Pop OS X Mavericks on your Mac for FREE while you have LUNCH Apple's latest version of OS X, Mavericks, is now available at the low, low price of zero, zip, zilch. The iLife and iWorks creativity and productivity suites have also been marked down to nothing for buyers of new iOS and Mac hardware. "Today we're going to revolutionize pricing, because the days of spending hundreds of …
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I agree with you - it'll never happen.
Or at least, if it does, it'll be a huge change in Microsoft.
Every dumb decision, every stupid delay, every failure to create a new market that Microsoft has had for the past decade - they're all about extending and milking their existing Windows/Office monopolies.
So when I see small business owners I know wonder whether they should make do with a Chromebook or splash out on a Macbook Air - because in their own words "I use Google Apps and it's fine" - I can't help but see the future.
Enterprises, conservative as they are, will continue to insist on 100% Microsoft, because Microsoft is the new IBM. Nobody ever got fired for buying...
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, their mindshare and their usage stats decline by the day.
iWorks being free is a significant milestone in that. I'm not completely sure that in the future people will look back on this and say "that's when Office really became irrelevant"... But I'm not sure I'd like the odds on a bet against it.
To bastardise Pink Floyd, "All in all, it's just another chip in the wall..."
Meanwhile, Microsoft will continue to fluff their own decisions and cripple their own products to preserve a doomed pair of monopolies.
Much like IBM before them.
@Philip Storry
This is opinionated.
Truthfully, I'm shocked Apple doesn't allow their OS X to be downloaded for free and installed from a thumb drive. This isn't hard for Apple though, they really don't have a lot of software that is popular to the majority, just the niche people that work Photoshop or something along that lines (although, Adobe products run faster and just as stable on Windows 7).
Microsoft will follow suit at some point. At some point, Microsoft will just have to cave in to the almighty dollar and give it away to keep the dollars coming from other products. Their office utilities are what keep most people hanging around, and who doesn't like a free operating system? Simply, if MAC gives you the OS, they might be stealing MS office licenses some day.
Lastly, IBM didn't remain king, so why will Microsoft?
"Microsoft will just have to cave in to the almighty dollar and give it away to keep the dollars coming from other products. "
MS doesn't have any other products that make any money, apart from its enterprise software, which is only used by a relatively small number of very large companies. That's why it's got itself into this ridiculous mess with phones and fondleslabs that nobody wants.
"MS doesn't have any other products that make any money"
Erm - Microsoft's recent results beg to differ:
its Business division saw revenue grow 14 percent for Q4 and 3 percent for the full year, while Server & Tools grew 9 percent in Q4 and the full year. Windows revenue was up 6 percent this quarter and 5 percent on the year, while the Entertainment & Devices group saw an 8 percent uptick in Q4 while recognizing a 6 percent rise for all of 2013
"apart from its enterprise software, which is only used by a relatively small number of very large companies"
What planet are you from? Not earth apparently...
Windows Server has a 75% market share of the whole x86 server market....and pretty much every company large or small uses Microsoft's server products...
"enterprise software, which is only used by a relatively small number of very large companies"
No business to be had there, then.
(Not sure where you got your "only" from, though. Tried to think of a small or large company that doen't use predominantly MS software. Couldn't).
Adobe products run faster and just as stable on Windows 7
Nonsense
1 - Adobe stable? That's like calling a cough stable after you've fed someone a strong laxative: you're continuously inches away from an embarrassing disaster.
2 - Faster on x/y/z - that depends on so many factors (CPU speed, available RAM, disk IO) that it's entirely meaningless without qualifiers. Which is why marketing people like to state that. Hi Steve! How are you doing?
About the only thing I'd agree with is that Win 7 seems to be the most current version of Windows that passes for moderately acceptable provided you patch religiously.
"Adobe products run faster and just as stable on Windows 7."
To be fair that used to be true, because Apple denied them the requisite access to hardware accelerated graphics. However that is no longer the case and has not been the case for about 3 years. And Steve Jobs was right. Flash has proven many times over to be one almighty security hole and a considerable performance hog. I can always tell when a web-page uses flash because it's the only time I hear the fan in my MacBook Air and was the only time I would hear the fan on my two MacBook Pro's before that.
"the only time I hear the fan in my MacBook Air and was the only time I would hear the fan on my two MacBook Pro's before that"
You might find this (or any of many other results from Google) helpful
http://www.zdnet.com/how-to-stop-excessive-macbook-fan-noise-7000017417/
10.8.4, udp and iCloud get a mention, alone with how to cure the problems by changing / disabling iCloud settings.
(In reference to other posts, this is the sort of accidental "feature" often associated with point release / maintenance updates rather than "significant new releases").
I have to admit, I've eschewed it on my Mac and gone for MS Office instead, though at current prices (even if not free to me) the iWork suite is a curiosity purchase. But is it any good? Everyone went on about how good Google Docs is. It is indeed good, if you want to write letters all day, or perhaps a little light report work (if you don't mind putting in the heading numbers manually). How well do Pages, Numbers and Keynote stack up against Excel, Word and Powerpoint (or even Google Docs)?
@Jason Hindle
The last version of iWork was adequate for most users. For the most part I personally found the interface better than Office. Cleaner, more focussed, less cluttered but I found the separate "pallete" approach to editing document/text properties annoying.
The new version, from the quick look I've had at it, looks like a steady improvement and pallets are now integrated and context sensitive.
Keynote - the least important of an office suite for most people - has always been the best of iWork, and the only app clearly in most regards better than it's Office equivalent, which is kind of the wrong way round. It would be better if they had a better version of Pages or Numbers (though if you need an equivalent of VBA for slide updates, you're out of luck).
