Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Offers Cheap Jaguar Server Upgrade for XServe

Posted by pudge on from the it-does-not-help-me-though-so-it-still-sucks dept.

MaxVlast writes "Macintouch is reporting that Apple is extending the Mac OS X Up-to-Date and Mac OS X Server Up-to-Date programs to include Jaguar Server upgrades for just $19.95 in response to intense criticism. This is good news to people who just bought an expensive XServe with expensive Mac OS X Server who don't very much want to pay the full upgrade price." Apple also added that people who bought Mac OS X 10.1 retail, by itself, can get an upgrade if purchased July 17 or later.

7 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Very Minor Changes by tbmaddux · · Score: 4, Informative
    For regular MacOS X, all that has changed is the $19.95 (which is "free" in Apple terms) upgrade to 10.2 for people who purchase retail copies of MacOS X 10.1.x between the MWNY keynote and when Jaguar comes out. This makes sense, since otherwise nobody would bother to purchase existing on-shelf copies of MacOS X between then and now.

    It's the same for MacOS X Server, with the notable exception that all owners of XServe machines can get the "free" upgrade, no matter when they bought their machine.

    For everyone else, the full pricetag applies. Before MacOS X, Apple used to provide upgrade rebates of $20 or $30. You sent in one of those "software coupons" and got a check in the mail. Those days appear to be gone since the advent of MacOS X.

    --
    Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
    1. Re:Very Minor Changes by foobar104 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Since you're posting as an AC, I have no idea who you are or what your background is. So I'll assume that you're just ignorant, and not stupid.

      Free or super-cheap software upgrades are kind of a myth. For example, Microsoft offers upgrades to Windows XP for owners of '98, ME, NT4, and 2000 only, and that price is $199. If you're still running '95, you can only upgrade to XP by buying the full $299 retail package, or by buying a new computer.

      At the high end, you typically only get upgrades on operating systems if you buy a support contract. I don't know about Sun or HP or IBM, specifically, but with SGI you have to pay $500 for each point release of the OS, unless you stay under a support contract. (Until recently, it was $2,000 per release.) So to go from 6.5.15f to 6.5.16f, it's $500, and from 6.5.16f to 6.5.17f, it's another $500. And these are minor feature releases, sent out every quarter. They're tiny in comparison to Apple's mostly-annual major feature releases. (SGI has two OS branches: feature [f] and maintenance [m]. You get bug fixes for free within the same major release, but you have to pay for new features. The maintenance releases have replaced the old patch system, where each bug fix was packaged separately and could be downloaded individually.)

      So the idea that you should get OS X 10.2 for free or almost for free is out of line with the way the industry works. Bug fixes are free: 10.0.[1-4] and 10.1.[1-5] were free downloads to all users, whether they were under AppleCare or not. Hell, Apple didn't even check to see if you had a pirated copy of OS X; the OS has no serial number mechanism in it at all, so everybody gets bug fixes for free, even if they didn't buy the OS.

      And as new feature releases goes, $129 is the lowest price in the industry, as far as I know.

      So no, you're wrong. Pricing 10.2 as a for-sale upgrade only (except for specific price-protection situations) won't "sour anyone who bought 10.1 server." Unless they're pretty unreasonable and unrealistic people with no knowledge of how this sort of thing usually works, they won't be "soured" at all.

  2. 50 bucks off. by iomud · · Score: 4, Informative

    Amazon is offering a $50 mail in rebate for jaguar as part of a back to school promotion. Looks legit to me *shrug*

  3. Re:Not up to snuff by pi+radians · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think Apple customers are used to getting their bug fixes for free.

    They are getting them for free. Jaguar isn't a bug fix.

    --

    sin(6cos(r)+5A)
  4. Re:Question: by foobar104 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I would feel like a cheap-skate, I would feel vindicated at this outrageous racketeering - $129 for an OS update. I thought only Microsoft (Win98 SE) pulled crap like that.

    Read this post. Microsoft and every other OS vendor in the industry charge for feature releases. And all of them charge more for their feature releases than Apple is charging for Jaguar.

    The fact that you bought the OS once doesn't mean you're entitled to a free copy of every release of the OS forever. That's a nice idea on its face and all, but it's not in line with industry practices.

  5. Re:Save $50 on Jaguar by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 4, Funny
    It's through Amazom but hey, $50 is $50.

    "I've got principles...hang on, what's that? $50? Sold!"

  6. Re:Not up to snuff by foobar104 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If that's the case, then why isn't it version 1.2 instead of 10.2?

    Because there was never a version 1.0 of Mac OS X. The first version of Mac OS X was version 10.0. That's easy to understand: the previous version of Mac OS (actually an entirely different product) was 9.0, so the next version (a new product) was called 10.0.

    The branding ("Mac OS X") is separate from the version number ("10.2").