mountain lion icon1Cult of Mac points to a report from French site MacGeneration highlighting the system requirements for OS X Mountain Lion. Among those Macs currently compatible with OS X Lion, those with lower-end Intel GMA X3100 or GMA 950 integrated graphics will not be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion:

- Any Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook from late 2007 – late 2008 (Model Numbers: MB061*/B, MB062*/B, MB063*/B, MB402*/A MB403*/A MB404*/A, MB402*/B)

- The Mid-2007 Mac mini (Model Numbers: MB138*/A, MB139*/A)

- Late 2006 polycarbonate iMac (Model Number: MA710xx/A)

- The original early 2008 MacBook Air (Model Number: MB003LL/A)

Users of those older systems may still receive a few of Mountain Lion's enhancements such as with Apple's Safari 5.2 for Lion, but the vast majority of improvements will require a new machine with higher specs.

Update: At least one developer tells us he has been able to install Mountain Lion on a Late 2006 iMac and MacBook Pro without problems. So, the developer builds do not seem to enforce these restrictions.

Update 2: Systems using ATI's Radeon X1600 graphics will also be incompatible with OS X Mountain Lion.

Top Rated Comments

bristleworm Avatar
175 months ago
Thats ok, Snow Leopard is still superior (faster, less bloated, more stable and has expose).

When did you last try Lion? It works flawlessly and really fast on my machines…
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lesser Evets Avatar
175 months ago
I'm shocked that they are already planning for another OSX within about a year of the last one. From a business perspective, it makes sense due to the price of recent OSX versions: release sooner, more and make more cash. $29/yr instead of $129 every 2.5 years or so, and drop hardcopy media and booklets and boxes and shipping and distribution etc.

Even more daunting is how quickly the old hardware is now being jettisoned from OSX. 4yo machines are already vorbei. Horrible, but the extras these OS versions are bringing aren't world-shattering necessary for productivity; OSX is loading up with trinket functions instead of spending time honing and improving their existing programs (some of which are bizarrely underdeveloped after a decade).
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wikus Avatar
175 months ago
I agree, but given I was already tricked into getting Lion, I may as well go forward with Mountain Lion.

Oh, and missing from your list:
Widgets and Spaces.

Seriously, what the heck were they thinking when they decided to change how those worked? I vastly preferred the old system of having 2x2 spaces with a layer of widgets on top of them all. I could access any space or widget with just one gesture. Now if I want to get to my widget from space 4, I have to cross space 3, 2, and 1, and then go all the way back to get back to them.

Or go into that mess known as system control.

Bleh!

... maybe I can benefit from Apple's lack of including obvious features again and just write a little app that adds them in?

It gets worse. Mission control is a complete failure.

Try working on 2 documents in Illustrator, 3 in Photoshop and 1 in Indesign, and having a couple finder windows open, Xee, and some other stuff. Youre currently in one of your photoshop documents and you need to find a file, open it in illustrator and bring it into photoshop.

In Snow Leopard:

show all windows all at once in expose, go to finder (any finder window) open in illustrator, copy object, show all windows again all at once and go DIRECTLY into the desired photoshop document and paste.

In Lion:

show all windows in mission control, and then get stuck with all finder windows being grouped together. randomly choose one and then find window. then open file in illustrator, copy object and use mission control only to find all photoshop document windows AGAIN be grouped, which the only solution is to pick the front document and hope its the desired one, and if not, use mission control AGAIN to fan out all documents within the application, requiring another useless step, just like the initial step with finder.

Who the hell was in charge of mission control?

And why is there no option in system preferences for mission control to show all windows at once without grouping?!
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
utwarreng Avatar
175 months ago
Well that's a bummer, considering I just put an SSD into my early-2008 MacBook last night to try and squeeze another year or so out of it before updating.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
superfula Avatar
175 months ago
When did you last try Lion? It works flawlessly and really fast on my machines…

Based on this post and his history here, he's never tried Lion.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SilverOnemi Avatar
175 months ago
well, one of the main marketing plots is that " macs last forever ", but what about now? is 3 years the time our macbooks are supposed to last now?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

ios 19 messages app

Apple Sues Jon Prosser Over iOS 26 Leaks

Thursday July 17, 2025 8:40 pm PDT by
Earlier this year, YouTuber Jon Prosser shared multiple videos showing off what he claimed to be re-created renderings of what was then presumed to be called iOS 19 and which was eventually unveiled by Apple as iOS 26 at WWDC in June. In his first video back in January, Prosser showed off a Camera app redesign with a simpler set of buttons for moving between photo and video modes, and he...
iPhone 17 Colors

All 15 New iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Colors Revealed in Latest Leak

Wednesday July 16, 2025 6:50 am PDT by
We may finally have a definitive list of all color options for the iPhone 17 series, ahead of the devices launching in September. MacRumors concept In a report for Macworld today, Filipe Espósito said he obtained an "internal document" that allegedly reveals all of the color options for the upcoming iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. The report includes ...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Here's When to Expect the iOS 26 Public Beta

Tuesday July 15, 2025 11:07 am PDT by
Apple previously announced that a public beta of iOS 26 would be available in July, and now a more specific timeframe has surfaced. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Apple's public betas should be released on or around Wednesday, July 23. In other words, expect the public betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and more to be available at some point next week. Apple will be releasing...
iPhone 17 Pro Dark Blue and Orange

Ranked: The Best Features Rumored for the iPhone 17 Lineup

Wednesday July 16, 2025 4:17 pm PDT by
We have just under two months to go until the debut of Apple's iPhone 17 models, and rumors have been ramping up in recent weeks. We went through everything we know so far, pulling out the most exciting rumors and highlighting some other changes that aren't going to be so great. Top Tier Ultra Thin iPhone 17 Air - The iPhone 17 Air is 2025's most exciting iPhone rumor, because it's the...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Centered 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 16 New Features

Thursday July 17, 2025 8:33 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models.Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro ...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Foldable iPhone's Thickness and Price Range Detailed in New Reports

Wednesday July 16, 2025 11:31 am PDT by
Apple's long-rumored foldable iPhone will likely have a starting price between $1,800 and $2,000 in the U.S., analysts at investment banking firm UBS said this week. If so, the foldable iPhone would cost more than a MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,599. With a starting price of at least $1,800, the foldable iPhone would be the most expensive iPhone model ever released, topping the Pro Max at...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 16 New Features

Friday July 11, 2025 12:40 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are only two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:A redesigned Dynamic Island: It has been rumored that all iPhone 17 models will have a redesigned Dynamic Island interface — it might ...