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For over a decade, installing the latest major version of Mac OS X meant buying a disc and slipping it into your Mac’s optical drive. No longer. Mac OS X 10.7—better known as Lion—is available for direct download. In fact, it’s available only as a download from Apple’s Mac App Store. In many ways, this new method of distribution is easier and more convenient. But it also raises a number of questions and presents significant upgrade obstacles for some users. Here’s a look at the details of installing Apple’s first-ever download-only OS.
Fair warning: If you install Lion now, keep in mind that you’re installing the very first release. It could be fully baked and bug-free, but if previous debuts of major versions of Mac OS X are any indication, we’ll see the first update, containing a number of bug fixes, within a few weeks. If your Mac is mission-critical—in other words, if downtime is not an option for you—you might consider holding off for the inevitable Mac OS X 10.7.1.
Finally, before proceeding, be sure to read my article on getting your Mac ready for Lion, which covers system requirements and recommendations, as well as a number of preparatory tasks that will help make the upgrade go smoothly. For example, you should update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and install the Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
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