

This may not seem like a major drawback, but it means you can't run the last version of Microsoft Office with the classic interface – Office 2004, equivalent to Office 2003 for Windows. Lion also drops Rosetta, the instruction-set-translation system from Transitive Technologies that hitherto allowed Intel-powered Macs to run PowerPC applications. It's a hefty 4GB disk image, too, so you'll need a fast, unmetered connection.Įven if you sensibly held out for one of the later, faster Intel Mac models, you're in trouble if you're still hanging on to any older PowerPC apps. It will only be available for download from the Mac App Store – not on physical media.

Lion's distribution is a little odd, too.
#Mac os x 10.6 snow leopard pc bsod install#
Speaking of upgrades, in our testing, only upgrading from Snow Leopard worked trying to upgrade a 10.5 system yielded a "not supported" message and a bare-metal install started but failed at the first reboot. You also need at least 2GB of RAM just to install Lion, but that's not such a big deal – it's a sensible and affordable upgrade. It is possible to replace the Core-1-series CPU in some Macintel models with a Core 2, but this still leaves you with 32-bit firmware, so it won't help. So if you were one of the first intrepid fanboys to move from a PowerPC Macintosh to a new Intel Mac, you're screwed. All have 32-bit CPUs, while Lion requires a 64-bit capable chip – a Core 2 Duo or better. The first Intel Macs – note the shorter name they're not "Macintoshes" any more – were the Core Duo iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac mini, together with the Core Solo Mac mini. 10.7 won't install or run on the original Core Duo and Core Solo Macs from 2006. Hardware-wise, Lion flips the finger to early Intel adopters. This means that Lion is OS X's first big overhaul since 2006. 2008's "Snow Leopard", version 10.6, was as its name suggests a relatively minor release, which mainly just dropped support for PowerPC machines.

Two years later, 10.5, "Leopard", was the most recent major update.
#Mac os x 10.6 snow leopard pc bsod mac os x#
Mac OS X development has slowed markedly since the release of OS X 10.4 – "Tiger" – in 2004. If you're a fondleslab addict and folders are too complicated, there's Launchpad (click to enlarge)
