On Nov 1, 2009, at 21:20 , John Francis wrote:
Like, say, Apple? Or are all those OS upgrades (10.1/2/3/4/5/6) free?
Different OS model. Each major OS upgrade, as you list them, did cost something. Between $19.95 if you had an earlier version OSX, and $99 to buy outright. Updates were free (10.2.2 -> 10.2.6 or 10.2.8).
I've had to purchase two OS-X packages. My first 10.2, now running on a couple of antique PowerBook Duo 2300C, is up to 10.2.8. I chose to use 10.4.6 to run on my used PowerMac G-4s, now up to 10.4.11 and running on 3 different generations of Mac. Paid $35 for a used universal copy less than 2 months old that came in an OEM box that was broken up.
My current iMac and MacBook both came with 10.5, now up to 10.5.8. Upgrades are free. My copy of 10.6 was an update from 10.5, and cost me $30.
So, $164 for 8 years of OS X seems reasonable to me. The computer tells me when an upgrade becomes available. In all this time I've never had a problem having Apples servers upgrade my OS, and any of the other dozen Apple Software programs I run, like Aperture, iPhoto, etc.. Except for Aperture ($149.95 including all upgrades and updates to date) all my other software comes from Apple and is upgraded free automatically.
History, costs, and upgrade dates can be found at <http://www.twistedmac.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=239&Itemid=189 >
I'm firmly in the camp that says once you've got a system runnning, don't mess with it (also know as "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"). And I certainly don't want to pay them to break things for me.
If your income is dependent on your computer running particular software flawlessly, then I agree with you. It's a workstation at that point, and as long as does what a person can be done, then it's a viable system. I consider all my running OSs viable. Even the two that are running Windows within Parallels from time to time.
Joseph McAllister Lots of gear, not much time http://gallery.me.com/jomac http://web.me.com/jomac/show.me/Blog/Blog.html -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
