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Comment by xutopia | Hacker News Reader

I think this guy completely misses the most important point. Apple sees how much fragmentation hurts Windows and Android and they want to avoid it.

Imagine if as a developer you only have to worry about a single platform? Imagine if as a distributor you only have to worry about releasing a single package? It makes things much easier for everyone and allows efforts to be on quality rather than compatibility.

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Imagine if as a developer you only have to worry about a single platform?

Actually, this was one of my first reaction as a developer. I developed and maintain a scientific software package (treebank search) that I maintain for Windows (>= XP), OS X (>= 10.7), and Linux (latest Ubuntu LTS).

My first reaction after hearing that Mavericks is free was: great, if most people will upgrade, I am freed of supporting the legacy OS X versions.

Hopefully they can bring things to the point where, like iOS, practically everyone will run the latest version. Of course, this would require smooth transitions.

> My first reaction after hearing that Mavericks is free was: great, if most people will upgrade, I am freed of supporting the legacy OS X versions.

And if software developers cease to support older OS versions, those people with old computers that cannot upgrade have a stronger incentive for buying new hardware.

Nah, that's a very minor consideration at best.

"Cease to support older OS versions" means that new versions of applications won't run on older operating systems. It doesn't mean that older versions of applications suddenly stop working. If you're running an old OS on old hardware, running an old application is fine. In fact, it's preferable, because it was written with the capabilities of that hardware in mind.

Also, Apple is going to keep offering older versions of apps in the App Store, for machines that can’t run Mavericks.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/22/previous-versions-coming...

But the software doesn't exist in a vacuum. Older versions of calendar software stop working because Google or Apple change and the software is no longer updated, for example.

Yes and no and less so when applications work by using backing services that aren't backwards compatible.

Sure my old Mac Mini will run my old copy of CS3, but I hope that Adobe is still running activation servers if I ever have need to reinstall.

> people with old computers that cannot upgrade have a stronger incentive for buying new hardware.

Sure, but if that were Apple’s main objective, they would’ve made Mavericks’ system requirements a lot higher. Mavericks runs on 6 year old iMacs.

Today, I installed Mavericks on my mom’s 2008 MacBook. It is noticeably faster. Before, my mom was considering buying a new notebook. Now, she’s going to hold off.

That's a lot of wins rolled up into one. Better for the consumer, developer and Apple. Better for Apple by not only selling more hardware, but by spending less resources supporting older software releases.

I won't be surprised if we get to the point where OS updates can be done seamlessly in the background without user prompting. I also won't be surprised if Apple will be the first vendor to sell us on it.

Doesn’t ChromeOS already automatically apply OS updates on restart?

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/177889?hl=en

This has already happened and Google has sold millions on it, and the buyers don't even know it.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/09/balky-carriers-and-sl...

Yes it definitely makes sense as iOS is free and apple's future is in integrating all devices to work seamlessly. This requires simultaneous updates on all different devices.

That's part of it, but it doesn't speak to why they also made iWork and iLife free.

Admittedly the reasoning behind iWork and iLife is different. The competition (Google Docs/Drive) is doing it for free. No point in selling software if a high quality competitor will offer theirs up for free.

The point here is to keep people using their hardware and the tight integration into iCloud for those products ensures a longer term lock in.

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