Lionized MacBook Pro: A clear loss of value
When Apple shipped Mac OS X Lion, in addition to Sandy Bridge upgraded Mac mini and MacBook Air models, they also started shipping existing MacBook Pro models with Lion fresh packaging + collateral + updated keyboards. However, the company also removed the software restore disks, which are more than just a convenience.
If that weren’t enough, the insult to injury is the fact that 2011 MacBook Pro models are not compatible, apparently lacking some crucial piece of the hardware puzzle, with Apple’s Internet Recovery feature, which allows OS X Lion reinstallation via the internet.
Yes, there are DIY workarounds, such as reinstalling from a homemade OS X Lion install DVD or thumb drive, avenues which aren’t supported by Apple and, one presumes, could void your warranty. Further, if the repair involves hard drive replacement and you’re out of warranty, technically your only option is Apple, an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Store, and that’s never cheap.
Parsimonious control freakery
The mothership is forcing this new service model on users rather than provide a USB thumb drive with the OS loaded on it, something that probably costs under $10 or less in volume. Again, there’s insult to injury as the company has 40 percent margins and $72 billion in the bank.
Yes, Apple will eventually ship Internet Recovery compatible Macs across the board. In the meantime, user options for performing a simple reinstall on a 2011 MacBook Pro involve significant time and/or expense, representing a significant loss of product value…
What’s your take?
Just make a bootable Lion DVD, there are plenty of instructions on the web on how to do it. And no, it will not void your warranty.
OMG the sky is falling!!!!
For pre-Lion Macs you are effectively buying an upgrade to Snow Leopard. So back up your Lion installer locally, and if you have a hard disk failure reinstall from your Snow Leopard disks. If that’s too time consuming for you, we all know you can easily create a Lion install disk on either USB drive or DVD. Just because Apple doesn’t provide support for that option doesn’t imply that it voids your warranty — that claim is preposterous.
There are certainly real shortcomings to complain about. This is not one of them.
Hey I having trouble with my Mac, can you come over?
Sure…
Ok after looking at your Mac I can see that your OS is corrupt and we need to reinstall it. Do you have the disk that came with your computer? It was in the box in an envelope.
My what? I needed to keep something? Is it this?
No that is for a printer.
Is it this?
No that is Microsoft Office.
Is it this?
No that is a DVD about a Princess. Ok screw the license, I have the OS X installer on this flash drive.
99.9% of the time now:
Ok after looking at your Mac I can see that it is having trouble and the OS needs a reinstall. Let’s Shutdown, hold down the option key as we reboot and do the repairs.
.1% of the time now:
Wow the partition scheme of your drive is damaged. You might want to go to Apple about this or I can try to repair your disk with a utility on this thumb drive.
I reject the premise of your story, that “software restore disks are more than just a convenience”.
If that were true, your frustration would be justifiable. But it’s not – this Lion distribution method is one step on the way to computers as appliances, not computers as balky, recalcitrant, finicky, maintenance requiring, time-sucking monsters.
If you’re doing something that requires software restore, then “you’re doing it wrong”, to mis-quote Steve Jobs. Steve doesn’t want guys like you in his world. That’s disconcerting to us members of a consumer driven, customer is always right world. But Apple is one (rare) instance of a company that’s going to do it their way.
If you want a user-driven, customer focused, we’ll add an option for everybody, let’s make everyone happy company, you’ll be happier with Microsoft. Personally I’ve found that Microsoft’s attempts to be everything to everybody result in software that’s difficult to use, but maybe I’m just not smart enough.
I currently own 7 Macs in my home, and have owned 20+ more over the years. Not once have I had to reinstall the operating system….. NOT ONCE. I understand if you come from a Windows background your concerns are fully justified.
The restore disks that came with Macs were just more packaging waste. Over the years I’ve used the purchased system install disks multiple times, but rarely to never the system-specific restore disks that shipped with the hardware.
The less waste Apple ships with products, the happier I am. Would love the products coming in biodegradable corn-starch based shrink-wrap plastic! As beautiful as the boxes are, and I am SO glad to see the size of the shipping boxes get smaller-and-smaller, waste is waste.
It’s irritating that a $300 netbook doesn’t come with install disks, but that’s one of the sacrifices made when buying a low-cost utilitarian computer. Macs are not $300, so I expect them to come with the freaking installation disks.
People used to raise hell when they bought PCs that had a dedicated partition with the OS installation and no physical disks. For years Mac owners used their install disks as an example of why Macs were superior to their PC counterparts.
Now Apple has joined the other cheapskate PC manufacturers… but Mac fans refuse to be critical.
Both at home and professionally, I’ve had to use Mac install disks for many years.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve upgraded to a new Mac OS only to find my previously purchased software didn’t work properly. It isn’t feasible to wait months for patches or new versions. Downgrading to an older OS is the only option.
In both classroom and professional environments there is often a need to reinstall an OS because users fubared something. This may not happen on Macs as often as on Windows machines, but it still happens. There are plenty of circumstances where entire classrooms of machines get a full reinstall each year because this keeps things running more smoothly.
Just backup your drive into a bootable one either using CarbonCopyCloner (free) or SuperDuper! ($27.95) including your Lion installer.app.
Don’t want to worry that your backup is not current enough? Add another wireless backup hard drive using Time Machine (included since OS X 10.5). That way, every time you get connected to it, the backup process will run in the background.
Old: Outdated install discs with an OS from two versions ago. Updating with the OS upgrade discs I got a year after I bought the comp. Finding the discs for all my apps or re-downloading apps from 10 different websites, finding the registration code (oh, no! I can’t find my registration code!), running Software Update, running individual app updates, etc.
New: Recovery partition repair, or if that fails a net boot repair, Mac App Store re-downloads (no discs, websites, registration codes needed), and eventually iCloud for restoring iTunes/etc.
Of course, this is all academic since you have a Time Machine / SuperDuper backup on an external drive, right?
WTF are you talking about?
Lion installs a restore partition right on your hard drive. That’s the by far best way for recovery the Mac has ever had.
I can imagine somebody will figure out how to put that recovery volume on a USB stick too, and voila, perfect data safety. Now the only thing left to do is make TimeMachine disks bootable recovery volumes. As of now, I have a full system backup on my external USB disk. But, should my HDD fry completely, I still need an extra USB boot stick in addition to my TimeMachine drive to restore my system. That doesn’t make sense, it’s not elegant. I think they’ll do it eventually.
Mac users complaining about value is HILARIOUS.
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