14 DAY TRIAL // A PDF document posted online by Apple explains how to upgrade to OS X Lion for education and business organizations.
When it’s released next month, Lion will be priced at $29.99 as an upgrade from Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6).
Business customers will be able to grab volume license contracts for $29.99 per license, with a minimum of 20 licenses.
Education staff will have the option to purchase the Apple Software Collection, which includes Mac OS X, iLife and iWork, through the Apple Education Licensing Program (AELP). Pricing starts at $39 per license, with a minimum of 25 licenses.
Those looking to buy Lion in either of these two environments are being told to download the software once and use the installer to upgrade multiple machines.
The Cupertino tech giant specifically notes that the machine used to download Lion must not be upgraded immediately after the download finishes:
“Do not install Lion. Locate the install Mac OS X Lion application in the Applications folder. This is the application used to install Lion on other Mac systems.”
To deploy Lion, customers who purchase a Volume License, Maintenance, and AELP don’t need to learn anything new.
Everyone gets to use the same mass installation techniques they use today to deploy the OS, by simply copying the installer to the target system, then running the installer.
Administrators will be able to create a NetInstall or NetRestore image by using the System Image Utility included in OS X Lion Server.
Speaking of which, Lion Server will be available as an add-on to Lion for $49.99.
While Snow Leopard Server is not required to get Lion Server, existing users will only be able to upgrade to Lion Server.
However, in order to get Lion Server, customers must initially download the client version of Lion.