A fact that has been ignored by both Apple executives as Apple’s focused media, is that the concept of free yearly updates on OS X has drawbacks and hidden costs.
One of them, and the most egregious for me, is that now, if I was to follow each year update to the launch date, I would be without most of my needed/dependable software on time, as new versions and compatibility have to be checked and fixed, and rarely released in time. And I would be in need to purchase the new “updated” version of said software because developers have to eat and if “stability and bug fixes for a launched software” can be done with minimal resources living on the initial and steady number of sales, now most developers will have to test their software against the new OS, the “improved” or deprecated APIs/libraries/functionality, fix it, and launch the software again.
So, if you’re actually heavily invested in OS X productivity software, the new “yearly free updates” now implies to either stop using old software or keep paying the treadmill license for continuous updates of new software. You’re effectively in a worse condition if you depend on your Mac to work than you would be before the yearly update policy took in.
This has to stop. It’s insane. It could be done on iOS ’cause iOS apps are made from the start to be limited and work within the sandbox container, but OS X apps are different and can’t be turned equivalent without destroying the general utility and all-purpose function of the Mac. Most Mac apps are a complex, elaborated piece of software, their developers can’t be expected to keep drastically checking and updating it every year without additional funds. And so, again, they’re actually more expensive to use and less reliable to do so.
Apple, yearly updates to your computer OS are. a. very. bad. idea. Stop it. Please.