USS Clueless Stardate 20011130.1436

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Stardate 20011130.1436 (On Screen): I permit myself to thwack Apple here no more than once a month, and it's been six weeks since the last one. I've been a good boy, but it's time to give in once again to the dark side. (MWAAhaahaaa...)

Apple recently released OS X 10.1.1, available as a full-install version for $130 and an upgrade for $20. But it seems that Apple's engineers were rather inept, because the difference between them is one file which is present on the upgrade but not on the full version. Use your favorite CD burning program (helpfully included in the previous version of OS X) and copy all the files but that one from an upgrade disk, and the result is a full install disk. Boila! Prudence would have suggested having at least one of the files on there (like, say, the program that actually does the install) come in two mutually incompatible versions, and to include one on each -- but that's apparently not "thinking different."

OK, that can happen to anyone. It was stupid, and Apple learned from its mistake and I have no doubt that next time they're going to be a hell of a lot more careful about what goes onto the disks. But the next step in the tale is where it really gets weird: a web site publicized this fact and Apple deployed its legendary lawyers. As word spread and it got posted onto various web sites, Apple's lawyers started carpet-bombing with "cease and desist" letters. Of course, it was also posted to netnews, and within minutes had been propagated to hundreds of thousands of servers all over the world.

Apple shouldn't have bothered; the horse was out of the barn and once the information was publicized it was never going to be suppressed. Wouldn't you think that the company which claims to make the most advanced networking operating system in the world would understand just how fast and far information can spread on the Internet? (discuss)

Captured by MemoWeb from http://denbeste.nu/entries/00001504.shtml on 9/16/2004