Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#331

Post by EricDeb » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:03 AM UTC

gnur wrote: post #217

csense wrote: post #201

I haven't used any Apple machine since 2004. Some HN'ers like Apple, so I've been kind of interested to see what Apple machines do that PC's don't. But I don't want to pay premium prices for iGoods. Does this mean I can run the new OS in a VM to check out the Apple ecosystem? Or is this only free (as in beer) to people who have an existing paid license for a previous Apple operating system?

Apple devices aren't really that overpriced. Try to get a comparable device (power, weight, battery life, slimness) for the same price and it's harder then you think. If you can find me a good alternative for a 11" macbook air for less then an macbook air I'd be delighted to hear what it is because I've been dying for a good ultralight laptop that can run ubuntu without dealing with efi/uefi/bootcamp stuff.

I'll agree with you with respect to laptops. Desktops are a different story. Non-Mac desktops are much cheaper, especially if you choose to build it yourself.

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#332

Post by Zr40 » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:04 AM UTC

aroch wrote: post #254

corresation wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Installed it on a Mac Mini (3rd gen i7) and after the install it sat on a blank screen (with mouse cursor), but a forced restart and all was perfect and everything is operating brilliantly. Fantastic treat that it is free.

Kernel Caches that aren't cleared properly will do this, the display drivers changes significantly and they're stored in PRAM

That's definitely false. PRAM only contains firmware settings and boot parameters. It isn't big enough to contain drivers.

If the display driver is at fault, grandparent wouldn't even see a mouse cursor.

I don't know anything about 'properly cleaning the kernel caches', but it's clearly not a problem since grandparent was able to continue by rebooting.

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#333

Post by neya » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:05 AM UTC

jasoncartwright wrote: post #112

Here is the App Store link to upgrade now... https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-mavericks/id675248567?mt=1...

It should be worth noting that if you run Adobe's Creative Suite (version 6 and below), it has some compatibility problems for a number of users, including me[1] while running it on Mavericks. If your business depends on this software, I would advise you to wait for a few more months until these bugs are fixed. Overall, very excited!

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6538803

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#334

Post by enneff » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:22 AM UTC

Bud wrote: post #298

ctdonath wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planned obsolescence has been Apple's standard operating procedure since the beginning.

Whatever. Is that why I've used my desktop Macs for an average of about 8 years before replacing them, and same with the laptops, at which time, I sold them, still working, to others?

Indeed. What about the Apple II/e and original Macintoshes remaining useful for a decade after their release?

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#335

Post by mweibel » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:22 AM UTC

Zenst wrote: post #101

The whole free OS which can only run upon hardware they have already sold you is reminding me of how IBM used to sell AIX and moved into giving it away free as it would only run upon hardware only they made and sold you. Question is though, what about support. You have a 3 year old Mac of some flavour and upgrade to this OS, what about issues you may have. ANother aspect would be that by in effect making this level o…

I have a late 2008 macbook pro (which happens to be the oldest supported version) and Mountain Lion worked flawlessly. I'll upgrade to Mavericks today and see what happens. I think it'll work without problems :)

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#336

Post by aleem » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:40 AM UTC

jasoncartwright wrote: post #112

Here is the App Store link to upgrade now... https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-mavericks/id675248567?mt=1...

It seems the key initiative here is to improve adoption rates which is a sound strategy. As a developer, it's always a pleasure to write apps that only have to support the latest and greatest.

It would be a pretty big feat if the adoption rates for Mavericks came anywhere close to the adoption rates for iOS7.

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#337

Post by gnur » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:45 AM UTC

ansgri wrote: post #286

gnur wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple devices aren't really that overpriced. Try to get a comparable device (power, weight, battery life, slimness) for the same price and it's harder then you think. If you can find me a good alternative for a 11" macbook air for less then an macbook air I'd be delighted to hear what it is because I've been dying for a good ultralight laptop that can run ubuntu without dealing with efi/uefi/bootcamp stuff.

efi/uefi seems to be a solved problem for ubuntu. I'm running Linux Mint on Asus UX31A (which would be best laptop ever if it was more reliable) installed all-by-default without _any_ problems, even with hotkeys and touchpad. Also a colleague of mine happily runs Fedora on UX32A.

On other devices this is true, but on my macbook air I keep having issues where I either have to wait for several seconds (10-20) at a black screen with a blinking underscore or that the options in the boot menu don't correspond with what gets booted. (mind you, I have been using ubuntu for at least 7 years now but the macbook air is the only device I couldn't install it reliably, guess it's even worse then using Windows on mac hardware :))

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#338

Post by yaeger » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 6:47 AM UTC

27182818284 wrote: post #176

revelation wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft sells software, Apple sells hardware with matching software. But make no mistake, they are a hardware company - OSX won't even run without a chip confirming its an authentic Mac. The idea that they would charge for these smaller OSX updates is bizarre, and the price point has been in the "we need this for accounting" range in the past.

>Microsoft sells software, Apple sells hardware with matching software. Something Microsoft would love, love, love to change about themselves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface

And according to companies like HP , they are officially a competitor. At least for them. On paper. They have yet to make any real world moves to proof they actually compete in the hardware sector. A 800 million dollar write off with the first device does not really count.

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#339

Post by nraynaud » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 7:33 AM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #310

nraynaud wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was Frodo or Apple. Stop bitching :)

My (NZ) taxes paid for you to see Frodo. Bitching may continue!

Is is disrespectful that I just skimmed through the movie in a plane?

Re: Apple Says New OS X ‘Mavericks’ Will Be Offered for Free

#340

Post by Tehnix » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 7:41 AM UTC

zcam wrote: post #188

Zenst wrote: post #101

The whole free OS which can only run upon hardware they have already sold you is reminding me of how IBM used to sell AIX and moved into giving it away free as it would only run upon hardware only they made and sold you. Question is though, what about support. You have a 3 year old Mac of some flavour and upgrade to this OS, what about issues you may have. ANother aspect would be that by in effect making this level o…

It's only "free" for Snow Leopard owners, which means not free at all, on the other hand this answers the support question.

Stab in the dark, but, I guess it's because it requires the App Store to get it, which, AFAIK, first became available in 10.6.6, meaning, Snow Leopard is the farthest back you go.

If you get someone to DL it for you and burn it to disk/USB drive, you can probably also install it on Macs with older versions, since you'll just boot up in it..

So, it is free for everyone, but, only distributed easily to Snow Leopard and thereafter users.