I’m not the biggest fan of Apple, but I do commend their dedication to simplicity. I have to go through a long list of checks before I can install a new version of Windows or a new piece of hardware on my PC. Macs are just simpler by default, but it seems that they might be getting a little more complicated with the release of Mountain Lion.
When Mountain Lion, the latest version of Mac OS X, launches later this month, it will have certain system requirements that must be met. On the official specs page, Apple lists OS X v10.6.8 or later, 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space as being the necessary requirements needed to run Mountain Lion. 512 Pixels compares these system requirements with those of past versions. Apple only listed the processor as a necessary system requirement. Why the change? Macs are more uniform than Windows PCs so it makes sense to refer to things that can change between models – RAM and hard drive space.
To make things easier for those who don’t know their RAM from their HDD, Apple has listed the following models as being the only ones that are supported:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
That’s a good range of products to support. Apple is obviously making it as easy as possible for people to know if their Mac is up to snuff or not by even including models. As a Windows guy, this would never work on my platform of choice because there has never been uniformity. That’s where Macs can become the ultimate user friendly device by letting people exactly which model they need to run the latest operating system.
What if you forgot what year you bought your Mac in or perhaps you bought it second hand? How do you find out how much RAM you have? It’s simple enough – just click on About This Mac underneath the Apple menu and it will bring up the processor and RAM information. Clicking on More Info will bring up the specifics of the machine including the specific model you have.
Looks like I’m ready for Mountain Lion, are you? If not, 512 Pixels reports that the Mac Store will reject your bid to download Mountain Lion. It has only done so for the beta, however, so Apple could still potentially screw over people buying the public release. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.