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Busman's
Holiday
Busman's Holiday? What
does a MacTimes columnist do on his day off, but write
another column!
Why Can't
Apple...
...thoughts while waiting out the OS 8.5 backorder
By
Steve
Wood
October
19, 1998
Why
can't Apple...put a more attractive price on their OS 8.5
upgrade?
Well, they did, but not for
everyone. I was
pleasantly surprised Saturday morning to find the
Apple
Store's Education for
Individual's (K-12)
price was $49 for the upgrade. The catch, of course, is that
you must be "an employee of a public or private K-12
institution in the United States, a current school board
member, or a PTA or PTO elected or appointed officer."
Unfortunately, according to the Macintosh
News Network, there
is "a 2 week back-order delay on Mac OS 8.5" at Apple
Ed.
All that said, I bit. Yeah,
I know I kicked up quite a stink about Apple's $99 pricing
of the upgrade in my
last column, and
I've just admitted to spending $49+tax+shipping for it. Even
though when I get cut, I bleed MacOS, $99 was just too rich
for my blood. Part of the reason is that the Apple upgrade
is only the beginning of the upgrade expense. I hadn't had
any reason to upgrade to Conflict
Catcher 8 from
version 4.1.1. So I had to also shell out $78.95 for it
(Cyberian
Outpost). There's
supposed to be a $30 rebate involved. Then I signed up for
Aladdin's
StuffIt Deluxe 5.0
upgrade priced at $79.95. There will be a credit there for
upgrading, also. I'd already shelled out $50 for an upgrade
to Norton
Utilities 4.0,
anticipating the release of 8.5. So far, I'm in for a total
of over $250. It certainly isn't just a $99
upgrade.
For those of you who don't
think $99+ is what you want to pay, check out Deal-Mac's
Mac
OS 8.5 Buying Guide
for places selling OS 8.5 for under $90!
I really expected to receive
a thorough thrashing and flaming for some of my more
provocative comments in Friday's
column. Some of the
less moderate expressions were:
- This time Apple,
apparently feeling secure with the iMac's tremendous
success, decided to return to the Apple arrogance of old
and require almost everyone to pay the full bill,
regardless of previous OS purchases.
-
- Apple even gives us a
great straight line for not upgrading on their upgrade
page:
- "No need to dress up:
you can purchase your copy of Mac OS 8.5 from
The
Apple Store
anytime, day or night."
- Wow! Why should we be
the ones to dress up? Apple should have on a mask and be
carrying a gun to ask $99 for this upgrade.
It turns out that for once
in my life, I had my finger on many, but not all, of the
Macintosh public's pulse. Reader comments flowed in, with
grumbles about Apple's greedy pricing and with lots of
comments, pro and con, on the upgrades features. A rough
estimate is 3-1 thinking Apple is getting a little above
themselves with this pricing.
I'm well aware that the bulk
of sentiment in the Macintosh writing community is rah-rah
OS 8.5. Not having seen the upgrade as yet, except as
described and demoed here and there, I can't imagine
plunking down $99 for it. I don't get paid to be a
cheerleader for Apple, but to call them as I see them. Come
to think of it, since I'm now posting to my personal
website, I guess I'm not getting paid for anything I write.
Hmm, must be doing it because I still think I have something
of worth to say about a computer platform I
value.
There have been some major
dissenting opinions from some serious Mac columnists. Don
Crabb absolutely thrashed Apple on the design flaws of
Sherlock in a MacCentral
column, although he
had some nice things to say about it also. Henry Norr has a
great "in
depth analysis" of
Sherlock for the Macintouch
OS 8.5 Special Report,
including its strengths and weaknesses. He also has some
interesting things to say about just how revolutionary, or
rather not, the Sherlock search engine is when compared to
existing WinTel products.
I sat in for awhile Saturday
night at The
iMac.com's "OS 8.5
Launch Party." Webmaster and chat moderator Robert Aldridge
had already installed the upgrade. His biggest piece of
advice on just a few hours of use was to do a clean install
when upgrading. Other participants, who had their copies
installed already, seemed to like the new features, with one
describing the screen redraws in a game as so fast as to
practically give him whiplash!
If you're one of the lucky
ones who already has the upgrade, drop me a note about how
the installation went and your general impressions of the
upgrade. If, you are like me and still waiting (for it to
arrive or for the price to go down), there is now a ton of
information on the upgrade on the net to keep you busy until
it arrives (or the price goes down, which could be a verrry
long wait :-(. You could start on Apple's
upgrade page.
Last
week's column also
listed some of the major Mac sites' 8.5 support, but here
are some more that may prove helpful.
Bill Fox of MacsOnly
has a listing of tips he hadn't seen elsewhere and a
"Mini-Like" list of things that impress him with the
upgrade. His Hands-On
Mac OS 8.5 Page is
the best step-by-step guide to upgrading that I've seen yet.
(Thanks, Bill.)
Version Tracker's
MacOS
8.5 Updates is a
good page to use when upgrading to 8.5. It has links for all
the needed updates and upgrades.
Ted Landau's MacFixIt
ReportsTroubleshooting
Mac OS 8.5 also has
a great listing of installation tips and what breaks under
8.5.
Why
can't Apple...ever have enough of a new product to supply
demand?
I worked my way through
college on the docks at a retail dairy. One of the guys I
worked with used to comment every time we had a new product
and ran out of it the first night: "If they started selling
pickled turds, we'd run out the first night!" (Giant grin.
MacTimes would never let me get away with using the word
"turds!")
System 8.5 certainly isn't a
pickled turd, but Apple seems to have the same problem as
the milk company above. They've had forever to get this
upgrade out. The October 17 release date is 2-3
months late from the
every-six-month upgrade schedule Apple had once announced.
Part of the giant success of System 8 was that it was
finished and available on time. Now that the upgrade is
finished, it's really not available through all channels, as
noted above. There were also more
than a few reports
of Apple retailers without any copies of OS 8.5 to sell last
weekend.
Why
can't Apple...release Systems 7.1, 7.5, and
7.6?
That's right! Put them up on
the web as free downloads! These are files that America's
schools could really use. Apple regularly makes a big deal
about their support of America's schools. This is something
that is pretty much cost free to Apple and could give the
Mac platform a much, much better name. Imagine a lab full of
PowerMac 6100's and LC5200's running system 7.x. I don't
have to imagine it. It's right next door to my classroom.
Arrrrr.
Most older school Macs don't
have the horsepower or the RAM to run Apple's latest and
greatest OS. Systems people are really hesitant to upgrade
these machines with paid upgrades. The jump from System 7.5
to 7.6.1 gives much greater system stability and better
internet access through a later version of Open Transport.
If it makes the Mac run better, then it has to be good
publicity for Apple. Think about it. If you agree, don't
just tell
me, tell
Apple.
Send your feedback to Steve
Wood
Busman's
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