn't recognize that... if I can get 10.6 working on older starter hardware, am I able to download literally install versions of ALL newer systems, that are capable of upgrading OR clean installing to bare metal? Or will they only be upgradeable from my original 10.6 install once working?

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi, if anyone searches/remembers my past posts I got a little held up (am a college student and thought I'd have summer off to build up my Mac but ended up needing to take certain summer classes after all to get them in).. I'm still in the earliest stage of a Hackintosh. I have some hardware already I might use but i'll be hoping to buy stuff perhaps more suited for my end goal as well.

Anyway my question... I mostly wanted to verify things because it's a little hard to verify something. Which versions of OSX are free, and does that include "full install" versions or ONLY "upgrade" versions that have to start from a 10.6 install?

To try answer myself by what I can see if you have an original 10.6 disc, all upgrades should be free. But what concerned me is what happens if I'm installing onto newer hardware and 10.6 doesn't recognize that... if I can get 10.6 working on older starter hardware, am I able to download literally install versions of ALL newer systems, that are capable of upgrading OR clean installing to bare metal? Or will they only be upgradeable from my original 10.6 install once working?

Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) are not free and must be bought from Apple.

Mavericks (10.9) and later can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free, provided you have a compatible Mac or working hackintosh. Once downloaded, the MacOS installer can be used to upgrade an existing system, or as a full OS installer on new system by making a bootable USB stick from it.

 

[zephfox]

Right, i've got a Snow Leopard install disc around here somewhere. So that means I cant upgrade to 10.7 or 10.8 (if for some reason I wanted them specifically), I could only go to 10.9 or later?

I see things like this https://os-x-lion-update.en.softonic.com/mac which look like some I assume networked based updater for 10.7.... but I guess that's only to update an earlier 10.7.x to 10.7.5 is that correct? Ie it wont update 10.6 to anything...

 

[trs96]

Right, i've got a Snow Leopard install disc around here somewhere. So that means I cant upgrade to 10.7 or 10.8 (if for some reason I wanted them specifically), I could only go to 10.9 or later?

You can still purchase Lion or Mt. Lion from Apple if you want either of those. They email you a code after you pay them. Sometimes it takes a few days.

I see things like this https://os-x-lion-update.en.softonic.com/mac which look like some I assume networked based updater for 10.7.... but I guess that's only to update an earlier 10.7.x to 10.7.5 is that correct? Ie it wont update 10.6 to anything...

You are correct. What Softonic is offering looks to be the 10.7.5 combo update and will do you no good. It is only for updating from an earlier version of Lion. We only provide support to those using genuine macOS. The only place you should get macOS/OS X is from the Mac App Store on Apple.com. Any version from other sites is going to be modified in some way.

From the Rules:

This site does not condone piracy or the use of illegally acquired software. Any use, discussion, links to or mentions of a pre-built VM, torrent, distribution, downloaded, copied, cloned, hacked or modified installer of the operating system will result in an instant ban and account deletion.

 

[zephfox]

Snow Leopard (10.6), Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) are not free and must be bought from Apple.

Mavericks (10.9) and later can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free, provided you have a compatible Mac or working hackintosh. Once downloaded, the MacOS installer can be used to upgrade an existing system, or as a full OS installer on new system by making a bootable USB stick from it.

Posting back in this thread because realized something else... is Mavericks considered 100% free even for raw metal install? (ie "a friend sends me a disk, as opposed to only upgrading from say a 10.6 install disc) I assume that legally I can only make one legal install from my 10.6 disk (even if I could install to more than one) but if I download Mavericks from it, I could install to multiple other hackintoshes if needed?

Just trying to make sure I dont step on any legal toes I mean, trying to do this by the book.

 

[ModBot]

Posting back in this thread because realized something else... is Mavericks considered 100% free even for raw metal install? (ie "a friend sends me a disk, as opposed to only upgrading from say a 10.6 install disc) I assume that legally I can only make one legal install from my 10.6 disk (even if I could install to more than one) but if I download Mavericks from it, I could install to multiple other hackintoshes if needed?

Just trying to make sure I dont step on any legal toes I mean, trying to do this by the book.

Your friend sending you a copy is piracy.

Read the rules again.

You can install 10.6 on as many computers as you have.

 

[trs96]

is Mavericks considered 100% free even for raw metal install? (ie "a friend sends me a disk

Mavericks (OS X 10.9) doesn’t ship on a disc. Instead, it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store. It is illegal to burn it to a DVD and re-distribute it.

 

[zephfox]

Your friend sending you a copy is piracy.

Read the rules again.

You can install 10.6 on as many computers as you have.

I think you misunderstand, it's an ORIGINAL DISC that he bought and paid for back in the day, an original from the factory came in a box install disc. Since it's years old and the mac he had it for died he didn't need it anymore.

However my assumption was just like even if I had an original disc of Windows XP it's only licensed to work on one computer. If I have an ORIGINAL Snow Leopard disc, am I only allowed to use it on one computer, or more than one computer in the home? Alternately what happens if I install Snow Leopard to one computer, upgrade that to Mavericks (or later), then install Snow Leopard to a second computer?

If I need to buy a second to be legal, fine I buy a second, I have to be legal because i'll be doing commercial video work with this and can't take risks. I'm just trying to not buy things I don't have to either because i'm a student on a shoestring budget.

Mavericks (OS X 10.9) doesn’t ship on a disc. Instead, it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store. It is illegal to burn it to a DVD and re-distribute it.

Is it illegal to make your own disc to install to a 2nd computer? I've seen guides somewhere to turn the USB download into a DVD bootable disc.

My 'problem area' becomes if I want to run Mavericks or newer on truly newer hardware, ie if I upgrade to a Skylake or something apparently Snow Leopard wont even boot to that. But it sounds like I can get the Snow Leopard first early Hackintosh working, then download the Mavericks to install to the 2nd newer hardware Hackintosh?