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The short version: Is there a way to find the original operating system that shipped with my mac from within the operating system itself?

The long version:

I am trying to identify the version of OS X the originally shipped with my Mac. It is a Macbook pro from late 2008 15-inch. It is currently running 10.10.4 and it was originally running some version of Leopard but I'm not sure. How can I find out what version of Leopard it was originally running? It appears as though apple also provided an install disc for the original Leopard on the system but that disc doesn't have any printed information about what version of Leopard it is.

Thank you :)

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3 Answers 3

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I use the program Mactracker when I want to know about specific machines throughout Apple's History. With your model number you can identify all there is to know about that mac you have.

It is available form the App Store for both Mac and iOS devices.

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  • I actually have the app but I forgot that I had it. Good suggestion, I will look it up :)
    – www139
    Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 20:16
  • Worked! I found that it was originally running OS X 10.5.5
    – www139
    Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 20:19
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Apple has a knowledgebase article that shows which versions of OS X shipped with which Macs, going back to 2006. It's available via the link below:

https://support.apple.com/HT204319

Some of these articles are no longer showing 10.6 and 10.7 information as progress marches forward, so you may need to use archive.org to research what these articles looked like in the past. One notable article that lost some very good technical information is HT1159 which listed the builds that shipped with hardware across the years.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150223074747/http://support.apple.com:80/en-us/ht1159

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  • Thank you :) Wish I could pick your answer and @TheWellington's answer as best. +1
    – www139
    Commented Nov 25, 2015 at 17:30
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If your install disk has "10.5" printed on it (lower left side of the disk), then it shipped with the original (10.5.0) version of Leopard. Subsequent install disks are labeled 10.5.3, etc with the minor version. AFAIK, this is true for all of 10.6.x back through at least 10.4.x (I don't have any pre 10.4 disks nearby to check)

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  • This disk is different, it has no printing. Thank you for your answer though :)
    – www139
    Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 20:15

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