Apple’s Latest Operating System, OS X Mavericks Now Free!

iWork and iLife Apps are Free too!

Apple surprised us by announcing that upgrading your Mac to OS X Mavericks is free of charge. It used to cost around $30 or ₱1200 to upgrade. Even iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are also free!

This move from Apple will forever change its operating system war with Microsoft. Just compare this to $199 or ₱8,000 when you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro.

A MacBook Air running on OS X Mavericks. Photo credit: Apple

OS X Mavericks: Free with Over 200 New Features

If you’re thinking like, “yeah it’s free but will it really change anything on a Mac?” Apple see to it that it has a lot of new services to offer with OS X Mavericks.

Some of the most notable are the introduction of iBooks and Maps to the Mac. The two were previously available on iPhones and iPads only.

There’s also the password manager iCloud Keychain that uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect your passwords and credit card information protected and available across all your trusted devices.

Who Can and How to Upgrade

Now I’m thinking, “if OS X Mavericks is free, can I download and install it on a PC?” Bad luck. That’s not possible right now. OS X Mavericks works on Macs only. Even Macs older than 2007 can’t run this operating system.

Of course, others will try and create another ‘hackintosh’ but it will be difficult. Apple’s move to make this free means that it’s going to take its revenue from something else – that’s the pricey hardware.

If you own a Mac currently running the latest version of Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion, just open the About this Mac window and upgrade from there.