Numers now has much improved row filtering, which is really very good and I always very much liked the multiple freeform tables being allowed on a single tab approach. But it still lacks pivot tables, which for those who use them, are an invaluable and extremely powerful business analysis tool. I might now be tempted to switch to numbers because it feels so nice to use for most tasks, and switch back to excel simply when I need pivot tables.
Pages is also much improved due to the context sensitive pallets and nice upgrades all round. I think it now moves into the important realm of being good enough and having a nicer interface, for most people. But it's not altogether better for Power Users. The key power feature I have found it lacks, are the ability to insert and track cross references. It has mail merge, but not as good. But it now supports proper footnotes and has much improved Table of Contents capability.
Of course there is no full match for VBA (AppleScript being good for system wide scripting but not as good for control over individual apps).
The web sharing and web versions of the apps however is a real "killer" feature in that it goes a long way to overcoming the problem of always having to save files in .doc or docx non-native format in case they are going to be used by anyone else. This was the main reason for my not using iWork before. The fact that is all available for free (sharing and all), the interface is nice and most of these apps are now, by some distance, good enough for most people, should really worry Microsoft who clearly have to charge for office. These web apps, especially in supporting collaborative working, (and with a nicer feature set and interface than Google Docs offers - at least last time I checked which was admittedly some time back) now have a good chance of breaking file format dependency.
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@Jason Hindle
TBH, up until 3 years ago I was a massive Windows / Dell fan and then I got my first MacBook (Pro). I opted to run all Apple apps where possible to really see if I could do my day to day work on it - and yes, I can do all my work on it with no issues!
At the beginning of the year, I got a major promotion in the company I work with and all tech things are now my responsibility. As it stands to this evening. We now have a 50/50 split between MacBook Airs and HP Laptops for all staff. I have had less general 'usability' issues with my Mac users than I have had with my Windows 8 users.
My keynote presentations always amaze our customers, we can create documents and either PDF immediately to send on to customers or simply save out the file in the correct format and share it with no major hassle.
Yes, somethings do render slightly strange on MS word, but it is the same as when we use Libre Office on a couple of linux machines we have about the office for testing.
For the cost of about £45 I don't think it is unreasonable and is well worth switching to.
It is about aligning iOS users' experience of free OS updates and lots of free software if you buy Apple products.
It is also about eliminating 'fragmentation' of the platform because Apple only has to support one OS - if you have a problem with Mountain Lion or Lion, Apple will just tell you to install the free upgrade.
The other advantage is that older hardware will struggle with Mavericks, nudging you towards purchasing a new machine. These are all good business reasons for appearing to give away stuff for free
"The other advantage is that older hardware will struggle with Mavericks, nudging you towards purchasing a new machine. These are all good business reasons for appearing to give away stuff for free"
[citation needed]
Your statement is pure, unadulterated bullshit.
Given that the entire release is about OS performance, your statement sounds like yet another sour fart.
Troll offf!
To be fair, the OSX updates are a little more than a service pack (except for maybe SP1 for XP). Apple have been doing an incremental upgrades every year for a while now, whereas MS went for a major release every 3. How well has that been going for MS? Not many people bother to change the OS, and major shifts tend to put people off anyway, so incremental changes are probably better for keeping your customers happy. Not sure if it would convince me to buy a mac though, but cost of hardware can at least be offset a little by the comparative cost of updating the OS.
There's always one...
The fact that those still on Snow Leopard can download Mavericks free - skipping the paid upgrades to Lion & Mountain Lion - seems to have escaped you. I suppose you thought the move from Windows 3.1.1 to Windows 7 was simply a service pack...
Sophistry & bile exemplified.
Hardly a service pack - in Windows land service packs are for fixing bugs and rarely add significant new functionality. You could argue new versions of Windows were just 'service packs'.
Maverics adds a lot of new features and who cares what you call it - they have stuck it to Microsoft big time and made it FREE and not just for Mountain Lion users - everyone going back years and years. It would be like Microsoft giving Windows 8.1 away to everyone - even XP users.
Actually it is *really* free for some users. I bought a Mac Mini 6 weeks ago (with no iWorks), and last night App Store popped up "You qualify for iWorks, download here...". I've never bought iWorks, never been that interested in it either. But a half hour playing with KeyNotes and I can't see myself voluntarily using PowerPoint ever again.
"But a half hour playing with KeyNotes and I can't see myself voluntarily using PowerPoint ever again."
You rarely see an interesting speaker using Power Point. Or KeyNote. The products are for poor speakers who have to stand up and say something and haven't really got the skills to do it well. Bullet points, with or without effects or graphics, are usually yawn-fodder or provide a good time for honing day-dreaming or doodling skills.
(I'm not a natural great speaker, either, and have used both PP and KN).
Just pondering the idea of Churchill, Hitler, Thatcher, Kennedy, Bush, Obama... even Simon Cowell, Mick Jagger or John Lennon fiddling with their iPhone or other remote control as they read out their bullet points.
Amusing thought.
Poor argument. It's only free in the same way as a Windows Service Pack is free (or Windows 8.1 is free if you have 8).
Apple's licensing means you have to run OSX on Apple hardware -it's even more restrictive than Microsoft. Even trying to run it legitimately in a VM is only allowed if the VM is on a Mac. Therefore, to get your 'free' OSX, you have to buy a Mac with OSX.
While Microsoft may have/had questionable policies regarding OEMs and Windows licensing, at least you can pick and choose your iron (or even build your own).
While I'm not a Linux or BSD fan (purely a personal preference for Windows), it does have to be said that this is the only place you can truly pick up a free OS.
"it's even more restrictive than Microsoft."
