Hi,
So I’ve got 3 machines that I want to upgrade to 10.4,
Do I really have to download the full package 3 times?

Gerald -
Hi,
So I’ve got 3 machines that I want to upgrade to 10.4,
Do I really have to download the full package 3 times?
You only have to download and update the apps that you want or need.

I've got several machines too, each with varying degrees of completed edits, sorta like "rolling updates". My style is to wait and see if others have any issues with the update before updating, but by the same token, "your mileage may be different." Who knows what evil lurks within the heart of the computer. (paraphrased from The Shadow, I think)

In any event, it'd be a good idea to get a good external hard drive and back up the Libraries, if they aren't backed up already, before doing an update.

That's my two cents worth.

Thanks John,
It was more from the point of view of downloading the package 3 times. We have terrible internet and 8-9GB of downloading will cripple our net for about a week.
Is it possible to download an install package to use 3 times?

Ah ha! Now I get it. Having a slow internet is a real bummer. Off hand, I can't think of any way to do it other than strait from the App Store.

Just maybe ... "back up" the the first downloaded copy to an external drive and "save" it to another computer? We really need someone more of a computer guru to chime in on this. My guess, though, is that it wouldn't work because if it could, Apple couldn't sell their apps.

One option is to take the computers to a place with a faster internet if that is workable.

Can't recall whether I've tried this with FCP, but with other apps I have simply copied them to another of my machines. The first time you try to open the app on the new machine it will ask you to sign in to the app store, and that will authorize it for the new machine. If you have an installer, you should be able to run that on the other machine and the same thing should happen when you first open the app.

Thanks Boyd,
Sounds like it should work.
Away from office atm, will report back with results.

Copied Final cut, compressor and motion from the Aplications folder on my laptop.
All start ok, Compressor even then updates via the Software update.
Final cut is missing some plug ins but that’s to be expected.
Overall a successful way to reduce downloading .