4 ms·

The Mac OS X price is essentially also an "upgrade" price because you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed).

by spicyj 14y ago

dhughes 14y ago
It's like Xbox versus PS3, you pay for XboxLive! but the Xbox is cheaper or (when new) you paid nearly $1000 for a PS3 but got PS3 Network free, either way you're paying. The old options was buy a lower priced computer with Windows but pay more for the OS/upgrades or buy a very expensive Apple computer but $40.00 for an OS upgrade.
- polshaw 14y ago
  There is also the fact that a point upgrade in OSX is almost never as significant as a new Microsoft OS, that MS provides free service packs, and that (IIRC) apple allows upgrades to multiple macs with one purchase. So, really, they need to be assessed on their own merit.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    Since the first OSX, all upgrades were point upgrades and all of them were very significant. They were also more frequent than Windows upgrades.
    - Mythbusters 14y ago
      You put point upgrades and significant in the same sentence. Just saying...
      - rbanffy 14y ago
        The upgrade between Snow Leopard and Lion was a point upgrade. Every OSX release is a 10.x release.
- Useful_Idiot 14y ago
  I assumed it was common knowledge that Sony offered the PS3 at a huge discount retail <-> production costs to make Blu-Ray the industry standard (which did indeed succeed). e.g. Samsung Blu-Ray retailed @ $1000, PS3 retailed at $599. e.g. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ ~ costs the PS3 components at $850 vrs the $599 retail price. As for this topic: I don't think it's aimed at consumers, at all. Many companies still use XP as their back-bone, let alone 7. It's aimed at the software producers, akin to why some games companies are developing purely in DX11 now to reduce costs having to support DX9 ~ MS are making a switch to producing content for W8 as 'attractive' as possible.
zephjc 14y ago
Except that I can install OS X on a blank hard drive when needed (which I've needed to do twice).
- spicyj 14y ago
  True, that is an advantage! I was just speaking in licensing terms.
- sigzero 14y ago
  Not with the latest versions of OSX. Lion...maybe. I think you can USB it. As far as I have read Mountain Lion is download only.
  - cmelbye 14y ago
    Exactly, you download it and then burn the disk image to a DVD or whatever media you'd like to boot from.
- archangel_one 14y ago
  You can install the MS upgrades on a blank hdd too, can't you? It's been some years but I thought they just used to ask for a disk from the "qualifying upgrade" product to be inserted during install.
  - ceol 14y ago
    The parent was specifically replying to > you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed). It wasn't an attempt to compare OS X and Windows installations.
  - anotherblue 14y ago
    Usually, you can do following: - Install Windows retail SKU, but do not activate it. You can borrow disk or download ISO for this. - Start installing upgrade version, then reformat partition, supplying upgrade key in the process. At the end, you will have Windows upgrade installed and activated, fully functional.

The Mac OS X price is essentially also an "upgrade" price because you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed).

by spicyj 14y ago

The Mac OS X price is essentially also an "upgrade" price because you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed).

dhughes 14y ago

It's like Xbox versus PS3, you pay for XboxLive! but the Xbox is cheaper or (when new) you paid nearly $1000 for a PS3 but got PS3 Network free, either way you're paying. The old options was buy a lower priced computer with Windows but pay more for the OS/upgrades or buy a very expensive Apple computer but $40.00 for an OS upgrade.

polshaw 14y ago
There is also the fact that a point upgrade in OSX is almost never as significant as a new Microsoft OS, that MS provides free service packs, and that (IIRC) apple allows upgrades to multiple macs with one purchase. So, really, they need to be assessed on their own merit.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Since the first OSX, all upgrades were point upgrades and all of them were very significant. They were also more frequent than Windows upgrades.
  - Mythbusters 14y ago
    You put point upgrades and significant in the same sentence. Just saying...
    - rbanffy 14y ago
      The upgrade between Snow Leopard and Lion was a point upgrade. Every OSX release is a 10.x release.
Useful_Idiot 14y ago
I assumed it was common knowledge that Sony offered the PS3 at a huge discount retail <-> production costs to make Blu-Ray the industry standard (which did indeed succeed). e.g. Samsung Blu-Ray retailed @ $1000, PS3 retailed at $599. e.g. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/11/isupply_ps3_com/ ~ costs the PS3 components at $850 vrs the $599 retail price. As for this topic: I don't think it's aimed at consumers, at all. Many companies still use XP as their back-bone, let alone 7. It's aimed at the software producers, akin to why some games companies are developing purely in DX11 now to reduce costs having to support DX9 ~ MS are making a switch to producing content for W8 as 'attractive' as possible.

zephjc 14y ago

Except that I can install OS X on a blank hard drive when needed (which I've needed to do twice).

spicyj 14y ago
True, that is an advantage! I was just speaking in licensing terms.
sigzero 14y ago
Not with the latest versions of OSX. Lion...maybe. I think you can USB it. As far as I have read Mountain Lion is download only.
- cmelbye 14y ago
  Exactly, you download it and then burn the disk image to a DVD or whatever media you'd like to boot from.
archangel_one 14y ago
You can install the MS upgrades on a blank hdd too, can't you? It's been some years but I thought they just used to ask for a disk from the "qualifying upgrade" product to be inserted during install.
- ceol 14y ago
  The parent was specifically replying to > you can only install it on Macs (which already have OS X installed). It wasn't an attempt to compare OS X and Windows installations.
- anotherblue 14y ago
  Usually, you can do following: - Install Windows retail SKU, but do not activate it. You can borrow disk or download ISO for this. - Start installing upgrade version, then reformat partition, supplying upgrade key in the process. At the end, you will have Windows upgrade installed and activated, fully functional.