Apple Mac: Mountain Lion: buyer beware!

I have been a Mac user for almost 20 years. I use and recommend them professionally and have no less than four machines, of various ages, at home, plus my son's Mac Book Pro.

I am an avid Applescripter and have recently begun teaching myself Cocoa programming (programming for Mac).

I like the Mac product.

But I am liking the company behind the product less and less as the years go by.

Late last year I went to my local Apple reseller to buy, yes buy, a copy of the Mountain Lion operating system (OS) for my son's laptop. I was shocked when the authorised reseller told me they could not sell me the operating system and that I would have to download the software directly from Apple.

The download is around 4GB.

Downloading a file that size on my slow, regional internet connection seemed an unlikely thing to happen (If digital TV roll-out is any indication, then I think we're getting the NBN down here sometime around the next millennium). And if I managed to download it, it would use a good chunk of my monthly download allowance.

And I still wouldn't have installation discs at the end of the process.

If all goes wrong, at anytime in the future, I was told, I'd have to download it again.

The alternative was to take the computer to the store and leave it with them, for however long it took, so they could download and install the new OS - at still further cost I assume. And I still wouldn't have installation discs at the end of the process.

That's a lot of rigmarole for what could be achieved simply and inexpensively by selling me an OS DVD.

Remember, this all began because I wanted to spend money on the most fundamental Apple product - at an authorised Apple reseller.

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My concerns about Apple worsened this week when a friend suffered an apparent hard drive crash on an iMac that's around one year old.  I suggested he might have to start-up from the discs that came with the computer and be prepared to format the drive and re-install the OS.

I was to be shocked again.

It seems that Apple don't even supply installation DVDs with their computers any more. You pay around $1400 for a brand-new iMac, and if your system crashes, you've got a very stylish desk ornament.

Sure, there's a "recovery drive" feature built in - but it wouldn't work for my friend. He just gets the grey spinning wheel of death.

Sure, there's supposedly an internet recovery option built in - but it doesn't appear to work if you have a "recovery drive", even if that "recovery drive" refuses to work.

If he had an installation disc, I could have whipped it in the drive, got Disk Utility fired up and had a go at diagnosing and potentially fixing the problem. It would have taken minutes. But Apple apparently don't think purchasers of their products will ever need installation discs.

So that leaves the lucky owner of the $1400 paper weight with only one practical option. Go back to the reseller and pay them to trouble-shoot. That's likely going to come at a hefty price even if all they do is run Disk Utility over it and fix it in a matter of minutes. Minimum charge is $50 - and he still won't have a set of installation discs.

Oh, but it turns out that my friend can give Apple another $20 to send him some OS discs for the machine - discs that probably cost Apple a couple of cents each to produce and which, in a non-penny-pinching world, should have been supplied with the hardware in the first place.

Maybe he was supposed to create some installation discs when he first fired up the computer. I don't even know if that's possible (I've never needed to know because operating systems usually come on discs supplied with the hardware). Making your own installation discs also seems like an odd idea given Apple's supposed ease-of-use philosophy. It doesn't get much easier than the manufacturer chucking two cents worth of discs in the box with the product. And one can only imagine the variable quality of media users would choose, even if this was an option. And for what purpose?*

I repeat. I have been a Mac user for almost 20 years. I use and (used to) recommend them professionally and have no less than four machines, of various ages, at home, plus my son's Mac Book Pro. I am an avid Applescripter and have recently begun teaching myself Cocoa programming. I like the Mac product.

I don't much like the company.

If you're looking at buying a Mac anytime soon, can I suggest you insist on receiving a set of installation discs with it - included in the cost? If the reseller says they can't do it, get them to explain why not and what, exactly, you're supposed to do when simple things go wrong - as they will.

If you've fallen victim to what seems to be penny-pinching madness by Apple, can I ask that you make your grievances public on the social media outlet of your choice.

*Yes, I understand that one drawback of install discs is that they are almost always out of date but if they get the system back up and running, or at least allow you to do basic troubleshooting before giving up and taking the product back to the reseller, then they are well worth the couple of cents it would probably cost the manufacturer to include them.

I am open to correction on errors in any of the above.