mavericksWhen Apple exec Craig Federighi said that the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS would be available today for free, he really wasn’t kidding.

OS 10.9 “Mavericks” is now available in the Mac App Store, complete with a totally official five-finger discount. For my MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion, it looks like the download is about 5.3 GB, and it’s probably going to need to expand from there, so you’ll want to make sure you have enough space on your hard drive for the new OS. (I’d leave about 20 GB open.)

Also, be prepared for the download to take a while, since people are going to be slamming Apple’s servers.

Finally, just remember to be cautious, since updates like these have the potential to do gnarly things to your computer. I’ll have a guide up later today about how to best prepare so that you don’t get yourself into an unfortunate situation.

Previously on GeekWire: Apple’s next Mac OS X update is free, available today

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