For ‘developers’ willing to shell out $99 for an annual membership in Apple’s group of Mac OS app creators, Lion is old news already. But the rest of you can finally download Apple’s latest operating system — Mac OS 10.7 — by hitting up the App Store on your Snow Leopard (10.6.8)-equipped Mac, assuming it’s powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5 or i7 processor.

The 4GB download could take over hours pending your Internet speed, even on a high-speed connection it may still take an hour, but once you have the installer in hand the upgrade process itself should be complete in about 20 minutes. As Apple previously announced, those with slower connections can also download Lion at an Apple retail store, and the company’s also now revealed that it will be offering it on a USB thumb drive as well, which will be available through its online store later this August for $69.

Those that are going to buy the new MacBook Air and Mac Mini will have them preloaded so don’t worry. Oh, and if you’ve bought a new Mac lately that has a purchase date after 6 of June, you can also redeem your free Mac OS X Lion from Apple’s redemption program.