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October 29, 2007
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Updates
Below you will find notes and plans for the next Mac OS X upgrade a.k.a Leopard. If you do not use Apples or have no interest in upgrading your OS right now, feel free to dismiss this email entirely.
New Copyright Policy:
Due to increasing attention and pressure to ensure all software maintained by myself and the RITC staff is copyright-legal, all operating system software must be purchased through the department if it is intended to be installed on a University of Michigan computer. This includes but is not limited to any computer purchased on a grant that is now administrated by your home department. Personally owned laptops can of course be upgraded as well as long as your P.I. agrees to the costs involved ( see details below) or if you can provide the license agreement or proof-of-purchase for your own software.
How Much and How?:
If you are currently operating at Mac OS X vers. 10.4.x the cost is $59.00 per computer for a 3 year agreement to get all Mac OS updates Until Sept 30th 2010. If you are currently operating below 10.4.x you will need to spend an additional $53.00 per computer. Due to the nature of service agreements such as this; we recommend allowing the department or the RITC office to purchase and organize this upgrade. We will schedule with each lab how and when they would like their computers updated to ease the transition.
Should I upgrade?:
Right now there is no rush to upgrade. The most recent version of Mac OS X 10.4.10 is stable and operates well within the UMMS environment. 10.5 has not been fully field tested with UMMS, UMICH, or RITC services. This is also an upgrade that will change some of the user-interfaces fundamentally so there will be a learning curve to adopting 10.5. It is suggested you wait until you have time in your schedule to adjust to it. Naturally after the RITC Support Center gets over the hump with the initial rush to install for our early adopters, we will chat with each P.I. to discuss the transitions and what is involved. It should be noted that any new Apple Macintosh purchased from this point on will have 10.5 installed and "downgrading" it to a previous version is not a recommended course of action.
Can I upgrade?
Some machines in service will not be able to get the upgrade. Machines are recommended to match or exceed the following specifications:
•Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
• 512MB of memory
• DVD drive for installation
• 9GB of available disk space
Info on features here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Please feel free to email with any questions or clarification,
jak
Posted by jkufahl at October 29, 2007 09:36 AM