At 15:52 -0400 7/25/01, Joe Kimmel wrote:
>I'd love to email Apple, Jeremy, but please give me a link to an email
>address as I wouldn't know which one would be the best one for Apple to
>take me seriously (MacOS X discussion ?? or perhaps Investor Relations as
>I own stock, "so I'm putting money where my mouth is"). BTW, if you have
>read the url posted below, I think there are good arguments about why we
>(the author and I) both think it isn't fair. I don't see this as venting
>as much as I enjoy others opinions and interests. It's not the $20, but
>the principle!
<WARNING>
A bit of this e-mail may sound like I disagree with you. This is not
the case. I just see both sides of the issue. Oh yeah, and I also
just don't think it's That Big A Deal.
</WARNING>
If you go to the Apple site, choose the OS X tab, there's then a link
just below the OS X tab called "Feedback." You could also just go
here: <http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/>
FWIW, I don't really disagree with you. I just don't think it's that
big a deal. The Mac OS Up To Date program has been around for ages
and the $20 charge for the CD is basically just for the CD itself and
shipping; LinuxPPC will (would? I have no idea if they're still doing
it) send you a "free" CD for $20 shipping and handling, too. The
MacOS Up to Date program has, in the past, also been used to get
updated system CDs to customers who bought Macs in the few days after
a new OS was released if they bought a Mac with the older OS....
For instance, I bought a slot loading iMac with OS 8.6 on it mere
days after OS 9 was released. For $20, I got an OS 9 disk in the
mail. This was done with OS 8.5 before it, too.
Given everything that's happening in OS X 10.1, it almost seems like
it would be OS X 10.5 instead, and cost full charge to upgrade
(another $129). I'm rather grateful that THAT's not the case... that
would royally suck. At any rate... OS X 10.0 was quite literally
(even in Apple's own words) an "early adopters" release, and was
admittedly feature incomplete. Well, not that the OS itself was
feature incomplete.... it just doesn't have any of the supporting
applications (a DVD Player isn't really part of the "Operating
System", it's a Supporting App).
I'm still hoping it's a download, but if not, I'll pony up the $20 to
get a CD and actually have a hard backup of the upgrade. I usually do
this anyway (I bought a $20 OS 8.1 upgrade CD, same with 8.6, and
9.0.4 and 9.1).... just so that I don't have to re-download it
everytime I need it. I _could_ download it and burn to a CD, but I'm
lazy. The convenience factor of having it on a commercial, completely
un-flakey medium is well worth $20 to me.
But... it's a judgement call. I firmly subscribe to the You Get What
You Pay For and the There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
mindset. Sure, most Linux distributions offer their wares in ISO
images on various HTTP and FTP servers around the world for free. I
partake of these liberally, as I run several Linux based servers for
a local real estate agency. The ISOs are free, as in free beer.
However, you pretty much need to already know what to do with ISOs to
be able to use them... there is very VERY little support
documentation regarding how to download them (that part is fairly
no-brainer), what to do with them after downloading, how to burn
them, and how to use them. They ARE free, but you still pay for them
in terms of "Lack Of Support."
Consider for a moment if Apple made OS X 10.1 ISO images available
for free on the web. Now consider that most Mac users are not diehard
unix geeks. Thank about the sheer volume of calls Apple would receive
from customers who couldn't quite get it right... keep in mind that
800 phone numbers are free for the caller, but someone is still
paying for them. I cringe at the thought of how long it would take to
explain how ISOs to my mom over the phone, and what that phone bill
would look like. And sure, Apple wouldn't incur this support cost
with you, or me, or even many of the members of this list... but
there WILL be uncounted scores more out there trying to go the free
route and they all know "800-SOS-APPL" by heart.
Just my $0.02.
--
Any statements herein represent my opinion and do not represent those
of my employer.
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