I casually mentioned Apple’s tech note on Boot Camp expiration. I didn’t write about it because I thought it was particularly new. The knowledge base entry was new and it was worth reminding all you noble readers about this fact. The fact is that since Boot Camp’s introduction, it’s been represented as a beta, a limited time trial for Tiger users to evaluate a sneak peek of an upcoming Leopard feature.
Apple clearly released it as the growing demand for such an option grew (spawning a hack that was easily forgotten as Apple’s eclipsed it). Since then, Apple has worked on it, adding stability, features, and support for new Intel Macs. None of that changed the trial’s intent. It’s a work in progress and more a proof of concept than a real product.
Over and over again, Apple announced new versions. Each time the web page still said it was a feature that was going to be in Leopard. And yet, if you’ve paid attention to many technology websites, they’re shocked. Take for example this Digg story with the title “Apple Boot Camp Beta Expires With Leopard — Mac OS X” and description “Tiger Users Left Out In The Cold”.
In fact, some of you more loyal readers may be scratching your head thinking Derik has written this before. Indeed I have and apparently it didn’t sink in. I don’t know if it’s the post hacked iPhone update bricking hangover that’s got so many users searching for something to get angry about, but this isn’t news. And allow me to be blunt, I’d take a long hard look at your reading comprehension skills if you hadn’t figured out the lack of Tiger support by now.
Derik:
The last part of your last paragraph hits the nail right on its head!!
I agree, I think some people are looking for a reason to be angry at Apple. They can somehow continue to justify their hatred towards Apple if they can say, "See, they did it again! They screwed us!".
Come on people, Apple told everyone, and has continued to tell everyone, that Boot Camp is a beta and will eventually expire. The same with happened with Dash Code, nobody bitched about that!
I'm stick stuck in the stone ages with 10.3.9, so Boot Camp was a party to which I never received an invitation. However, I can't imagine that supporting Boot Camp would be that difficult for Apple, and given the enormous upside for 10.4 users, there seems to be little reason to kill it via expiration for those users (unless I listen to the cynical personality in my head that's saying Apple wanted to reap the twin benefits of field testing it and getting users addicted to it to artificially force them to make the jump to 10.5 when it came out, even if they had no other compelling reason to do so... but I digress). Maybe I don't understand the way the expiration works (truly, a realistic possibility), but if Apple is killing the functionality of the program by letting the license expire when they could let 10.4 users (who, by beta testing, have helped them perfect the program) continue to use it, well... I won't get mad about it... but I'm sure as @!#$ not going to defend it. It's not (putting it, ahem, mildly) a noble corporate move on Apple's part, and the existence of notice in this particular case makes it, at best, only marginally better.
This is not a matter of reading comprehension but more of obtuseness and ignorance. People are ignoring the fact that it is a Boot Camp Beta or acting as if our nobility in helping Apple to test the product offsets the value it added to Tiger, value for which we did not pay.
I didn't note any similar huffing and puffing when Parallels stopped being beta and people had to pay for it. Here's another sign that Apple is now obligated to be all things to all people.
To DooD: I started reading your posts in the long, silly iBricking disucssion (Apple gone down that wrong path and all that). You're becoming one of the few sane voices left on this website.
Since Apple entered the market of cellular phones, it has shown more and more unfriendly attitudes: if I weren't too scared to think of it, I'd say even micro$oftesque ones! My instinctual aversion to the world of cellular phones might have some rational basis!
In any case, I hope bootcamp will be an optional install for Leopard. It may be a real jobsend for those who need it, but if you, like me, don't feel like using an inferior os, why should you waste any disk space for this purpose?
Of /course/ they want you to upgrade to Leopard. It is in Apple's best interest for as many people to migrate to Leopard as possible. They want to support as small a set of software as possible, and it's only natural for the majority of that support to be for the most current OS. Apple also gets to sell more hardware if people have a great incentive to run Leopard.
I think it's generally in the best interest of the Mac user base for more people to be using Leopard in any case. The more users, the more support and development from third-parties, the more robust platform. Not to mention that if people move forward to Leopard, Apple can feel free to move forward from there, and continue to innovate. The legacy of DOS and people hanging back on ancient OSes is part of why Microsoft has such a problem.
So, it is a logical move to expire the Boot Camp Beta and get people to move along to Leopard.
On a purely speculative level, it's possible that the Beta really is kind of a kludge onto Tiger, which is more dicey for Apple to officially support, versus Leopard where it is a built-in feature designed from the ground up to be included.
@jimm: I didn't say anyone was noble for helping Apple test the product. But it was beneficial to Apple. You're right, having the functionality was beneficial to the users running 10.4. But killing it artificially through a license expiration after people have become used to it? Why do that? I wouldn't mind Apple saying, in effect, "We always said this was a beta product, and we will not offer any support for it for 10.4 users." I disagree with them saying "Thanks for the help... we could leave this running on your system, but we're going to kill it because we can."
@Donn: I agree that Apple wants people to upgrade the software and hardware. I don't agree that an attractive way of doing it is to artificially handicap perfectly valid pieces of hardware and software. There's a difference between a legitimate way to encourage people and an attractive one. Leaving boot camp running on 10.4 without further official support would dispense completely with your statement about whether it is a kludge and the risk of officially supporting it.
Like I said, I don't have a dog in the fight. You can defend Apple's choice here, but I respectfully disagree with anyone who would assert that the move encourages good will on the part of consumers, especially those who helped contribute to the overall functionality of boot camp. Evidently, it's running pretty darn well on 10.4. Leave it as it is (i.e. don't support it any further... but don't kill it for the sake of killing it either).
Does any one actually realise that it is the actual Utility BootCamp Assistant that will expire.
This does not mean that your windows partition will mysteriously dissapear on the expiry date.
You will still be able to boot between OS's as you can now.
The only thing that will change is that when you double click on Bootcamp Assistant to begin a new Bootcamp Install or remove your Bootcamp partition it will give an expiry notice.
People, including Parallels Team seem to think that your Partition will be unusable. This is not the case.
Enjoy your continued reboots into WXP and back guys.