back to article Game gears up for Mac OS X Lion release with... Panther

Looking forward to Lion, but think it's too advanced an operating system for you? Pop over to Game's shop in Swindon's Regent Street, which is still flogging copies of Mac OS X 10.3 circa 2003. Yes, the branch of the retail chain has three copies of Panther, any one of which can be yours for a penny short of £100. Game's …

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  1. jai

    oh look!

    they even have one of the rare Australian versions...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Full version vs upgrade

    Might the version Game are selling be the full (non-upgrade) version, and the £20 version of 10.7 quoted be the upgrade version? In other words, while the £20 10.7 version may install from scratch, for licensing purposes you need a "full" version of OSX for it to be strictly legal? I seem to remember something about that.

    I'm just guessing, though it might explain the price difference.

    Heck, who cares... I sure don't, I hate Macs anyway.

    1. Richard 81

      10.6

      You need 10.6 if you want to upgrade to 10.7. Anything older lacks the necessary app store.

      1. Michael Jennings

        No machine that can run Panther has been sold in years, either.

        Also, Panther runs only on PowerPC Macs. Lion runs only on 64 bit Intel Macs. There are no machines that are capable of being upgraded from one to the other (even with intermediate steps).

        In a sense, copies of OS-X are upgrade versions, as it is only legal to install them on PCs that came with an earlier version of the Mac OS included when you bought the PC. I think the licenses supposedly require that you upgrade from the previous version of OS-X, so theoretically you couldn't go directly from 10.4 to 10.6. On the other hand, if you just simply bought the disc and did it, it worked fine, and Apple did not support an official upgrade path for this once they had released 10.6 and discontinued sales of 10.5, one doesn't get the impression that they cared, especially.

        Things are perhaps different with Lion as you can only buy it from the App store. On the other hand, it remains to be seen if there is anything stopping you from simply downloading the image from the App store, copying it to a DVD or a memory stick, and then just using it to install on another machine, that may or may not be running 10.6. Apple has not traditionally used any copy protection or registration keys or such for its OS: it remains to be seen if they will do so now. It may well be that the App store is the only way to buy it, but it may not be the only way to get it.

        The Gold Master of 10.7 is already available to developers. I'm running it on the machine I am using to type this. It installed fine without using the App store. I will be intrigued to see whether the App store notices that I haven't yet paid for it and asks me to pay when 10.7 is officially released. (I will do so even if it doesn't - Apple have earned the money).

        Of course, even if there is a mechanism to check whether I have paid and ask me to if I haven't, this still probably isn't going to check whether I was running 10.6 prior to upgrading to the GM, and it certainly isn't going to be able to check if I paid for that.

        In practice, I think we are still at "Apple doesn't care much what you upgrade from".

    2. Ted Treen
      Facepalm

      Who cares?

      I care.

      I love Macs., but I don't hate PCs.

      Strikes me as being a little stupid to generically hate Macs, hate Windows, hate Linux, or hate Unix. I just love best that with which I'm comfortable, and which I find works best & easiest for me.

      Getting a little pissed off with those who think their point of view is the only possible valid & correct one in the world, and anyone who differs is some kind of retard and/or deviant...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Trollface

        I don't hate Macs

        Just their smug owners.

      2. LinkOfHyrule
        Paris Hilton

        I hate Macs 'cus...

        I hate Macs 'cus I can't afford one.

        Paris 'cus she is a natural fit with the town of Swindon.

    3. The Reaper
      Joke

      You

      naughty little troll you

  3. James Le Cuirot
    WTF?

    Game sells OS X?

    Since when does Game sell OS X anyway? Or anything Mac-related for that matter?

  4. Doozerboy

    No...

    The full version of Lion is £20. Game are being idiots.

    Where's the Angel steve icon gone?

    1. The BigYin

      @Doozerboy

      I think you'll find that the upgrade costs £20, the full version costs circa £800 (comes with a free computer tho').

      1. Dana W
        WTF?

        Not really.

        The Upgrade is the full version. Everybody knows that. Unlike Windows, an OSX "upgrade" is a full Install in everything but name.

        And if you download Lion, Dumping it onto a DVD or USB key is easy. The Fans and the Hackentosers have been doing it for weeks,

  5. Alan Bourke

    PC World is great for this sort of thing ...

    .... still flogging 4-year-old graphics cards at the original RRP and so on.

  6. GavinL

    Stupid Title

    You have never been able to buy a "full" version of OSX, they have always been upgrades.

    The full license is only available with a new Mac.

    This is just normal Game pricing.

  7. Marvin the Martian

    The price is about right for OS X.4

    Being the last OS X version suitable for PPC, they regularly go for 70--100 on ebay...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      What about 10.5?

      10.5 Leopard works on PPC too. I guess it's just not one of the biggest sellers...

    2. Michael Jennings

      Leopard.

      10.5 (Leopard) is the last PowerPC version, not 10.4. Apple gave PowerPC users one last upgrade after moving the hardware to Intel. Snow-Leopard was the first to support Intel only. Lion is the first to support 64-bit Intel only.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      OS X.4

      ... is Tiger. The only Tiger retail boxes sold were for PowerPC machines, as the the first Intel Macs came with Tiger pre-installed, thus no need for an Intel Tiger upgrade.

      These boxes contain Panther, PowerPC only (it never ran on Intel outside of Apple HQ), and is missing Dashboard and a very slow Spotlight.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Co-Op

    Couple of larger branches of the Co-Op locally were selling PS1 titles, including "Sky Sports Quiz 1998" for RRP £25. Been there a couple of years gathering dust, and last time I was there 6 months ago, they were still present in the "entertainment" section..

    1. Chris J
      Thumb Up

      If no-one notices that they're obsolete...

      ... the beancounters can still count them as assets.

  9. telecine

    Telecine

    The Mac haters are always the smug ones.

    1. Ted Treen
      Trollface

      It would seem that way...

      Can't really understand why. My Mac's great - others might not think so - but hell; lots of people I work with love cheesecake. I can't stand the stuff, but I don't knock it for those who love it..

  10. JDX Gold badge

    Um

    I've got 10.5. How do I update?

  11. JHo
    Pint

    Bargain

    I'd get the one on the right as it's only £66.66 - bargain

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    Swindon. This is Swindon.

    The software may be 8 years old now, but that's because here in Swindon we're at least 8 years behind the rest of the world. Take a walk around Penhill and you'll still find people wearing Global Hypercolour t-shirts, Pepe jeans and Converse All Star trainers.

    I took the peasant carrier the other day and someone was listening to GWR Radio* on his Walkman - they were playing Chaka Demus & Pliers. I think he was going to the cinema to watch that film that's just been released in Shaw Ridge, The Full Monty.

    It's not all bad though cause petrol in Swindon only costs 60p per litre and you can buy a very nice house for £70K.

    "Escape" key, obviously, cause one day I'll hopefully escape from Swine Down.

    *for those not from round 'ere GWR Radio was renamed Heart a few years ago, but nobody has thought to tell the people of Swindon about it yet.

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