Released in 2011 and 2012, Mac OS X Lion and its successor OS X Mountain Lion were the last two paid software updates for the Mac. Until recently, the downloads cost $19.99, but Apple is now offering Lion and Mountain Lion for free.
Lion runs on Macs that came prior to the launch of Mountain Lion in 2012. Mountain Lion runs on the Macs below, but you may not be able to downgrade to it unless you completely reformat the drive. You can’t install an old OS on top of a newer one. Also, the oldest OS an M1 Mac can run is Big Sur.
• iMac (Mid 2007-2020)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)
MacDailyNews Note: To get Lion and Mountain Lion for free, with important caveats (see below), don’t visit the Mac App Store where they’re still $19.99 each, but visit Apple’s support documents for those operating systems:
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is available for older systems that are not compatible with the latest version of macOS and requires the following:
• Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
• OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later or OS X Lion 10.7 already installed
• 2GB of memory
• 7GB of available space
• Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
Any Mac that shipped with Mac OS X Mountain Lion or later will not be compatible with this installer.
• Mac OS X Lion installer free download (4.72GB)
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is available for older systems that are not compatible with the latest version of macOS and requires the following:
• OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion 10.7, or Mountain Lion 10.8 already installed
• 2 GB of memory
• 8 GB of available space
• Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
Any Mac that shipped with Mac OS X Mavericks or later will not be compatible with this installer.
• Mac OS X Mountain Lion installer free download (4.45GB)
Necessary to run 32 bit apps that were never updated, right? Or was it PowerPC apps? It is sad to think of all the nice things that have been left behind. An M1 mac can now run Gamecube games, and are therefore emulating a PowerPC chip!