[Cialug] OT: mac-mini?

[Bryan Baker]

On Oct 20, 2005, at 3:50 PM, David Champion wrote:
> Don't mean to sound all RMS here, but...
>
> The new version of Linux and / or Firefox didn't cost me anything. 
> That alone might be enough to justify not buying a Mac. How much do 
> those incremental MacOSX updates cost?

Large feature upgrades cost. Just like any other for pay OS. $129 is 
the current retail on it, and it's a full new licence, NOT an upgrade. 
You can donate it, or put it on another machine legally. Last I heard 
you were a paying Mandriva "club" member. That's admirable, but it is 
costing you $$. I know you have the option to freeload, and that's 
fine, but geeeze, these folks have a product and they want to eat too.

Security, and bug fix updates (service packs) are (beer) free.

You are also perfectly free to install Linux or *BSD on that box if you 
want.

> Microsoft doesn't even charge for those - once I purchased WinXP, I 
> get incremental updates (as in SP2, and security releases) for no 
> additional charge. Dang, now you've got me sounding like a MS 
> fanboy...

But did you did pay if you wanted to go from 95 to 98 (or even se as I 
recall) or to ME or to 2k... just because Apple are actually releasing 
products worth paying for, doesn't mean MS updates are free - I bet you 
won't get Vista™ for free either.

> MacOSX is a nifty / pretty *nix, but it's:
>
> a. Proprietary (read today's comments on /. regarding OO.o and Carbon)

ooh, it's on slashdot so uh, it must be true.

> b. Not OSS (would follow a. then, wouldn't it?)

uh, no. you loose, thanks for playing. there are elements of the OS 
that are totally proprietary (IIRC I think several Linux distros 
include some non-free tech) but there is a core of tech (OpenDarwin) 
that is roughly equivalent to a normal BSD/Linux that IS definitely OSS 
- by OSDL standards. You're just wrong there Dave.

> Uh, end rant.

uh, end rant rant.

--
Bryan Baker
Technology Advocate
Iowa Legal Aid
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