1) floppy was not big loss at the time -- not even close to the same thing 2) CDROM -- was just about as obsolete at the time it was removed -- also not even c

1) floppy was not big loss at the time -- not even close to the same thing 2) CDROM -- was just about as obsolete at the time it was removed -- also not even close to the same thing 3) flash -- well that did cause some people problems, but I didn't really care at the time, and it isn't really the same thing either. The headphone jack may be old, but it is still way more useful than either a floppy disk or a CDROM were at the time they were removed. In the case of the floppy drive -- they were already on the way out, and the CDROM drive was there to replace them. When they ditched the CDROM drive, it could easily be replaced by a USB thumb drive or similar device -- which was still standard hardware, didn't have to be made by Apple, and was a reasonable replacement for the device removed. Having to have a separate adapter in order to use a standard set of headphones is, IMHO, NOT a reasonable replacement for just having the jack. And, yes, I DO believe that at least part of Apple's motivation was to make money by selling you Apple-branded headphones with their proprietary connector on it. It's a legitimate gripe by paying customers. Apple is welcome to make whatever decisions they want on the hardware they sell, and we should not be essentially told to shut up when we (very reasonably) disagree with their decision.