You can only legally download mountain lion for free if: - you already have a version of Os X that supports the Mac App Store and - you have already purchased Mountain Lion on the Mac App store in the past or you have connected to the Mac App Store with a Mac that was originally sold with Mountain Lion as the native OS.
Official OS X Mountain Lion.app Installer from the Mac App Store. Both versions 10.8.4 AND 10.8.5 full installers included (zipped). Un-archive the zip archive and you will get the app Installer. Mac OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion can now be downloaded for free from Apple's website. 'Apple has kept OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion available for customers who have machines limited to the older software, but until recently, Apple was charging $19.99 to get download codes for the updates,' notes MacRumors.
Apple made Mac OS X Lion and Mac OS X Mountain Lion available for download for free here in the summer of 2021. This is the first time either version of the software was available for free. All versions of the operating system released after these cat-themed releases were delivered for free to users of Apple products.
Starting with Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple started making updates to their operating system free for compatible devices. You can still buy Mac OS X lion and Mac OS X Mountain Lion from the Apple store for approximately $20 each, but they’ve also been made available for free through Apple support documents.
If you head to the Mac OS X Lion Installer page or the Mac OS X Mountain Lion Installer page, you can drop in and download each operating system version for free.
If you’re looking to download Mac OS X Mountain Lion, you’ll need at least OS X Snow Leopard, Lion 10.7, or Mountain Lion 10.8. You’ll also need 2GB memory, and 8GB data storage. If you’re looking to download Mac OS X Lion, you’ll need OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or OS X Lion 10.7 (weird, right?) already installed. You’ll also need 7GB data space and 2GB memory on your machine.
This version of the Mac OS X Lion installer has a file size of 4.72GB in and of itself, and it was first posted (for free) on June 23, 2021. The current version of the Mac OS X Mountain Lion Installer was posted on June 23, 2021, and has a file size of 4.45GB.
These downloads will more than likely be used by IT specialists aiming to recover data from older Apple computers. While some of the oldest viable Apple hardware may still have recoverable data, software used to recover said data isn’t always compatible with the operating systems on the devices that’ll be the target of said software. This free pathway to updates makes the whole process a whole lot simpler.