OS X Tiger?

[ex2bot]

Incidentally, Apple recently stated publicly that they wouldn't be able to keep up with making new OS X versions every year for much longer.

Doug

[guilly]

Originally Posted by ged3000

We bought our iMac a coupla months before X.2 was released and came with X.1 installed on it.

When X.2 was released, Apple did an amnesty for people who had bought hardware recently, and sent out x.2 upgrade disks to them, if they claimed it by sticking their firmware number and date of purchase into a form on their webpage.

I dont know if they did this for X.3, or if theyll do it for X.4, (we havnt bought any hardware in a coupla years, and were still running X.2.8) but this kind of action shows loyalty to recent buyers of hardware...

We just scraped into the deal though...

You are right. That action shows an equal loyalty of Apple towards its faithful customers.

[guilly]

Originally Posted by dktrickey

Incidentally, Apple recently stated publicly that they wouldn't be able to keep up with making new OS X versions every year for much longer.

Doug

Obviously, OS X seems to be becoming more and more a very round product. There's little they will be able to add in a not very far away future - but however that depends on how hardware evolves and people demands turn to.

For example, Windows 98SE/Me is the top of the MS-DOS system. By the time of MS-DOS 5 with Windows 3.1 it was difficult - at least for us "users" to see any further evolution since multimedia didn't really exist (CD-ROM drives were prohibitive and sound cards were uncommon). This two pieces of hardware - the CD-ROM and SoundCard - added a more processing speed let the SO evolve into a 32 bits architecture focused towards multimedia (Windows 95). A new market demand had been created and it was being fulfilled by making the OS evolve.

A more recent example is the appearance of Wireless technologies, such as 802.11/Airport and Bluetooth - the appearance of the USB ports and for the first time REAL plug-n-play devices. All that has made the OS supporting to evolve towards those new additions.

Mac OS has been adding features very much according to hardware evolution - iPhoto due to the appearance and success of digital cameras, iMovie due to the success of digital DV camcorders, built-in bluetooth support (at the time they supressed the IrDA support), and a very very large etcetera.

What could happen - which happened with the jump from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X - is that Apple one day will decide to rewrite its whole operating system again. That is something Microsoft will never do. Microsoft released Windows XP as a new thingy, but we all know it is a low-end Windows NT with a more fashinable interface.

That will happen the day the code of OS X has become to cryptic to be improved and/or re-worked (yes, that is exactly what happens nowadays to Mozilla and why they are pre-releasing Firefox).

[Chazam]

Apple are only cashing in on the same people who:
Buy the latest Football top (or soccer to you americans )
Get rid of their old mobile for the latest new functional one (I think Nokia have about a 6 month refresh rate of new products)
Buy the latest clothes. (One that my wife likes to do)
Companies are doing this all the time. I went from Windows 2000 Pro to XP home when it was released and used about 0% of it's new functionalaty if any (I even went to windows classic mode due to the fisher price look!)

You're saying about new software not working on older versions but you should also appreciate developers using the newer features of the OS! I can imagine it is annoying buying a new OS after seemingly buying an older version but you'll have to control your urges to buy the latest products and use what works!
If panther becomes useless and doesn't run anything that you need then get the update!

[fryke]

Feel 'cheated' by Apple's upgrade policy? That's really _your_ fault. Apple hasn't promised anything different from what they're doing. And: After Tiger we'll see slower development, as has been said by Apple. And: You never _have_ to upgrade. And of course you PAY if you DO.

[karavite]

I just wonder how many big cat names are left after Tiger - seems the Tiger is the true King of the Jungle!!! Bobcat, Lynx... they just don't do it for me!

Seriously, I am an upgrade junky and though I know I often don't really need every feature in every upgrade, it is a lot of fun since I work in usability and UI design. Expose itself was worth the entire 10.3 upgrade for me - it has changed the entire way I work on my computer and I love it. Perhaps if Apple had more visually recognized changes in all updates it would make more people happy and/or excited about paying for them? Also, it is business. Apple is in business to sell things and the value of an upgrade is up to each person. Like many said here, you don't really need every upgrade.

[fryke]

Afaik people _ARE_ very excited about those upgrades. And even more so here on macosx.com, where we read/write about those exciting new builds of Mac OS X all of the time.

However: This of course _creates_ upgrade envy. And while people eagerly anticipate this insanely great new operating system (year after year so far), they WANT to have it. And then notice that they can either buy the upgrade for 129$, buy a new machine soon (which has it already) or stay with that dusty old operating system they almost forgot about in the beta-times but still are using...

I don't think Apple should add more visually recognisable changes. That'd alienate customers, too. And: We all know about those changes well before the OS is actually released to the public, so actually buying it doesn't really unveil so much 'new' stuff.

[ged3000]

Originally Posted by karavite

I just wonder how many big cat names are left after Tiger - seems the Tiger is the true King of the Jungle!!! Bobcat, Lynx... they just don't do it for me!

Maybe Apple are slowing down the rate of OS dexelopment while they try to find more big cat names...