OS X Mavericks Released — and it’s free!

[Arthur]

If you have a Mac running 10.6, 10.7 or 10.8 you can upgrade to Mavericks for free!

 

Here are the download links...

 

OS X Mavericks (Free): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id675248567

OS X Server (£13.99): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id714547929

 

System Requirements: www.apple.com/osx/specs/

 

Source: Ars Technica

 

Like Lion and Mountain Lion before it, it will be available in the Mac App Store. Upgraders can download the software for no cost.

 

The release was announced as part of Apple's October 22 press event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. The new operating system brings a lot of under the hood changes, including finally fixing OS X multi-monitor support. Another hotly anticipated feature is Finder Tabs, which takes a page from tabbed Web browser behavior and should allow more flexibility when managing files. Visually, the new operating system has banished some of the more despised skeuomorphic elements that have over time crept onto the desktop. Apple's PR images show that things like iCal's leather stitching have been excised, leaving many applications less "touchable" but also less visually cluttered.

 

Efficient resource usage is also a major theme in the updated operating system. Apple's computer sales are dominated by portables, and Mavericks includes a great number of named features built to reduce the amount of power a Mac consumes and keep it running longer. In fact, Apple says that merely by installing Mavericks, Haswell-equipped Mac portables like the Macbook Air will gain at least an extra hour of battery life. Additionally, Mavericks gets a little smarter about memory management, compressing applications in memory and also dynamically allocating memory to the GPU based on performance requirements.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Arthur

[Arthur]

First post updated with download link.

[gaz350b]

Really great news, just about to purchase licences for our macs running 10.6!

 

Apple needed to do this as they were starting to get users spread out from 10.6 to 10.9 which was becoming a nightmare for developers. Seems Apple are going to go down the in-app route to claw back money (garage band drummers testing these waters?)

[AwkwardUnicorn]

Heres a bootable version tutorial. I hate the automatic upgrades!

 

How to Perform a Clean Install of OS X Mavericks

[Arthur]

Here's a bootable version tutorial.

There's an even quicker way to create a bootable USB flash drive in Mavericks - the new createinstallmedia command. More details here.

 

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[color="#FF0000"]Untitled[/color] --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

 

The text highlighted in red is the name of your USB flash drive.

 

You should see output like the following—it might take a while to finish.

 

Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%...100%...

Copying installer files to disk...

Copy complete.

Making disk bootable...

Copying boot files...

Copy complete.

Done.

[AwkwardUnicorn]

There's an even quicker way to create a bootable USB flash drive in Mavericks

 

Thats great! Thanks!

[mac_shinobi]

Where is the new feature list and will I be able to transfer time machine backups from 10.7 to 10.9 or have they changed it a lot. Any photos / videos to show what 10.9 will be like etc before I take the plunge on my 2011 mac mini

[FN-GM]

Free, Thank you apple!

[Arthur]

Where is the new feature list

See link below for the full list of new features...

 

www.apple.com/osx/whats-new/features.html

 

will I be able to transfer time machine backups from 10.7 to 10.9 or have they changed it a lot.

Not sure, but when you upgrade it should keep your Time Machine settings.

 

Any photos / videos to show what 10.9 will be like etc before I take the plunge on my 2011 mac mini

The first review below is very comprehensive...

 

• OS X 10.9 Mavericks: The Ars Technica Review
  
• Apple OS X Mavericks 10.9 review « Engadget
  

Upgrading from 10.7 to 10.9 is a no-brainer IMO.

[kmount]

All upgraded this morning before I had my first coffee of the day.

 

Nothing exploded

[synaesthesia]

Apple? Free? Well, at least something good came out of the bile and bullpoo that was flowing freely from their mouths and charts yesterday!

[Quackers]

So is it only Microsoft now that charges for the OS?

 

Android, Free

iOS, Free

Mac OS X, Free

Linux, Free

[Dos_Box]

To (yet again) play devils advocate, Apple now seem to use OSX as platform to sell you things through. Linux is (and always will be free) and Android is an ad/app delivery platform. Both Apple and Google can give theirs away in the knowledge that they will get monies via other means. And with Apple and Google you must buy a new hardware platform every few years to continue this trend.

It is not so clear cut for Microsoft.

Saying that though. WOOT!! Free OS!!

 

 

*It would be nice for Microsoft to drop their consumer OS prices, even a bit, but I doubt that's ever going to happen

[sted]

So is it only Microsoft now that charges for the OS?

 

Android, Free

iOS, Free

Mac OS X, Free

Linux, Free

 

but as they dont sell you the hardware (except surface) you kind of do get it free when you buy a pc same as osx is "free" only with a mac

[TechMonkey]

Hmmm, wonder how it will run on my older MacBook!

[sidewinder]

Happy for this for my personal Mac but it's a bit frustrating to have blown a few hundred quid in the summer on upgrading everything at work to 10.8

[Arthur]

Hmmm, wonder how it will run on my older MacBook!

Which MacBook do you have?

[zag]

Just installed now on my Macbook air 2013, this is a really good upgrade! Everything absolutely flies!

 

Microsoft is looking less and less appealing every day.

[samurl_]

Hmmm, wonder how it will run on my older MacBook!

 

Mid (21-May) Macbook here, and I'm not new enough to upgrade

 

Sadens me this is the case. SSD + Ram upgrade yet it still bases its self on the creation date!!! :@

[jallsop]

Mid (21-May) Macbook here, and I'm not new enough to upgrade

 

Sadens me this is the case. SSD + Ram upgrade yet it still bases its self on the creation date!!! :@

 

Eh. don't you mean mid 2009. Thats 4 years old. It's to do with graphics capability i think. My mid 2012 MBP 13" runs a dream with it. Will try it on the wives mid 2009, which says it should work according to the site.

[rad]

iWorks and iLife, is this now available free with Mavericks? I downloaded and installed it last night but didnt have a chance to play with it.

[Tricky_Dicky]

iWorks and iLife, is this now available free with Mavericks? I downloaded and installed it last night but didnt have a chance to play with it.

 

iworks seems to be. It just appeared as an update and works so well

[FatBoyFonz]

Can someone help me out?

I have a suite of 45 iMacs (2009) which are still running 10.5.8. If I upgraded one to get to 10.6 and then downloaded Mavericks and create a USB install, could I just use that to upgrade the rest?

Also talking of upgrading to 10.6/10.9 would each mac need it's own AppleID or could I just use 1 for them all and would the students have access to this AppleID or do they also need their own?

[Chuckster]

Apple rip off their customers so enormously on hardware markups they can claim they're giving away a few pieces of software for free.

 

Most of their customers aren't the smartest so Apple will continue collecting the idiot tax from them.

[samurl_]

Eh. don't you mean mid 2009. Thats 4 years old. It's to do with graphics capability i think. My mid 2012 MBP 13" runs a dream with it. Will try it on the wives mid 2009, which says it should work according to the site.

 

•MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) is what I mean, so that means I've missed out by just a smidge It's only one of my work units, so not overly fussed, just jumping on the bandwagon