Those of you who haven't been
living under a rock for the past few weeks know of the minor
scandal that has been rippling though the Mac community. Back
in May, well before the G4's were announced, Apple released
a firmware update for "Yosemite" G3 machines. The
firmware update was intended to improve PCI performance issues
on these machines. Unbeknownst to those who installed the
update, it also contained code that prevented bootup on Yosemite
machines with a G4 processor installed. AppleInsider
reported on this months ago and now that G4 processors are
making their way into people's hands the block has been verified
by various accelerator companies. Blue &White G3's with
ROM version 1.0 boot with a G4 processor just fine, those
with the 1.1 firmware (ROM) update let out five warning tones
and refuse to boot until the G3 processor is reinstalled.
Worse yet, the current rumors on the net indicate that OS
9 requires the 1.1 update!
Needless to say, this has raised the ire of Yosemite owners
who, prior to the "update" had G4 ready machines.
Apple has remained tight lipped on the issue and has even
killed off related threads on their Tech Exchange boards.
A post from an Apple employee on the matter read as follows:
"Notes to consider after reading this [thread] include
the fact that there is no shipping or announced PowerPC
G4 processor upgrade from Apple or, as far as we know, any
other company and we're not aware of any documentation that
indicates any Power Macintosh G3 computer was marketed as
being upgradeable to a PowerPC G4 processor." "Additional
posts to the thread will be removed and since the entire
thread is off-topic, it will most likely be removed as well.
If anyone feels the need to discuss this further, please
post to any of the public Usenet comp.sys.mac.* newsgroups."
I can understand Apple not wanting to label or promote any
of their machines as "upgradeable" G4 or otherwise.
It keeps them off the legal hook so to speak. To cripple an
entire line of G3's without warning is, however, unforgivable
and erodes the trust of their user base. Imagine having to
second guess any update you install. "I know it's supposed
to reduce CD vibration on my iMac, but I wonder what else
it is doing to my machine..." Not a pretty picture....
Questions
1. Do you think Apple was within
its rights blocking G4 upgrades?
2.Was the block intentional or could it have simply
been side effect of the update?
3. Do you think the upgrade market is hurting Apple's
sales?
4. How has this event changed your opinion of Apple?
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