AfterDawn: News

Apple saying goodbye to discs with release of OS X 10.7 Lion

It appears that Apple will go environmentally friendly with the release of Mac OS X Lion this summer, saying goodbye to physical discs and instead making the operating system available via the Mac App Store as a digital download.

The disc will be available if a user requests it (or has slow broadband/dial-up) but the digital download will be the default.



Apple launched the Mac App Store in January and it is expected to be a major component of 10.7 Lion.

If accurate, the move is part of a broader plan by Apple to lose the SuperDrive altogether, with upcoming MacBook Pros expected to remove the drive in an effort to make thinner notebooks with better battery life.

Apple is expected to reveal Lion at their June event instead of the iPhone 5.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 May 2011 1:47

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• 5 comments

• Adamontar

  What? "apple, environmentally friendly". Yeah right. I guess littering is also enviromentally friendly.
  
  If apple actually took any effort in wanting to be enviromentally friendly, they would not be releasing a new iphone or ipad every few seconds. This is the deal with companies like apple, it's always greed before anything else.

  8.5.2011 05:01 #1

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by Adamontar: What? "apple, environmentally friendly". Yeah right. I guess littering is also enviromentally friendly.
  
  If apple actually took any effort in wanting to be enviromentally friendly, they would not be releasing a new iphone or ipad every few seconds. This is the deal with companies like apple, it's always greed before anything else. They make a lot of throw-away electronics, and they make them in ways are are not very friendly to nature (even the employees get sick from those toxic chemicals)...but one thing that they do not do enough is updating the iPhone...they only release one per year (2 if you count the white version). Since the iPhone is the only iOS platform, it should be updated MUCH more often than this; that is a big part of the reason that Android is better...multiple manufacturers releasing multiple models every year.
  
  As for going disk-less, it is not to save the earth...it is just to save money. Someone at apple said, "We are charging $30 for a disk that costs us less than $2 to make, package, and ship...that isn't a big enough profit margin!"
  
  As for the superdrive, the only reason they would remove it from their laptops is to force people to buy the external version...it is nothing but a poorly made DVD burner...and they charge $80 for it...that is the same price as a desktop BluRay burner!!!
  

  
  

  8.5.2011 08:49 #2

• A5J4DX

  pfft dont care
  

  8.5.2011 09:23 #3

• robertmro

  When Apple eliminated the floppy drive, all the 'geniuses' thought they were crazy.
  When Apple announced the iPad the same people said it wouldn't sell.
  
  The factory workers who are subcontracted to make Apple products might be abused or they might not be )by Chinese standards). Who knows? At least they have jobs.
  
  But the fact is, the use of glass, steel and aluminum make their products highly recyclable.
  
  Apple isn't perfect but they're always setting the bar, and the competition always follow. After all, CDs and DVDs are thirty year old technology (ancient by today's standards).
  

  13.5.2011 19:47 #4

• loxwood

  Lion or operation sealion...Jobs operates like Hitler anyway...
  

  13.5.2011 22:19 #5