It appears, unfortunately, Apple’s latest tactic to ensure that all its ‘faithful’ followers move forward and never back is to control the availability and deployment of its iOS and Mac OS platforms. Only to decide later that you can’t live with it and would like to revert to Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, you would be in for a rude shock to realise that if you attempt a Restore, the option to revert to Mountain Lion is unavailable.

So, if you have say, unwittingly been enticed to click on the “Free Upgrade” button in the App Store when Apple launched Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks as a free upgrade. This comes with a subliminal check that ensured that you cannot restore to earlier versions of Mac OS that Apple does not want you to revert to, much like how Apple has implemented a similar mechanism into iOS as well. This not only leaves hardcore old school Mac aficionados gritting their teeth but also a very real challenge when it comes to having to restore your Mac in places where there is no internet connection or the internet connection is as fast as a drizzle.Īdded to that, much like Apple’s iOS platform Apple also decided to require Macs to connect with Apple’s servers every time you perform a restore. There was a brief transition period where Apple did offer the option to purchase Mac OS 10.7 Lion on a USB thumbdrive for USD69.00 but that went away quickly and left us with only the Restore Firmware and the App Store. Internet Recovery) that is encoded onto every Mac’s logic board – which unfortunately requires an internet connection for any restore to be performed.įor Mac OS X updates, apple sells/pushes it through the App Store application that is built into every subsequent Mac OS X thereafter. Opting instead to rely on their Restore firmware (a.k.a.

Ever since Mac OS 10.7 Lion (2011), Apple has stopped shipping Restore DVDs with their Mac computers.

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