Newsletter Issue #682: Mountain Lion: Four Months Later
December 24th, 2012All right, Apple’s vision of the personal computer is that of an appliance. This is one key reason, for example, why upgrade options are usually very limited. Turn it on, use it, turn it off. You needn’t worry about what goes on inside, although that’s not the way PCs have traditionally been designed.
Of course, with a TV set, or a toaster oven, you don’t concern yourself about upgrading operating systems, or what features the former might contain. True, a TV may on a rare occasion require some sort of firmware update, usually delivered online or via a USB connection of some sort, but the issues fixed are about reliability, not flashy features and interface refinements. It’s an appliance after all.
With more and more Macs, the same appliance mentality applies. On some models, you can’t even upgrade RAM, in the tradition of the original Mac back in 1984. You get what you get and live with it, unless you’re skilled at component level hacking and want to take a chance that what you do will void the warranty, and maybe turn your Mac into a brick.
Print This Post
