OS X Mountain Lion Will Not Ship on USB Keys, Apple Confirms

Apple has confirmed that OS X version 10.8, dubbed Mountain Lion, will not be available on any form of physical media when the software is released this summer. The operating system will be exclusively available for download from the Mac App Store.

In a statement provided to Pocket-Lint, the Cupertino, California-based electronics giant has confirmed that the next major version of its Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, will be available from the Mac App Store exclusively.

Apple justified its move telling the site that, "It was an interesting test, but it turns out the App Store was just fine for getting the new OS."

While the move will undoubtedly spur some criticism from conservative users, it’s worth pointing out that Mac owners will be able to create their own bootable USB Mountain Lion drives, and even discs.

The web is already chock full of guides on how to do that with the developer preview release.

The procedure basically involves placing the InstallESD.dmg resulted from the Mac App Store download onto a Mac OS-formatted USB drive that has been customized as bootable using Disk Utility.

To start from the external media, users simply select the respective drive as they boot up holding down the Option key.

It has been confirmed that several Macintosh models will not support Apple’s new big cat when it comes out this summer.

The systems that won’t run OS X 10.8 include any Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook shipped between late 2007 and 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), the late 2006 polycarbonate iMac (Model Number: MA710xx/A), and the original MacBook Air (Model Number: MB003LL/A).

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