Apple provided a "gold master" build of Lion -- the tag some developers use for software that has been completed and is ready to ship -- on July 1, but did not seed them with another version.

a Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 or Xeon processor; 2GB of memory; and Snow Leopard. Unlike previous OS upgrades, Lion will be available only via download from the Mac App Store.

Lion is priced at $29.99 and requires that users already have Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard installed.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Mac OS Topic Center.