We've been doing this in the Windows and Linux world for more than a decade now. OS installations over the network/Internet are nothing new. But I'm pretty sure that Apple would sell it as a "revolutionary/awesome/magical/beautiful/huge new" feature, and I'm also pretty sure that most Mac buyers would eventually say that the idea of the Internet was stolen from Apple.
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Mac OS X 10.6.8 to Remove MacDefender, Get Mac App Store Ready for Lion
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We've been doing this in the Windows and Linux world for more than a decade now. OS installations over the network/Internet are nothing new. But I'm pretty sure that Apple would sell it as a "revolutionary/awesome/magical/beautiful/huge new" feature, and I'm also pretty sure that most Mac buyers would eventually say that the idea of the Internet was stolen from Apple.
You mean if App Store version is not a bootable disk image or if there is no option to make one.
No, if it's the only way to get the OS it's still no use to those people with poor internet connections.
I'm currently on a 512 Kbps connection due to carrier upgrading towers in my area. I can easily download 4 GB in 24 hours time.
You know looking outside the US and other countries where Apple has it's stores an more resellers digital downloads are still faster. For example if i want to buy a boxed version of Mac OS X i need to drive ~50 km. So by the time i have THE TIME to do that my digital download would be finished 3 times even on my crappy connection (just this month).
Apple already does sell it. NetBoot/NetInstall have been in OS X Server for quite a while. Adapting said technology to boot off Apple datacenter servers on the Internet would probably be quite trivial.
They don't call it Magical, Revolutionary or awesome. If fact, it seems a lot of posters are quite ignorant of it and it's buried deep in the feature page on apple.com.
That's ok for you but other people will find it more convenient to buy a physical copy. I'm not going to argue as I can't see Apple dropping the OS DVD in the near future, it's still too soon for that.
I just think that Lion will NOT be distributed on DVD.
2 options:
1. AppStore.
Install like it is done now with the DP builds. Plus make an extra option for the installer to be easily transferred to any HD (2nd partition, USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt, internal HD's, etc... maybe even DVD-R)
2. Retail USB disk.
Like the restores of the MBA. Nicer and faster than DVD, making it "truly universal" for all Macs.
2 options:
1. AppStore.
Install like it is done now with the DP builds. Plus make an extra option for the installer to be easily transferred to any HD (2nd partition, USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt, internal HD's, etc... maybe even DVD-R)
2. Retail USB disk.
Like the restores of the MBA. Nicer and faster than DVD, making it "truly universal" for all Macs.
All this chatter from people who are not happy about doing things they use to do, when it comes to Apple and upgrades.
The bottom line is the following:
So whats the complaining about??? Apple has not yet Officially made a statement on ANYTHING besides WWDC and Lion being released via the Summer of 2011, which is June, July, August, September.
Also remember this, unless you can start your own Tech company, you have only two options with Apple or any company. Which is either buy their products and accept their process or Leave... Remember that iPhone 4 song? "If you don't want an iPhone 4,DONT BUY IT!, if you got one and you don't like it BRING IT BACK"... and like the songs ending says " YOU KNOW YOU WON"T".
Listen to yourselves. Geeeeeezzzzzz
The bottom line is the following:
- Everything your speculating on are ALL RUMORS.
- Apple never said Lion would be released only via Mac AppStore.
- iWork is available Mac App Store and physical copy, Same with Aperture.
- XCode was always installed over the network (if not pre-installed).
So whats the complaining about??? Apple has not yet Officially made a statement on ANYTHING besides WWDC and Lion being released via the Summer of 2011, which is June, July, August, September.
Also remember this, unless you can start your own Tech company, you have only two options with Apple or any company. Which is either buy their products and accept their process or Leave... Remember that iPhone 4 song? "If you don't want an iPhone 4,DONT BUY IT!, if you got one and you don't like it BRING IT BACK"... and like the songs ending says " YOU KNOW YOU WON"T".
Listen to yourselves. Geeeeeezzzzzz
Have you ever looked at the name of this website?
Lol yes, but, geeezzz it just seems a little out of hand today (or is it just me?). Let's be patient and see what Apple does.
What we should be doing or should I say MacRumors be doing is submitting articles that detail the things new in Lion based on the previews being released ...Sorta like what Appleinsider.com does... That's more helpful and would be for a better discussion
Cost wise, unfeasible. There's 2 models of Macs that don't have optical drives, one of those is the Mac Mini server. DVDs cost pennies, literally and take seconds to duplicate, making mass production quite easy and cheap.
On the contrary, Flash media (like USB sticks) take a really long time to duplicate, each copy requires probably around 10 minutes and the prices for NAND RAM chips (bought off Samsung!
) is quite steep.So seriously, I don't see how Apple could justify the USB thing. They really cheaped out on the ones shipped with the current MBA (I know, I own one) and I bet costs saving had a lot to do with that. The thing is basically "one time use" as the drive gets butchered in the insertion and removal process.
No, Xcode was on the DVD. Sure the version was rarely up to date, but it's not like you need an up-to-date version to bang out code and compile it.
Apple had better be proactive in warning people about this limitation before they install or even purchase Lion. I bet that many, if not the majority of OS X users aren't even aware that Rosetta exists - they just know that their copy of Quicken or (insert any PowerPC app name here) runs. I'm not saying that I disagree with Apple's apparent decision not to include Rosetta, just that a lot of users will be unpleasantly surprised.
