How do you conclude that it is an upgrade?
You mean above and beyond the fact that it requires a computer that was originally sold with the Mac OS?
Apple has never sold a computer without an OS. Your Apple hardware is your license key to run the Mac OS. Apple hardware is the physical dongle to unlock the Mac OS.
Why is 10.5 the first retail version of Mac OS X for Intel based Macs? Because when 10.4 was current, no Intel based Mac had been sold without an accompanying Mac OS (which was already some version of 10.4).
Lets take this a step further... when you buy Mac OS X Server and install it on a Mac, does that release the previous version of the Mac OS that came with your system for use with some other system? No! (and that I
know is on Apple's site).
I'm guessing that you have... what, zero experience with either Apple or Macs? That even if this stuff was on Apple site, you wouldn't know because you've spent almost no time there.
I've been using Macs since the 1980s and servicing them since the 1990s. I know what I can and can't do with Apple software. If you bring me an Apple computer with no OS installed, I can legally install either the same OS that it came with or the next highest generic Mac OS installation (if the original OS was hardware specific) without charge. The fact that you have the hardware gives you the right to the OS that it came with.
If you want a newer OS than that, then you would have to buy the newer one, but you unlock that newer OS with your Apple hardware.
Now lets look at this
very carefully... your Apple hardware is your license for using the Mac OS. If you circumvent this restriction to put a Mac OS on a computer that didn't originally come with the Mac OS, you are doing the same things as stealing Adobe's or Microsoft's apps by downloading a license string off the web. This is specifically forbidden under the DMCA (which specifically includes the use of a hardware dongle as a method for restricting unauthorized use of software).
It is the law. Apple put forward these methods, and any attempt to circumvent them is illegal.
Now you may tell yourself that you
bought the Mac OS in a store... but unless you own Apple hardware, you are doing the same thing as buying an upgrade of some software and using some method of installing it as a full version. I have tons of upgraded Adobe software that only requires having a previous license string... if I had stolen the original license string, then just because I paid for the upgrade software doesn't undo the fact that I would have been cheating Adobe out of the full price of their product.
Ethics starts with doing the right thing. Stealing because you can get away with it in no way makes it right. Stealing because something that you want is beyond your means is no excuse either.
This is stealing... plain and simple.
Of course this company most likely will never ship a single box anyways. I mean heck, back in
2001 they were trying to be a web services provider. Who knows what they'll be tomorrow (besides out of business).
Well, if you bought it new it did. I bought a B&W G3 used from ebay. It came with no OS, the drive was wipped clean. I bought OSX for it. Where's the upgrade?
An Apple service provider can put (for free) Mac OS 8.5 or 8.6 on that system (because it originally shipped with it). The fact that who ever sold it lost the original media isn't Apple's fault, but you do deserve to have the original OS it came with. Any version of Mac OS X would be considered an upgrade from either 8.5 or 8.6 for that system.
It is pretty simple. The only people that have problems with it are those trying to get something for nothing!