Snow Leopard upgrade

September 29, 2009 5:01 AM

Does the $29.99 upgrade version of Apple's OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard come with iLife and iWork 09 like the box set, or will it update older versions of iLife and iWork to the 09 version?

I own a macbook running 10.5 and I want to buy the $29.99 update, but I'd really like to also update iLife and iWork. I have the iLife apps that came with my macbook, and I bought iWork 08. Will the upgrade version of Snow Leopard update these apps or do I have to spring for the box set?

A link to an article or store site detailing this would be appreciated.

posted by Science! to computers & internet (6 answers total)

It doesn't come with iWork, I know that. No idea on the iLife upgrade... possibly?
posted by paultopia at 5:12 AM on September 29, 2009

The Snow Leopard disk will only upgrade the OS from 10.5 to 10.6. It does not come with iLife/iWork '09 nor will it upgrade older versions. The Snow Leopard disk that you can buy for $29.99 is the exact same one as in the box set; the benefit of the box set is 1) that the license says you can install 10.6 on any supported Mac, not just one with 10.5 already (but the disk doesn't distinguish) and 2) that it comes with the '09 iSuites. Since most people are going to do what they please with the Snow Leopard disk regardless of what the license says, the real incentive that Apple's giving to buy the box set is the presence of those suites that aren't available in the inexpensive version.
posted by The Michael The at 5:13 AM on September 29, 2009

No
posted by kbanas at 5:36 AM on September 29, 2009

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC223Z/A

vs

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC209Z/A

If you are OK with the current iLife or iWork, you can obviously save a lot of money by sticking with one, as the box set is basically 20 dollars off buying all three separately.
posted by CharlesV42 at 5:54 AM on September 29, 2009

"Does the $29.99 upgrade version of Apple's OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard come with iLife and iWork 09 like the box set?"

No.

"will it update older versions of iLife and iWork to the 09 version?"

No.

For future reference, Apple historically has considered the OS itself to be a separate product from iLife, though they bundle them at the time of purchase of a new computer.

"A link to an article or store site detailing this would be appreciated"

I'm not sure there's going to be an article or pre-sales information out there that says "if you buy an upgrade for product X, do not expect Y and Z to magically be upgraded, too." If it's any reassurance, I have a disk image of the upgrade installer that I am looking at right this second and not a single one of the packages on the DVD have anything to do with iLife or iWork, honestly, seriously, swear on a stack of Thor's hammers.
posted by majick at 5:55 AM on September 29, 2009

Thanks for all the answers.
posted by Science! at 6:05 AM on September 29, 2009