It was mentioned that Mac users have to pay for every point release. Consider that Windows users did as well, but because of the names they have thanks to MS marketing monkeys they had no idea.
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 4
Windows NT 5 (aka "Windows 2000")
Windows NT 5.1 (aka "Windows XP")
There's more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT
I believe that Vista is considered Windows NT 6, but don't quote me on that. All you have to do is open up a Command Prompt and you'll see the revision number right above the c:\> prompt. If I'm not mistaken, those are point releases just like Apple has done. Also pay close attention to the times of release on the link I provided. They've been from 1-3 years between releases. Apple does them every 2-3 years. So i ask you, is that really much different from what Apple does?
As for Vista taking 5 years, the only reason for that was because they kept delaying. It was meant to be released in 2003, not 2007, and was promised with some groundbreaking features for Windows users. After 5 years, MS comes up with this "Vista?" How disappointing after such a long wait.
And consider that the Service Packs for Windows are like the Combo Updaters for Mac OS X. All they have are a bunch of rolled-up patches and features that you can download for free.
So your point about point releases has no point.
