It has taken me some time to go from an iMac to adding an iPad, first, and then an iPhone.

The latter two came as pre-loved demo devices from Apple and were at a significant discount; the iMac was also preloved.

Bringing the operation of all three devices together is an intelligent move by Apple. I fail to see what all the hoohaa is about. I happen to enjoy using all three and I try to update all software as it comes along. I don't have to worry about earlier systems and applications but it seems to me, that if you depend on older software versions and you have the older machines to work these properly, what is the pressure to upgrade?

Do we want Apple to continue to be a dominant force in providing software and hardware which is integrated and designed to reject foreign attacks, or do we just let it rot? The future is in the hands of persons much younger than many of us on this list - at lest that is a guess, apologies if wrong - and younger users are not interested in being tied down to a desk. Communication with mobility is required; this is clear from Apple's sales listing recently.

Thus if a mobile operating system ['the iOS' variety] can be ported to a desktop-tied device [iMac], moving from one to the other is simple. No other manufacture/software-developer can do this, and persons possibly two-generations younger than me are showing how they prefer. I have found that reading newspapers, books, PDFs, etc on iPad are much easier for me than having to hold a newspaper or book in the hand.

But I do not use many of Apple's software applications - deliberately Numbers and Pages in particular - because better third-party versions are available and it is the third-party developers who have made Apple Number One. They know the rules and we users benefit.

All I can ask 'if your systems are satisfactory, why worry about changes'. Also adding memory and larger external hard drives is not expensive.

------------------------
Regards from brianF
===============

On 18/02/2012, at 4:29 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Unfortunately or fortunately, it's just not possible for Apple or any other company to make a machine that can respond to every user's needs to use any particular one of the thousands of programs and software configurations being used today. If someone one day finds it impossible to continue to use their machine the way they have been used to using it with the software they are used to using, I think the sensible thing to do is not to fly off the handle and curse the manufacturer, but to try to find a way to do the same thing with another application or--if worst comes to worst--go to another company's equipment.
> 
> I originally went with the Mac in 1985 because I needed to print documents with a lot of non-ASCII symbols and graphics that were very cumbersome or impossible to do with the PCs of the time. Today a Windows machine can do that as well as a Mac, of course, but if it became impossible to do my work with a Mac I'd just switch to Windows, either using Fusion, which I have, or a whole Windows machine.
> 
> Since there is still a lot of software for Windows, in specialized applications, that is not available for the Mac, I'd advise anyone who needs to to switch in a minute with no regrets.
> 
> Jon Johanning
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Feb 17, 2012, at 8:10 AM, Erik Richard Sørensen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Jon Johanning wrote:
>>> It seems to me impossible for Apple or anyone else to make a computing machine that will satisfy all users. With each new OS, some users will say, "I can't deal with this" and either keep their old OS as long as they can or "desert" to Linux or Windows.
>>> I don't see any reason for getting emotional about this; that just plays into the hands of those who accuse Mac users of being "fanbois" with no brains. :-) We're just talking about machines, here; if one machine doesn't satisfy you, get another one.
>> 
>> Yes, exactly! We are talking about us handling and operating these machines and not one or the other company telling us to do or indeed not to do!
>> 
>> It is me and only me that controls this machine during the operating system. And it isnot the manufaturer of the system or the hardware that neither can or is allowed to demand what I may or what I must not do with this machine.
>> 
>> I am not against renewals or increased features and functionality, but I am against /ANY/ kind of totallirism force in a system so the developer and/(or the producer can control this computer.
>> 
>> I have another and very good example which also affects the Mac. I had a highly professional audio solution from F-Audio and wanted to use my ProTools 6 with this system. This was forbidden by ProTools. "...You don't have permission to use our products along with your audio sound card..." ... "...You can retain this permission by buying our ProTools 6 M-Poered solution for $xxxxUSd at..." - That would have cost me nearly twice the price of what I paid for the original - and full - version of ProTools 6. - I went back to use Amadeus II and as soon as the Amadeus Pro was out, just bought it and it worked perfect with the M-Audio sound card.
>> 
>> What would you say if yhou were a NisusWriter Express user and suddenly got a dialog from the system "...You are not allowed to use NisusWriter Express. If you will continue you must buy the NisusWriter Pro. You must buy NisusWriter pro at AppStore for $xxxxUSd in order to unlock your files again..." - Or worst... "...You are not allowed to have any software from Nisus Software on this computer. If you want to do any text processing you must buy Apple iWork from AppStore to $xxxxUSd instead..."...
>> 
>> Is it you/me that should control our computer and the content on our machines, or is it Apple that should decide for you/me 'what will be the best for you'?
>> 
>> Cheers, Erik Richard
>> 
>> -- 
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <[log in to unmask]>
>> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com
>> Openoffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~