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I have a MacBook model A1181, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory. It's running Snow Leopard, and running fine including speed wise. I want to upgrade to make use of iOS simulator and XCode 4. Saw that App Store has only the newest 10.8 Mountain Lion for upgrade, and saw a few reviews saying it slowed down their Macs, even w/ 16GB memory, wonder what it will do to my machine.

I would prefer to get 10.7 Lion. Any way to get that anymore, maybe at Apple Stores? Or am I out of luck and have to go to 10.8 if I want to upgrade? Too bad I should have upgraded sooner when 10.8 wasn't out yet.

Update: looking around online, looks like my Mac may not even quality for requirements for 10.8, but 10.7 should be ok.

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Are you more interested in the details if your mac can run Lion or how to purchase it? The first may not be on the site already, but the latter should be covered for you here. apple.stackexchange.com/questions/51655/… –  bmike Aug 20 '12 at 20:40
@bmike The answer link you posted in your comment needs to be updated, I called 1-800-MY-APPLE and they still sell Mac OS X 10.7 Lion through the phone. Which is stated in my answer below which links to a previous answer on the subject of trying to purchase 10.7 Lion. It is 29.99 and can be shipped straight to you, they even ask you a bunch of questions to make sure your computer is capable of even running Lion before they sell it to you. –  de_an777 Aug 21 '12 at 1:34
Thanks for the info, interestingly, Apple only charged me $19.99 for Lion 10.7. –  David Dec 12 '12 at 20:58
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up vote 6 down vote accepted

It is still possible to purchase 10.7 for installing/upgrading on your mac, see my answer at question Can we still upgrade to OS X 10.7 now that 10.8 is out?:

Although you can no longer buy Lion through the App Store or directly by SKU from the online store, you can still order Lion after Mountain Lion was released.

I called 1-800-MY-APPLE, it took some time to get through but they told me that I would be able to purchase Lion, OSX 10.7 from them for $19.99. They would send me the physical copy through the mail.


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@David Thank you for letting me know that they changed their prices. That is very helpful, I will update my answer accordingly. –  de_an777 Dec 12 '12 at 20:51
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Unfortunately you're out of luck. 10.7 got pulled as soon as 10.8 was released. That said, most of what I've seen suggests that 10.8 is about on par, and possibly even a bit faster than 10.7.

The catch for you is that your model may not be supported with 10.8. The A1181 covered a lot of models, but the only ones that are supported under 10.8 are the ones with the model identifier Macbook5,2—which you can check in the System Information app, under Hardware Overview.

If yours is supported, the good news is that you can add more RAM (and do so fairly cheaply). 4 GB is what's officially supported, but you can go to 6 GB with a 2+4 configuration.

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He is asking if he can still buy 10.7, not whether he can run 10.8 or 10.7. He can still buy 10.7, see my answer for details. –  de_an777 Aug 20 '12 at 19:20
Pulled from the App Store as a digital download, but the OS is still sold by Apple. –  Graham Perrin Aug 22 '12 at 6:26
FYI, I was able to install and run Lion 10.7 with the older Macbook but it performed rather slow. I recently upgraded it from 2GB to 4GB RAM and it performs normally/decently now. Assume 10.8 would be the same experience. The Macbook is 5,2 as well, haven't bothered to upgrade to 10.8 yet, maybe later on. –  David Dec 12 '12 at 22:31
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