Is there any point of going 10.8 GM --> Retail Version?

[winterny]

Speaking of piracy. Does anyone know why OS X in general doesn't try to stop people from doing this? I know Apple are a 'hardware company' but until Lion the cost of OS X was still quite high, so by not doing anything about piracy they are losing out on a lot of money.

I have only been using a Mac for about 12months so it is all new to me but it seems strange they have no way of knowing who is pirating and do not try to stop it at all.

Because people who are going to pirate it will do it anyway. People who will pay for it will do it anyway. All you accomplish by putting protection in is annoying your legitimate customers.

 

[mmomega]

I recently had to do an internet restore to a Macbook Air that I was selling after I fully erased the drive. When I rebooted it did have to check with the app store to make sure that I had purchased the OS before it would restore. Just FYI it would be worth the $20 just incase you need to recover the hard drive without going back to the original OS and doing all the updates one at a time.

If your internet connection isn't very quick you can make a USB restore disk.

I do have a fairly fast connection (100Mb/s) but for me redoing 5 Macs it was quicker to clean install from USB created from my GM copy of ML downloaded from the app store.
It never had to connect to the MAS for verification.

 

[CyBeRino]

It doesn't matter if MAS shows if you purchased Mountain Lion. As long as you are running 10.8 Build 12A269, you will get all updates. While I'm not advocating piracy, they aren't going to be checking based on a MAS purchase or not -- there are other legitimate ways you could have obtained 12A269, including having it pre-installed on your computer, or (eventually) purchasing a USB thumbdrive from apple.

Ah, they do actually. First off, there are with ML no other ways to obtain the software than a download from MAS. So if you want to do that, you must purchase. (Or pirate, which as said is easy.)

But when this check is really done is when you use (Internet) recovery. Any USB or DVD media (official or otherwise) has the complete set of install packages on it. The recovery partition and internet recovery do not. These download them from Apple on the fly. Which involves a quick eligibility check.

I say 'eligibility' because this check does two things: first it checks your Mac's inherent eligibility. If it was sold with Mountain Lion, you can install it without further questioning. If it wasn't, it asks you for your MAS credentials to check if you purchased it.

 

[studentism]

Just FYI, if you're an enrolled developer and you try to purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store, Apple kindly informs you that you've already purchased it. I remember thinking the 10.7 GM -> 10.7.1 via Software Update was an oversight, but this is fairly official. I suppose the upgrade cost is baked into the $99/yr fee.

No idea if that works for pirated copies. All I'll say there is that $20 is goddamn peanuts for a fairly polished OS.

 

[hulk2012]

Just installed ML Retail version on top of GM without formatting the disk. Everything looks identical, same copy number built, all I needed to update was java and spotlight index process which took few mins. At least I'm on "genuine" stock OS just in case of anything..

The only "strange" thing is that ML Retail downloaded os icon disappeared and it still showing "download" in AppStore. Any idea why?

 

[zzLZHzz]

Speaking of piracy. Does anyone know why OS X in general doesn't try to stop people from doing this? I know Apple are a 'hardware company' but until Lion the cost of OS X was still quite high, so by not doing anything about piracy they are losing out on a lot of money.

I have only been using a Mac for about 12months so it is all new to me but it seems strange they have no way of knowing who is pirating and do not try to stop it at all.

that is true.
OS X purchase from Lion onward is considered very cheap and you can use it for up to 5 mac. so technical it is not putting a dent on apple profit.

and of course selling it through the app store push down the price as there is no transport and packaging cost.

and in general apple doesn't check for piracy

 

[mattonthemoon]

It you did a clean install from 12A269, you don't need to do a thing. As an Apple Seed participant here is an email I received yesterday announcing the closing of the beta:

Thank you!

The final version of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 was released today! Your 12A269 redemption code actually purchased the final version for you! The last build we seeded, 12A269, is identical to the build that is being sold in the Mac App Store today. There is no need for you to purchase another copy in the Mac App Store.


We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for participating in the seed process. Many bugs and issues have been discovered as a result of your efforts. You have contributed to the overall quality of our product.

We realize that testing involved a great deal of time on your part to submit bugs, submit follow-up information, and re-install software along with your daily work. We appreciate your dedication.

At this time, we do not need any new bug submissions. We will keep the project open for now, so that any already-writtten bugs can be fully diagnosed.

You will continue to have access to your participant page at https://appleseed.apple.com, and we encourage you to keep your information up to date. We will be sure to consider you for future seed projects.

Apple Software Customer Seeding

 

[Schlaefer]

Because people who are going to pirate it will do it anyway. People who will pay for it will do it anyway. All you accomplish by putting protection in is annoying your legitimate customers.

And you have to buy a mac to run it, so Apple is getting your money. Ten years ago they needed every penny, now they want to move their customer base forward as fast as possible and keep two platforms (iOS and OS X) in feature sync (iCloud, AirPlay, Notifications, Messages, Game Center …) without porting back to previous major releases.

 

[jnl1211]

Speaking of piracy. Does anyone know why OS X in general doesn't try to stop people from doing this? I know Apple are a 'hardware company' but until Lion the cost of OS X was still quite high, so by not doing anything about piracy they are losing out on a lot of money.

I have only been using a Mac for about 12months so it is all new to me but it seems strange they have no way of knowing who is pirating and do not try to stop it at all.

You answered your own question. They make their $ off hardware. They couldn't care less about software.

 

[kodeman53]

They couldn't care less about software.

You know this how?

 

[jnl1211]

You know this how?

1. Like I said, they make their $ off hardware
2. They take little to no steps to thwart piracy... Damn near everything you install on a windblows need a key or serial. Word, etc. For mac all you need is the dmg and it installs!

 

[pdjudd]

But with the updates coming from the MAS now, and not Software Update utility, is there any way to confirm whether or not they will show up without ML showing as purchased? I imagine this would be a good way for Apple to start policing pirating, which seems strangely ignored.

Software updates still come from software update - it's just integrated into the MAS app instead of being discreet. I still get updates on apps like iWork which I never obtained from the MAS (an do not show up as purchased) - they still get updated. Furthermore OS updates are not going to involve re-downloading the whole OS (since that's in the MAS).

Software update is just integrated into the MAS app - it's no different than before and the system updates and other Apple updates are updated differently than MAS only apps. What used to be two apps is now just one app with more functionality.