Full FeedMacBook Air uses special version of Leopard
This shouldn’t be any huge surprise, but Apple documentation confirms that the MacBook Air uses a specialized version of Leopard.
Apple’s technical documents confirm that the version of Leopard is made exclusively for the MacBook Air.
The Mac OS X 10.5 installation media that shipped with your MacBook Air is designed for use on this computer only and not intended for any other computer. The installer prevents this software from being installed on other Macintosh computers.
At first glance, this looks like the same thing as any other Mac install discs. The grey discs that come with the computer are intended for that computer and won’t work on any other model. But the next line is what makes it an absolute.
Furthermore, other Mac OS X 10.5 installation media should not be used when restoring the system software on your MacBook Air.
This implies that there are extra firmware and other features built into the MacBook Air OS. Of course, this was fairly obvious from the start, but it leaves me to wonder, what happens if you install Leopard from a regular retail disc? Will it install, leaving exclusive features such as the multi-touch trackpad, unsupported? Will it install at all? Of course, this adds another inconveinice for Air users: if your discs are damaged, you must call Apple to get replacements. There will be no using a Leopard retail DVD.
Via [MacNN]
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Here’s what I’m thinkin’:
* Remote Disc
on February 1, 2008 at 01:35 PM - LINK* Multi-touch
* Some sort of hidden feature that we won’t know about for a while (like how the 801.11N was hidden in Macs for a while, before they released the software to activate it)