Mountain Lion - some questions

glitch · 15 Feb 2013 at 20:32

I've got five Apple devices of various descriptions around the house that are all running Snow Leopard (v10.6.8) and I was thinking of upgrading to Mountain Lion as I've heard lots of good things about it.

However, I have some questions and I was rather hoping some knowledgeable types might be able to assist me with them before I took the plunge!

1. Do I need to upgrade to Lion before I upgrade to Mountain Lion? I assume that as the ML page states it requires OS X v10.6.8 or later I'm good to go straight to it?

2. Am I right in thinking one purchase is good for up to five installs? The Apple KB doesn't seem to specify a limit but I've heard five as the magic number?

3. I see that there's a way to create a bootable back-up disc to install ML from. I assume this is something worth doing anyway, regardless of having multiple machines to install it upon?

4. Does ML install on a blank drive or does the machine need to have OS X v10.6.8 already installed for ML to install over the top of?

5. What happens if I choose to sell a device that's running ML? Can I wipe it and present the new owner with a fresh ML install? Do they have to purchase the software again or activate it?

6. Are there any major software bugs with ML? I'm mainly using Adobe Creative Suite software (Master Collection v5 and Lightroom v4) plus VMWare Fusion, Office and all the other 'usual' pieces of day-to-day software.

And lastly...

7. Is Mountain Lion worth upgrading to if I'm not really seeing any massive issues with Snow Leopard?

Doug · 15 Feb 2013 at 20:53

1. Nope, you're good to go straight to ML.

2. No limit as far as I'm aware.

3. Yeah, saves you the time of downloading it over and over for each machine.

4. Fresh install is fine. Newer macs can do the internet install, so as long as ML is on your account you're good to go. But since you're making a USB installer you're good to go anyway.

5. Now that's a funny one. When I sold my MBP (originally came with Lion) I experimented putting a fresh ML on it and there was no problem singing into an AppleID that didn't have ML purchased. Stuck a fresh install on and the new owner had no problems.

6. No idea. Nothing I use, which doesn't include anything you listed

7. For the money it's worth a punt. Stick it on one machine and see you you get on. You've still got a while before devs stop supporting SL, so there's not much to loose either way.

glitch · 15 Feb 2013 at 21:07

Thanks for your quick and detailed response, Doug. Very much appreciated.

Doug said:
4. Fresh install is fine. Newer macs can do the internet install, so as long as ML is on your account you're good to go. But since you're making a USB installer you're good to go anyway.

Does this mean I can put a new/blank HD in a machine, install ML from the USB drive (or DVD) and I'd be good to go?

If I can at all help it, I'd rather not have to install Snow Leopard first then go over that with Mountain Lion!

PaulyD · 15 Feb 2013 at 21:49

Yep, you can do that. Hold alt/option at boot and select your USB, then run through the install

glitch · 16 Feb 2013 at 15:58

Thanks for the advice - I'll take the plunge with ML on one machine and see how it goes!