Only if you buy a car to spend your time under the hood instead of driving it. Clearly you aren't a Mac owner so why be so bothered by it you feel the need for an unfounded put-down of someone's argument simply stating a quite valid and uncontentious opinion built on a good factual basis ? There's nothing poor about the statements in the previous comment. Read it properly and you will see it isn't even to any extent inconsistent with what you have said (you haven't demonstrated it is a poor argument at all - you're simply stating another fact that everyone knows anyway, that you have to buy a Mac to run OSX. So what?). So why the sour grapes?
You are still wrong. When have you got any Windows version for free?
Any macosx version that has the ability to download a new version from app store can be updated for free.
MacOSX Mavericks is more like a Windows 7 to Windows 8 update. And it is for free. The service packs like Windows 8.0 to 8.1 has always been free on MacOSX.
These are the versions of OSX that can be upgraded to the latest one, and the relative upgrade pricing between them.
10.6 (Major Release) Upgrade from 10.5.x $29
10.6.1 (SP1) Free
10.6.2 (SP2) Free
10.6.3 (SP3) Free
10.6.4 (SP4) Free
10.6.5 (SP5) Free
10.6.6 (SP6) Free
10.6.7 (SP7) Free
10.6.8 (SP8) Free
10.7 (Major Release) Upgrade from 10.6.x $29 Upgrade on USB stick $69
10.7.1 (SP1) Free
10.7.2 (SP2) Free
10.7.3 (SP3) Free
10.7.4 (SP4) Free
10.7.5 (SP5) Free
10.8 (Major Release) Upgrade from 10.7.x $19
10.8.1 (SP1) Free
10.8.2 (SP2) Free
10.8.3 (SP3) Free
10.8.4 (SP4) Free
10.8.5 (SP5) Free
10.9 (Major Release) Upgrade from 10.6-10.8 $0,00.
This is to be compared to as If you run Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 you can upgrade to Windows 8 for free, but not if you run a earlier version of Windows. In a time line it's not comparable, but release wise it is.
Go here to find out more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X
The 10 in each version represents the X in the name Mac OS X, where it's represented as a roman 10.
"The 10 in each version represents the X in the name Mac OS X, where it's represented as a roman 10."
Other software suppliers would call the X/10 the version and the "point somethings" you list as minor or maintenance releases.
Just because Apple chooses to name minor increments after felines or something doesn't oblige you to believe that they constitute "innovation", though many clearly get a warm glow from such a belief.
It's interesting to see how taking over a mind in a quasi-cult-like way makes that mind susceptible to further manipulation.
> Other software suppliers would call the X/10 the version and the "point somethings" you list as minor or maintenance releases.
Exactly. Windows 7, Server 2008, Server 2012, Windows 8 are "just minor or maintenance releases" to Vista.
Windows 8.1 6.3*
Windows Server 2012 R2 6.3*
Windows 8 6.2
Windows Server 2012 6.2
Windows 7 6.1
Windows Server 2008 R2 6.1
Windows Server 2008 6.0
Windows Vista 6.0
Windows Server 2003 R2 5.2
Windows Server 2003 5.2
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition 5.2
Windows XP 5.1
Windows 2000 5.0
Yes but, would anyone bother to install Windows 8, even if it were free?
I mean besides the masochists looking for some new punishment
Besides haven't Apple-tards already pre-paid for there Software when the bought their Machines?
Besides does Apple even sell Computers anymore? Or just Computer-like Appliances?
Yes but, would anyone bother to install Windows 8, even if it were free?
I for one, would install win8 on my ageing win XP laptop, if I were given it for free. After all, there's always classic shell. TBH I'm kind of hoping MS give us a whacking great discount for XP -> 8. It would mostly solve both problems of poor win 8 uptake and lingering XP installs.
Such an uninformed comment hardly warrant a response but I am in charitable mood so here are just 10 of them.
Tabbed Finder windows
File tags
AirPlay display
iCloud Keychain
In-notification replies
Safari bookmarks sidebar
Shared browser links
Driving directions for iOS
Map integration in Calendar
Automatic app updates
" Re: And now the world waits...
Such an uninformed comment hardly warrant a response but I am in charitable mood so here are just 10 of them.
Tabbed Finder windows
File tags
AirPlay display
iCloud Keychain
In-notification replies
Safari bookmarks sidebar
Shared browser links
Driving directions for iOS
Map integration in Calendar
Automatic app updates"
Have to smile that mostly minor UI tweaks are considered to be substantial innovation by some of the audience, especially when you look at what most of them are - in many cases implementing features that other have had for a long while.
And as for "Driving directions for iOS"... Is that some sort of help system or user guide?
Baby you can drive my car
Yes I'm gonna be a star
Baby you can drive my car
And maybe I'll love you
@NightFox
"Mountain Lion: 10.8
Mavericks: 10.9
Surely even by Apple's own naming convention, this is just a .1 update, not a "new OS"?"
Yes, just as Windows still is Windows whether it is Windows 95 or Windows 8.
The OS on the Mac has the name Mac OS X, that X is a roman 10. There are totally 10 major versions of Mac OS X.
They range from 10.0 to 10.9, all except 10.9 has gotten a number of service packs. Update from 0 to 1 was free. Updates between 1 and 8 has had a price tag. Version 9 is free if you run any from version 6-8.
Mountain Lion: 10.8
Mavericks: 10.9
Surely even by Apple's own naming convention, this is just a .1 update, not a "new OS"?
I don't care of it's called Tango, 1.x 0.1.1.1+ - I go by the differences between the releases to tell me what is major. I only entered the Mac world at 10.6, and every point upgrade has been major. OX 10.9 is actually the first one where the difference with the previous version isn't that noticeable, but every upgrade so far has been significant and worth the effort.
As for the iWork and iLive stiff - cool. Keynote is very good (certainly with a Bluetooth link to an iPhone for remote control), Numbers is OK for me but I can see the heavy hitters prefer Excel, and Pages is OK-ish apart for the template system which is too much DTP and not enough "getting the job done" IMHO rumour has it that has been addressed so I'm waiting for the download to finish.
