Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

Jump Straight From Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion

That’s right folks, Apple has been kind enough to allow users of Snow Leopard to go straight to Mountain Lion. I’m not saying I’d take a Snow Leopard Server directly to Mountain Lion Server without stopping off at the trusty Lion upgrade path grill for a burger and some fries, but for client systems, the Mountain Lion installer is built to upgrade either Snow Leopard or Lion clients directly to Mountain Lion. To install, just get to 10.6.8 and get all available updates installed and search for Mountain Lion in the App Store and click Install. Click Continue ’till the installer is finished and you’ll have a shiny new cougar waiting for you when it’s finished!

Also, for those mass deployment minded individuals… I’ve had mixed luck with NetInstalling from 10.6 to 10.8 directly as an upgrade in-place, but it can work as well. One thing about a NetRestore or DeployStudio restore/clone is that you can install Mountain Lion onto unsupported volumes this way. It’s not always preferable, but I have several clients running on older white MacBooks and things are running great. It’s not supported, but it can work if you need to standardize…