Thursday, July 26, 2012

OS X Mountain Lion is not compatible with this computer

Is anyone else out there upset over Apple's decision to not allow customers to install their latest operating system (OS X Mountain Lion) if your Mac is older than a certain year, even it it meets their basic hardware/software requirements (RAM, OS version, hard drive space)? I certainly am!

While searching for some information about the "OS X Mountain Lion is not compatible with this computer" error message I kept getting when trying to purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store on my Mac Pro, I came across this Apple Support Community forum post,   https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135260,  which explains that if your Mac is older than a certain year (varies per model)... tough luck!! Regardless of how much RAM you have, or your how fast your multi-core-processors are, or how many GB of disk space you have available, you are simply not allowed to even purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store on that computer.

I think this is ridiculous, and I let them know by posting my thoughts about this on that forum mentined above. Sure enough though, Apple quickly removed it (literally within a few minutes), because it contained "Discussion of Apple Policies, Procedures or Decisions". So I've decided to re-post that comment they deleted on every single online news article, blog, & forum I can find out there on this topic. 
Here's a copy of that post that Apple deleted with my thoughts on this...
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Seriously Apple??!! You’ve GOT TO BE KIDDING!! If you're looking to loose clientele fast, this is a GREAT WAY to do it!

I completely agree that you need to have minimum requirements such as OS X v10.6.8 or later, 2GB of memory, 8GB of available space in order to upgrade to the latest OS. That’s perfectly reasonable. BUT… telling us that we need to have a Mac from a more recent year, even if our current one far exceeds those other minimum hardware/software requirements… THAT’S ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS APPLE!!! That’s just a way to try to milk your past customers for new cash and its UNACCEPTABLE! Take for example the system that MHaddon mentions in his post above, which has:

 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 16 GB
Graphics: ATI Radeo HD 5770 1024 MB
Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4

Are you SERIOUSLY expecting folks to spend another $4,000 on a new system with similar specs simply because they bought theirs prior to 2008 or whatever date is it???!!! I DON’T THINK SO! THIS IS ABSURD APPLE! Seriously, GET A GRIP!
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If anyone else thinks similarly, please let Apple know at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Also, here are a few of those other places where I've re-posted a copy of that comment that Apple deleted from their forum, with the purpose of trying to get a wider discussion going on this topic. Feel free to join in on any of them:

2 comments:

mdonohue said...

I have Snow Leopard, and would like to upgrade to just OSX Lion. Among other problems, just searching for "OSX Lion" nearly always turns up Mountain Lion information right now. My machine is not eligible for Mountain Lion, but my understanding is that it was eligible for Lion. Looks like Apple is telling me to F off on that though.

Madame Bête Noire said...

I am having the same issue.. Are there any developments? Is it worthwhile to try a torrent?