#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 SERIAL NUMBER#
#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 DRIVERS#
#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 UPDATE#
#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 PATCH#

You'll get a code you can redeem in the Mac App Store, allowing you to buy your old Mac another year-or-so of breathing room. Copies of Lion can be purchased for $20 from Apple's online store. If you've got one of the Macs listed above, your hardware won't run Apple's latest-and-greatest, but it can run version 10.7, and Apple should support that OS until the next version of OS X comes out later this year (assuming Apple sticks to its yearly release schedule).

#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 DRIVERS#

Those newer operating systems need 64-bit EFI firmware and graphics drivers too, and a small but still significant run of Macs fell short of these requirements. OS X has required a 64-bit CPU since Lion came out in 2011, but a 64-bit CPU by itself isn't enough to run Mountain Lion or Mavericks. Macs this applies to: Late 2006 iMacs Mid-2007 Mac Minis Mid-2006 Mac Pros Early 2008 MacBook Airs Macbooks from the late 2006 model to the late 2008 white model Late 2006 MacBook Pros. The company will send you a code that you can redeem in the Mac App Store, and you can use that version of the software until you're comfortable moving to Mavericks or until software support for OS X 10.8 dries up. Supposing your hardware can handle the upgrade but you don't care to move to Mavericks, you can still purchase copies of Mountain Lion for $20 through Apple's online store. If you were holding out because you didn't want to deal with those early upgrader blues, most of 10.9's largest bugs should be squashed at this point.

#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 UPDATE#

New OS X versions usually have teething issues when they first come out, but the 10.9.2 update is a big one that fixes much more than the 'goto fail' SSL bug. Just grab it from the Mac App Store and do an in-place upgrade-you shouldn't run into problems, though it is probably a good idea to run a Time Machine backup (or something similar) before doing it. If you're still running Snow Leopard because it came with your Mac and you just never got around to upgrading, the good news is that basically any Mac that came with Snow Leopard can update to the latest version at absolutely no cost. Macs this applies to: Anything that can run Mavericks. Newer Macs: Upgrade to Mavericks (or at least Mountain Lion)

#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 SERIAL NUMBER#

Launching the System Profiler application from the Utilities folder will show you your serial number and your Mac's specific model identifier (something like MacBook4,1 or iMac11,2), the latter of which can be used with this EveryMac lookup page to find what you're looking for. You'll need to know the exact kind of Mac you're using before proceeding-typing your serial number into this Service and Support page should give you the information you need if you're not sure. None really tell anyone in that 19 percent what to do next. Some make a bigger deal about it than others. Most compare the OS X support cycle to the much longer Windows cycle. All point out the same Net Applications data that says 10.6 still powers around 19 percent of Macs. This has prompted a flurry of posts from various outlets.

#MAINTENANCE FOR MAC OS X 10.6 PATCH#

It's the first major security update that Snow Leopard has missed-the OS is still getting iTunes updates, but its last major security patch happened back in September. When OS X 10.9.2 was released earlier this week, it was accompanied by security updates for OS X 10.8 and 10.7 but not for 2009's OS X 10.6. Since switching to a yearly release cadence with Lion back in 2011, Apple seems to be willing to support whatever the latest version is, plus the two preceding versions. The best you can do is look at historical data.

Apple offers no end-of-life roadmaps for its operating systems, and it doesn't officially comment on whether support has dried up for this or that version of OS X.

Maintenance for mac os x 10.6