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No, it's not an old message that was accidentally pushed through. Apple recently dropped the $19.99 fee for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, making the older Mac updates available for download for free.
Apple has continued to make OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion available to customers whose computers are limited to the older software. Until recently, however, the company charged around $19.99. Since last week, these updates are no longer chargeable and can be downloaded via the OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion Support documents can be downloaded from Apple's website, as MacWorld reported. Mac OS X Lion is compatible with Macs that have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor, at least 2GB of RAM, and 7GB of storage space.
OS X Lion & Mountain Lion: These devices are compatible
macOS X Mountain Lion is compatible with the following Macs:
- iMac (mid 2007-2020)
- MacBook (Late 2008 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)
Important: Macs that shipped with Mac OS X Mavericks or later are not compatible with this installer. The $19.99 cost dates back to when Apple still charged for Mac updates. With the launch of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple began providing Mac updates for free, which also marked the switch from big cat names to Californian brand names. (Photo by Unsplash / Sergey Zolkin)
