Apple Removes OS X Lion and Mountain Lion From Online Store

Wednesday November 15, 2023 6:24 am PST by Hartley Charlton

Apple has officially ceased the sale of OS X Lion 10.7 and Mountain Lion 10.8 from its online store.

os x mountain lion disc page
The change was spotted by @ClassicII_MrMac on X, formerly Twitter. The original release of OS X Lion was available either as a digital download from the Mac App Store or via a USB thumb drive preloaded with the installer. Mountain Lion, on the other hand, was distributed exclusively as a downloadable product, delivered via an emailed redemption code.

Apple's shift from physical to digital distribution became clear upon the release of OS X Lion in July 2011, marking the company's transition to online-only releases. Lion introduced features such as multi-touch gestures, Mission Control, and full-screen apps, but it also posed a challenge for users without access to the ‌Mac App Store‌. This was particularly true for those still running OS X Leopard, as they were unable to upgrade to Lion without first obtaining Snow Leopard or purchasing the Lion installer thumb drive.

OS X Mountain Lion, which debuted in July 2012, continued this trend. Mountain Lion was the last macOS version not initially offered for free. The digital-only approach was solidified with OS X Mavericks (version 10.9) in October 2013, establishing the ‌Mac App Store‌ as the sole avenue for obtaining new macOS versions.

While Apple ceased supporting both Lion and Mountain Lion some time ago, it continued to sell digital copies of these operating systems until now. Apple continues to offer OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion as free digital downloads for those who still need them.

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Top Rated Comments

ricketysquire

38 months ago

I don’t know why people are cheering on the death of physical media. You’re just giving away control. I can take a CD of Office 2010 and install it on a machine and not have to worry about subscriptions, cloud updates that break things, AWS being up or down, or some bull around lawsuits or copyrights causing them to take it down or to take away some functionality. I can just use it like the way it should be.

Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)

AAPLGeek

38 months ago

End of an era. OS quality aside, it was always something special with these physical releases.

Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Return Zero

38 months ago

Womp womp.

I still have my Snow Leopard DVD. "New Version 10.6.3" says the sticker on the box.

Snow Leopard was simply the best OS ever, IMO. Everything you needed, nothing you didn't, and as stable as they come.

Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)

GraXXoR

38 months ago

End of an era. OS quality aside, it was always something special with these physical releases.

I will keep these DVDs as a memento of a bygone era to maybe show my future grandchildren and have them shrug at me for being so old.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

chrfr

38 months ago

These were never sold on CDs, or DVDs for that matter. This article is poorly written.
Mountain Lion was download only and Lion was available as a USB installer, but the Apple Store listing was for a download code which is no longer needed.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

elvisimprsntr

38 months ago

I remember when Microsoft Office came on at least 20 3.5 inch floppies. Good riddance!