Leopard to come packed with all new Macs on Friday?

If you listened to the TUAW Talkcast last night (which should be available for download later this week, I'm told), not only did you hear that I have an atrocious backup plan, I burn a DVD every other year or so and write the date on it with a Sharpie, but you also heard about a very interesting strategy to get Leopard a little early. Mat told us that Apple plans not to sell computers with Leopard installed on them next Friday, but instead pull the computers out of the backstock, and just throw a Leopard box in the bag when you leave.

Considering that I'm planning on buying a Mini with Leopard on it rather than Leopard itself, that's a very interesting plan. And now we've all but got corroboration-- reader Bren sent a tip that says he was hanging around the Apple Store this weekend, and was told by an employee that when the Apple Stores receive their shipments on Friday around 11am or noon, they'll start attaching copies of Leopard to the new computers right away.

I find it hard to believe that they would do that and then still require people who were just buying Leopard itself to wait until 6pm, but you never know. Even if not, you can always do the up-to-date thing, or just wait until later in the evening to buy your new computer-- after the release at 6pm, it's almost guaranteed you'll get a new copy of Leopard with your purchase. But if you're planning to buy a new Mac this Friday anyway, you might try calling ahead (or showing up early) to see if you can get Leopard early with your machine.

Update: An anonymous Apple employee tells us that employees will be working overnight to pack the boxes of new Macs with discs. No word on if Macs sold earlier in the day will have these discs or not.

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Source: http://www.apple.com/macosx/

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If you listened to the TUAW Talkcast last night (which should be available for download later this week, I'm told), not only did you hear...

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christapher

an unnamed good friend of mine at the apple store just slipped to me that all the computers sold that day will be sold with leopard packaged with them.

October 24 2007 at 2:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

phil

I called the apple store and they said that they would me giving dvd drop-ins for a week or so and then they would be selling macs with leopard pre-installed. He also said that it would come with all the backup dvd's and everything you'll ever need to reboot your mac or do anything involving erasing your harddrive and reinstalling leopard. The only difference between drop in dvd's and pre-installed is that you have to do it yourself in the drop-in case. I don't think that i twill run any slower than normal if it is not preinstalled. I, myself am getting a 15" MBP and im ordering it on friday at 6:00. If theres anything wrong, ill post back with my new comp ;)

October 23 2007 at 8:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tquila

I have the same concern. The resellers that I have spoken with indicate that it may be some time before they have Macs with Leopard installed (One said early November, another said late November). Should I settle for a dvd in the box or should I wait?

October 23 2007 at 8:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

YCH

Is there any value to getting 10.5 preinstalled vs. a drop-in? I know from experience that an upgraded windows never runs as well as a factory fresh install. Not sure if it's the same with macs.

October 23 2007 at 6:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dee

When are new computers going to ship with Leopard already installed as opposed to pack-ins?

October 23 2007 at 4:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Johan

If you want Leopard early you can go east. My apple premium reseler says it will start selling Leopard from 6pm local time, that's 11am in NY! :)
oh, right. I'm in Finland and my local store is www.humac.fi

October 23 2007 at 11:03 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jimmy

Yeah, they're not going to throw in retail copies of Leopard. They'll put in flatpacks which is what we do here at Small Dog.

October 23 2007 at 9:14 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Luke

This is the same as Mac OS 10.4, I purchased a Mac mini on the day it was released and I got the Mac with the new OS in the box and not pre-installed. Which was perfect.

Although Tiger didn't come in box, just the DVD disc.

October 23 2007 at 6:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

leveldown

@ sekdawg

When everyone refers to "Drop-in DVD" they are refering to machine specific versions of the operating system. When Apple ships machines they come with an OS disc which will only install on that kind of machine. i.e. an early 2007 iMac. This is a full version of the operating system and can be used to upgrade the Mac you buy Friday, should it come with Tiger pre-installed, or to do a fresh install. You will not be able to use it on any other Mac though. A retail version of Leopard on the other hand can be installed on any Mac.

October 23 2007 at 3:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kaytrio

Quick question, mac experts: I was planning to order my first mac (a mini) on Friday. Just in case I only get a "drop-in DVD", how does it work? Do i also get a DVD to reformat to tiger if I want? Can the Leopard DVD be used to do a fresh install (just in case I wipe my hard drive) or is it upgrade only? Sorry if these are obvious/dumb... using Windows for so long has left a bad taste in my mouth.

October 23 2007 at 12:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply