Apple has the bad habit of completely discontinuing a previous operating system the instant a new major version comes out.
Not entirely true but I understand your point. SL's due for an update for iCloud support all while Lion has made its debut, there's been several updates to SL such as RAW file format support for dcams, iTunes and more since Lion's release.
The problem with this is new operating systems have bugs and incompatibilities, and these bugs mean that people who depend on these machines for a living cannot upgrade to the new release right away. For existing machines this is fine, but it basically places a complete halt on the ability to buy new Macs until the issues are worked out, because the new Macs come with the new version and you CANNOT downgrade.
All OS's not just OS X has bugs, no OS in the history of software has ever been bug-free upon public release.
What matters more is communication, development, support and
ongoing sustainment between the manufacturer (Apple) and their end-users. Microsoft for example has an alarmingly huge development community filled with professionals and others alike and there's very good communication flow between MS and its users. The MS KB is a good example of this for the general public, Technet is a great resource for professionals, etc.
Apple on the other hand has a rather large disconnect between its users, developers and themselves, often times people are left in the dark without any hint or word on anything from Apple and end-users are often times left to support other end-users with little to no backing from Apple themselves.
Microsoft has always allowed us to purchase and install previous versions of Windows; why can't Apple provide a way to downgrade to a previous release for *at least* a few months after a new OS comes out, so that those who have business operations depending on the previous version can still buy new hardware?
No company intentionally releases a product for the intent of allowing their users to downgrade.
However I'm under the impression that a good part of that has to do with the differences between MS and Apple. MS is most notably a software company, Apple is more hardware centric which involves unique proprietary software. When you think about Apple, you think iPod, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Mac(intosh), nearly all of which are devices. When you think Microsoft, you think Windows, Server, Office, Internet Explorer, ActiveX/DirectX, etc. The way how each company's support system is structured to support their products are different.
IMO it seems that Apple's current focus is more biased towards their iPhone and iPad development and their attention on computers (and OS) has slumped quite a bit. In the "old days", a product like FCPX would've never made it out and Lion being as buggy if not worse than SL's debut is quite an embarrassment considering Apple has complete control over testing the OS with their own machines. They don't have to worry about whether Lion will run properly on an AMD platform, an MSI motherboard, a VIA based chipset, etc.
They did the same thing with Final Cut, and THANKFULLY relented when enough people complained and allowed them to buy the previous version again.
Apple has gone through a string of really bad decisions and bad products recently and I agree that it's good to know that this is, in its own way, admission that they screwed up.
50% of the professional video production industry in the USA alone uses FCP and pissing them off was not a good way to show dedication towards their users, hence Apple's decision to offer refunds and put FCP back on sale.
They are just glorified toys and nothing else how can you do serious work on anything with a 250 GB flash drive and 2 usb ports? There is a reason they were dubbed Crap Book Air.
