On Jan 20, 2010, at 12:39 PM, Clark Martin wrote:
Frequently the disks that shipped with the computer are special for that computer with additional components to support that computer (and other models introduced at the same time). In other words a stock 10.2.1 through 10.2.4 won't work or won't work right but the same OS version installer made specifically for that model will.
I don't think this is exactly right. The retail installer will install a "unitary" version of OS X, having ALL the standard HARDWARE extensions (kexts) of OS X for EVERY Mac model (every "supported" model, for example, Snow Leopard won't have any PPC support, and Leopard won't have any G3 support). The machine specific versions are subsets of this unitary system, and they are ONLY missing components of OS X that can NEVER be utilized by the Mac in question. For example, it would never be possible to add PCI cards, or new video cards into a laptop, iMac, or Mini, so these machine specific discs are missing the "superset" of HARDWARE components for ALL Macs. AFAIK the SOFTWARE components (meaning the system software that controls the "logical" look & feel of OS X) are ALWAYS "unitary" and EVERY installation of OS X has identical system SOFTWARE. The ONLY difference is machine specific HARDWARE drivers.
When you use Software Update with one of the laptops, iMacs or Minis that have limited hardware upgradability you might be offered a smaller subset of a specific system update (often referred to as a "delta" update), which would be missing any components necessary for hardware your Mac could NEVER use.
The "standard" updates contain ALL the components, and the COMBO updates have ALL the components for EVERY cumulative update. This means that IF you use the COMBO update on a laptop, iMac, or Mini with fixed hardware, you'll find EXTRA kernel extensions for stuff you can NEVER use, for example PCI cards, or video cards for EVERY model of Mac. Normally this extra software isn't very much in terms of space, I'd estimate only a few hundred MB at most. However, when Apple is serving updates over the internet to millions of people all at the same time, saving a few MB in each download can be substantial bandwidth. Also, the "subset" installations save HD space on you Mac, and no one wants bloated HDs with software they can never use.
If you are going to use an installer disc that isn't specific to your Mac, you need to use a disc that is equal to or newer than the version that shipped with your model. Any problems it has should be specifically related to HARDWARE drivers only. In most instances, these problems will likely be resolved by installing the lastest COMBO update for the specific version of OS X you're using. This is because the COMBO update will contain the superset of ALL available updates, and the ONLY instance where it won't solve such a problem is one where a specific hardware driver was NOT upgraded at all from the original issue to the final update. In my experience, most hardware drivers ARE upgraded within their specific version of OS X, so this means that MOST machine specific discs CAN install working OS X on other Macs IF they are completely upgraded to the final versions available using the latest COMBO update.
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