Download Mountain Lion OS X For Mac Right Now: Here's How

In the App Store, the quiet App Store, Mountain Lion sleeps todaaaaay.

Yup, OS X Mountain Lion is currently available for download in iTunes, and if you've got a credit card, and $19.99, and the right hardware, you can update your Apple desktop or laptop right now. Just click on this shiny blue link to travel to the Mac App Store to start your download. After you hit the download button, you'll enter your Apple ID and the download -- about 4GB in all, or "about the size of a full-length film download," as CNET puts it -- will begin.

There are a few system requirements in order to download Mountain Lion from the App Store. First, you'll need to currently have OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard or higher on your Mac (here's how to check that). Second, not all desktops and laptops will be able to run Mountain Lion. Apple has supplied the following list of supported hardware:

• iMac (mid 2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch aluminum, late 2008, 13-inch early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, mid/late 2007 or later), (17-inch, late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (early 2008 or later)

It's also a good idea to make sure all of your applications are up-to-date before you download Mountain Lion. Run the free Software Update (instructions right here) before you take the plunge and download Mountain Lion. For more on how to prepare your Mac for Mountain Lion, check out this guide put together by our friends at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (also owned by AOL) .

And that's it! Just a quick trip to the App Store, a $20 charge to your credit card, and you're done. Once you've got Mountain Lion, make sure to check out all the new cool features (Voice dictation! Notification center! Twitter!) and let us know what you think in the comments.

UPDATE: We've been asked on Twitter if you will be able to install Mountain Lion on multiple computers for free. You can! Here are the official instructions, via Apple, for how to do so. These instructions are for installations of OS X Lion but apply to OS X Mountain Lion as well.