The Dave's Profile

Every SuperDrive Mac comes with iDVD. I'm sorry you feel slighted because you're an early adopter and your Mac came with an earlier version of the program than iDVD 3. But I do believe Apple has a right to charge for iDVD, and Keynote for that matter. iDVD, first of all, is a massive program compared to the other iLife programs. While the other programs are download-sized, iDVD, with all of its DVD-menu-themes and such, is larger than a 700 MB CD, necessitating it be installed from a DVD disc itself. Including it with the Panther install CDs would've been stupid; if you made it part of the Panther install, we'd potentially have 5 install discs. And sticking an iDVD 3 DVD into every box as a separate install seems like a waste of money for Apple, as there are far more machines without SuperDrive out there than with. As far as Keynote goes, I point to AppleWorks. Does Apple give that away for free? They include it on iMacs and iBooks pre-installed, yes, but they don't put it on the OS disks. Microsoft can charge for Office (and charge a nice pricey tag for it too), why can't Apple charge for AppleWorks and Keynote (which would essentially have all the functionality and more than Microsoft Office)? In addition, Apple charges LESS for its productivity software than other vendors. And again, the more stuff you add to the Panther install CDs, the longer the install takes and the more CDs you have to swap in and out. Perhaps Apple could release a "Mac OS X Pro" package that includes extra Apple-made programs like AppleWorks, Keynote, Final Cut Express, iDVD 3, a .Mac subscription, and the OS on one DVD for some higher price. That might be nice. But how expensive would Apple make this package and how inexpensive would it have to be to please people? I doubt Apple could price a package like this to make it worthwhile to them nor to please anyone. I don't know when people started to have this phobia of actually paying for things they think are worthwhile. "Panther is cool! Expose rocks! Fast User Switching is sweet! X11 programs on the desktop rule! Threaded email is awesome!" and on and on about all the great features and then ... "oh, but $129 is too much, and you should've added all your other $50+ programs into the package. For free, of course." It's not economically sound for Apple to keep giving things away. Of course anyone would like programs for free and would be more apt to use programs that came for free, but as an obviously semi-adept user of the Macintosh, don't you think the number of free programs Apple gives you already gives you an idea of what to expect from Apple programs? Not to mention Apple's excellent website and the thousands of Mac product review websites out there, I'm sure there's enough information for you to determine whether a product is worth spending on or not without Apple needing to give you software for free, either in full or crippled-demo form. To me, in your rantings, it sounds like iDVD 3 and Keynote are things you think are cool already ... so go out and purchase it already, you obviously already see they have value.