In grelber's shoes, would you find the option of buying a $70 thumb drive an acceptable alternative to the free discs you used to get with a new Mac?
No, but I would find the
free Lion Recovery Disk Assistant an acceptable alternative. Make as many install discs and/or USB installers as you want.
And when I mentioned the cost of shipping the discs with the computer, my concern wasn't the impact on Apple's bottom line, so much as the impact on the planet. We need to get away from the attitude that it's harmless to ship extra styrofoam, cardboard, plastic, vinyl, and whatnot, just so we can fill our landfills faster.
Apple gets it. If they didn't, they've got Al Gore on their board, and Greenpeace sniping at their every misstep, to keep them on course. They've removed BFR's from their cables, and use more eco-friendly production processes for motherboards and other components. It's a greener world, my friends, and reducing waste is an essential part of that.
The cost I was referring to wasn't $$, it was forgetting the first R in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Why ship the installer on DVD when you can ship it electronically? Bits don't pollute.
