Mountain Lion: How to upgrade to Apple's new Mac operating system

So you've heard a lot about Apple's new operating system Mountain Lion and think you're ready to upgrade your Mac computer. Your options depend on what computer you have now.

- If you bought your Mac on or after June 11.
The upgrade is free. You can get Mountain Lion as a download through the Mac App Store.

- If you bought your computer in late 2009 or after.
Be sure you have either the Snow Leopard or the Lion version of the operating system installed.

The upgrade will cost $20 through the Mac App Store. That's $20 for all your Macs, not each one.

- If you have an older computer.
You must first upgrade to Snow Leopard if you don't have either that or Lion already. That costs $29 and is available for shipping through Apple's online store.

It's possible an older computer won't work with Mountain Lion at all. You need at least 2 gigabytes of memory and 8 GB of available storage. Specific computers supported by Mountain Lion are listed here: http://www.apple.com/osx/specs .

Even if you can run Mountain Lion, it's possible some features won't work on older machines.