However, you should realise the significance of this move. When you now buy an Apple device, you basically have everything a normal user needs already installed, and it's a relatively safe machine. No license fees that will kick you in the teeth in a few months time, no daily patching, no buying another package to make the machine useful. It's there, installed, ready for use. Take machine out of shiny box, jack in power, register and start working.
No printer drivers, no pile of DVDs, and if it all goes pear shaped and you have not availed yourself of a sensible backup you can at least download it all again and start anew.
From a corporate perspective I don't quite know yet how easy it is to control a flock of Macs, but for an end user this has become a no brainer IMHO. Get a nice iShiny with everything installed, or get a barebones Intel which requires you to spend a lot more on software to make it usable. Not a hard choice IMHO.
"but for an end user this has become a no brainer"
You present a convincing sounding case. Superficially. But when the underlying reality is analysed the case turns out not to include very much substance that doesn't apply equally to alternatives, but it does have the shiny feel that "don't bother me with the details", eyes-glazing customers like to believe. At least to start with.
You appear to be the typical target Apple customer from the (slightly blind) faith of which Apple has built its profits. And when things break or don't work as expected, as will happen (it's computers we're dealing with, not pixie dust), you will be the one who smiles and says thank you as they pocket more of your money.
One day, perhaps, you might look back and add up how much your set of Emperor's New Clothes has cost you and reconsider your decisions. Or you might not.
OS X v7 (aka Lion)
OS X v8 (aka Mountain Lion)
OS X v9 (aka Mavericks)
OS X is vastly different from the earlier Mac OS (9 and earlier) and based on a UNIX core. The X is a play on that UNIX naming and they don't really want to lose it so for the life of OS X it will always be OS 'ten' and every new version will be numbered as a 'point' release. Forget about the 10 part and focus on the next number to understand.
Speaking as a software developer, version numbers are largely arbitrary anyway. There's very little that says you've done enough to justify a whole new version. We've even gone so far as to decide right at the last minute that a point release should end up being marketed as a whole new version just because. The end user perception of what a full release is obviously drives much of this from a marketing perspective.
As with each previous release of OS X, there's enough in Mavericks to justify a new version number. MS going from Vista to 7? On the face of it, not much to be honest, especially when you look at Vista SP2 where performance is little different from 7 in practice. Some things 7 did better were how it managed the services it ran on startup because Vista is a real dog for some time after it boots until things settle down. 7 is better but mostly it works like a Vista service pack with just some visible changes like the new task bar.
Just understand that arguing that OS X Mavericks is just a service pack sounds pretty ridiculous to someone who works as a software developer and knows how arbitrary numbering really is.
'"They just will add £500 onto the hardware cost to cover it like Apple do..."
Errr ... that would be the surface then? dork.'
Spot on!
Microsoft have just tried the sort of dorkiness that Apple has traded on for years. The result is many people shouting, "Dork!" at them.
Meanwhile most Apple users have yet to understand Apple's dorkiness. You can see how they are often associated with being a little hard-of-understanding, as well as having blinginess tendencies.
> ..for Microsoft to give away Windows and Office for nothing
Most users seem to think that Windows (and sometimes Office) _are_ free because they are on the computer they bought.
With the original IBM PC, or many similar at the time, there was a price list and one had to select the bits required including which OS one wanted.
"we are turning the industry on its ear."
I like how he starts out by specifying this "revolution" is specific to MAC, then after a while, it's the fucking whole industry.
Android, hate it or like it, has changed the game by using Linux.
TO: Mr. Cook
If you're that hung up on Linux, you don't need a MAC. No? Well give it time Tim, you'll come around. Until then, fuck off.
Yeah, that's what happened. Customers picked ANDROID because they were all really worried about which kernel their phone runs and absolutely demanded Linux. That's why ANDROID owners often laugh at iOS users — their kernel is explicitly monolithic and they can't believe how hilarious it is that Apple's is still nominally a microkernel in many areas.
"Others would have you spend a small fortune every year just to get their apps," Cue said. "But we want to do something bold, something that changes the rules of the game – and you know what's coming. We're taking all of these productivity apps and making them available for free with the purchase of Mac and iOS [devices]."
We won't charge you a small fortune for our apps, just a large one for the hardware to run them.
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You need to pay attention, iLife & iWorks are free on *new* mac kit, the same as they are on new iOS kit, not existing stuff. I imagine it will work like the iOS ones in that once you buy new kit they will become available to all of your existing stuff via the Mac app store.
This may sound a little harsh, but given that they dropped support for your hardware at the previous OS, why would you have an expectation that it would be supported this time?
I know Apple buyers hang on to their kit for a long time because it keeps on working, but expecting OS updates for something that's over seven years old and on a different architecture seems a bit of a stretch
I have a 2006 Mac Pro which runs 10.8.5 just fine. Needed a slight readjustment to the boot loader to make it think it's a PC and then its basically a Hackintosh running on a real Mac. No idea if this is legal, I think it is as it's real Apple hardware. Whilst a new Mac would be nice, it's an eight core machine with 32GB of memory, replacing that would make my eyes water.
I'd look through the various websites to see if you can hack your iMac to run something more modern.
'"Today we announce a new era for the Mac, because today we're announcing that Mavericks is free," he said. "Free is good."'
So, soon the announcement of free hardware, because, "Free is good", eh? No?
Alternative, more honest, version:
We rip off our customers so enormously on hardware markups that we can claim we're giving them something that is free. Not being the smartest customers, they'll not only thank us but keep smiling as we collect the idiot tax from them.
We just have to keep high-fiving and smiling back. (They're too slow to understand why we keep smiling).