Support for Older Systems
Apple should release a 10.4.12 and other updates just like releasing the 10.6.8. It is irresponsible of Apple to only do this support for the latest MacOS. There are a lot of older computers and OSs running out there as part of their installed base and they continue making money off of those machines as do their developers when people buy iBooks, iTunes, etc.
It is irresponsible of vendors to create obsolescence of hardware by discontinuing operating system and technical support for older systems. This policy of Apple's creates more trash filling the landfills and is a waste of resources.
The solution is for Apple to make new software intelligently scaleable such that it recognizes the hardware it is being installed on and adjusts to fit within the memory footprint and hardware's capabilities. Yes, certain new features like transparent window shadows will not be available but there are many improvements which can be continued to offer for older hardware such as the folders in the new iOS which do not need any advanced hardware capability.
The benefit to Apple is they can continue getting sales of operating systems each year as they offer new versions of the OS with new features. Additionally Apple will gain more market penetration as the old hardware is kept active and passed down in families resulting in a larger user installed base. Charge for the technical support - obviously. Just keep offering AppleCare.
Apple should also encourage developers to support the furthest back operating systems and hardware possible.
Apple should release a 10.4.12 and other updates just like releasing the 10.6.8. It is irresponsible of Apple to only do this support for the latest MacOS. There are a lot of older computers and OSs running out there as part of their installed base and they continue making money off of those machines as do their developers when people buy iBooks, iTunes, etc.
It is irresponsible of vendors to create obsolescence of hardware by discontinuing operating system and technical support for older systems. This policy of Apple's creates more trash filling the landfills and is a waste of resources.
The solution is for Apple to make new software intelligently scaleable such that it recognizes the hardware it is being installed on and adjusts to fit within the memory footprint and hardware's capabilities. Yes, certain new features like transparent window shadows will not be available but there are many improvements which can be continued to offer for older hardware such as the folders in the new iOS which do not need any advanced hardware capability.
The benefit to Apple is they can continue getting sales of operating systems each year as they offer new versions of the OS with new features. Additionally Apple will gain more market penetration as the old hardware is kept active and passed down in families resulting in a larger user installed base. Charge for the technical support - obviously. Just keep offering AppleCare.
Apple should also encourage developers to support the furthest back operating systems and hardware possible.
In Snow Leopard, the first time you ran a Rosetta app, the OS prompted you to install it to run the legacy application. These users, if they are running Snow Leopard already got a warning.
This is standard industry practice and frankly, if you don't want to pay 10,000$ for a Macbook, it's the best situation there is. There is no irresponsibility there, EOL and EOS are normal and would inquire vast costs to the vendors if they had to continue support. Why stop at 10.4 ? Apple should still release patches for System 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, MacOS 8 and MacOS 9 too following your logic.
Consumer grade software gets EOL'd and EOS'd faster than entreprise grade packages because the consumer pays a lot less for a piece of kit than the entreprise does. After giving 20k for a license to HP-UX for a single box and paying more each year for a support contract for said OS, I'd be pretty pissed if HP EOL'd and EOS'd it 2 years later. For a 100$ OS from Apple with no recurring charge ? Meh.
I would think the average Hackintosh tinkerer is capable of extracting the .dmg from the .pkg that's download from the MAS.
Making it tougher for your standard customers to get the OS because you want to spite your non-customers is quite ludicrous.
Unfortunately Apple is forcing the abandonment of a tens of thousands of great software packages, especially in the educational and children's software fields. If the new processors are so great then they can easily do emulation all the way back. No need to force people to stop using software they have.
This is like you buy a new work bench at Sears and they tell you now you must throw away all your old wrenches, hammers, drills, saws and other tools so that you have to purchase new tools to go with your new work bench.
This is irresponsible because it is waste. It is wasted work, wasted money and wasted material that plugs up the landfills. Even if those computers get recycled it still takes extra energy to take them apart and make new ones when they were perfectly functional machines.
Apple should continue to support the old hardware and software.
That is about the worst excuse ever. Just because it is standard, just because it has been done that way is not a good reason to keep doing it that way. The standard practice used to be to invade your neighbor's territory, kill the men, rape the women and enslave them. This worked 'fine' for thousands of years around the world. That doesn't make it a good practice. I expect Apple to do better than 'standard industry practice'. Lead.
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If those software packages are so great and bring in so much revenue through continued use, why don't the vendors put in the work to migrate to the new Intel architecture ?
Apple right now needs to maintain a full set of PPC framework libraries, do Q&A and patching on them. This is extra costs, for something that is 5 years old today and that consumers are not giving them any money for anymore.
EOL'd, EOS'd. End of story. If you want continued support, buy an entreprise support agreement (in the 10s of thousands of dollars per year).
It's not the worst excuse. It's standard industry practice, because like the entire post you snipped and ignored said : Doing it any other way has too big of a cost associated and consumers aren't willing to pay those costs.
If you want to pay 10,000$ (not 1,000$) for a Macbook, be my guest. I sure as hell don't want to pay that much. Hence I'm happy not getting LTS on OS X releases.
You're absolutely right. I don't compare archaic software updates to rape and murder as much as I should.