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Recently given a copy of Leopard by a friend, excitedly I read the simply instructions and proceeded to install. The DVD was inserted, install icon clicked and the software checked that I had the latest version of Tiger, informed me that everything was fine and to continue. Now I have no desktop, just a blue screen. So of to my local service center where I was informed that the copy of Leopard I had was processor specific. Fine, then why was there no system requirements with the instructions and when the DVD checked for the version of Tiger installed, no warning that my system (20inch iMac 1.25Ghz) was not suitable?
The most annoying aspect is that the cost of reinstating my system will probably be the same as purchasing a retail version of Leopard which I would assume will be suitable for either system.
So Mac user's wanting to upgrade be warned and I hope you learn from my experience.

When you say "learn from your experience" do you mean "Buy your own copy of Leopard...don't borrow one from someone whose copy was obviously specifically for their machine" ?

It's either the case that (a) they had a copy of Leopard and it came with the machine they have and it should stay with it, or (b) they have two copies and should have given you the retail version.

Processor specific installs for Apple are not uncommon....just slightly odd that this didn't warn you.

Phil

Of course when you were running Tiger did you per chance happen to have Application Enhancer installed.

The blue screen was a known issue with installing Leopard over Tiger with an old version of Application Enhancer.

Sorry but in any case it doesn't really sound like Apple is at fault on that one.

So this was a retail disk or a modified restore disk?

Pretty clear that if tens of thousands of users can easily install Leopard, something was wrong with this specific install, rather than the application set itself...

Yes this copy of leopard came with a Mac and as disc was surplus it was offered to me. I thought that I was fortunate but isn’t hind sight a great thing.

My 1st point is that being a Mac user for a number of years, I had faith in the fact the product would be suitable for my use and if not then I had what I thought was a fair expectation that if at the start of installation this software was cleaver enough to establish that you where running the correct version of Tiger it would also be cleaver enough to establish if you had the correct processor and if not warn you.

My 2nd point was that ignorance is no excuse but I hoped that someone else can learn from my mistake (always look a gift horse in the mouth).

Still love my Mac, I'll just have to wait a bit longer for the Leopard experiance.

Glenlochie wrote:
Yes this copy of leopard came with a Mac and as disc was surplus...

Sorry, but as far as I can read in to this, that's a breach of the software licensing for the OS.

Phil

The disc generally does let you know if it is not the same machine as the disc is designed for. It has nothing to do with the processor but the machine type so your machine may have had enough similar to the original machine to allow it to install.

That being said when upgrading software it should always be via an off the shelf version of the OS as opposed to the install discs that come with a machine.

To blame Apple for this mistake is to not realise this sort of thing happens on ALL platforms, that's what OEM licenses do. They lock the OS install to a specific set of hardware and trying to install it on anything else won't work.

Oh I so had to sign up to be able to reply to this one!

So you used a version of Leopard that was bundled with a different bit of hardware, that you are not licenced to use, and you are disappointed in Apple?

That really takes the cake! You were breaking the law by trying to get the software for free, it was not the right one anyway - this is all your fault buddy!

Apple did ZERO wrong.

/rant

Have a nice day.