IMHO not having install media as the default option is a problem. It doesn't matter if all the media does is boot up a network stack and FTP it from somewhere and then run it but recovery scenarios aren't something you should have to twist yourself into a loop to solve.
One of the advantages of the App Store model is that software is (AFAIK) easily redownloaded and reinstalled, so much so that I know people who have re-bought Aperture (for $80) on the App Store just for the convenience (plus then it can go on multiple Macs).
Why Rob Pike wouldn't fork over $80 for Aperture and save himself the hassle is beyond me. You can say "it's the principle of the thing; I've already paid for it!" but really? What is your time worth?
iWork can be had on the App Store too. Photoshop obviously can't but Photoshop should be recoverable somehow (right?).
These days I have a box with the few disks I need (Win7, MS Office), I store my personal files on Dropbox and any media gets stored on a hard disk. If my Macbook Air got stolen or just died I'd be up and running within 2 hours of getting a new one.
The only real annoyance for me is changing what computer your iDevices sync to. THAT is a major PITA. If you are migrating machines it's not so bad (but harder than it should be). But otherwise you need to backup, wipe it and reinstall everything and even then you lose all your iOS folders and so forth.
I don't like the iMacs because they're not built for replacing hard disks (amongst other things). The Mac Mini however is. If this had happened to me I would've been shelling out money to avoid the hassle and the whole thing would've been over in a day or two.
The moral I get from this post isn't how Apple is making things harder than they need to be (which they clearly are): it's that you shouldn't get caught up on the small shit that doesn't matter.
>>>> Why Rob Pike wouldn't fork over $80 for Aperture and save himself the hassle is beyond me. You can say "it's the principle of the thing; I've already paid for it!" but really? What is your time worth?
Well, the trouble with that approach is that money votes.
When you pay this extra $80 you reinforce the behavior.
I don't want cloud service providers forcing me to buy an application a SECOND time, by limiting my access to installer.
And I'd really prefer not to pay second time. Because that reinforces the behavior of profiting by screwing people up. Maybe it saves my time. But it is unethical.
Well, before advent of app store I NEVER had a case than I couldn't reinstall application that I've purchased.
And with the app store, in just a year or so I already had a couple of cases when I lost access to an installer. One was that I lost iPhoto, with OS upgrade on Air. Another, temporarily, for around a week I had no access to XCode installer [because of some screw up in the store].
Yeah. Pirating is almost an ethical choice in these cases :)
Unfortunately pirated packages are often filled with malware. Not exactly what you want. So a much better choice is just going with open source. Picasa, instead of iPhoto, etc...
Less than my self-respect? The iterated prisoner's dilemma cautions us against letting someone profit by screwing us over. And the very idea of Rob friggin' Pike embracing learned helplessness is very depressing. Of course, so is the idea of him not having the source to his system, when he wrote quite a bit of it.
Newer Macs have Internet Recovery, which connects to Wi-Fi from EFI firmware and downloads a recovery image. So you can do exactly that, except without the install media...
I mentioned in another post - you can't always redownload. They don't keep older versions so you're screwed if you can't upgrade (I have an older machine stuck with Snow L).
Sorry, wasn't clear there - I have the physical snow leopard, iPhoto was the problem. I have the same screen as you but instead of the install button it says "Requires OS X v10.7".
Right now you might have access but who knows when it'll be taken away and you'll be back to torrenting the content you paid for.
When I had issues doing an install of Lion (I wanted Lion on an external HD before I upgraded to ML), I just drove out to an Apple Store and booted off one of their network images.
What Apple should really do is ship an app with OSX that lets you create recovery boot media (either on DVD, a thumb drive or a full on external HD). That would make things so much easier for everyone.
It doesn’t ship with one, but you can download it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 (That link is placed on this page about OS X recovery, so it’s not hard to find: http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/ – though it’s important to note that this wouldn’t have solved his particular problem. You can only use this app on a system that already has Mountain Lion installed, so you have to think of this before you encounter the problem – or have a second Mac at hand with the right OS.)
Current Macs also come with Internet Recovery, meaning it’s always possible to boot into the Recovery Manager, even with an empty HDD.
One of the advantages of the App Store model is that software is (AFAIK) easily redownloaded and reinstalled, so much so that I know people who have re-bought Aperture (for $80) on the App Store just for the convenience (plus then it can go on multiple Macs).
Why Rob Pike wouldn't fork over $80 for Aperture and save himself the hassle is beyond me. You can say "it's the principle of the thing; I've already paid for it!" but really? What is your time worth?
iWork can be had on the App Store too. Photoshop obviously can't but Photoshop should be recoverable somehow (right?).
These days I have a box with the few disks I need (Win7, MS Office), I store my personal files on Dropbox and any media gets stored on a hard disk. If my Macbook Air got stolen or just died I'd be up and running within 2 hours of getting a new one.
The only real annoyance for me is changing what computer your iDevices sync to. THAT is a major PITA. If you are migrating machines it's not so bad (but harder than it should be). But otherwise you need to backup, wipe it and reinstall everything and even then you lose all your iOS folders and so forth.
I don't like the iMacs because they're not built for replacing hard disks (amongst other things). The Mac Mini however is. If this had happened to me I would've been shelling out money to avoid the hassle and the whole thing would've been over in a day or two.
The moral I get from this post isn't how Apple is making things harder than they need to be (which they clearly are): it's that you shouldn't get caught up on the small shit that doesn't matter.