fryke - your '1-up-1-down' theory pretty much sums up exactly what I've been doing, though there has probably been more of a gap for me between machines than most people - my previous computer before my current (now old) eMac was an 8600/200, and before that was a positively ancient 486 SX. This has probably been dictated more by money than anything else though
Oh, to be born into a rich family...Or get paid a half-decent wage for a change...
After reading your post I realise that in a way we *have* to have this continual cycle of re-hashed programs purely to keep any money in the software industry, though I still think it's a bit of a cheek for Apple to keep charging for OS updates - after all, apart from something leftfield like BEOS, what else can you run on a Mac? As if they didn't have a complete monopoly on the machines anyway? Yes, I know Apple have to make money too but - for example - they are very unlikely to ever charge anyone for an iPod firmware update. Of course, in the mind of a cynical person, it's very cosy for the software developers to say "hey you need our new program, which will only run on 10.X.X upwards" while Apple say "you have to have our new OS because it runs all the programs you need and will make you more attractive to the opposite sex, make you look cool, etc."...
Given that we've had jaguars, panthers (which are just black jaguars and leopards), tigers and leopards, how about OS 10.6 Brazilian Tapir or OS 10.7 Caribou? Going off on a tangent (iTea, iSmallSherry, etc.) I've realised that there is definite comic scope for designing future iProducts, so I'm going to crack open my old copy of Lightwave 7 and see if I can come up with anything good. Of course, if anyone has any suggestions (good or otherwise) I'll put a 'product prediction' portfolio together and will formally send the ideas off to Apple R&D once a general consensus has been reached
dodginess