> We rip off our customers so enormously on hardware markups that we can claim we're giving them something that is free. Not being the smartest customers, they'll not only thank us but keep smiling as we collect the idiot tax from them.
Honestly though, perhaps they're just realising what most other people are realising, which is that paying for software is a fool's game. People are happy to pay for hardware because they can't make it themselves.
We rip off our customers so enormously on hardware markups that we can claim we're giving them something that is free
Old argument, entirely at variance with the facts. Start adding up how much it takes to get a PC usable, then compare it to Apple kit. Also try to compare like for like - I've had high end Sony VAIO kit which was substantially more costly than the equivalent Apple kit.
I am a Mac user/owner but not really a complete Apple fan - no iphone or ipad here....
I do however see this as 'get hooked on this and you'll have to buy apps from (via) us'
Not necessarily a bad thing just yet, but I wonder what people will be saying about this policy in a few years. I think MS would be daft to copy, so I guess it might happen. Interesting times....
Realtime colaborative editing between the Pages app running on the Mac and the Pages webapp running on a PC that was launched from just a link in an email with no login required is a big fucking deal. If that works in the field as well as it did in the demo it's going to murder a shitload of Office sales*.
* But clearly not for the use case you're about to describe where this doesn't even touch the sides. Rather than outline it, just try and imagine someone else for whom the combination of slick, good enough, collaboration and free might be enough to have them to sign up for a free iCloud account with access to the apps, rather than purchase or subscribe to Office.
Just missed the cut on the system requirements; this (complete) dumpster-derived MacBook (technically) won't be able to have Mavericks installed on it! Geez Louise. Nevertheless, it will be fun trying the install. Eventually someone will come up with a software fix (or plist edit, or similar) that will make marginal-case hardware fit right in.
I wonder if Mavericks is Apple's dividend to shareholders... Hmmmm.
Microsoft's newest tablets are shipping with office built in. For example the newest Dell Windows 8.1 Pro machine (Venue 8 Pro) comes with Office Home and Student pre-installed. For $299 and up that is a heck of a deal!
Apple is starting to feel the pinch more and more!
I really thought it was more about bringing their collaboration stuff up to speed with Google Drive (née Docs), and finally updating the desktop versions of Pages/Numbers/Keynote after four years of mere maintenance, simultaneously resolving a lot of the interface deficiencies.
Microsoft's failure to bring Office to the mainstream mobile OSes has already probably sealed their fate. After years of having no choice but to sample the alternatives, people have learnt that there's life beyond Office.
Don't forget the App's, once the initial 5.3GB of shiny newness is downloaded and installed, you've got another 10 GB or so of app updates to gobble up: Xcode, iMove, iPhoto, GarageBand, iTunes.......... All while you wonder if they'll cause you to hit your ISP's daily fair usage limit and force you to seek out an unthrottled free Wi-Fi connection.
"Don't forget the App's, once the initial 5.3GB of shiny newness is downloaded and installed, you've got another 10 GB or so of app updates to gobble up: Xcode, iMove, iPhoto, GarageBand, iTunes.......... All while you wonder if they'll cause you to hit your ISP's daily fair usage limit and force you to seek out an unthrottled free Wi-Fi connection."
hehe... and after Virgin's upgrades of a few weeks ago have upped my speed to around 125Mb/s..
damn - that will take me somewhere around 10 minutes to download :-p
I installed it, and have a couple of comments:
a) iBooks is pretty porked at the moment. It wouldn't import my library from iTunes, and only imported the books bought at the iTunes store or from my iPad. Hundreds of other books bought from DRM free sources (e.g. Baen) in the States were ignored ... or when I forced an import (by dragging and dropping the iTunes Books directory onto the iBooks window) told me that I wasn't authorised for many of these books ... presumably because it didn't like the fact that there was no DRM. As for PDF's and other files in te iTunes library ... forget it, didn't even recognise them. Factor in that AppNap doesn't seem to apply to iBooks on the Mac (it often blew out to take 100% of CPU cycles) and I have to believe that iBooks is a work-in-progress. That said, and given that it is now the content manager for book and literature thingies for all IOS devices, iBooks could very easily become another Maps debacle if Apple doesn't fix it 'real soon now'.
b) The puppy just grinds to a halt spontaneously with little or no pattern observable. Most of the time it shows me it's using bugger all CPU time, and then all of a sudden something kicks in that blows the CPU usage out of the water. Still trying to track this down.
c) The latest version of iTunes (11.1.2) has serious code optimisation problems as well ... and can also bring the Mac to a screeching halt. Given that iTunes is the focal point for all other content management - other than what iBooks took over, Apple is now batting a thousand with literature, music, movies and apps management ... in a really bad way.
d) Little glitches and bugs abound, but I expect these will get fixed over time ... at the moment it's Apple's content management system that's causing me all the grief.
d)
Revolution in the industry???
I overcharge you $2000 for $1000 value of hardware and bundle it with lifetime (ie 2 to 3 hardware generations) of free software upgrade for another $1000... Now please high-5 / kiss my arse as I just revolutionised the industry.
Basically: We are an hardware vendor, giving "free" software that only run on our hardware allow us to point fingers to the competition who is either a software company that obviously has no other economical choice than selling software and software upgrades to generate revenue (and Microsoft is nowhere near able to generate income on hardware) or a ad selling business who has already been giving away software for years (isn't Goggle docs free since it's launch?).
If Apple was able to prevent any Google Ad to be displayed on its devices, Google will probably "revolutionise" the market by giving away hardware at cost or below just to get access to a bit of what brain you have left....
The real comparison should be the TCO over the life of a device and I don't believe that Mac and free Maverick iWork would look favourably against generic PC with Windows and Office... But TCO is probably of no interest to average fanboy.
