1 house, 2 macs for 2 different users, 1 OS X Lion. Doable?

Hey guys,

Basically I have a macbook pro and my dad has an imac. We both want to install OSX Lion. This is the scenario im looking at please advice if it can be done:

My plan is to buy OSX lion via the appstore for both machines, but download the OS in one machine (imac) and then burn it on to a disc and install in both machines. Can this be done? In other words, my broadband connection is only 1 Mbps and its gonna take awhile to download nearly 4 gb for both machines. Hence, was wondering if its fine just installing the os downloaded on one machine and install in another?

If that were the case where or how do i validate the OSX on the other machine?

Hope someone can advice. Apologies if its a noob question. I just want to have a legitimate copy of OSX lion in both machines.

 

Yeah it's possible, and they'd both be "legitimate" versions of OS X. "Full" might be a more appropriate word.

This is technically illegal [assuming you just have the retail versions and not the family pack licensing]. Nothing's stopping you though.

Except me.

If you want, you can just call Apple and turn yourself in. They'll just laugh at you though, maybe end up sending you a free copy for the laughs. Then you'll really have two legitimate copies.

EDIT: Nvm, it says in your post you were going to separately buy a copy for each machine?

I can think of a couple better uses for $30, but hey, you're a saint. And I'm a man with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label. To each his own.

 

lol. thanks for the reply. SOmething about apple that makes me wanna keep everything associated with it, legitimate.

I didnt know there was a family pack out. how do i get ahold of this one?

 

You can install from disc. The software won't prompt you to verify the purchase if you do a clean install from an external source. Using the recovery partition with Lion does require purchasing credentials, so just provide them as requested.

 

Yes, that's perfectly doable if you extract the InstallESD.dmg from the installer that you download ( here's a guide). Just remember to make copies before running the installer, because it will delete itself afterwards.

If you got Lion from the Mac App Store, you can legally use the same personal, non-commercial license on all* the machines that you own or control provided that they run Snow Leopard. Legally I think the OP is covered. I also don't think they sell Lion family packs.

Pre-installed copies are still only licensed for the one machine they came with.

*Might only be five as that's the Mac App Store limit on authorized machines, I'm not sure. The Lion EULA uses the word 'all'.

 

Cheers guys. Thanks for clearing that for me. BUt in realistic terms, it seems that OS X Lion can easily be pirated this way. and apple just opened its doors for this?

 

Sure it can. They don't really care though as the hardware is where they make most of their money.

 

Lion is no different than previous versions.. they are all easy to pirate, nothing new here.

All versions of Lion sold are licensed to all your machines, you do not have to re-buy it over and over again. If you all are in the same household I don't think its a problem. If not... and you all use different Apple IDs anyways, then legally he should be buying his own version.

 

this is something that i was not aware of (mac os' being simple to pirate). Ive been a windows user before i ventured the into macworld and well, you know how windows is.

 

You don't even need to burn the .dmg file to disc or USB at all to install on other Macs in your household, unless you truly want/need the option for a bootable disc in the future.

To just do installations on multiple systems in the household without going through repeated downloads, there is a much simpler approach. This has been published at MacWorld, so I'll just summarize here.

1. DL 10.7 onto system #1.

2. *Before* you install on system #1, copy the full 3.7GB Installer.app from your Applications folder onto a USB flash drive, or you can also share it directly between Macs via Bonjour (if you forget to copy before installation, Lion removes the Installer.app after installation and you have no choice but to DL again). Proceed with installation on #1.

3. On system #2, copy/paste the Installer from the USB into the Applications folder. Run the Installer from Applications folder to start installation on #2.

4. Repeat as needed for other systems.

This process negates the need to download multiple copies of 10.7 and burn your monthly bandwidth caps from your ISP. I personally used this process on our home systems x3, and found it simple and straightforward.

 

cheers thanks.