Mac OS X Lion has caused a lot of hub-bub in the Mac community namely because Lion as far as I’m aware will not come on a disc. Download? Yes. USB key? Yes. DVD? No – although you can roll your own if you’re willing to do it in, dare I say, a PC-like nerdy way just to get it. (Seriously, you have to admit the way to make an OS X Lion boot DVD isn’t exactly what you’d call an "easy Mac way".)
Some new models as of this week now have an "Internet Recovery" feature courtesy of Lion; this does allow you to install OS X Lion 100% from the internet – even if your hard drive is blank:
If you happen to encounter a situation in which you cannot start from the Recovery HD, such as your hard drive stopped responding or you installed a new hard drive without Mac OS X installed, new Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion automatically use the Lion Internet Recovery feature if the Recovery HD (Command-R method above) doesn’t work. Lion Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple’s Servers.
And just where is this little "mini Lion" in the Mac that magically allows you to do this? I have no idea, but it’s in there somewhere – and is separated from the main hard drive. It’s obviously a very small installation and has all the necessary drivers and such ready-to-go so you can connect on wi-fi and go about the business of getting Lion installed.
Hasn’t Linux been doing this pretty much forever?
Yes, and that’s pretty much the reason I believe OS X Lion’s version of it will work exactly as intended.
The first time I saw an over-the-network install of Linux was way back in the late 1990s in a local client/server setup using FTP, so believe me when I say that Linux has been doing the over-the-network install for a very long time.
Some Linux distributions fully support being installed over the internet, such as Debian. Does it work? Of course it does. Is it faster than installing it via local media? Of course not.
Where is this not a good idea?
Although you probably already guessed this by now, installing a modern OS completely over the internet consumes a good amount of bandwidth. The base installation comes first, then the update packages second. Those two combined are somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 to 2GB in total.
Then there’s the time factor. What should be a 15 to 30-minute install is 2 to 4 hours or more is the entire OS is downloaded.
There will be many who simply will not be able to finish the installation because of ISP-imposed bandwidth caps.
(Image credit: DFWHDR)
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I think its a good idea for easy-of-use and, of course, control on Apple’s part.
BTW, its a 4GB download, from what I’m hearing. I’m going to upgrade eventually, but holding off for now. At least on the big box. Might try it out on the laptop first. Or wait until 10.7.1.
Your FiOS will definitely handle the download w/o a problem, so it’s worth the 29 bucks. It’s an easy App Store buy so you can apply it whenever on whatever Mac in your arsenal you feel like.
…..and thousands of Apple zealots screamed out in terror, then were suddenly silenced.
I don’t mind doing over the Internet installs, but I prefer to download a CD image first when allowed. I’m using Debian Sid right now, so I had to do the network install. When I used Ubuntu and needed to upgrade, I would download the CD image and mount it.
This was my first Apple OS upgrade; having spent days of my life babysitting PC OS upgrades I have one word for my experience upgrading to Apple Lion….Exultant
As to cloud OS installation in 2011; Seamless and that’s the way it ought to be.
I wonder who will hack Apple for this first?