Friend wants to take one for the team, how do I tell which OS comes on refurb mini?

[Chakravartin]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
Where does it show the desktop on the refurb mini page? Edit: So every mini comes with ML?

No.

But if you install ML on it, any Mini refurb from the Apple Store will boot from it because they were last updated in 2012 and originally shipped with 10.8.1.

The rule of thumb is that Macs can always be booted from the OS that the design originally shipped with, so even if it was manufactured yesterday, since a current Mini is still a "2012" model it will be able to boot from a ML disk.

If you already have a license for ML, you can replace Mavericks with ML on any 2012 Mac Mini.