As for Mt. Lion, though, I wonder what Apple has got against late-upgraders all of a sudden?
"
…all of a sudden"
What all of a sudden? Apple's policy of dropping support for previous versions of OS X, OS 9, OS 8, OS 7,
etc. has not changed. What has changed is the distribution method.
Distribution of upgrades has migrated from Floppy disks, to CDs, to DVDs, to internet distribution. When OS upgrades were distributed on physical media and a new OS version came out there were always copies of the previous version left on store shelves as well as in the grey market and to some extent the black market. Dealers who dealt too obviously in grey market software would lose their franchise and in many cases were taken to court. Apple would quit producing the distribution media well in advance of the new upgrade release in an attempt to drain the supply chain prior to a release but there were always
some left for late adopters to purchase, but by and large Apple only directly supported the late adopter market in very limited circumstances.
With today's electronic (App Store) distribution all Apple has to do is delete a file and the distribution channel is empty. Copy a new file to the server and the update is the only thing available and the distribution channel is once again filled but with the new version. There are huge cost advantages to Apple in this arrangement and the customer has benefited in the form of a $100 reduction in the price of upgrades. The grey market has virtually disappeared because Apple has positioned themselves as a sole source of their product, and if you see any copies of Lion or Mountain Lion for sale on physical media other than by special arrangement with Apple, almost by definition they have to be pirated black market versions and an easy target of Apple's attorneys and the FBI.
So Apple has not
turned against late adopters
lately. If they turned against late adopters as you decry, it was thirty or more years ago. It is simply today's channels for distributing software has severely limited the grey market.
That neatly and conveniently overlooks the thriving market in
RESALES, the
legal, real source for late adopters for those thirty or more years.
>
...Apple has positioned themselves as a sole source of their product....Apple is attempting to position itself as the sole source of anything that goes into or runs on a Mac, and in those instances in which they can't squeeze out the competition they're attempting to grab a piece of their action.
At this precise moment, in a
veeery exclusive private room in a
veeery exclusive private club in heaven, JP Morgan and his robber baron cronies are toasting Steve Jobs: "
Wow! Why didn't I think of that!!!"
We've been going at this for several years now, and it's not likely to stop any time soon, if at all, because you're a hopeless Apple apologist, and I'm an equally hopeless Apple critic.
I note, though, that during the course of my reading I've found that while at least some of the Apple pundits have crossed the line, even if only marginally, to my side, the apologists are still wearing blinders.
