Consider This:

thedbp

Frantic Messenger of Hope
I bought the Public Beta.

I shelled out $29.95. I skimped on the shipping, and opted for the free ground UPS.

A few months later, I recieved an e-mail from the Apple Store. They informed me that I was to recieve a $30.00 rebate on the final version of Mac OS X.

As of right now, I'm ahead a nickel. I was very pleased that I had been given the chance to preview, comment upon, and ultimately help promote and grow just by talking about it and using it, and I even got a shiny nickel in the process. I expected no more. The Public Beta expired in my mind long before the software said it would. I found it cumbersome on my G3 350 w/ 128MB of RAM. It was only good for online services to me, and even then it was shaky, because it didn't support Hotmail, which many Windows users I tried to impress wanted to check their mail. No dice. But it was a beta - I took it for what it was, and I knew right away that the final version would be killer, something that truly helped the Mac EVOLVE rather than simply ADAPT. So I purchased it.

Again, I skimped on the shipping, opting for free ground UPS.

What's this? Steve left us an Xmas present - free Saturday delivery via FedEx. That's a $30 delivery.

Let's do some math.

Final cost for OS X:
$129 final + $29.95 beta = $148.95
-$30 rebate = 118.95
-$30 shipping gratuity = $88.95
but wait, OS X is actually TWO OS's - you get 9.1 as well. Plus the Dev Tools. So let's call this ... not 3, but 2.5 OSes/Utilities (that would otherwise cost $).
$88.95/2.5 = $35.58 per disc.

THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS AND FIFTY EIGHT CENTS PER DISK.

Trust in Apple, and ye shall be rewarded. All those people screaming about how this is too expensive are LOONEY. Even at the full price of $129, that's only $51.60 per disc. Red Hat costs $40, and it's NOT EVEN CLOSE to the level of advancement, both internally in the core Darwin, and externally in the UI Aqua. Nor does it come with emulator software to run all your old Mac/PC apps. And so what if you have to reboot into 9.1 to run Virtual PC? Are you going to be using Aqua or the advantages of the underlying system anyway?

Complaints about OS X at this point are trite, not to mention hackneyed and cliche. Whatever problems you have, I guarantee they'll be fixed eventually. Just think about what the MacOS looked like in '84. It took it how many years to get to this "ultimate" OS 9 you seem too fearful to leave behind? 16? 17?

This summer, after DVD playback, CD-R capabilities, and a heaping helping of apps are added to the plate ... er ... dock... well, you know; after these are in place, OS X WILL be as killer as you'd like it to be. I doubt 10.1 is far behind - they've been listening and evolving so far - what makes you think they'll stop after the "final" is released? They are doing us, and themselves, a FAVOR by releasing it before it is deemed "perfect." If that were the case, we'd still be using good ole system 1. If they had even decided to release that. THEY NEED TIME FOR PEOPLE TO USE IT. Its always the die-hard freaks first, then everyone else comes around.

You will too. Computing is funny like that.

My 2¢
I'm staying up all night tonight. I just can't sleep.
zeb
 
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