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by mistrial9 1193 days ago
Q. a local mac repair shop installed "new OSX" on a laptop by request .. but it is version 10.12.6 (?) ..

Later, when downloading several common desktop applications, upon opening them.. it says "this software requires v10.13 or later" .. I assume this is completely on purpose to get the legions of happy Mac owners off of their stable OS and into the upgrade churn ? I assume (US here) you have to have to buy OSX 10.13, register an ID with Apple, to get new software (according to them) ?
3 comments
Aaron2222 1192 days ago
macOS upgrades have been free since OS X Mavericks[0] (10.9, released in 2013). macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) came out in 2017, so is a 5 year old OS at this point[1]. It also supports all Macs that macOS 10.12 (Sierra) supports[1]. And you don't need an Apple ID for anything other than Apple services and the Mac App Store. OS Upgrades don't need an Apple ID (even on older versions of macOS where they're installed through the Mac App Store), and you can even network boot a recovery image and install the latest version over the network[2] (Intel Macs only).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_Mavericks

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_High_Sierra

[2]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/mac-help/mchl338cf9a8/...

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myko 1193 days ago
I'm a bit confused by the question and might be misunderstanding but there is no need to buy OS X upgrades, they're free. But you do need to register with Apple to get them.
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wkat4242 1193 days ago
No you don't need to be registered or even logged in with an appleid to install updates or download them from the app store.
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skinnymuch 1193 days ago
It’s all free. No registering or buying. Guides are everywhere.
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