question for Mac owners

[cellio]

I've searched Apple's site for this and done some googling, and near as I can tell Apple hasn't published an answer to my question and it's all speculation. But I might not be looking in the right places -- and certainly don't know the relevant history -- so I'll appeal to my friends for insight.

A relative has Jaguar and is eyeing Panther. He's also eyeing Tiger, which (officially) is being released in the first half of 2005 (but some people seem to be skeptical about that). It costs $129 to upgrade from Jaguar to Panther. No Panther-to-Tiger price has been published.

My question: would an upgrade path that goes through Panther cost appreciably more than a direct upgrade from Jaguar to Tiger when it comes out? Or, by buying Panther, does one get a better price toward Tiger later? If we spend $129 to get him an upgrade now, are we just buying six months' worth of joy or are we doing more for him?

Comments

Max OS X 10.x versions

[jslove.livejournal.com]

Apple has pretty much held the line on price at $129 for 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3; it would be quite surprising if 10.4 were different. There have not been any upgrade discounts; skipping a version will save exactly the cost of the version skipped.

This is rather more annoying when the version you want is Mac OS X Server, which is more like $500 per upgrade. The last time that there was a better price was when upgrading from 1.0 to 1.2; which were before the release of 10.0; Apple has held the line on price there also.

The price break is for the family pack, which allows up to five computers in the same household for $200. Businesses are not covered by this license, nor the same family in multiple households, but if you have several Macs this allows you to be 100% legal and upgrade several of them.

I don't work for Apple, but I have 11 Macs. I'll start paying the business license rates when my business makes money.

Re: Max OS X 10.x versions

[cellio]

Spencer, hi! I didn't know you'd signed up with LJ.

Thanks for the information. Having the history is helpful; it sure sounds like they'll keep the same pricing policy, especially between minor releases. So it comes down to a question of how likely the relative in question is to jump onto Tiger as soon as it comes out; if the Jaguar-to-Panther improvements are significant, he may just stay there and it would be worth getting Panther. (Obviously this is something I'll have to investigate on my own. :-) )

The price break is for the family pack, which allows up to five computers in the same household for $200.

That sounds like a good pricing strategy for them. (I -- purely hypothetically -- wonder how that interacts with computers owned by people who then move out, like college-bound kids. Is it a floating site license or for the computers resident at the time of the installation?)

Re: Max OS X 10.x versions

[jslove.livejournal.com]

Just signed up today. Previously I'd been reading over persistalismum's shoulder.

I am running 10.3.6 on this machine. Given 10.x.y, all the 'y' upgrades are free. My server is running 10.2.8 because I didn't want to shell out another $500 for it, but I'll spend the money for Tiger Server.

I think the family pack explicitly allows kids who move away to college to continue on that license. I recommend you read the terms rather than relying on me for this, though. I think the key word is family, but if you have unrelated people living under one roof then it would be living in the same home.

There was a Family Pack on iLife as well, 5 users for $80 instead of one for $50. Server uses serial numbers, but the regular OS license and iLife are all on the honor system.

Re: Max OS X 10.x versions

[cellio]

I think the family pack explicitly allows kids who move away to college to continue on that license. I recommend you read the terms rather than relying on me for this, though.

It was a hypothetical thought; my father, niece, and nephew are all computer-savvy, but the trait skipped my sister. While the kids spend lots of time at my father's house, they don't count as living there. :-)