Obtaining OSX Discs

[Tesla]

Hi guys,

How have you come to have OSX discs in your CD wallets?

I don't neccesarily mean dodgy copies. Checking my usual suppliers none stock OSX to purchase!

Thanks,

Chris

[anonymous Mac Tech]

You can get recent retail copies (10.5-10.6) through Apple, although since the release of 10.6 Apple is not selling 10.5 anymore. So you'll find when that happens prices for the older versions being sold by 3rd party distributors go through the roof. We have people come in asking for 10.4 constantly because anywhere else they look distributors are selling versions for a fortune. We ran out of 10.4 copies and now have whatever shop 10.4 installers hanging around the shop that we aren't selling. Just before 10.6 was released we loaded up on a few copies 10.5 before it went out of production to have some copies to sell, but we are not going to jack the price up beyond normal retail price.

OEM versions of installers we can get through Apple being a AASP fairly inexpensively if we need them. The really cool thing with Apple is there is not the product key nightmare and licensing mess that is Microsoft since Apple produces software for its own machines. So basically we rarely need to have customers installers being a dealer since we have the same versions around the shop. Its literally as simple as being able to verify what is currenly loaded on the machine. In the case of a completely dead drive where I can't tell, I just look up the product release specifications and go with what I find unless the customer can provide proof they are running a newer verion than was specified for the machine at the time of production. Each of our techs has an enclosed USB/firewire 400 2.5" laptop HD with retail versions of 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 retail installers imaged for installing systems through firewire. I'm so spoiled by using my firewire installer that I'll rarely use disks unless theres a need for me to install an OEM version of OSX.

[Tesla]

Thanks for the reply. Will look into Apple's scheme for techs.

[ClassicII]

Originally Posted by anonymous Mac Tech

You can get recent retail copies (10.5-10.6) through Apple, although since the release of 10.6 Apple is not selling 10.5 anymore. So you'll find when that happens prices for the older versions being sold by 3rd party distributors go through the roof. We have people come in asking for 10.4 constantly because anywhere else they look distributors are selling versions for a fortune. We ran out of 10.4 copies and now have whatever shop 10.4 installers hanging around the shop that we aren't selling. Just before 10.6 was released we loaded up on a few copies 10.5 before it went out of production to have some copies to sell, but we are not going to jack the price up beyond normal retail price.

OEM versions of installers we can get through Apple being a AASP fairly inexpensively if we need them. The really cool thing with Apple is there is not the product key nightmare and licensing mess that is Microsoft since Apple produces software for its own machines. So basically we rarely need to have customers installers being a dealer since we have the same versions around the shop. Its literally as simple as being able to verify what is currenly loaded on the machine. In the case of a completely dead drive where I can't tell, I just look up the product release specifications and go with what I find unless the customer can provide proof they are running a newer verion than was specified for the machine at the time of production. Each of our techs has an enclosed USB/firewire 400 2.5" laptop HD with retail versions of 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 retail installers imaged for installing systems through firewire. I'm so spoiled by using my firewire installer that I'll rarely use disks unless theres a need for me to install an OEM version of OSX.

I dont know what i would do with out my FireLite drive it is one of the best tools a mac tech can have! I even have a copy of 10.5 installed so i can boot to it if needed.

Speaking I would like to by pass the registration set up stuff when the install is done. How do you do that? I am guessing I can edit some config files to add in a user name and password stuff like that to make it automated.


Hey quick question as a AASP do you guys get copies of Apple Service Diagnostic cd's?

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Originally Posted by ClassicII

Speaking I would like to by pass the registration set up stuff when the install is done. How do you do that? I am guessing I can edit some config files to add in a user name and password stuff like that to make it automated.

The setup assistant literally takes one minute to set up and if you're configuring a bunch of similar machines you can restore an image with a user account already created. So I don't really bother with finding a way to automate skipping set up assistant. I'm sure there's a way to do it though. Most people are looking for a way to run set up assistant after already setting up a user. There is a good terminal trick for fixing that.

Originally Posted by ClassicII

Hey quick question as a AASP do you guys get copies of Apple Service Diagnostic cd's?

We have access to download the .dmg files to burn the diags to CD/DVD/ and most recently USB.