MobileMe users offered free Snow Leopard upgrade

[Xairbusdriver]

<To use iCloud you need Lion. To get Lion, you need the Mac App Store. To get the MAS, you need Snow Leopard.>
You'll still have to pay for Lion, of course, but it's now half price...if you're still in Leopard.
Don't forget to check your hardware for Lion capability, also.

[RHPConsult]

That's me, I guess.

However, I'm still reluctant to go exclusively to Lion, since I think there are some apps that will work only in SL, thus to access some very old files I don't wish to lose before they are "involuntarily sunsetted" by Lion.

So please check this "plan" such as it is. Can I do it?

• I have more than one partition on my iMac's 1 TB HD. One is for the basic operation of the iMac, now via SL. Another is for a back-up, also now SL. There are some others for special storage purposes, only: Archives, TimeMachine files, Free Space, etc.
  
• When I move to iCloud and Lion AND the new app store, will I be permitted choose to have Lion installed ONLY on the iMac's basic partition, thus leaving SL (bootable) on the "extra" partition, so to be able to boot from it should I desire to use my older version of (for example) Filemaker Pro?

Will I encounter any unintended surprises/consequences/whatevers in attempting to do so? For example: might the App Store Lion be "empowered" to find any copy of a Non-Lion OS and replace it, wherever its "den" be located?

Ed Note: For those of you wondering about the utility/function of a separate partition containing a full. pristine OS . . .  for years as a road warrior I spent perhaps 50% of my time on the road with one form of Mac "luggable"/portable/Powerbook or another. Never knowing when something (other than a catastrophic failure of the HD) might befall my OS, I always wanted to have a spare, unblemished copy instantly available. Old habits are hard to break! Verstehen Sie?

[Jack W]

QUOTE(RHPConsult @ Apr 20 2012, 02:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

• I have more than one partition on my iMac's 1 TB HD. One is for the basic operation of the iMac, now via SL. Another is for a back-up, also now SL. There are some others for special storage purposes, only: Archives, TimeMachine files, Free Space, etc.
  
• When I move to iCloud and Lion AND the new app store, will I be permitted choose to have Lion installed ONLY on the iMac's basic partition, thus leaving SL (bootable) on the "extra" partition, so to be able to boot from it should I desire to use my older version of (for example) Filemaker Pro?

Ich verstehen!

It will be no problem to have Lion on one partition, and SL on another.

However, I would heartily recommend that you get an external drive for backups.
Ok to have TM on same drive with boot partitions, but I recommend doing SuperDuper! backups to an external drive in case your internal drive goes belly up.
But, being a long-time and astute Mac user, you probably already do this.

I have two external drives I use for backups, one for TM and another for SD!
Nothing like covering your flanks!

Jack

[RHPConsult]

Thanks, Jack.

Yes, I have a 1 TB external drive for backing-up my 1 TB internal. I guess I should have specified that more clearly.

• • •

Is it safe for absent Buckeyes to conclude that Spring has now arrived, presumably, in Summit, Holmes and Coshocton counties?

[Xairbusdriver]

If I read your post correctly, you already have Snow Leopard. If not I don't know what "SL" means. So I don't see how this offer would be of any use to you; you already have the Snow Leopard disk.

And since you already have SL, you also have access to the Mac App Store, also. The whole point of the free OS is to let people access the MAS so they can buy Lion there.

Many people are running both SL and Lion and have been since Lion came out. That been a lot of people's method with every new version of OS X, nothing new with Lion, on that count.

BTW, Lion doesn't destroy any previous System any more than each new update did. The old System simply ends up in a "Previous System" folder, just like always. What lion does do, that is different and frustrating, is to delete the actual Installer after the install. Theoretically, it is not needed, you Restore the OS, when needed, by using the hidden Restore partition it puts on that drive.

If I were you, I'd find out what, if any, apps you need are not compatible with Lion. You just might be surprised. And if there are any files that you need to be accessible in a few years and they depend on a legacy app, run, do not walk, to the nearest source of upgrading to a modern app that can read and rewrite those files now! The longer you wait the less likely and more difficult it will be to maintain that data!!

[RHPConsult]

Yes, I've had SnowLeopard for a long time.

Yes I have some really old (and complex) FileMaker 5.5 temps of my own design that (I understand) may not open in the latest FM version that is, in fact, required if someone wants to move to Lion. Apple, which should know, says FM 8 is not be compatible w/Lion.

So I recently sprang ("sprang" ?) for FileMaker 11, but I still want to be able to use FM 8 (w/SL) when required.

Thus the inquiry.

I'm going to keep SL on my separate Extra OS partition on my HD.

[Xairbusdriver]

From my use of FM, I'd suggest keeping FM8 on the Snow Leopard partition, only. I was using FM 11 (and 9, even) before I went  Lion, so I'll take your word for 8's problems.