If the latest rumors are to be believed, it seems that performing a “clean install” of OS X Lion may require a user to install Snow Leopard first, and then upgrade to OS X Lion through the Mac App Store.
A MacRumors reader reportedly sent an email to Steve Jobs asking if, without a physical disc, Lion would provide a way to create a bootable image to use to restore a computer, to which Steve reportedly responded: “You can clean install Snow Leopard first.”
I sincerely doubt that this is true. In fact, its already possible, using the latest Developer Preview of OS X Lion, to extract an image, burn it to a disc (or copy it to a hard drive partition), boot from it, and use it to perform a clean install. To prevent user irritation, I’d imagine that Apple would provide instructions to do that before potentially requiring their customers to spend an extra $29 on a now-obsolete operating system.
A second email also reportedly came through, giving the same indication, and it reads as follows:
Dear Mr. Jobs,
I just wanted to know if there will be a way to install Lion on a new HDD/SSD without previously installing 10.6?
Regards,
[REDACTED]
Steve’s straightforward reply:
Sorry, no.Sent from my iPhone
Again, I’m putting up my skeptic’s block on this one – it just seems like nonsense, especially when information is already available that counters it.
Your thoughts? Sound off in the comments!