Everytime Apple releases patches and updates (i.e. Java) that are available for 10.3 or higher, the >largest base< of OS X users are being marginalized. This is worse than Microsoft.
It’s called progress. Move forward or get trampled on by those who do.
I hate hate hate hate hate people that whine about being left behind when they choose to stay behind. If you are still six months later using Jaguar then expect to get ditched. Mac OS X 10.3 is not a completely new OS, it’s the next version of Mac OS X, a continuation of the product that Jaguar was a continuation of. That you chose not to move forward is your own deal, dude. Don’t expect anyone to come rushing to your defense about it.
But I have to use Jaguar because (I’m cheap|I have software that hates Panther|I’m scared of new things|I’m lazy|)!
That’s your problem, now isn’t it?
People like this are why I don’t read much of the Mac Web. Damned whiners that can’t understand their being left behind is a decision they make when the refuse to move forward.
I’ll bet their cars still run on leaded gasoline, too.
I agree with you to some extent. I currently am still using Jaguar. My main reason for this is because it simply costs too damn much to upgrade every time. It isn’t always people just being ‘cheap’. Instead, I like to think that I am being sensible by not spending that money on an upgrade to Panther. You might have $129 to spend every year on an OS upgrade (it’s approaching $200 Canadian here), but many people don’t. This is not being cheap. Being left behind is my choice, but it is a sensible choice in my opinion. Apple does upgrade too often for too much money. For my needs, and I think the needs of many others, the features contained within Panther may not justify the price.
I think I certain amount of complaining is justified. I do not know for sure, but I would imagine that with a little extra work Apple could release Safari 1.2 for Jaguar, consideirng the improvements are not very significant.
Your analogy to leaded gasoline is a weak one in this situation. When the change from leaded to unleaded gasoline occured there was a large time-period before everyone switched over. If people are still using Jaguar in a few years, then the analogy might be more appropriate, but currently Jaguar is still a very modern and useful OS.
Yet, I do not think this is something to whine about profusely. Apple is a company that needs to make money and they deserve to make money for all the cool stuff they make. Nowhere are we, as users, promised free software upgrades forever. For other software companies who only support the latest OS release, it is often a question of their limited resources and their ability to support two versions of an OS. This is a perfectly acceptable reason and is practical from a business standpoint.
Thus, I agree with you concerning the whining, yet I would hesitate to call those who don’t upgrade cheap.
The way I see it, once 10.x.x is released, I expect all new software to require that OS. Be it an AirPort upgrade requiring 10.3.2 or a security update needing 10.2.8 or whatever. Once that new one is out I expect it to be required, more so for full-point or minor-point updates (Apple-speak: “reference releases”).
I understand staying behind to an extent because $130 (US) is a bit of change to toss at Apple once a year. That said, I understand also that if I choose not to do it that I should not expect support as every company wants you on their latest version and not just for money’s sake but because maintaining older code bases is a bitch and a half and with a project as large as Mac OS X it becomes even more of a pain. Think of all the OSS packages installed with the OS plus the iApps, the utilities, the Carbon/Cocoa frameworks, the system apps (Finder, loginwindow, etc.) and so on. It’s huge. To maintain two active copies is crazy-talk.
This matters here because Safari’s rendering portion is a system-level component in 10.3, but not in 10.2. It is, now, a part of the big picture. I don’t know if they will backport it to 10.2 but I would not be surprised if they didn’t.
Not that I am in this boat, but what if I have an original Beige G3 that cannot run Panther because of no SB ports?
Are you saying we should buy new hardware as well?
Eytan