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Apple to Charge for Boot Camp?

An anonymous reader writes "According to a report MacScoop has obtained, Apple will charge current users of Mac OS X Tiger for the final version of Boot Camp that will be released at the same time as Mac OS X Leopard, this Spring."

9 of 501 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Looks like I'll stay with Tiger then by TomHandy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure I understand the logic. You have Tiger right now, and you are unhappy that they will be charging (or at least possibly charging) for Boot Camp for Tiger, and that is the reason you will not upgrade to 10.5. But 10.5 will have Boot Camp included as part of its featureset, so it would not cost any more or less than what it would if you had been planning on upgrading to 10.5 anyway. So I'm not sure I understand why charging for Boot Camp for Tiger affects your decision to upgrade to 10.5?

  2. Re:Apple milking its users? I'm shocked! by tshak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple is the king of "nickel and dime"ing the user for all it's worth.

    Right, because the millions of dollars a month they spend on developing OSX should be coming out of the kindness of their hearts.

    --

    There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
  3. Re:Define Vista then... by John+Betonschaar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Leopard is not a friggin' point release, it's a major update with lots of new features and major improvements to the core system libraries. The fact that its version number only goes from 10.4.9 to 10.5.0 does not make it a minor update.

    Please, can someone explain why it is so damn hard for some people to look past the version numbers and just check out what's new and improved in OS X releases??

  4. Re:Apple milking its users? I'm shocked! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the same company that charges you $10 for the ability to use their media player to play videos at full screen, for crying out loud.

    If all you want from QuickTime is full screen, go here. I'm not sure where you're getting $10 from, because QuickTime Pro is $30, and that gets you a lot more than just the ability to play movies full screen.

    They charge $130 for incremental OS updates every 12-18 months, which is basically a subscription service.

    Wrong. Truly spoken like somebody who doesn't actually know what they're talking about! Don't be fooled by what looks like a change in the minor version number; what you think are "incremental" updates always have a large amount of new features -- it's closer to uprading from Windows 2000 to Windows XP than applying a service pack. Besides, if you don't want the new features, it's not like the older versions of OS X stop working, and they still provide security updates for them.

    They're charging $2 to enable the 802.11n hardware that they will ship.

    For legal reasons. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act really is that stupid.

  5. /. knocking commercial software? I'm shocked! by feldsteins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sweet Jesus, they never described BootCamp as anything but a beta technology from their upcoming major OS release. The fact that Tiger users even have the option at any price to continue using it once Leopard is released is more than they ever stated they would do and more than any Tiger user had reason to hope for. I think everyone needs to stop their goddamned whining about it. I fully expected to have to upgrade to use it. I don't know why anyone wouldn't have had that assumption.

    --
    You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
  6. Re:Define Vista then... by Clock+Nova · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The difference between 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc, is the same as the difference between OS 6, OS 7, OS 8, and OS 9. The only reason they are numbered as point releases is so that Apple doesn't have to give up the X logo. Think of 10.5 as Mac OS 16, if that helps.

    --
    There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
  7. Re:Looks like I'll stay with Tiger then by shawnce · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would Apple charge for something that is basically akin to GRUB? Sure, they offer you native drivers for their hardware
    Ok let me know when you have it working and will support customers using it? Surely something less expensive then $29 would win the market ... *rolls eyes*

  8. Re:Looks like I'll stay with Tiger then by Mike1024 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, they offer you native drivers for their hardware, but what manufacturer of computer equipment WOULDN'T offer a Microsoft Windows XP driver for their hardware?

    Apple.

    As is demonstrated by the fact they used PowerPC chips for years, with nary a thought for people wanting to boot windows.

    Just my $0.02

    --
    "Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
  9. Re:Looks like I'll stay with Tiger then by Kyokugenryu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is it that the Mac cultists always support ANYTHING Jobs and Co. do, but down on MS. I mean, if MS were to do this, people would be up in arms! "Charging for something we have free already? Come on! This should be FREE to all users! They just want more money!" Apple's basically pulling an MS and Mac people are going "Sure, it costs a little more, but what doesn't? :)"

    Just pointing out the massive hypocrisy here, and I'll probably get modded down for it by rabid fanboys, but I can't ignore the massive hypocrisy here.