Golden iPhone with "free" software target demographics (what we call Chavs this side of the Atlantic) are probably more familiar with GTi than TCO.
Generic PC bundled with Office OEM = you buy Office OEM bundle with a PC, valid for max 1 user on that PC, you can't move it to another PC, if you sell the PC you lose Office.
Generic PC and Office 2013 = you buy Office 2013 but it's valid only on one of your PCs only for you. You may move it to another one of your PCs or sell it on to someone else.
Generic PC and Office 365 = you rent Office 365 and it's valid for up to x users (depending on the licence - i.e. depending on how much you pay a month), although each user can use it on up to five (unless it's the University edition, in which case it's two) devices (given a good enough Internet connection).
Mac with iWork = Every new Mac gets iWork. Every Mac which can upgrade to Mavericks can get iWork. Valid for all users on that Mac.
Seems like the TCO's looking pretty good if you go with Apple.
Apple hardware is very expensive, and they have been able to indulge charging for OS upgrade so far.
And they still have a good market share, and turning a lot of profit.
Forget the emotional comments, they still sell and do profit, FFS, there is a reason for this.
Now, with a fully working OS, and some very useful free apps, and free upgrades, this is gonna be a extremely painful blow to the Redmond zombies and Windows 8.
I don't see any relevance to Windows on the desktop, now ...
There are already more Windows 8 users than every version of Mac OS X and Linux combined. And that's still only a tiny share of the Windows market. What Apple do or do not do is so unbelievably insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
And "free" software that requires you to by a specific brand of relatively expensive PC hardware isn't really all that "free", is it?
""free" software that requires you to by a specific brand of relatively expensive PC hardware isn't really all that "free", is it?"
That's what I was thinking - it would be way more interesting if we could just download this and (try to) get it up and running on whatever bits and pieces we had kicking about.
I'm not sure Apple would lose much by allowing that - they wouldn't want to have to support the results, obviously, but it might be handy for them if a few more of the sort of people who could and would do this were running OSX.
There are already more Windows 8 users than every version of Mac OS X and Linux combined
Bollocks. To put it politely. Every Android device is running Linux for starters.
Here is a nice graph that shows in what situation MS really is in by market shares.
They still dominate the classic PC market. But they are about to be even smaller than Apple if you look at the total computing market share.
This graph combines Classic PC's as Laptops and Desktops (maybe even servers) and mobile devices.
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/global-computer.png
It looks like the gates still left in the walled garden are being closed one by one.
I also wonder what this 'free OS' is going to do to the thriving enthusiasts corner known as the Hackintosh. In the past these users could argue that they 'bought' the licence and could use it the way they wanted. By giving OSX away for 'free' I imagine things are going to be changing there as well.
The good news is the pricepoint of the new Pro's : I would almost call it 'reasonable'. OTOH it's become an iMac without a screen. You configure it, you buy it, game over. Locked in.
I see a plan emerging here. And it's not for the better
I'm assuming they'll be wanting to kil the Hackintosh community off in the same way they killed off the hardware clones in the 90s. I can see forcing downloads through the Apple store as a good way of doing so rather than letting the Hackintosher's getting their grubby mits on DVDs they can then hack the contents of to boot on the unclean machines.
The last two OS versions were delivered as downloads but you can open the file which was downloaded and find a DVD image holding an installer. This one is no different.
Well, OK, the cynical 95% of me, wonders what hardware support will be like on future OS X releases. Nobody can complain at limited latest-device-only support from the OS if it is given away free, right?
However, that may be overly cynical even by my standards. We shall see.
GJC
That is great news. I have a mini on SL and an iMac on Lion, because Apple dumped them both with Lion and Mountain Lion respectively, so I was unable to upgrade. It is nice to see that they are now back in the upgrade game... Oh, wait, that probably isn't what he meant.
I'll see if I can upgrade my Lion iMac to Mavericks when I get home...
The requirements are the same as Mountain Lion's, if you couldn't update to Mountain Lion you can't update to Mavericks.
I'm sure that someone will have a hack sometime soon, which will probably be the same amount of time everyone else will have to wait until Apple have come out with the updates getting rid of the most obvious bugs.
Thanks, Mavericks just wiped out Java on my system, leaving a trail of destruction behind it.
Apple get more and more like a possessive partner all the time.... "You are getting messages from *Other development platforms!!!" , "I am going to monitor your phone and email to see if any more of these *SDKs are trying it with *My developer".
I didn't want to go to the pub this afternoon, what i really wanted to do was fix my mac so that i can work on it.
It just works? Not these days... I stopped using linux because i was fed up with tinkering to make anything run... seems Apple's anti Flash campaign has given them teeth enough to go after java ....
Sounds more like a launch-day bug to me. Mavericks had me reinstall Java, presumably because it's still closely tied to the OS even though Apple no longer maintains it in house, but in no sense did it wipe anything out or leave any sort of trail of destruction. After a quick 66.7 mb download (versus 5.<something> gb for the rest of the OS), everything worked fine — though in my case everything is: Cyberduck, Android Studio.
Apple's recent updates have been so cheap that they probably just about cover the release and distribution costs, so making Mavericks free is not much of a cost but a great headline grabber. And since 10.6 the new versions have not really added value or changed much for many users. I'm sure I'm not alone in not having rushed to install Lion (done only for the Bluetooth fix) or Mountain Lion (new API required for BusyCal). This isn't very good if you want to encourage the uptake of new APIs and possible convergence of MacOS and IOS, which is probably what is driving this release.
I'll see if this will run on the Mac Mini but give it at least a month for MacPorts to update and the first inevitable bugs to be found and fixed before I run it on my main machine.
