On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Fred Thiel and Janet Thiel <[email protected]> wrote: > I've been looking for a new iMac. The new 2.7GHz quad core i5 21.5 inch > monitor iMac is what I've got my eye on, but I can't find out if it has Snow > Leopard on it. I don't want Lion at this time.
It depends. If this (link below) is the iMac you are referring to www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/stats/imac-core-i5-2.7-27-inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html then according to everymac.com it originally shipped with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 so it should work with Snow Leopard. But any recently manufactured system would now come with Lion pre-installed. You might be able to get an older version depending on whether or not a Mac retailer still had some of the older, pre-Lion systems in their inventory. But I don't know any easy way to ensure what you would get other than by purchasing it retail and looking at the specs on the box before you paid for it. It does raise an interesting question though. Since this iMac uses recent hardware would the earlier, OS X 10.6.3 retail DVD be able to install to this system or not? (Beats me. Probably. But it depends on whether or not the newer hardware on this iMac requires support that was added only in 10.6.6 or not, no?) If you do manage to obtain an older retail version of this iMac which comes with 10.6.6 instead of Lion then you would qualify for Apple's "up-to-date" program and be eligible for a free copy of Lion. I would suggest you go ahead and get it even if you don't intend to use it now. Just download it and archive it for some future date when you may well want to upgrade to Lion. You may want to do so in the future if only because support for Snow Leopard will eventually be dropped. $30 is $30, no? FWIW, -irrational john -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
