For a moment there I thought Apple was switching to FSF-endorsed free software and I was very confused. The cost of OS X is built into the hardware so it's not like future versions will be free as in freedom or free of cost.

I know that accounting types like to use 'deferred', but to be clear Apple abandoned profit from software.

They did not defer it to a later date, they recategorised software development as a cost center.

And next quarter will defer almost a billion more than they did last year.