OS X Lion will run on ALL MacBook Airs! Even the original.

[Scottsdale]

I have read several people asking about OS X Lion and fearing it will not run on Core 2 Duo MBAs. Apple updated its Lion page and shows system requirements of Core 2 Duo. That simply means it will be a 64-bit CPU required. The only Macs with Intel CPUs that will not run would be the 2006 Core Duo models.

People shouldn't panic or expect any model MBA wouldn't work with Lion. Apple isn't going to terminate OS X support as quickly as it does iOS support. I think that iOS is why many people are wondering if they buy an 11" MBA with C2D if it will really even be upgradeable to Lion.

Happy days, everyone. A month away from a nice upgrade for a mere $30.

Who else is looking forward to all of the new features?

 

[Hellhammer]

I think this all has been known since the first dev preview as people have been installing it on various machines (including MBAs). Lion runs on Core Duo machines with a minor hack too.

Looks promising so far, 29$ makes it a bargain. The full feature list is the most interesting with many features that have not been mentioned before.

 

[Berardi3]

I am so excited as the Lion can be used on the current MBA i will go out and buy one waited too long now we have direction and no longer have to wait for people who purchase today going forward they would get a free upgrade .

 

[adnoh]

I am so excited as the Lion can be used on the current MBA i will go out and buy one waited too long now we have direction and no longer have to wait for people who purchase today going forward they would get a free upgrade .

Feels like an update is on the horizon. I'd wait a little longer if you can.

 

[ritmomundo]

Thats good news for folks with older computers. Whats even better is the 29$ pricetag! I was expecting 100+ (and I would have waited to buy it until it went on sale- probably a few months)... I'm really happy that Apple is making it much more affordable for everyone. Now it will be a day 1 purchase for me.

 

[n1tut]

Lion available in July, UK price will be £21, available only as a download.

tut

 

[solowmodel]

I'm looking forward to Lion. Further, the $30 price for installs on all your computers is great for me.

 

[GizmoDVD]

$30 is fantastic.

I'll still probably get a new Air and give my current one to the Wife.

 

[JMB1911]

outstanding.....the full screen apps will be very nice on the 11 inch MBA

 

[Nermal]

Looks promising so far, 29$ makes it a bargain. The full feature list is the most interesting with many features that have not been mentioned before.

I can't help but think that Apple cheated with some of those "250 features" though, such as making a Cancel button a feature:

Cancel transfer

To cancel an incoming transfer, open the Downloads stack and click the X that appears on the icon.

There are also some old features too:

When connecting to a network that requires authentication, Lion presents a window allowing you to log in to the network.

Logging into a network isn't exactly a brand-new feature... and I think the App Store is listed as one of the 250 too.


Having said that, the price is right (NZ$40). That's even cheaper than 10.6 was! (NZ$60).

 

[Scottsdale]

I can't help but think that Apple cheated with some of those "250 features" though, such as making a Cancel button a feature:



There are also some old features too:



Logging into a network isn't exactly a brand-new feature... and I think the App Store is listed as one of the 250 too.


Having said that, the price is right (NZ$40). That's even cheaper than 10.6 was! (NZ$60).

But all of the APIs to allow developers to take advantage of Lion features is what will give us all a better and more consistent experience with the user interface in the OS and all of the apps.

I was really impressed with iOS5 and iCloud, but since Lion is only a month or so away it is better to focus on what will happen earlier and on my current Macs.

I am curious to see what "July" means also in regards to Lion release date. Does that mean the last day of July, or last few days? I didn't figure it would be ready by June 14 as some had imagined, but I was hopeful July 1 would have been realistic.

Oh well, at least Apple has really made some great software changes and most importantly is making it all available to the masses for a bargain price. I really expected $79. I do want to know how fresh installs will work and how the update via Mac App Store will deal with bypassing installing SL first when reinstalling?

 

[Hellhammer]

I do want to know how fresh installs will work and how the update via Mac App Store will deal with bypassing installing SL first when reinstalling?

Lion will create a recovery partition which can be used to reinstall, including a clean install.

 

[Xeperu]

Lion will create a recovery partition which can be used to reinstall, including a clean install.

Thanks Steve for stealing 4+ GB of my already small harddrive.

This stuff is made of fail and fail.Bascially when I want to restore, I have to first install 10.6 from teh USB stick, and then DOWNLOAD 4GB again. I wish to mention that there are still DEVELOPED nations that have data limits (Belgium comes to mind).

Steve's obsession with doing everything "over the cloud" is all great, but especially cellular providers will have to invest greatly in their mobile broadband infra structure.

 

[TheMacBookPro]

Lion will create a recovery partition which can be used to reinstall, including a clean install.

Taking up several more GBs just for recovery?

That's going to make people with 64GB Airs happy...

I hope they make flashing the recovery to a portable thumb drive or something like that possible.

 

[gwsat]

I hope they make flashing the recovery to a portable thumb drive or something like that possible.

I think Apple's decision to use the App Store and the Internet as the delivery vehicles for Lion was a good move. It's the way of the future and the folks who are wining about there not being a DVD delivery option are going to have to get over it. DVDs aren't obsolete quite yet but they're getting there.

I, too, hope that it will be possible to place the recovery files on a USB thumb drive. I would like to be able to upgrade my MBA's Software Reinstall Drive to Lion that way.

OS X Lion's surprisingly low $29.99 price tag, including the right to upgrade all my Macs, is the bargain of the century. When I first saw the announcement, I assumed that I would have to pay Apple for three copies of Lion to upgrade all of my Macs, so I was delighted to learn that I would need to buy only one copy. That's a bargain by any measure.

 

[strwrsfrk]

External Media

I'd be very surprised if Apple didn't provide some way of creating your own bootable media for OS recovery, reinstallation, etc. It certainly makes more sense in a business setting to be able to manipulate that partition, be it to store the files on a shared drive, create DVD's or thumb drives, etc. Especially since, as several others have noted, with the move to all flash storage, space is limited on many users' SSD's. 4GB is a lot to take from a 64GB SSD.

Of course, allowing users to create bootable recovery media might cause Apple a headache considering many see this as a way to combat piracy. Maybe the files could be tied to a specific computer via some sort of hardware ID?

And it really does strike a blow to those users who do not have the bandwidth or data flexibility to make a 4GB download feasible. I would guess that they are the minority (at least in the States), but it's still exclusionary. I'm sure "OS Upgrades" will become common in Apple stores...

 

[cfedu]

Lion will create a recovery partition which can be used to reinstall, including a clean install.

if it creates a recovery partition couldn't you in theory then clone/transfer that to a USB stick and delete the partition. If this is the case it works for me, a 4GB/8GB stick it almost free. Fast future reinstalls and upgrades.

I'm all for the death of the DVD, but you will need some way to do a clean install with out a recovery partition. Unless all new drive come come preinstalled with OSX some sort of physical install will be required