Can I upgrade to Lion straight from 10.5.8?
Solution 1:
At the moment it is not possible to upgrade to Lion without first installing the App Store, and Apple hasn't announced any plan to make that available on versions older than Snow Leopard.
From Apple's press release announcing Lion's availability:
Users who do not have broadband access at home, work or school can download Lion at Apple retail stores and later this August, Lion will be made available on a USB thumb drive through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) for $69 (US).
They haven't confirmed that this will work for upgrading for older versions, but given the price many people are assuming that this is the case.
Solution 2:
You most certainly can upgrade, but it is a three (maybe two) step upgrade.
- Upgrade to 10.6 (this is a paid upgrade and you need Snow Leopard media - it is not sold or delivered as a download)
- Run free patches to a minimum of 10.6.6 (unless your installer is very new)
- Use the App Store to purchase and download Lion upgrade.
You won't be able to download everything, and it is not one step. As always, look well at all the add on software - much from Leopard era is PPC /rosetta or just tool old to run on two major upgrades. Also look well into hardware requirements. Not fun to spend the money to have Lion tell you your hardware is not compatible. So do:
- check your hardware for Lion compatibility
- check your software for Lion compatibility
- check your backup - perhaps checking it twice ;-)
Good luck if you jump to Lion