just a quicky, i need to upgrade to 10.4, im only on 10.3.9!  so i was looking on ebay for a cheap disk! anyways i came accross this,  http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...=1&rd=1
will this be compatable with my g4 agp or am i just being crazy?

cheers, philip

No, that one is useless to you. OS discs which ship with Macs are model specific, more so nowadays (you used to be able to use some PowerBook and iBook discs with all portables, and desktop ones were more interchangeable than they are now too.
Aside from that, the MacBook ships with an Intel x86 version of OS X, you need the PowerPC version of Tiger. And you really need a retail copy to be sure it will work.

you need a retail version of osx to install on any mac.  as waragainstsleep said..  those disks on ebay are model-specific factory install disks and will only work on other macbooks.

search ebay for "tiger retail" or "10.4 retail"

also, the retail disks are either PowerPC or universal.

ok guys, cheers for the info, it makes sense and i was just making sure, however i came accross......

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...atchlink:top:uk

now this seems ok, its cheap and should work but surely theres something im missing about it!  ;-)

its hard to say with that auction.  the seller is quite vague and uses a generic picture.  its cheap enough to take a chance if you feel good about it.

Its not relevant to you Cooler, but Tiger discs are all PPC only, not Universal. With the possible exception of late copies of Tiger Server.
I would love to get hold of a retail Universal Tiger disc, but to my knowledge, they don't exist in the wild.

Would it be legal to buy a copy of OSX that is made for a system you don't have then then turnaround and download the retail version but since you own legit copy can't you say it's a custom CD backup? Or is this a no no?

That would be one for the lawyers to answer/prove, but to be honest, System restore discs have a lower resale value than retail copies, so I would imagine that it would be illegal. Retail copies are far more versatile than backups, and I believe if you go to the trouble of purchasing replacement discs from Apple they are marginally cheaper than retail installers. I guess you are getting iLife as well with backups, but since they will only run on a machine which somebody has already paid for, the price is lower. You might decide to sell a retail Tiger on once you get a retail Leopard too. Can't do it with your backup discs.

The analogy to what you describe would be paying for a BMW 3 series and then stealing an M5 engine to put in it. Except you wouldn't be depriving anybody else of a copy by downloading it.

Copyright law is all about commerce, consequently rights of the parties involved are pretty well covered by airtight legislation. Downloading the retail is stealing. If you don't care, then hit up your torrent client. Otherwise bite the bullet and get your wallet out.

well, im going to bite the bullet and go for the cheaper option for now!  ill get a proper one when leopard comes out and ive saved uyp but i was gutted when my mighty mouse turned up and onlt works on 10.4 and ive only got 10.3.9, so the only reason i want tiger is because of a mouse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  sad i know!

hmm, it was taken off ebay before i could bid on it!!! bummer!