Apple's own apps have always been a bit of a mixed bag for Apple. Some of them seem just mere technology demonstrations but others have great attention to detail. I still occasionally use IMovie to create DVDs but I think I have a version that does not do hardware encoding. Off the rest only Keynote really stands out as something worth having as it certainly benefits from being Apple's own inhouse presentation software.
If the apps were universal you wouldn't need Rosetta, that's a shim to run PPC code.
Any developer releasing PPC-only code 'not even three years ago' deserves to be pointed and laughed at. But if you still need to run PPC apps, you do indeed need to stay on Snow Leopard (or stick it in a spare partition, or in a VM).
Of course I asked but they still refused point blank to support current platforms. I guess they don't want to run an extra test cycle just to stop people laughing at them. The joke gets better: their product is mostly written in Java, so goodness knows why any part of it still has to be architecture specific. I can only imagine that they had a contract to build and test versions for exactly three architectures, and their customer hasn't realized there is only one version under the hood and they are being ripped off. I only wanted to run it on a more recent machine because it was annoyingly slow on the older one.
I know I didn't use the word "universal" in one of the precise Apple senses, but I think it is still appropriate with the conventional meaning. I've got a few carbon and classic applications I'd like to put through their paces on a 64 bit intel machine too.
@coward
"Can't wait for Mickysoft to offer WIndows 8.1 + Office Pro Plus 2013 for free, just stabilise the PC OS environment, now where did I put my meds ?"
Microsoft bought Nokia, deal will be closed around new year.
Nokia just announced new hardware. MS is most probably becoming a hardware vendor. They have failed at mobile market and by total market share they are smaller than Google Android, on pair with Apple platforms about to be smaller.
They are most probably looking at their success with xBox, where they are a hardware vendor. They will be officially a tablet and phone hardware vendor by start of 2014. They cowork with DELL founder to move Dell from the stock market.
Question is, Will Dell make Microsoft's first computer, or will Nokia do that?
Or will they more or less let the computer market die naturally (it's already on the sick bed waiting for it's death), and only focus on the "mobile" market?
Microsoft is aiming for to become a hardware vendor, exactly how and what seems still to be open. But that's what they are becoming. When that transition is completed, they may very well do what you proposed.
I immediately thought of the 486 era "RAM booster" programs when I read that too. Of course Wyrdness does have a point - it would allow more stuff in RAM without swapping, which would save battery life in theory. Would also be quicker than swapping to HDD.
In practice however, I expect it's still in the same realm of gimmicks as the old ones. Most users wouldn't notice it one way or the other.
Installed yesterday, definitely made my MBP more sprightly. Most of the new features of the last few revisions of OSX don't really interest me but none of them get in the way of how I use my machines.
Apple sell the hardware, it's where they make their money, bundling their OS'es and software for free improves the value of that hardware further and increases the appeal. Yes their boxes are more expensive than your black plastic Dells and whatnot but the resell value is also much higher which more than offsets the increased cost of the initial purchase.
Microsoft's model is selling software, they don't make PC's, in recent years they seem to have lost their way with Windows becoming a bit of a mess, I think they'd be well to start anew with a completely new OS that has a Rosetta style emulator built in if you wish to run Windows software. Maybe if their cloud-based 'one interface for all' approach ultimately becomes popular they'll have a renascence but Google are certainly getting in the way of that ambition.
If the features justified the price of the OS, they wouldn't need to force OEMs to use Windows exclusively.
If they really felt their OS was worth hundreds of dollars, they would allow the market to offer Linux PCs and Windows PCs for hundreds of dollars more and let consumers decide what they really want.
The most logical conclusion is, they know Windows isn't worth what they charge for it, or they wouldn't be trying so hard to hide the cost.
Apple are starting to see the value in Linux. OSX is basically locked down UNIX with a bastardised BSD [if my memory serves me....] desktop. With eyecandy to boot.
Now they are following the Libra Office model, with a modicum of GIMP and a few other "free" items. The Linux world has been free, and for that matter, free, for years.
And Linux is still seen as a hobbyist environment [don't shout, I use Ubuntu] and Apples are much the same.
I work for a global company. 80k people in 140 countries. Each and every one of us has a laptop. Running Windows. With MS Office.
When somebody bod from Apple says ""When you combine this announcement with the announcement that Craig made earlier that OS X upgrades are free," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, "we are turning the industry on its ear." ", then no. They're wrong.
Not until Apple breaks into the Corporate world. And that will not happen until they're kit is at least 50% cheaper, /and/ the office applications we all use are included.
Cheerio.
Speak for yourself.
I'm sitting in an office of the one of the largest airlines in the world. Around me approximately 50% of the computers are Macs. All the staff also have ipads.
Apple has already broken into the corporate world - just not yours by the sound of things.
In many creative industries you'll see as many, if not a greater proportion of Macs to Windows machines.
You also find then in places where the backbone is deliberately kept Open Standards so it can support multiple platforms. The idea behind this is to AVOID a homogenic environment so that the next I Love You virus or other weakness cannot zap the entire company at once. In some places, the show MUST go on.
And Linux is still seen as a hobbyist environment
Not for us. All our server platforms are Linux, the only reason we have an Apple server and it's redundant spare hiding somewhere is because of some specialist software. That's probably my only issue: I'd love to pay Apple for a license to run a VM with OSX 10.9 Server, but that simply isn't available.
"I'd love to pay Apple for a license to run a VM with OSX 10.9 Server, but that simply isn't available."
I agree. I'm extremely unlikely to ever buy Apple hardware, but if they offered a reasonably priced "unsupported" version for non-Apple hardware, I would probably buy a license just to have it available for the rare times I may need OSX for whatever reason.
MAC OS free upgrade! I should think so, its a few lines different from the last. hardly a rewrite/remodel.
