[Cybersparrow]

I want a new Mac, but it looks like I won't be able to afford it for a while, so I decided to wait until it'll come with Leopard. If I order my Mac the same day that the official Leopard date is announced, will I get Leopard pre-installed?

[mdc]

Hypothetically, if tomorrow Apple says the release date for 10.5 is going to be October 1st, and you order a Mac tomorrow, you will be eligible for 10.5 at the cost of shipping the media. You will not get your Mac tomorrow with 10.5 on it, since the release date is the 1st of October, and not tomorrow.

[Cold Warrior]

I don't know about the same day order + Leopard installed. However, using the iMac as an example, when you order it, the 'Select Your iMac' page features an 'Included Software' section at the page's bottom right corner. If I were in your place, I'd wait until that section reflected 10.5 as the OS, if you really want it to ship with Leopard already installed.

[jmiddel]

If you want to do this and get Leopard for just the cost of media and shipping, I would wait until the day after the announcement, maybe that is just my paranoid feeling that a same day order might register somewhere as being before the announcement due to some goof in the system.

[Chuckit]

Almost certainly not. The date will probably be announced several weeks before release.