A bit off-topic, perhaps, but totally pertinent... You've never told us how that Dell Inspiron episode ended.
Did they come through with media?
After multiple phone calls, each as frustrating as the one before it, and repeated escalations to higher-level support people, they eventually shipped out an install DVD that contained a Windows installer. The computer eventually became usable again, about three weeks after I replaced the hard drive.
That was a nightmare of its own; replacing the hard drive in that model Inspiron laptop involved a complete disassembly of the entire laptop, up to and including removing the motherboard; the hard drive was located *beneath* the motherboard. But that's a whole 'nother rant.
I agree with your views. But the quoted sentence is unclear and so needs editing. If a computer has a hard disk failure, surely the owner is going to have to resort to "additional expenditures" -- a new hard disk.
Granted.
However, if one is to accept the notion that a backup hard drive with a cloned OS on it is an acceptable substitute for install media, one must accept the notion that it is necessary to walk out of the store when one first purchases a computer with an additional hard drive.
Oh, c'mon. Get real. That's like saying that if a person buys a computer that person should be able to use that computer forever, confident that it will never break down. Of course things break. Of course you have to pay for the replacement. And of course you sometimes need to pay for the replacement before the original breaks. That's why we have words like "insurance" and "warranty" in the language.
You were doing well right up to that point. Comparing shipping install media with using a computer forever, however, is absurd. Absolutely silly.
To borrow your car analogy: Nowadays, many cars come with RFID "keys" and remote door locks. However, these cars still have physical keys and physical door locks, too. They do that in case the radio system fails or the car's battery runs down. If you have power door locks and no physical key, if the battery runs down you can't get into the car.
A reinstall CD is like that physical key. Sure, you never need to stick the key in the door lock when things are working. But if the car battery runs down, and your car dealer decided to save money by giving you only a remote and no physical key, you're locked out of your car with no way in save a locksmith (or, I suppose, breaking a window or something). That is not reasonable. And making a computer unable to boot if the hard drive fails is also not reasonable.
Apple has addressed the bandwidth issue by allowing bandwidth-challenged users to bring the computer to an Apple Store and use their bandwidth.
Sure, if you live in an urban area near an Apple store.
There are many states in which there is either exactly one Apple store or no Apple stores. Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Maine, and New Mexico each have only one Apple store. Look at New Mexico, for example; the state covers 121,355 square miles...and has only one Apple store. How many miles do you believe it's reasonable to drive to an Apple store? And pity the poor people in Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Vermont, which have no Apple stores at all.What good is Apple's offer then?
Why not include installation media? What's the compelling argument against it?