It's the usual (shit, sorry, spit 'n polish)
When is OS X going to join the next century? It's still point 'm click shit. Where is the innovation?
Why does it still look like it's pre-2000 in mac land?
I still use a iBook G4 with OSX 10.4.11 (Tiger) that I refuse to upgrade any further, mainly because of ONE solitaire game (that runs in the Classic environment only) that I am wholly, horribly addicted to: Beat The Dragon 2.5. I can't find a version that doesn't suck like a black hole -- I'm looking at you, BTD 3.0 -- on any other platform. And, since OSX took away the Classic environment in 10.5 and above, I'm not budging.
I know it's silly, but damn it, I love that game.
As per title - on a 13" MBP from early 2010, running Snow Leopard - are there any disadvantages to moving to the latest version?
I seem to recall something about X11 support being dropped at some point - presumably this is available from elsewhere (though it was very nice indeed to have it built in.)
I've got X11, with twm, running under Lion. However, as this MacBook is the old, white 13" from early 2008 I can not explore Mountain Lion and later delights.
However, contemplating moving to a maxed out 13" air, or do I hang on till the mythical retina screen version or is the current screen more than good enough? This old thing still runs well enough for most things.
Mid 2010 MBP, now runs Maverick, zero issues with the upgrade other than that post upgrade, a lot of other updates followed (the whole of iWork, for starters, iMovie, iPhoto and some other stuff).
As for X11, as soon as you try and start anything that needs X11 (say, Wireshark), it will pop up a message with a link to the KB article where you can download XQuartz (70MB download). Install that and it all works.
Thanks, will maybe image the drive and update sometime soon then. I wouldn't ever have paid real money for an OSX update but my wife (it's her laptop) was finding that ordering prints through iPhoto had stopped working properly and the new version wouldn't run on SL so maybe now's the time to update.
Sadly it won't cure the "won't stay turned off" problem the thing has had since before 1 year old as it seems to be hardware / firmware related (does the same thing even when running Linux off a DVD)... so long as it doesn't break anything more she'll be happy.
"Honest/open/ignorant question - have there been many other mainstream free OSes from a commercial organisations?"
Honest answer - IBM's operating systems were free for many years.
And, for interest, the majority of the Internet, from large web sites through email and even down to much of the network hardware runs on free (non-commercial) OSes. (You probably know that).
For those who want to compare to OS X version numbers
From
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724832%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
Operating system Version number
Windows 8.1 6.3*
Windows Server 2012 R2 6.3*
Windows 8 6.2
Windows Server 2012 6.2
Windows 7 6.1
Windows Server 2008 R2 6.1
Windows Server 2008 6.0
Windows Vista 6.0
Windows Server 2003 R2 5.2
Windows Server 2003 5.2
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition 5.2
Windows XP 5.1
Windows 2000 5.0
I tested my laptop today and I'm getting about 40%-50% more battery time. That's pretty huge for me as it lets me last a full work day without a recharge. There's a lot of other interesting additions I haven't had much time to play with yet, but so far it was a big win here, especially for free.
One word of caution for users who haven't updated yet, though: LET THE INSTALLER FINISH! It pauses for many at "less than one minute remaining..." for 10 minutes or more. Just let it sit and finish. Also, Mail has some new bugs introduced, so if that's super critical, wait until they push a patch for that.
I was a Mac user for 25+ years, and Mac-centric sysadmin for pretty much 20, so am pretty well versed in Mac OS. This year I switched to Linux because in recent years, Apple have been increasingly controlling of both their hardware and software - you basically can't fix/upgrade much of what they make, and Mac OS X is becoming more of an iOS-like walled-garden with each iteration. Although I still concede that Mac OS X is good, and possibly the 'best' OS, this policy doesn't sit well with me - to the point of switching a decades-old allegiance.
This policy of giving away the latest OS update, then, arouses my suspicion. Much of Mac OS X is closed source, so - like Windows - we don't really know quite what it does. Making 10.9 free will very quickly give them a much larger user base of their latest OS than previous versions - a much larger base of computers that they can then control, lock down if required, collect data from if they choose.
Admittedly I'm also a bit of a conspiracy theorist about such things :)
Like a bad wave that flips back on the surfer, Mavericks completely ignored our Time Capsule with almost a year of backups and won't backup to it after the upgrade.
So I'm sitting here archiving 2 years of backups so I can ZAP the sparsebundle image on my TC so I can then re-enable the TC to start backups again.
Not impressed.
... they could make a free Mavericks lite (x86 only) to run on old PCs (and of course the macs with the wrong architecture) with the proviso that it is for demonstration only (but not restricted artificially) and not to be considered a full production system.
That would give the hackintosh crew a limited way out.
I would install that. I've wanted to run an OS X VM for awhile, but I;m not willing to jump through the various hoops Apple requires to install a basic OS. Create vdisk > boot with .iso > install. Those are the only 3 steps that should be required.
Don't think that would ever happen - Mac OS X works as it does partly because they have such strict control over the hardware. Making a hackintosh is fun-ish way to spend some time but it's fiddly at best - Apple make Mac OS to sell Macs - even if there was a business case for them to make it available on PCs, they wouldn't want to dilute the experience by making it flaky.
Despite my misgivings - see above - it's entirely their perogative to either not pander to, or actively lock out, folk installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware.
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You are only going to do this while having lunch if you are lunching like it was back in the 1990s and on a Friday afternoon at that (i.e. 3 hours and legless).
OK I only have a 15 Mbps line but the download took nearly an hour and then the install took just as long, followed by forty minutes of ancillary Apple updates and then sorting out a few other embuggerances like security plug-ins and anti-virus. This was on a higher end iMac so would be longer on older kit.
Seems to work OK though and the price was right.
God I miss the 1990s when one could have fun at work. Where's the triple G&T icon?
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