Mac free software

[Eric Forat]

    Talk about how Apple should provide all it's software for free
forever is, IMHO, excessive.
Above all, Apple's record shows that it has recently decided to maximize
revenue streams from it's software, (as it is it's "capitalist" right)
building on the principle of bundling it's OS for free with each new
computer, and some of it's proprietary software too. This was, and is,
necessary because Apple has a monopoly on the software running it's
machines out of the box. Apple doesn't sell it's computers without it's
latest OS preinstalled, as PC OEM were forced to do for people who
wanted to have only Linux installed, and demanded a refund of the value
of a Windows licence.
    Besides this necessity, created by it's monopoly, it should be
obvious Apple has the right to charge what it wants, or is able to, for
it's proprietary software and/or services. The fact that all of us old
Macmaniacs have been used to getting some free software or updates does
NOT mean we have now an acquired right to free software forever. "There
is no such thing as a free lunch" is still operative. =-O
    But yes, I for example find passing strange that AppleWorks is
bundled in the iBooks and iMacs and eMacs but not in the PBs or desktop
line. Marketing decisions, I guess, and we all know Apple's marketing
department is almost as bad as their Design is great, and Quality
Control once was. But Marketing it is, and not a "Betrayal of All That
Is Holy" in the "Church of Our Macsaviour"

eric

ps: it's not that I want the last word, but maybe this issue is dead by now,
and should be only for private discussions?