At 06:45 PM -0800 11/01/2005, Mike Abrams wrote:
What is the real deal on all those people selling the
grey OS software discs. Will they work in any Mac as
some claim or is it just the machine listed on the
disc? Do they have machine specific features that
would be unusable if you put it on another machine?
+/- the marketing channel you purchase from (edu, var, or Apple):
High-end Macs (PowerBooks, Power Mac) mostly come with universal
install discs. Those discs will work on any Mac older than it.
Low-end Macs (eMac, iBook, iMac) usually come with Mac-specific
installation discs; designed only to work on that specific Mac model.
This is done because they also include bundled apps, such as
AppleWorks, that the high-end users have to buy separately. There
have been a few hacks to enable use of these discs on other systems,
but they're not always reliable.
Older Macs were a mixed lot. The disc you got depended on both the
channel and the overall system bundle you purchased. But like the
new ones, they're usually clearly marked.
Selling the original media that came with a Mac, without also selling
the Mac itself, is technically illegal. The license for that
software is bound to the hardware and is non-transferrable otherwise.
Yes, that means it's ok to sell updates and subsequent purchases --
as long as you include the paperwork (including a letter of transfer
if the item was registered), purge the backups, and delete it from
your running machines.
The whole gray market is a messy issue... Some companies go after
sellers. Microsoft is a big example of that - having eBay kill lots
of auctions daily. Apple has a laid-back attitude tho. I've never
heard of them screwing anyone over this.
Bottom line: Caveat Emptor.
"retail version" Mac OS X 10.4 DVDs are available for $70 or less, if
you're patient. Go for it.
- Dan.
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