On Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 12:10:52AM +0800, Phil Hosie wrote: > Please, in simple language, WHY ARE THE EARLY SYSTEMS NOT AVAILABLE FROM > APPLE????....and why is someone almost persecuted if they do make available!
The following is gathered from several sources which seem to argue that it is a legal issue. I don't know how much of it is true. The second point is the easiest to argue: if Apple does not maintain tight control over its material, it may loose its legal entitlement to that material. While the old code may be worthless as a product, it may also contain material which Apple wants to remain proprietary (eg. how does the innards of Mac OS work). From what I hear, Apple lost control over DOS 3.3 because of that. As for how they distribute it: you will notice that control over this material has been tightening. At one time, you could obtain OS updates from clubs or mirrors, then they restricted it to Apple servers, then they restricted it to an HTTP server. As time goes on, more people have access to technology which allows Apple to maintain tighter control over the intellectual property. If Apple doesn't adopt these technologies, their legal rights over the software may be lessened. In short, they have to battle the perception that this software is in the public domain. As for what they make available, I can see two issues: this is a business decision. If it doesn't benefit Apple, there is probably no reason to release it. The decision on System 6.0.3 through System 7.0.1 was probably made a long time ago, say around the release of 7.1 (this is just a hypothesis). At that time, it may have made sense to support the Plus onwards in some sense. Anything with less than 1 MB RAM would have been pointless to support. Similarly, the decision on System 7.5 was probably made when the fuss of Y2k was growing. (Again, a hypothesis. I seem to recall Apple mentioning that System 7.5.something was Y2k certified, but don't know if it was made available as a free download prior to that.) In those cases, it probably made sense as a support issue (make users happy). These days it wouldn't make sense (are these actually Apple customers, and would it make any difference to their future purchases). At anyrate, we should be happy with what Apple has given us. Very few companies are this generous. Byron. -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
