Mac OS X Lion: Coming In July For $29

Hallelujah! "OS X Lion [Terminal] includes editable ANSI colors in preferences and support for 256 colors and BCE (background color erase). The default TERM value is xterm-256color."<p>Cite: <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html#unix" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html#unix</a>

This App Store-only distribution has me concerned about small business upgrades.<p>Let's say I have an office with 10 workstations. How do I upgrade? Do I have to create an iTunes account for each computer, and enter a company credit card number on each one? Can multiple iTunes accounts even share the same credit card number?<p>Perhaps I could get by with two accounts, since iTunes allows sharing on up to five Macs. But that's still far from an elegant solution, and it doesn't scale any better. And what about users who already have their workstations activated with their home iTunes accounts?

The download only distribution will be a nuisance for 64G SSD MacBook Airs like my wife's laptop. She often only has 5 or 10 GB of free disk space.

4GB isn't insignificant in countries with bandwidth caps.

dsplittgerber seems to have a valid point, though one that is understood by anyone who has followed Apple for long. Still, unsure why the comment is [dead].<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2625727" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2625727</a><p>To respond, Apple has never had a problem re-implementing a 3rd party app and integrating it into the system, Dashboard is a classic example of this. It's a bit hostile towards 3rd party developers, but generally good for users (at least that's the argument).

Great news.<p>Now if only they just did away with the optical drives on MBP's. I have used mine about... twice in three years since owning my current laptop.

Title is misleading, $29.99 to zero decimal places is $30 not $29.

There's a complete list of new features here: <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html</a><p>To address the concerns of re-installation, they're including a partition with the system install disk on it (which can get to Time Machine or whatever else you need).

It's only available through the Mac App Store. So how can people upgrade from 10.5 without going the extra step to 10.6, which is required for the app store?

I wonder how much of a wrench in the works that will be for Hackintosh people.

Hmm... so what happens if my hard drive crashes and I replace it myself?

I don't mean to be off topic, but I really feel, although this is an improvement on the price of Windows upgrade, I think that there is nothing in this release that would drive me off any Linux, particularly a rolling release distribution.<p>I know that for certain fields, such as multimedia, apple offers a lot, but with new offerings such as Gnome 3, a mature KDE 4, and Ubuntu's unity, for the standard desktop user or developer for that matter, I argue that Linux should enthrall and for one of the first times the difference in price tag isn't the only plus. Stability, Safety and polish are quickly becoming relevant keywords for Linux desktops.<p>Although the new Unity and Gnome Shell may lack the stability, you can always fall back on the watertight Gnome default desktop.

Will they offer a usb stick option for $29 ?

&#62;<i>Resize from any edge<p>You can now resize a window from any side or corner.</i><p>Interesting that they <i>did</i> finally do this. And without adding huge-ass borders to everything...

If Lion supports TRIM for all SSDs, I want to zap my Intel drive and do a fresh install so that there are no mystery regions on the drive.<p>I hope a normal DVD will be available on the quiet.

Oh come on apple now we have to do everything through your stores?

After all the talk about delta updates in the keynote I had hoped that Time Machine would be doing file deltas now. A read through the Lion features page doesn't turn anything up. Anyone know?

Curious for one of my favorite apps, can anyone comment on BetterTouchTool (<a href="http://www.boastr.de/" rel="nofollow">http://www.boastr.de/</a>) quality on the new build?

Has anyone seen references to how the server tools will be distributed? The rumor mill had indicated that there would be a mac app store version but I have not seen a confirmation on if these pieces are in the regular 10.7 upgrade or not.<p>The server edition of 10.6 was $500 and distinct from the $29 regular edition so I am expecting a separate paid download to be required...

"Auto setup for Gmail and Yahoo! in Mail[.app]<p>When you first log in to your Google, Yahoo!, or AOL accounts in Safari, you’ll have the option to use them with Mail, iCal, Address Book, iChat, and other applications on your Mac."<p>Thats pretty smart to keep Mail.app relevant in the web age! (I hope it handles "guest" logins on the web gracefully though!)

Really wish this was coming out sooner. I plan on getting the Samsung Chromebook on the 16th, which will be my primary "fun" computer. I'll keep my Macbook for development, but I'm not sure I'll use it in the way that these consumer features are meant for. If it was coming on now I'd go ahead and get it just to play around with. Now I don't know.

It will be interesting to see how the OS installs over itself now that it is being distributed through the app store. I wonder if they will create a new partition with the installer and reboot into it.

While they are at it, I am surprised Apple didn’t integrate LaunchBar/QuickSilver/Alfred functionality into Lion (and take those guys out). It would go really well with the full screen apps.

any news on whether it is for 64-bit processors ONLY? my core-solo mac mini wants to know :-S

Finally high res larger cursor that is crisp.<p>The other updates/features are looking solid too. Well worth the $29.99.

Not sure why below comment is dead. The account seems ok and not hell banned. Was it flagged to death? If so, anyone who flagged it,why?<p>dsplittgerber 24 minutes ago | link [dead]<p>Anyone else surprised by how many hugely popular apps Apple is going to kill with new Lion/iOS? Instapaper built-into Safari now, all kinds of messanger apps killed by iMessage, some of those photo apps going down the drain as well, Reminders app is a huge one as well. All targeting really popular app categories.<p>Sure, some people care about thing X being done supremely well and will still pay for some apps. But the huge majority will probably be really fine with Apples version.

&#62;This isn’t actually the first time Apple has offered an OS upgrade at a steep discount compared to its Windows rival (which typically runs over $100) — Snow Leopard made its debut at $29.<p>A pretty flawed apples to oranges comparison. OS X is more similar to bios updates... you buy the hardware, the vendor makes money off it and gives away the software. With Microsoft, you're paying the OEM money for the hardware(with razor thin margins usually but that's another story), so Microsoft doesn't make bank on expensive hardware and upgrades to RAM/HDD/CPU that Apple makes.<p>Edit: Not to mention that 10.5 to 10.7 is not upgradeable, you have to buy and install 10.6 first, install the App Store and then install 10.7. Windows 7 may not be upgradeable directly from XP without a format, but atleast you don't have to but and upgrade to Vista first!

I love the Apple hype cycle: an incremental OS update for $29, and it's one of the most-commented HN articles of the day.<p>I get an incremental OS update every day for free. It's called apt-get. After you've done it every day for nearly 15 years, it gets a little old...<p>What's next, a central Mac software repository? (Oh yeah, "the Mac app store". Innovation!)